Step 5: Configuring Peripheral Drivers and Middleware

Main window, Configuration tab
Click to enlarge

The right pane of the Configuration tab displays a graphic depicting the selected system, peripheral and middleware components categorised by function type. The graphic includes a clickable button for each component. Hover the mouse over a peripheral or middleware component's button to see if source code can be generated for the peripheral, or if further configuration is required for that component before that can happen.

The left pane of the Configuration tab displays the selected system, peripheral and middleware components in a tree view. Exclamation marks are used to highlight peripherals that are not yet properly configured. Tool tips provide additional information when the mouse is hovered over an exclamation mark.

If a selected peripheral has no effect on the pin out then it can be enabled or disabled from the tree view on the configuration tab. If a selected peripheral does have an effect on the pin out then it can only be enabled or disabled from the pin out tab.

The image on the right shows the configuration tab when only the Eth and a single ADC have been selected. The first set of workflow steps below demonstrate how to use the Configuration tab to configure a hardware peripheral. The second set of workflow steps demonstrate how to use the Configuration tab to configure a software component (FreeRTOS in this case).

Workflow steps to configure a peripheral:

1. On the Configuration tab, click a button associated with a hardware peripheral. A mult-tab configuration dialogue will be displayed. Both the tabs that are available and the contents of each tab are specific to the selected peripheral.

2. If the selected peripheral has user configurable parameters then the parameters will be displayed in, and can be edited using, the "Parameter Setting" tab. Where applicable, the editor will guide your selections by displaying drop down lists of available options - and providing a description of the parameter at the bottom of the dialogue.

   Experiment with the "Parameter Settings" tab of the configuration dialogue to modify the behaviour of a hardware component.

3. If available for the selected peripheral, use the "NVIC Settings" and "DMA Settings" tabs to configure the peripheral for the desired mode of operation (polled mode, interrupt mode, etc.).

4. View the "GPIO Settings" tab. The pins used by the peripheral can be configured and named from here. The pins used by a dedicated peripheral (such as the Ethernet ETH) will already be configured correctly for that peripheral.

Click images to enlarge
Modifying the ETH peripherals behaviour	The pre-completed pin configuration tab

Workflow steps to configure a software component: On the Configuration tab, click a button associated with an open source software or middleware component. A mult-tab configuration dialogue will be displayed. Both the tabs that are available and the contents of each tab are specific to the selected open source software component. The image below shows the dialogue displayed when the FreeRTOS button is pressed. One tab contains a table from which the main FreeRTOSConfig.h parameters can be set. Another tab contains a table that allows RTOS API functions to be included or excluded from the build. Experiment by changing some of the default settings. The method used to change a setting depends on the parameter being altered. For example, some parameters use a drop down list, while others allow free text entry.

Using the dialogue to configure the RTOS

Items to note:

1. When a parameter is selected a description of that parameter is displayed in the bottom of the dialogue window.

2. There are some dependencies between FreeRTOS and other middleware components. For example, using the lwiP configuration dialogue to configure lwIP not to use the services of an RTOS will automatically disable the FreeRTOS component.

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