Analog Devices MSDK

Introduction

The Maxim Microcontrollers SDK (MSDK), now a part of Analog Devices, contains the necessary software and tools to develop firmware for the MAX32xxx and MAX78xxx Microcontrollers. This includes register files, peripheral drivers, system startup files, documentation, various utilities, third-party libraries, IDE support files, and a toolchain. Full documentation can be found in the User Guide:

• MSDK User Guide

This repository contains the latest source code of the MSDK and is being used for development. It does not contain the MSDK toolchain, which is a separate collection of programs used for building, programming, and debugging.

Installation

The MSDK source code is bundled alongside its toolchain into releases that are available via an Automatic Installer. See the "Installation" section in the MSDK User Guide for instructions.

Users who would like to use the latest bleeding-edge development resources can follow Developing from the Repo below, but this should only be done after installing the release MSDK above.

Contributing

Contributions to the MSDK are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Developing from the Repo

This section assumes some familiarity with the MSDK and the standard setup procedure for its supported development environments. First-time users should work from a standard MSDK installation instead.

Cloning

This repo can be cloned using Git to obtain the latest development copies of the MSDK source code.

1. Download and install Git.

2. Add an SSH key to your Github account. See the Github Docs on SSH for instructions.

3. Open a terminal.

4. cd into a directory without any spaces in its filepath.

5. Clone the repository using the git clone command.

   • SSH clone (recommended)

     git clone git@github.com:analogdevicesinc/msdk.git

   • HTTPS Clone

     git clone https://github.com/analogdevicesinc/msdk.git

Toolchain Setup

This repository contains the MSDK's source code only. In order to develop on it directly the toolchain must be made available at the same file-paths as the full MSDK installation. The easiest way to do this is to retrieve the toolchain with the automatic installer and then create symbolic links. This section walks through the process.

1. Install the MSDK via the Automatic Installer.

   At minimum, install the following components:

   • GNU RISC-V Embedded GCC
   • GNU Tools for ARM Embedded Processors
   • Open On-Chip Debugger
   • MSYS2 (if you're on Windows 10)

2. Clone the Github repository to an accessible location without any spaces in its filepath.

3. Create symbolic directory links to link the toolchain at the expected locations.

   On Windows:

   • Open a command prompt as administrator.

   • cd into the cloned location of the Github repo from step 2.

   • Run the following commands. If you installed the MSDK to a non-default location in step 1, change C:\MaximSDK to point to the location you chose.

     mklink /D Tools\GNUTools C:\MaximSDK\Tools\GNUTools

     mklink /D Tools\OpenOCD C:\MaximSDK\Tools\OpenOCD

     mklink /D Tools\MSYS2 C:\MaximSDK\Tools\MSYS2

     mklink /D Tools\xPack C:\MaximSDK\Tools\xPack

     Example output:

     C:\Users\Username\repos\msdk>mklink /D Tools\GNUTools C:\MaximSDK\Tools\GNUTools
     symbolic link created for Tools\GNUTools <<===>> C:\MaximSDK\Tools\GNUTools
     
     C:\Users\Username\repos\msdk>mklink /D Tools\OpenOCD C:\MaximSDK\Tools\OpenOCD
     symbolic link created for Tools\OpenOCD <<===>> C:\MaximSDK\Tools\OpenOCD
     
     C:\Users\Username\repos\msdk>mklink /D Tools\MSYS2 C:\MaximSDK\Tools\MSYS2
     symbolic link created for Tools\MSYS2 <<===>> C:\MaximSDK\Tools\MSYS2
     
     C:\Users\Username\repos\msdk>mklink /D Tools\xPack C:\MaximSDK\Tools\xPack
     symbolic link created for Tools\xPack <<===>> C:\MaximSDK\Tools\xPack

     The Tools directory of the MSDK repo should now contain valid symbolic links to the full installation's toolchain.

     

   On Linux/MacOS:

   • Open a terminal

   • cd into the cloned location of the Github repo from step 2.

   • Run the following commands. If you installed the MSDK to a non-default location in step 1, change ~\MaximSDK to point to the location you chose.

     ln -s ~/MaximSDK/Tools/GNUTools Tools/GNUTools

     ln -s ~/MaximSDK/Tools/OpenOCD Tools/OpenOCD

     ln -s ~/MaximSDK/Tools/xPack Tools/xPack

     You can use ls -la Tools to verify the links have been created successfully.

     Example output:

     username@machine:~/repos/msdk$ ln -s ~/MaximSDK/Tools/GNUTools Tools/GNUTools
     username@machine:~/repos/msdk$ ln -s ~/MaximSDK/Tools/OpenOCD Tools/OpenOCD
     username@machine:~/repos/msdk$ ln -s ~/MaximSDK/Tools/xPack Tools/xPack
     username@machine:~/repos/msdk$ ls -la Tools
     total 20
     drwxr-xr-x 5 username username 4096 Oct  4 16:32 .
     drwxr-xr-x 9 username username 4096 Oct  4 16:29 ..
     drwxr-xr-x 2 username username 4096 Oct  4 16:29 BitmapConverter
     drwxr-xr-x 2 username username 4096 Oct  4 16:29 Bluetooth
     lrwxrwxrwx 1 username username   40 Oct  4 16:32 GNUTools -> /home/username/MaximSDK/Tools/GNUTools
     lrwxrwxrwx 1 username username   39 Oct  4 16:32 OpenOCD -> /home/username/MaximSDK/Tools/OpenOCD
     drwxr-xr-x 6 username username 4096 Oct  4 16:29 SBT
     lrwxrwxrwx 1 username username   37 Oct  4 16:32 xPack -> /home/username/MaximSDK/Tools/xPack

4. The MSDK now contains a virtual copy of the toolchain at the correct locations. Some additional setup may be required to use it depending on your chosen development environment. See Setup below.

Environment Setup (Visual Studio Code)

If you have not previously configured VS Code, see Setup (VS Code) in the User Guide.

To configure Visual Studio Code for the development repository simply set MAXIM_PATH to the cloned location of the development repo instead of the release MSDK in your user settings.json file. After making the change, reload VS Code.

The MAXIM_PATH pointing to the release MSDK can be commented out to easily switch back to it if needed. For example:

{
    // There may be other settings up here...
    
    // "MAXIM_PATH":"C:/MaximSDK", // Work from the release MSDK
    "MAXIM_PATH":"C:/Users/Username/repos/msdk", // Work from the development MSDK
    "update.mode": "manual",
    "extensions.autoUpdate": false,
    
    // There may be other settings down here...
}

Environment Setup (Eclipse)

There are two options for using Eclipse with the MSDK development repository.

Option 1 - Project Settings

This option can configure an individual Eclipse project to use the development repo.

1. Import or open a project in your Eclipse workspace.

2. Right click on the project and select Properties.

3. Navigate to C/C++ Build -> Environment.

4. Add a new environment variable. Set:

   • Name: MAXIM_PATH

   • Value: Installed location of this repository. Ex: C:\Users\JCarter3\repos\msdk.

   • Select "Add to all configurations"

5. Ensure the "Replace native environment with the specified one" option is selected.

6. Hit "Apply" -> "Apply and Close".

7. Clean the project.

The project is now configured for use with the MSDK development repo, and subsequent builds will load the latest development resources.

Option 2 - Edit setenv

This option can be used to configure all Eclipse projects to use the development repo by default.

1. Locate the setenv.bat script that can be found in the root directory of the release MSDK installation.

2. (Optional, recommended) Copy the setenv.bat file to a backup called setenv-release.bat. This backup file can be used to revert back to the original if needed.

3. Open the setenv.bat script in a text editor.

4. Change the line

   set MAXIM_PATH=%CD%

   to set MAXIM_PATH to the installed location of this repository. For example:

   set MAXIM_PATH=C:\Users\Username\repos\msdk

​ Note: This will configure all Eclipse sessions to load resources from the development repo.

Environment Setup (Command-Line)

If you have not previously configured the command-line, see Setup (Command-Line) in the User Guide.

To configure the command-line for use with the development repo:

1. Set the MAXIM_PATH environment variable to the cloned location of the development repo instead of the release MSDK.

   • Windows: Edit setenv.bat in the root directory of the MSDK.
   • Linux/MacOS: Edit your shell's profile/startup script. Alternatively, edit setenv.sh in the root directory of the MSDK and source it from the shell's profile/startup script (see here)

2. Restart your shell