FRDM-MCXA153

Embedded C drivers and examples for the NXP FRDM-MCXA153 development board (ARM Cortex-M33 microcontroller).

Overview

This repository contains hands-on embedded software projects for the NXP FRDM-MCXA153 evaluation board, focusing on low-level peripheral drivers and motor control applications. It serves as a practical learning resource for embedded systems development on the MCX A-series platform.

Why This Exists

The FRDM-MCXA153 is a cost-effective development platform for the NXP MCXA153 microcontroller (Cortex-M33, 96MHz, up to 256KB flash). This repository provides:

• Educational driver examples - Implementing UART, GPIO, and other peripherals from scratch using register-level programming
• Motor control reference - PMSM (Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor) and BLDC motor control implementations using NXP's Motor Control Advanced Algorithms (MCAA) library
• Interview-ready code samples - Clean, well-documented C code demonstrating embedded best practices

Tech Stack

Component	Technology
MCU	NXP MCXA153 (ARM Cortex-M33, 96 MHz)
SDK	MCUXpresso SDK v2.14
Toolchain	ARM GCC / CMake
IDE	VS Code with MCUXpresso extensions
Debug	MCU-Link (on-board debugger)
Motor Control	NXP MCAA Library (CM33 No-DSP)

Project Structure

FRDM-MCXA153/
├── Examples/
│   └── frdmmcxa153_ese_driver_examples_lpuart_interrupt/  # LPUART interrupt-driven driver with RGB LED control
├── SDK_24/
│   ├── boards/frdmmcxa153/      # Board support files
│   ├── devices/MCXA153/         # Device headers and startup
│   ├── CMSIS/                   # ARM CMSIS core files
│   ├── components/              # Additional components (serial_manager, etc.)
│   ├── middleware/
│   │   └── motor_control/       # PMSM/BLDC motor control middleware
│   └── tools/                   # CMake toolchain files
├── .gitignore
├── LICENSE
└── README.md

Building & Flashing

Prerequisites

• ARM GCC Toolchain (v10.3.1 or later)
• CMake (v3.10 or later)
• MCUXpresso for VS Code (optional but recommended)

Build (Command Line)

cd Examples/frdmmcxa153_ese_driver_examples_lpuart_interrupt/armgcc

# Debug build
./build_debug.sh

# Release build  
./build_release.sh

# Clean build artifacts
./clean.sh

Flash

The build generates .bin and .elf files in the debug/ or release/ folder. Flash using:

• MCU-Link (drag-and-drop to mass storage device)
• MCUXpresso IDE or VS Code with debug configuration
• pyOCD or OpenOCD command line tools

Running the Example

1. Connect USB-C cable to the MCU-Link port (J15)
2. Build and flash the firmware
3. Open serial terminal (115200 baud, 8-N-1)
4. Type 'r', 'g', or 'b' to toggle the RGB LED

Key Learnings

• Register-level programming - Direct hardware register manipulation for UART, GPIO, and clock configuration without HAL abstraction layers
• Interrupt-driven architecture - Efficient FIFO-based circular buffer implementation for non-blocking UART communication using NVIC and Cortex-M33 interrupt handling
• Embedded build systems - CMake-based cross-compilation setup with linker scripts for ARM Cortex-M targets
• Motor control fundamentals - PMSM/BLDC field-oriented control (FOC) implementation using NXP's MCAA library for sensorless and encoder-based motor control

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Note: The NXP SDK files in SDK_24/ are subject to the NXP Software License Agreement (see SDK_24/LA_OPT_NXP_Software_License.txt). The motor control middleware has its own BSD-3-Clause license (see SDK_24/middleware/motor_control/licenses/).

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Developed for educational purposes at HAN University of Applied Sciences.