User manual

LPCXpresso Experiment Kit - User’s Guide

Page 11

3 LPCXpresso Experiment Kit

The LPCXpresso Experiment Kit has been created as a guided tour to learn embedded programming

with NXP’s LPC1000 microcontroller family with Cortex-M0/M3 cores from ARM. The experiments can

be performed on a breadboard for maximum flexibility and ease of use. It is also possible to solder the

components to a printed circuit board (pcb) and learn soldering at the same time. Figure 1 illustrates

the two ways of working with the kit. To the left, all components have been soldered to the pcb and the

LPCXpresso board is mounted in a socket on the pcb. To the right, a bread board is used and wires

connect directly between the bread board and the LPCXpresso board. Note that the LPCXpresso

board is not included in the normal LPCXpresso Experiment Kit.

Figure 1 – Breadboard Experiments and Working with PCB

The kit is based on the LPC1000 LPCXpresso evaluation boards, which is a whole family of boards.

All experiments are based around the LPCXpresso LPC1115/1114 board unless otherwise noted.

The term LPC111x will be used for the rest of the document to indicate both LPC1115 and LPC1114.

Some of the experiments (Ethernet and USB related) are based on the LPCXpresso LPC1769 board. It

is also possible to work with the LPC1114 in DIL28 package, which is a breadboard friendly package.

The suggested work flow is as follows: first start with performing the experiments with a group of

components on the bread board together with an LPCXpresso board. When done with the

experiments, solder the components to the pcb. Continue with the next group of components. Some

components only work on the pcb, simply because they do not fit into the bread board. Perform the

experiments related to these components when they have been soldered to the pcb. There are of

course other ways of working, for example soldering all components to the pcb at the end of all

experiments or work separately with the LPC1114 in DIL28 package instead of an LPCXpresso board.

Note that in the latter case, an LPC-Link™ is needed to program the LPC1114. The LPC-Link is the

“debugger half” of an LPCXpresso board.

The LPC111x is built around a Cortex-M0™ core from ARM and the LPC1769 has a Cortex-M3™

core. Most things addressed with the experiments are general to all microcontrollers and embedded

systems programming in general. The details are however slightly different between different

microcontrollers, for example the different functionality and registers tin the on-chip peripherals.

After having worked with the LPCXpresso Experiment Kit, and completed the experiments, you will

have gained several competences at basic level:

 embedded programming

 professional debugging techniques

 microcontrollers and how they interact with their environment