Remote Debugging of Embedded Systems

Abstract

Microcontrollers (MCUs) conventionally are programmed by connecting the MCU to a debugger then to the computer where a graphical user interface (IDE) is installed. The necessity of wired connection limits the easiness in programming the MCU after it has been installed in a product that may be used at remote or hard to reach locations, like a patient’s body or deep inside a volcano. The goal of our research is to address the shortcomings of wired programming and debugging of microcontrollers by designing and implementing a remote debugging framework using WiFi technology so that scientists and engineers can manage, monitor, modify and debug embedded systems (at the register level) from remote locations. In our research, the feasibility of this idea is tested and proven by using the MSP430FR5739 microcontroller (later in this document we will refer to it as FR5739 for short) with CC3000 wireless module and a Graphical User Interface implemented in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) using the C# programming language. We were able to communicate register level information between the GUI and FR5739 for debugging purposes which is key to microcontroller debugging. We also developed a method to modify executable memory locations inside the microcontroller to enable programing at the level of machine language. A prototype of a framework for debugging within Local Area Networks will be proposed and discussed in this thesis. As future work we will extend the framework with web services using Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) to enable remote debugging across cities or continents.