QDK PIC24/dsPIC-XC16 - Quantum Leaps

QDK
PIC24/dsPIC-XC16
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2.2.3 Collecting the QS software trace
QS (QP-Spy) is a software tracing facility built into all QP components and also available to the
Application code. QS allows you to gain unprecedented visibility into your application by selectively
logging almost all interesting events occurring within state machines, the framework, the kernel, and your
application code. QS software tracing is minimally intrusive, offers precise time-stamping, sophisticated
runtime filtering of events, and good data compression (see Chapter 11 in [PSiCC2]).
The Spy configuration enables the QS software tracing and links with the Spy-versions of the QP libraries
(see Listing 1). In the MPLABX IDE you select the Spy configuration by means of the combo box located
near the “hammer” button (see Figure 5).
For the QS (Q-SPY) software tracing output, you need to connect a TTL to RS-232 transceiver to the
Microstick II board, as shown in Figure 6. The figure shows the RS232 to TTL converter board 3.3V to 5V
from NKC Electronics (http://www.nkcelectronics.com/rs232-to-ttl-converter-board-33v232335.html), but
you can use any other equivalent board.
NOTE: To connect the transceiver, you might need to solder the pins into the connectors of the
Microstick II board, as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6: Connecting RS232-TTL board to the Microstick II board.
J6
J6[5]
GND
VDD
Q-SPY trace
data to host
TTL-RS-232
transceiver
board
You launch the QSPY utility on a Windows PC as follows. Change the directory to the QSPY host utility
\tools\qspy\win32\mingw\rel and execute:
qspy –cCOM1 –b38400 –O2 –F2 –S2 –E1 –Q1 –P1 –B1
The meaning of the parameters is as follows:
-cCOM1 specifies COM port (change to actual COM port number you’re using)
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