Erich Styger Goes Hands-On with NXP's Latest MCU-Link Debug Probe, Finds It Inexpensive Yet Powerful
Smaller and cheaper than the LPC-Link2, the new MCU-Link proves impressively capable — and doubles as an Arm Cortex-M33 dev board, too.
Erich Styger has gone hands-on with NXP's new MCU-Link debug probe, finding a device which is smaller and cheaper yet more capable than its predecessor the PLC-Link2.
"The MCU-Link is a compact and inexpensive debug probe for NXP Arm Cortex devices (Kinetis, LPC, i.MX RT)," Styger explains in his review of the device. "It currently supports SWD debugging with SWO trace and includes a VCOM (Virtual COM, UART-2-USB)."
"I’m typically using a broad range of different debug probes: From NXP LPC-Link2 to commercial P&E and SEGGER debug probes. I appreciate to have a choice, especially because that way I can use the debug probe for my projects which fits the best. So a new probe is always a welcome addition to my growing inventory of debug probes."
First supported in MCUXpresso IDE V11.2.1, the MCU-Link is powered by NXP's LPC55S69 dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 chip running at 150MHz — and with unpopulated pin headers for four GPIO pins, Styger notes it's possible to use the probe as a minimal development board for the chip to boot.
"The new MCU-Link costs only around $10, so half the price of the previous NXP LPC-Link2," Styger observes. "The new debug probe is much more compact too. The debug probe is automatically detected in the MCUXpresso IDE and shows up as CMSIS-DAP debug probe. I did not compare the performance yet, but I feel it is faster than the LPC-Link2 too. Another great thing is that the probe supports SWO trace and profiling too."
Styger's full review of the $10 debug board can be found on the MCU On Eclipse website, along with a link to a 3D-printable case he designed to protect it during use and storage.