has anyone used Abatron or Lauterbach? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: legacy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 22, 2016, 03:19:39 pm
content: Abatron, SwitzerlandLauterbach, Germanythey both do debuggers, supporting different architectures { ppc, mips32 , cpu32, arm, … }licenses and tools are so expensive for hobby purposes that practicallyputting hands on those seems possible only in professional experiencesjob in avionics? job in automotive? are you a dev or tester-guy?well, sooner or later, you might happen to use one of themand in this case, I'd like to hear your experienceabout licenses cost,hereyou can see the price list

author: Sal Ammoniac
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 22, 2016, 03:38:33 pm
content: I have used the Lauterbach debugger professionally, and it's a nice, high quality unit. We got excellent support from Lauterbach when we needed it.I don't use one for hobby use--waaaaaay too expensive! For hobby use I stick to a $60 Segger J-Link EDU or a $21 ST-Link/V2.

author: legacy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 22, 2016, 05:01:18 pm
content: 2nd hand, on ebay, might save the hobby purposeI happen to need one for a professional job task,in this case target=powerpc4xxwhile in my hobby the target is cpu32, or mips32Abatron happens to support cpu32, bdi2k is deprecatedstill supported, I might find a valid license for bdigdbanyway, job has the priority, thk for your feedback

author: cfr
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: April 22, 2016, 06:31:35 pm
content: At work we are still using Abatron BDI2000 for Coldfire processors.For newer projects, which are mainly based on ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers, we got a Lauterbach uTrace, which is a little bit cheaper than their modular debugger platform, but only supports Cortex-M controllers.I can confirm that Lauterbach tools are really powerfull and nice to use, once you get the hang of their software.Regarding Abatron: You might be interested to hear the company decided to close down (seehttp://www.abatron.ch/news/eol-bdi-products/). Software support for BDI2000 and BDI3000 will end by the end of 2016, whereas hardware warranty and repair service will continue until mid 2018 (http://www.abatron.ch/fileadmin/user_upload/products/pdf/EOL_BDI_Products.pdf)

author: stmdude
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 22, 2016, 06:56:28 pm
content: I've used Lauterbach extensively, and I was pretty happy with them. Didn't have to pay the bill for them though, that might be why I was happy.It's a very powerful JTAG and associated software, once you get used to it. The software has a bit of a learning-curve, and its not very intuitive at all. Once you realize that the UI is all for show (and not useful), and just start typing the commands manually (or in a script), you've gotten half-way at least.My background (since you asked): Low-Level developer in the mobile-phone industry. Did bringups of new platforms, with associated troubleshooting.

author: legacy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 22, 2016, 07:00:21 pm
content: thanks, exactly what I was wondering about the learning curveI have less than 3 months of time to learn it

author: stmdude
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 22, 2016, 07:13:59 pm
content: 3 months should be enough to get efficient in the basics, like flashing, breakpointing, and reading back code+variables. I.e, basic debugging.You should check with the manufacturer of your hardware (or just the CPU if it's all custom) if they have Lauterbach (or other) scripts for working with their hardware. A lot of them do.This would cut down on the time it would take for you to configure the Lauterbach to be able to even connect to your target.The scripts I had for connecting to the Qualcomm chips were a few hundred lines of Lauterbach-script. I think the minimum you could get that down to is about 10 lines. Setting types of interfaces, specifying the JTAG chain, speeds, cpu-cores and variants, resetting, etc.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 22, 2016, 07:29:27 pm
content: Lauterbach, Nohau , Ashling , American Arium , Arm Realview. i've used all of em.Any company still debugging with printf statements are neanderthals.

author: ale500
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 23, 2016, 02:46:36 pm
content: I've used Lauterbach for MPC56xx/57xx single and multicore processors. You need a extra license for multicore debugging. You open 3 instances for those 5775. We even had that PowerTrace module with 1 GB RAM for tracing/profiling. That was a beast at 16 k€ !. If you spend enough time and you know your processor well and you have multiple monitors, there is almost no better way of debugging. Finding faulty code ? Debugging OSEK-aware code ? with threads and ASMP ? not a problem. The only drawback is that the scripting language is a bit... inconsistent. Some commands/expressions are unique to themselves but you can script everything, even time code from scripts... It goes so far beyond what you can do with a cheap debugger that if you don't find the bug... it is not the fault of the debugger, because you have almost every tool you can think of. For 5 k€ I'd expect less. Not like some other "professional" tools that only have a hefty pricetag but no professional functionality.The price may seem hefty but, if they are paying you 100 k per year, the number of hours that you save with something so powerful pays it back in a month. It is for hobby expensive, because your time is the only not being paid, so to say.