Simplicity Studio and Keil 8051 compiler issues and tutorial

Working with Simplicity Studio and Keil compiler can be frustrating sometimes. Most of the issues encountered were difficult to solve because the error messages given by the Keil compiler were very confusing. Thus, I will post here the most common issues that I've came across in the hope it will help others and perhaps me in the future.

Contents

• Keil Error Messages
• missing ';' before
• left side of asn-op not an lvalue
• syntax error near 'data type', expected '__asm'
• syntax error near '=', expected 'id'
• Keil no error issues
• Case #1
• Simplicity Studio Shortcuts
• Simplicity Studio 5 Tutorial
• Adding a product (device)
• Creating a new project
• Adding Shortcuts - Key Binding in Simplicity Studio v5
• Adding external files in Simplicity Studio
• Annotations in Simplicity Studio

 

Keil Error Messages

A list of Keil error codes and their description can be found here: https://developer.arm.com/documentation/101655/0961/Cx51-User-s-Guide/Error-Messages/Errors-and-Warnings/Reference. However, below are scenarios in which the error message and the cause are not related. For example when actually missing a ';' the error message is: syntax error near 'token', expected ';' but when something is not defined because an include file is missing, the error message is: missing ';' before.

Defining SYSCLK or F_CPU in Simplicity Studio

The macro SYSCLK or F_CPU specifies the CPU frequency and is used by libraries such as <delay.h> to calculate the delay based on the frequency of the processor or by UART libraries to calculate baud rate.

Up until now I used to define F_CPU like this:

#define F_CPU    24500000UL

Defining this way will work but it could lead to issues and confusion when you have multiple files that define this macro. The ideal way is to define it in a single place. This could be a Makefile if you are using custom Makefiles or in the IDE project configuration.

Defining SYSCLK / F_CPU in Simplicity Studio

Open the project properties window in Project -> Properties (Alt+Enter) then in the left panel select the C/C++ Build -> Settings menu. Then in Tool Settings - > Keil 8051 Compiler -> Symbols use the green + button to define a new symbol SYSCLK=2450000UL. Of course the SYSCLK value depends on your CPU frequency that in this example is 24500000 Hertz or 24.5MHz. The UL at the end stands for unsigned integer.

That's it. Now all included files in your project will use a single SYSCLK value without giving errors such as "SYSCLK is not defined", "SYSCLK redefined", etc.

Since this method of defining is not as obvious as the first one, it is easy to forged to do it when starting a new project but there is a simple solution for that - using preprocessor conditionals.

#ifndef SYSCLK
	#warning	"SYSCLK not defined. Define it in project properties."
#elif SYSCLK != 24500000
	#warning	"Wrong SYSCLK frequency!"
#endif

This macro can be placed at the beginning of the main.c file before any type of code. If the SYSCLK is not defined it will output a warning. If SYSCLK is defined but is not the value specified in the macro, it will also output a warning. This is also helpful to see what the CPU frequency is and to ensure that the defined value in project properties is correct.

Cheap and powerful 50 cents microcontroller | EFM8 Family

This is a step-by-step tutorial on how to setup and program an EFM8BB10F8G-A microcontroller or any other EFM8 Busy Bee microcontroller family from Silicon Labs. It is assumed that the reader knows the C programming language and basics about microcontrollers.

Why would you want to learn to use another microcontroller when there are many tutorials and libraries on popular MCU's such as AVR and PIC? Well, because they are much more cheaper but performant nonetheless - on Farnell you can buy them for less than 50 cents - and also are pre-programed with a bootloader making easy to program them using any USB to serial converter.  Compare that to Attiny13A which is around the same price but with half the pin count, less speed and peripherals. Just see the features bellow.