Debugging over serial port?

[vlad777]

 Is there a microcontroller that can be debugged in an IDE
over UART(/USART/serial/com/rs232)?

What would be that uC and what IDE?

Many thanks.

[up8051]

Old C51 family with Keil IDE
http://www.keil.com/c51/mon51.asp

[langwadt]

it ought to be possible with almost any uC and GDB capable IDE

[helius]

Some chips have a serial port monitor built-in. I think some of the FTDI micros do, and the Parallax Propeller and GreenArrays GA144 definitely do.

[jpanhalt]

USB is serial.  Moreover, the PIC Start II Plus was RS232 (9-pin plug) and also did debugging  of chips a lot newer than the 16C xx group.  It supported the 12F683 and related 16Fxx series, but not the enhanced mid-range, such as the 12F1840.

[vlad777]

... the PIC Start II Plus was RS232 ...

Interesting, but that is a programmer , I am thinking about uC that has a rom bootloader that communicates over UART.

[westfw]

A lot of the larger new microcontrollers should be able to support something like gdbstub (essentially SW that runs in the target and sends debugging info back to a "remote" debugger.  Needs only a little bit of support from the target (some sort of dynamic breakpoint capability that causes a SW-based trap.  Worked back as far as 68000.  Most Arm Cortex can do it, I think.  Easier if your program is in RAM)
The new AVR debug protocol (UPDI) is essentially UART-based, and I think people have made it work over standard USB/UART connections.  I'm not sure that that counts.

[jpanhalt]

... the PIC Start II Plus was RS232 ...

Interesting, but that is a programmer , I am thinking about uC that has a rom bootloader that communicates over UART.

This was your initial question: " Is there a microcontroller that can be debugged in an IDE"

PIC's are considered microcontrollers, even the ones I mentioned.

[vlad777]

Old C51 family with Keil IDE
http://www.keil.com/c51/mon51.asp

Thank you for your answer.
Sorry , bear with me, I'm a little slow.

So the "target monitor" is a project that I compile and burn to 8051.
What do I do on the Keil side? I use "Keil Monitor-51 Driver"?

[mikerj]

This was your initial question: " Is there a microcontroller that can be debugged in an IDE"

PIC's are considered microcontrollers, even the ones I mentioned.

The OP's question was "Is there a microcontroller that can be debugged in an IDE over UART(/USART/serial/com/rs232)?"

[GromBeestje]

Atmel's DebugWire can be used with a suitable USB-UART (one that allows arbitrary bitrates)  and a diode, using https://github.com/dcwbrown/dwire-debug
When you use that tool, you can connect to it with GDB, thus any IDE supporting GDB can be used.

[jpanhalt]

This was your initial question: " Is there a microcontroller that can be debugged in an IDE"

PIC's are considered microcontrollers, even the ones I mentioned.

The OP's question was "Is there a microcontroller that can be debugged in an IDE over UART(/USART/serial/com/rs232)?"

As I said in my more complete reply, the PicStart II Plus is serial RS232.  It runs on Win XP from a serial 9-pin port.   It can also work with USB converters and works with the earliest 16Cxx chips, but it does not work with enhanced mid-range and later.  That is what prompted me to switch to PICKit and ICD3.

[fchk]

Is there a microcontroller that can be debugged in an IDE
over UART(/USART/serial/com/rs232)?

What is the purpose of your question? What do you try to accomplish?

Is a 20$ PICKIT3 or a 10$ FTDI2232 breakout board too expensive?

fchk

[vlad777]

What is the purpose of your question? What do you try to accomplish?

Just trying to learn about possibilities , for example I didn't know about MON51.

Is a 20$ PICKIT3 or a 10$ FTDI2232 breakout board too expensive?

I am not sure I can get anything in this lockdown.
FTDI2232 breakout board sounds good. I saw a YouTube video using it, but it needs CooCox driver on Keil side.

[rvalente]

In addition to the 20usd pickit a genuine stlink v2 costs 21 and its jtag, pretty fast and wont mess with your code or run, so why botter?

[remcu]

it ought to be possible with almost any uC and GDB capable IDE

It is interesting. What did you mean, "uC"?

[Simon]

micro-controller as I know the ASCII code I would use the actual micro symbol.

[jackthomson43]

may be on 8051 microcontrollers using Keil compiler.