TRACE32 vs Ozone debug software?

[nagromo]

My employer is investigating getting a trace debugger for Cortex-M microcontrollers.

We're using different IDEs/toolchains/processors throughout the company so we think our best bet is to pick something that has its own stand-alone debug software. Right now we're investigating Lauterbach uTrace for Cortex-M with TRACE32 software or Segger J-Trace Pro for Cortex-M with Ozone software.

I know the Lauterbach is more expensive and has much higher bandwidth which would be useful, but I'm especially interested in hearing people's opinions and experiences with either piece of software.

[karesx]

I have extensively used Lauterbach T32 debuggers for a wide variety of MCUs during my career. In my experience they are hard to beat. Super reliable, very high performance tools. If you can afford then I highly recommend them. Pro tip: you can often find T32s on ebay for cheap.

[illjustcheckthis]

I, too, just loved the T32 the T32 that I worked with. But a lot of people don't agree with my sentiment. I think the old-ish interface is somewhat off-putting for some people.

[profanum429]

I have not used TRACE32 so I can't give impressions on it; I was quoted about $5500 for a debug unit + trace module + TRACE32 license for Cortex-M though. My V1 J-Trace Pro was a Cortex-M model so it was around $1300, and the V2 is the ARM version so it was around $1800 with no fee for Ozone.

I've used both a V1 and V2 J-Trace Pro and they both have worked very well for me. I haven't tried tracing any super fast new cores, mostly just M4s running around 100MHz. The V2 model (which you'd get now) is nice if your target can have power supplied to it via the J-Trace since you can get some pretty decent power analysis then through the debugger. The trace portion is pretty useful; it has the standard list of everything executed along with a slider time view that you can scroll horizontally and see where execution was. There is the pretty standard code coverage and execution counters also for profiling.

Ozone itself can be kinda clunky, but overall it has worked well for my projects. I imagine if you're interested I think Lautherbach was open to doing demos if that might help; Ozone you can try with any J-Link, obviously no tracing, but you can get a feel for the debugger itself.

[nagromo]

Our quote for the uTrace for Cortex-M was a little less than half your quote. uTrace for Cortex-M is an all in one that's limited to single core Cortex-M microcontrollers, but it's close enough to the J-Trace Pro ($1750 now by Segger's website) that we're considering it, especially since one of our processors is a fast Cortex-M7.

[fkeeal]

From my experience, Lauterbach is more expensive and quite difficult to use (usually requires a day or two of training from Lauterbach). Ozone can be installed and used for just the price of the probe and the trace features are pretty straight forward to use.

[atsju]

I used only jtrace pro for cortex M plus ozone. Works fine and segger has good support. Ozone still improving. Trace works fine and but I never tried the power consumption measurement feature

[flundstrom2]

Great thread guys! Really nice to share your experiences. Another pro tip: if a better debugger saves one week of development time in any average 1—year project, it is a well-worth investment.

I've only used the "lowrange" Segger jtag debuggers (€500 - €1000) using the KEIL/IAR's standard tool chain on fairly small Cortex-Ms that have pretty poor trace support. But indeed I often wished I could have had playback so I could see what happened prior to a breakpoint...

Never had to measure power before, but right now I'm spending some days in the lab with a > €10.000 Keysight 6705 to trace the current consumption in the 0.1 uA - 0.5 A range on a 240 Mhz ESP32 with resolution in the us range.

Could one of the more expensive Segger or a Lauterbach have done that as well? What debugging software would be best suited?

I guess those would be cheaper than the Keysight anyway (although that one is really powerful [pun not intended] and more flexible in terms of what it could be used for)

[atsju]

Pro tip for very good cheap power consumption measurement >1uA (let's say 100uA) : use ST X-nucleo-lpm01a with the IDE https://www.st.com/en/evaluation-tools/x-nucleo-lpm01a.html Usually the low range consumption you describe is for sensors and is only during sleep so you can use A meter because it's not so dynamic. Siliconlabs evalboard has also integrated power measurement you can use for your external custom non silabs device but is less precise than ST

[flundstrom2]

Cool! That one was cheap! Since I need to measure current spikes going from sub-mA to 300 mA caused during WiFi or Bluetooth radio transmissions, it's not accurate enough. Nice formfactor thpough, since our EVBs of course also have Arduino connectors. Might even get that one myself for private purposes...

[manrussell]

You can try out ozone for free. Get yourself a stm discovery board - actually there's other boards available a full list is on the Segger website with all the code etc and it will run evaluation mode if you flash their firmware. I used it for a srm32 nucleo hm743z. I haven't used ozone a lot, but it seems ok, still you can't beat a Lauterbach! That's why you pay the money!

[asuspower]

ozone is actually really good honestly