fnafnio / cargo-embed

a cargo extension for working with microcontrollers

cargo-embed

This crate provides a cargo subcommand to work with embedded targets.

It can flash targets, just like cargo-flash but can do much more, such as logging RTT output from the target, opening a GDB server connected to the target, and much more functionality such as ITM to come!

Various chip families including but not limited to nRF5x, STM32 and LPC800 can be worked with using DAPLink, ST-Link or J-Link. It supports all the targets & probes probe-rs supports.

Support

If you think cargo-embedded makes your embedded journey more enjoyable or even earns you money, please consider supporting the project on Github Sponsors for better support and more features.

Installation

You can install this utility with cargo:

cargo install cargo-embed

Usage

You can use it like any cargo command would be used

cargo embed <args>

which will then build your binary and download the contents onto the connected target.

Configuration

You can configure cargo-embed with a file called Embed.toml (or .embed.toml) in your project directory. That file should be added to your git history.

For local-only configuration overrides, you can create an Embed.local.toml (or .embed.local.toml) file and add that to your .gitignore.

Config file precedence:

1. Embed.local.*
2. .embed.local.*
3. Embed.*
4. .embed.*
5. Default configuration

Instead of a TOML file, you can also use a JSON or YAML file. Choose what suits you best!

You can find all available options in the default.toml. Commented out options are the ones that are None by default.

Building

cargo-embed can be built using cargo, after installing the necessary prerequisites. See the list below for your operating system.

FTDI Support

FTDI support is optional. You can enable it with the ftdi feature. You also need the correct prerequisites from the next section installed.

Prerequisites

cargo-embed depends on the libusb and optionally on libftdi libraries, which need to be installed to build cargo-embed.

Linux

On Ubuntu, the following packages need to be installed:

> sudo apt install -y pkg-config libusb-1.0-0-dev libftdi1-dev

Windows

On Windows you can use vcpkg to install the prerequisites:

# dynamic linking 64-bit
> vcpkg install libftdi1:x64-windows libusb:x64-windows
> set VCPKGRS_DYNAMIC=1

# static linking 64-bit
> vcpkg install libftdi1:x64-windows-static-md libusb:x64-windows-static-md

macOS

On macOS, homebrew is the suggested method to install libftdi:

> brew install libftdi

Sentry logging

We use Sentry to record crash data. This helps us trace crashes better. No data will ever be transmitted without your consent! All data is transmitted completely anonymously. This is an OPT-IN feature. On crash, cargo-embed will ask you whether to transmit the data or not. You can also set whether to do this for all times with an environment variable to omit the message in the future. If you do not wish to have sentry integrated at all, you can also build cargo-embed without sentry by using --no-default-features.