Electron programmer shield compatibility for JTAG debugging

[jaza_tom]

Is the programmer shield in the Particle Store compatible with the Electron?

From the store:

Designed for use with the Photon, backwards compatible with the Core.

Doesn't say anything about the Electron...

Also, if I were to buy one of these shields and adapt it for use with the Electron, would I simply follow the instructions posted in the forums? For example here: Local development and gdb debugging with NetBeans, a step by step guide

It would appear that that guide was written for use with the ST-Link (not the programmer shield). Is the programmer shield compatible with Netbeans debugging? If not, is the only IDE that is compatible with the programmer shield the WICED Eclipse-Based IDE?

Are there any other guides on debugging and creating a local build environment with Particle products? Right now it seems like there is not much info on the Particle sites about this, maybe because all the people who delve into that world already have lots of experience with this kind of thing and therefore don't ask questions?

UPDATE:

Rickkas has written an awesome guide on how to use JTAG tools with the Electron. You can find it here:

https://docs.particle.io/faq/particle-tools/jtag/electron/

[rickkas7]

If you can wait a few weeks, there will be much more information available. I’m writing the guides debugging with JTAG and SWD right now.

[jaza_tom]

Amazing. You the man.

[ScruffR]

I think there is a tutorial by @jvanier.

5 steps to setup and use a debugger with the Photon

I recently got my Programmer Shield and I had trouble finding instructions on how to use it as an actual debugger. I wrote a step-by-step article on how to install the software, start the debugger and get to the bottom of an issue like a crash (SOS / red led flashing). 5 steps to setup and use a debugger with the Particle Photon I added separate steps for Windows in this next post Debugging Particle on Windows Let me know if you have comments or if something doesn’t work on Mac OSX and Windo…

Since the JTAG/SWD pins are on the same spot on both device types you can use the Photon Programmer Shield just the same with the Electron.

[jaza_tom]

Thanks Scruffr!

Can I use a GUI debugger like Netbeans with the Particle Programming Shield, or am I limited to command line OpenOCD debugging (sifting through lines of assembly code)?

[rickkas7]

OpenOCD is the interface to the hardware, it could be the programmer shield or a JTAG or SWD USB device. It can then be used either to access the flash or interface to GDB.

Once you have the GDB Interface you can use either the command line source debugger or use an IDE that can interface to GDB like Eclipse or Netbeans.