NXP Semiconductors
UM12036
MCX-N9XX-EVK Board User Manual
3.7 MCU-Link USB connector
The MCX-N9XX-EVK board has a universal serial bus (USB) 2.0 micro-B connector J5 (Hirose Electric ZX62D-
B-5PA8(30)). This USB connector is used to create MCU-Link high-speed USB connection with the host
computer. The MCU-Link receives power when the USB connector J5 is plugged into a USB host.
3.8 Connecting to a target through a USB-to-UART bridge
The MCU-Link supports the VCOM serial port feature, which adds a serial COM port on the host computer, and
connects it to the target MCU by using MCU-Link as a USB-to-UART bridge.
In the MCX-N9XX-EVK board, MCU-Link LPC55S69 is connected to the P1_8 and P1_9 pins of the target MCU
through a voltage translator U21.
Note: The P1_8 and P1_9 pins are also the default UART ISP pins to allow for ISP connection through the
MCULink VCOM.
The voltage translator U21 enables communication between MCU-Link and the target MCU, by shifting voltage
levels of signals between the two devices from 3V3 to VDD_BRD and vice versa.
To use MCU-Link as a USB-to-UART bridge, ensure that the JP19 jumper is open and connect the J5 connector
on the board to the USB port of the host computer.
When you boot the MCX-N9XX-EVK board, a VCOM port with the name MCU-Link Vcom Port (COMxx) is
enumerated on the host computer, where “xx” may vary from one computer to another. Each MCU-Link based
board has a unique VCOM number associated with it.
The P1_8 and P1_9 pins are shared with the trace debug header (J11). If the trace functionality through these
pins is desired, ensure the following resistor and jumper configuration:
• Resistors R19 and R20 are populated
• Resistors R17 and R18 are depopulated
• Jumper JP19 is shorted (to disable the VCOM feature)
3.9 Connecting to a target through a USB-to-SPI or USB-to-I2C bridge
MCU-Link supports the USB serial input/output (USBSIO) port feature, which adds a USB serial I/O port on the
host computer, and connects it to the target MCU by using MCU-Link as a USB-to-SPI bridge or USB-to-I2C
bridge. Support for the USBSIO feature can be enabled on the host computer using the libusbsio library, which
is a free host library from NXP for Windows/Linux/MacOS systems. For more details on the libusbsio library, see
https://www.nxp.com/libusbsio.
In the MCX-N9XX-EVK board, MCU-Link is connected to the P0_[27:24] pins of the target MCU using the FC1
SPI interface connection, through a voltage translator U22. The voltage translator enables the communication
between MCU-Link and the target MCU, by shifting voltage levels of signals between the two devices from 3V3
to VDD_BRD and vice versa.
The SPI interface connections for this functionality are shared with the SPI connections on the Arduino
compatible connectors and Mikroe connector connections. To prevent contention with these connectors, zero-
ohm resistors are used to isolate the connections from the MCU-Link circuit by default.
A USB-to-SPI bridge can be used to emulate the host system. To use MCU-Link as a USB-to-SPI bridge, the
board must be connected to the host computer through a USB cable from its J5 connector. Also, ensure the
following resistor and jumper configuration on the board:
• Resistors R11, R12, R13, and R14 are populated
• Jumper JP5 is open (to enable the USBSIO bridge feature for SPI; by default JP5 is shorted)
UM12036 All information provided in this document is subject to legal disclaimers. © 2024 NXP B.V. All rights reserved.
User manual Rev. 1 — 20 January 2024
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