Project Bring-Up Workflow#

Bringing up a new board is the moment where schematic, layout, and firmware assumptions meet physical reality. A systematic bring-up process catches problems early — before they compound into hours of debugging the wrong layer. The sequence matters: verify power before clocks, verify clocks before communication peripherals, verify debug access before attempting complex firmware. Skipping steps or testing everything at once makes it nearly impossible to isolate which subsystem is failing.

Board bring-up is also the stage where documentation gaps, component substitution errors, and PCB layout mistakes reveal themselves. Having a repeatable checklist and a defined set of smoke tests turns a potentially chaotic process into a methodical one.

What This Section Covers#

• First Boot Checklist — The pre-power and first-power verification sequence: visual inspection, voltage rail checks, current draw measurements, and debug probe connection before running any firmware.
• Blinky & Serial Hello World — The minimal firmware milestones that confirm the core system works: GPIO toggle for clock verification, and serial output for toolchain and communication validation.
• Peripheral Smoke Tests — Systematic verification of each peripheral subsystem — SPI, I2C, ADC, timers, PWM — with simple test patterns that confirm correct pin mapping, clock configuration, and basic functionality.
• Common Bring-Up Failures & Recovery — The most frequent board bring-up problems — shorted rails, swapped pins, wrong boot mode, locked debug ports — and the diagnostic and recovery procedures for each.