Viewing Microcontroller Hex Files

It can be really handy to be able to view the program memory data bytes of an Intel hex file when developing and debugging boot loaders. Your IDE probably has a program memory view which does this, but often its more helpful to use a third party piece of software which shows you a nice and simple memory view and addressed correctly as the values will be burnt into a microcontroller.

The best application we've found for this is the SEGGER "J-Link software" which is actually intended for use with their programmers, but which can be downloaded for free (there is an option to not have a serial number and you then just need to confirm you are not going to use it with a non SEGGER programmer).  Download "J-Link software & documentation pack for Windows" from here.

Install it and then run:

C:\Program Files (x86)\SEGGER\JLinkARM_V480e\JFlashARM.exe

Select 'create a new project' and press "Start J-Flash".

Now use Menu > File > Open data file and open your .hex file.  You'll now see a program memory dump:

j-link

The byte ordering of each 2 or 4 bytes may be different compared to your IDE due to using a different endian but otherwise you should see the program memory values at the addresses they will be written to in your chip.

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