Starterkit Quicksteps

The Starterkit STKa6ULx consisting of the TQMa6ULx module and MBa6ULx mainboard is intended as evaluation platform for the TQMa6ULx. To bring up the board a comprehensive set of accessories is supplied with the kit. The STKa6ULx is delivered preconfigured to boot the latest released Linux BSP revision at the time of delivery, so only the Host Computer has to be set up properly to bring the STKa6ULx up. This page guides through the first steps with the STKa6ULx Starterkit.

Setup Host Computer

Serial Driver

The TQMa6ULx debug UART is connected via a FTDI USB-to-Serial converter to X1700 (micro-USB) on the MBa6ULx. A micro-USB/USB-A cable is part of the STKa6ULx accessory set. Depending on the host operating system, a driver may need to be installed.

Linux

The FTDI driver is maintained in the Linux mainline kernel, the configuration options below must be activated in the Linux kernel configuration to operate the USB-to-Serial converter

  • CONFIG_USB_SERIAL
  • CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_FTDI_SIO

Windows

The driver can be downloaded from the FTDI website:
https://ftdichip.com/drivers/vcp-drivers/

An installation guide can be found at the following link:
https://ftdichip.com/document/installation-guides/

Terminal Emulator

Linux

Minicom

Minicom is a command line based serial terminal for serial communication with hardware like our starterkits.

Install Minicom using APT(Debian/Ubuntu)
$ sudo apt install minicom

In order for the terminal to work properly with full rights you need to add your user to the dialout group: 

$ sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER


Connect Starterkit to Host

To determine the serial device name under linux you can use dmesg. Just run the command below and then plug in the starter kit to see the new detected interface names: 

$ dmesg -w

Once the interface name is clear you can abort dmesg with ctrl + c.
Now you can start minicom via the command line interface: 

$ minicom -D /dev/ttySx
Make sure to replace /dev/ttySx with the serial interface you found out before with dmesg.
Configure minicom

The serial configuration should be correct by default. However, hardware flow control must be disabled for some starter kits, otherwise the communication works only in one direction.

  1. Press CTRL + A, then press O to open the configuration menu
  2. Go to Serial port setup
  3. Press F to change Hardware Flow Control to No
  4. Hit Return key
  5. Select Save setup as dfl to save this configuration as default
  6. Press ESC to exit the menu

Now you should be able to communicate with the starter kit

Windows

TeraTerm

TeraTerm is an open source terminal emulator for windows. It can be downloaded here.

Configure TeraTerm
  1. Download and install TeraTerm
  2. Start TeraTerm and open the Serial Port Settings
  3. Select your serial port and configure it with the values defined in the chapter Serial Configuration
  4. After passing the values click on the button New Setting

Now TeraTerm should be ready for use with our starter kits.

Host PC Serial Port Configuration

The serial port which connects the STKa6ULx to the Host PC must be configured as follows:

Baud rate: 115200
Data bits: 8
Parity: none
Stop bits: 1
Handshake: XON/XOFF

Connecting the Starterkit to the Development Host

Please follow the quick start guide delivered with the kit, or open it from the following link: Quick start guide

Linux

BSP Login Credentials

As soon as logging in on the Linux shell for the first time, the question about the login credential comes up.
By default the user root is used to log into the Linux shell, no password is set for user root. 

tqmaxx-mbaxx login: root

Testing Interfaces on STKa6ULx

To get familiar with the interfaces of the STKa6ULx we recommend to work through the interface tutorials first.

Building the BSP

The Board Support Packages provided by TQ may not contain all software packages to evaluate the STKa6ULx, therefore TQ provides some guides how to build the BSP and customize it for your needs:

In addition to the BSP documentation, the Yocto SDK build and Eclipse IDE setup for the STKa6ULx is also documented.

Setup Starterkit for different boot sources

The STKa6ULx can be setup to boot from different sources. Please see the DIP switch settings below to change the boot source.

Boot Mode (S5)

Switching boot sources is only possible if the BOOT_MODE fuses are not programmed. If configured for “Boot from eFuses” but fuses are not programmed, the boot loader will not be able to determine the boot source.

To enable boot device selection BOOT_MODE has to be set to “Internal Boot”.
This can be done using DIP switch S5 on MBa6ULx:

MBa6ULx Rev.0200

BOOT_MODE S5-1 S5-2
Boot from eFuses 0 0
Internal Boot 0 1
Serial Downloader 1 0
Reserved 1 1

MBa6ULx Rev.01xx

BOOT_MODE S5-1 S5-2
Boot from eFuses 0 0
Internal Boot 1 0
Serial Downloader 0 1
Reserved 1 1

Boot Devices (S11, S12)

The i.MX6ULx can boot from the following boot devices, which can be selected by the DIP switches S11, S12 and S13.

MBa6ULx Rev.0200

SD-Card

S5

S11

S12

S13


eMMC

S5

S11

S12

S13


SPI NOR

S5

S11

S12

S13


MBa6ULx Rev.01xx

SD-Card

S5

S11

S12

S13


eMMC

S5

S11

S12

S13


SPI NOR

S5

S11

S12

S13


Functional DIP Switches

DIP-Switch settings for CAN and RS485.

CAN configuration (S3)

DIP switch S3 is used to configure the CAN interfaces CAN1 and CAN2.

DIP OFF (default) ON
S3-1 CAN1 not terminated CAN1 interface terminated (120Ω)
S3-2 CAN0 not terminated CAN0 interface terminated (120Ω)

RS485 configuration (S4)

DIP switch S4 is used to configure the RS485 interface.

DIP OFF (default) ON
S4-1 RS485 RxD not terminated RS485 RxD terminated (120Ω)
S4-2 RS485 TxD not terminated RS485 TxD terminated (120Ω)