The Starterkit STKa8x consisting of the TQMa8x module and MBa8x mainboard is intended as evaluation platform for the TQMa8x. To bring up the board a comprehensive set of accessories is supplied with the kit. The STKa8x 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 STKa8x up. This page guides through the first steps with the STKa8x Starterkit.

The TQMa8x debug UART is connected via a FTDI USB-to-Serial converter to X28 (micro-USB) on the MBa8x. A micro-USB/USB-A cable is part of the STKa8x 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/

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.

The serial port which connects the STKa8x to the Host PC must be configured as follows:

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

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


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

To get familiar with the interfaces of the STKa8x we recommend to work through the interface tutorials first.

The Board Support Packages provided by TQ may not contain all software packages to evaluate the STKa8x, 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 STKa8x is also documented.

The STKa8x can be setup to boot from different sources please see the DIP switch settings below to change the boot source.

To select the desired boot medium set the DIP switches S1 accordingly.
The following boot modes of the TQMa8x can be selected by the DIP switches S1 on the MBa8x.

SD-Card

S1

eMMC

S1

SPI Nor 3Byte Read

S1

SPI NOR 4Byte Read

S1

Hyperflash 1.8V

S1

Serial Downloader

S1

Boot from Fuses

S1


DIP-Switch settings for CAN interface.

CAN-Bus 0 (SW10)

Feature SW10-1 SW10-2
CAN-Bus not terminated OFF OFF
CAN-Bus terminated with 120 Ohm ON ON
not defined (illegal state) OFF ON
not defined (illegal state) ON OFF

CAN-Bus 1 (SW11)

Feature SW11-1 SW11-2
CAN-Bus not terminated OFF OFF
CAN-Bus terminated with 120 Ohm ON ON
not defined (illegal state) OFF ON
not defined (illegal state) ON OFF

  • Last modified: 2022/08/04 15:02