RoadTest: Atmel SAMA5D3 Xplained, Add-On Boards + LCD Bundle
Author: matfur92
Creation date:
Evaluation Type: Evaluation Boards
Did you receive all parts the manufacturer stated would be included in the package?: True
What other parts do you consider comparable to this product?:
What were the biggest problems encountered?: There is no step by step guide to make it easy for a first use of a person who has never picked up a board like that. There isn't a clear set of development programs (IDE) or step-by-step guide that I can use to take advantage of the qualities of fast development described by the advertise. In the box there isn't a FTDI USB To TTL Serial Converter to debug and have access to U-Boot.
Detailed Review:
INDEX OF REVIEW
First Boot
1. I connected to the LCD board. To do this I had to use Ex-LCD Expansion Board interposing between board and LCD paying attention to the direction of the connector as in the picture.
2. I connected the USB cable provided.
3. I connected the board to the PC, so this made the boot (see blue LED).
4. I used a program to read data from the serial port, it can also be the very simple Arduino, using the following parameters:
Baud rate 115200
On 8 bits
Parity None
Stop 1 bit
Flow control None
5. At this point, once you start the connection I find myself having to enter the login details -> "root" as the user and <Enter Key> for the password
6. FINE - at this point I have available the classic shell linux with whom I can interact and perform some commands like those listed below to obtain more information on the board
Show kernel version and system architecture
root@sama5d3_xplained:/# uname -a
Linux sama5d3_xplained 3.10.0-yocto-standard #1 Wed Feb 5 10:03:20 CET 2014 armv7l GNU/Linux
Show name and version of distribution
root@sama5d3_xplained:/# head -n1 /etc/issue
Poky (Yocto Project Reference Distro) 1.5.1 \n \l
Show RAM total seen by the system
root@sama5d3_xplained:/# grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo
MemTotal: 252852 kB
Show CPU(s) info
root@sama5d3_xplained:/# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
model name : ARMv7 Processor rev 1 (v7l)
BogoMIPS : 351.43
Features : swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp thumbee vfpv3 vfpv3d16 tls vfpv4
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant : 0x0
CPU part : 0xc05
CPU revision : 1
Hardware : Atmel SAMA5 (Device Tree)
Revision : 0000
Serial : 0000000000000000
Flashing a demo
To flash a new demo, I used the guide at the following link: http://www.at91.com/linux4sam/bin/view/Linux4SAM/GettingStarted_xplained
1. I have installed the SAM-BA from http://www.atmel.com/tools/ATMELSAM-BAIN-SYSTEMPROGRAMMER.aspx
2. I have download and unpack the demo from ftp://www.at91.com/pub/demo/linux4sam_4.3/linux4sam-poky-sama5d3_xplained-4.3.zip
3. Open JP5 to disable NAND Flash memory access
4. Press BP2 reset button to boot from on-chip Boot ROM
5. Close JP5 to enable NAND Flash memory access
6. (I was on windows) I placed the folder you just unzipped and I started the script for flashing "demo_linux_nandflash_pda4.bat"
7. When the logfile.log appears (this will take a few minutes), check that =
Done. =
is written at the end of the file.
8. Press BP2 reset button to boot on NAND Flash memory and launch the demo
9. To test the LCD screen with a random image use root@sama5d3_xplained:~# dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/fb0 bs=128k
Using linux4sam-poky-qte-sama5d3_xplained-4.4 ( ftp://ftp.linux4sam.org/pub/demo/linux4sam_4.4/linux4sam-poky-qte-sama5d3_xplained-4.4.zip )
With this release, the LCD screen has this message at boot but the touch screen does not work I present the crosshair
Use Wi-Fi Dongle (with demo OS)
1. Plugged in the wi-fi dongle into an USB
2. In the shell entered this command wpa_passphrase yourSSIDname yourWifiPassphrase to get the password of wifi network in hex
3. Copy the hex code
4. In the shell vi /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf and modify the document like this for example
network={
ssid="ASUS"
#psk="yourWifiPassphrase"
psk=01c8ef9624574a397bca73525e87e8fd8bf695f46e88b44efca01b09ea42ce5a
}
5. Restart the network using /etc/init.d/networking restart
6. Verify the network using iwconfig
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"ASUS"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 10:BF:48:D3:72:50
Bit Rate=65 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:on
Link Quality=70/70 Signal level=-15 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:19 Invalid misc:4 Missed beacon:0
Unboxing
UNBOXING - Atmel SAMA5D3 Xplained:
UNBOXING - Arduino UNO click shield:
UNBOXING - Sensor Click Board
UNBOXING - Wifi Dongle
UNBOXING - LCD8000
Top Comments
really cool review @matfur92 ,