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Poll: Are you interested in roadtesting the RX72N Envision Kit for HMI Development

RX72N Envision Kit

 

 

Here's the basics about the product:

 

RX72N Envision Kit is equipped with 32-bit microcomputer RX family RX72N, in addition to GUI creation using LCD, HMI development such as voice input/output, and IoT device development using Wi-Fi/BLE, Ethernet, etc. By installing a pre-installed demo and emulator circuit, you can experience immediately and develop immediately.

 

Click here for more information about the product on Newark/Farnell:

 

RX72N Envision KitRX72N Envision Kit

 

Here are some details:

 

  • Equipped with a 32-bit RX72N microcontroller (maximum operating frequency: 240 MHz, code flash memory: 4MB, internal RAM: 1MB)
  • Includes a WQVGA LCD with a capacitive touch panel allowing GUI development using an LCD controller and a 2D drawing engine
  • Provides a D2Audio audio IC with a stereo MEMS microphone to support voice input and output
  • Supports communications such as Wi-Fi/BLE and Ethernet
  • Extended storage available using Macronix's 32Mbit serial flash with USB and microSD slots
  • Includes a variety of Renesas analog devices, such as light sensors, regulators, clock generators, hot-swap power management ICs and LCD backlight drivers
  • The pre-installed demo includes source code, schematics, BOM, and more downloadable from this website
  • RX72N users can use the emWin GUI software package provided by Segger at no cost.
  • Download the free Eclipse-based development environment here
  • Two types of demo software using RX72N features are pre-installed
  • Standard demo: The standard included demo is a sports game called Eyecatcher, highlighting the type of display that can be developed using the free emWin GUI tool and RX72N LCD display functions.
  • Benchmark demo:A firmware update function is installed, and you can add features such as storage, cryptographic throughput, and AWS integration by updating to the latest firmware.

 

Here's a video:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsOEiG4gNNE

 

Additional Information

Parents

  • It looks like it has a lot of capability, but I wonder how much of the software tools are available and how easy are they to use.

     

    DAB

  • in reply to DAB

    I tried install their development IDE (e^2 studio) and it is fine. It is eclipse based so it natively support Linux and Linux installer is provided. I tested it on Windows. If you are familiar with any other advanced MCUs you will probably get familiar with IDE quickly. If you are Arduino guy and you have never worked with any advanced and complex IDE you probably have to learn a lot. IDE follows some concepts which I have seen in MPLAB X IDE. It has more advanced eclipse integration than ModusToolbox which I have used in Cypress PSoC 62S2 Wi-Fi & BT5.0 Pioneer Dev Kit - Review  but has less options for advanced software libraries integration. For example I have not seen any ESP32 integratien (and even better lwip integration) at the first look. I can imagine lot of issues with interfacing onboard ESP32 If you do not have enough experiences with integrating and porting external libraries. There are good integration of FreeRTOS.

     

    Another Important thing is that prefered compiler is not a GCC but their own. Probably the main reason is that MCU is not a ARM but it has RXv3 Renesas prioprietary instruction set. You may face issues with some GCC specific stuff like __attribute__() when porting external libraries. Some GCC is avalaible but it requires some crazy registration in installer.  I skipped it and I did not test it so deep for now.

     

    Preinstalled demo looks well and it is also funny image in comparison with blinky and UART hello world demos on other platforms. Very few vendors tried to implement any game on their platforms. You can found some other (non-gaming) examples on github without need to install software: https://github.com/renesas/rx72n-envision-kit

Comment
  • in reply to DAB

    I tried install their development IDE (e^2 studio) and it is fine. It is eclipse based so it natively support Linux and Linux installer is provided. I tested it on Windows. If you are familiar with any other advanced MCUs you will probably get familiar with IDE quickly. If you are Arduino guy and you have never worked with any advanced and complex IDE you probably have to learn a lot. IDE follows some concepts which I have seen in MPLAB X IDE. It has more advanced eclipse integration than ModusToolbox which I have used in Cypress PSoC 62S2 Wi-Fi & BT5.0 Pioneer Dev Kit - Review  but has less options for advanced software libraries integration. For example I have not seen any ESP32 integratien (and even better lwip integration) at the first look. I can imagine lot of issues with interfacing onboard ESP32 If you do not have enough experiences with integrating and porting external libraries. There are good integration of FreeRTOS.

     

    Another Important thing is that prefered compiler is not a GCC but their own. Probably the main reason is that MCU is not a ARM but it has RXv3 Renesas prioprietary instruction set. You may face issues with some GCC specific stuff like __attribute__() when porting external libraries. Some GCC is avalaible but it requires some crazy registration in installer.  I skipped it and I did not test it so deep for now.

     

    Preinstalled demo looks well and it is also funny image in comparison with blinky and UART hello world demos on other platforms. Very few vendors tried to implement any game on their platforms. You can found some other (non-gaming) examples on github without need to install software: https://github.com/renesas/rx72n-envision-kit

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  • in reply to misaz

      wrote:

     

    I tried install their development IDE (e^2 studio) and it is fine

    ....

    Another Important thing is that prefered compiler is not a GCC but their own...

    Yes, Their Eclipse integration is really good. They stayed within the Eclipse way of working. The typical activities you do in Eclipse work well on the Renesas projects.

    And their plugins work well with Eclipse.

     

    I've used the family (RX62N) with the Renesas and Eclipse toolchain. Both work well.

    The main disadvantage of GCC is that it doesn't work with all examples, and these two r_XXXX "FIT" modules aren't supported when using GCC: USB/FAT and SHA.

    They rely on precompiled libraries that aren't distributed in a version compatible with GCCs linker.

    They work perfectly with Renesas' toolchain, but be aware that that is a payable license, with 60 days trial period starting from the first use in a build.

  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    That is good point. Thank you for information. It looks that after 60 days evaluation period, compiler lost some features and limit size of output binary to 128 KiB. This means that only 1/32 (3.125%) of memory of (potentionaly roadtested) device can be utilized. License price is about 350 USD per user per year as I found on some sites (newark/farnell do not sell licenses) and there are also more expensive variants of license.

     

    If I decide to apply this roadtest I check GCC support before. image

  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    The main issue I ran into with the Renesas e2 Studio is that you need to ensure you have the proper version of the tool for the board used.  I have a few different boards, and there were different IDEs to install whether it were an RX or RA based part. The tools were not compatible across both parts, so I had to ensure I was launching the correct IDE for either a RX or RA device. Perhaps this has been fixed, but it was an issue as of mid last year.

  • in reply to misaz

    Ah yes, that is indeed a valid point, if one wants to use "off the shelf" libraries, it has to be supported by the compiler.
    Like you, I'll only apply if gcc is available, it's never fun to try to battle against a compiler, especially one that has expires after an evaluation period.