Digi ConnectCore Quick user guide

ConnectCore®
for i.MX51
Hardware Reference Manual

Revision history—90001128
Revision Date Description
M May, 2014 Correct inaccuracy and sharpen clarity on the high temp start up issue.
N November,
2014
Miscellaneous editorial updates. Updated the voltages for the table in Coin
cell input (VCC_COINCELL). Added a table of related publications.
P June, 2017 Updated branding and added statements for RED compliance.
R April, 2018 Added coin cell input topic.
S January,
2019
Added backdrive caution.
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© 2019 Digi International Inc. All rights reserved.
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merchantability for a particular purpose. Digi may make improvements and/or changes in this manual
or in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described in this manual at any time.
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Gather support information: Before contacting Digi technical support for help, gather the following
information:
Product name and model
Product serial number (s)
Firmware version
Operating system/browser (if applicable)
Logs (from time of reported issue)
Trace (if possible)
Description of issue
Steps to reproduce
ConnectCore for i.MX51 Hardware Reference Manual 2

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Contact us at +1 952.912.3444 or visit us at www.digi.com/support.
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ConnectCore for i.MX51 Hardware Reference Manual 3

Contents
About the module
Features and functionality 9
Module variant 10
Block diagram 11
CPU 11
Module 11
Module pinout 13
Pinout legend 13
Pinout definitions 13
J1 pinout 14
J2 pinout 27
Power 41
Module power supplies 41
Supply inputs 41
Supply outputs 42
MC13892 power management 43
Memory 44
DDR2 SDRAM memory 44
NAND flash memory 44
Chip selects 45
Chip select memory map 45
Multiplexed GPIO 46
GPIO multiplexing table 46
Interfaces 51
1-Wire 51
Accelerometer 51
ADC and touch screen 51
Synchronous Serial Interface (SSI) 52
External Memory Interface (EMI) 53
Ethernet 1 53
Ethernet 2 54
I2C 54
Video subsystem 55
Video Processing Unit (VPU) 55
Image Processing Unit (IPU) 56
Keypad 57
Memory cards 58
PWM 59
RTC 59
SPDIF 59
SPI 60
ConnectCore for i.MX51 Hardware Reference Manual 4

ConnectCore for i.MX51 Hardware Reference Manual 5
Watchdog timer 60
UART 60
USB Host and USB OTG 61
WLAN 61
About the development board
About the development board 65
The development board 66
Switches and push-buttons 67
Power switch, S2 67
Reset button, S4 67
Power button, S11 67
User buttons, S3 and S5 68
Ident button, S10 68
Legend for multi-position switches 68
UART 1 switch, S6 68
UART 2 switch, S7 69
Boot configuration switches, S8 and S9 69
Jumpers 71
Battery enable, J5 71
Module power source, P29 71
LED 1, J16 71
LED 2, J9 72
Button 1, J28 72
Button 2, J29 72
UART3 / XBee selection, J30 and J31 72
WLAN disable, J17 72
Touch selection, J20 72
Coincell enable, J3 72
JTAG mod., J4 72
LEDs 73
WLAN, LE12 73
Power LEDs, LE3, LE4, LE6 and LE7 73
User LEDs, LE49 and LE51 74
Serial status LEDs 74
UART 1 status LEDs 74
UART 2 status LEDs 74
XBee Associate, LE50 74
Audio interface 75
Line-out connector pinout, J18 76
Line-in connector pinout, J12 76
Microphone connector pinout, J15 76
Coin cell battery 77
Camera interfaces 78
X15 pinout 79
X17 pinout 79
Digital IO interface 80
Digital I/O connector, X45 80
Ethernet 1 interface 81
Ethernet 1, RJ-45 connector X7 82
Ethernet 2 interface 83
Ethernet 2, connector J17 83
HDMI interface 85
HDMI connector, J19 85

ConnectCore for i.MX51 Hardware Reference Manual 6
I2C interface 87
I2C header, P22 87
JTAG interface 89
Standard JTAG ARM connector, X13 89
LCD interfaces 90
LCD 1 connector, P1 91
P1 pinout 91
LCD 2 connector, P2 92
P2 pinout 93
MicroSD™ card interface 95
MicroSD connector, X14 95
Module connectors and signal rails 97
Module connectors 97
Signal rails, J25 and J26 97
J25 pinout 98
J26 pinout 100
Peripheral application header 104
Peripheral application header, P21 104
Power-Over-Ethernet (PoE) - IEEE802.3af 106
The PoE module 107
PoE connector (power in), P17 107
PoE connector (power out), P18 107
Main power connector 108
SD-card interface 109
SD/MMC connector, X18 109
SPI interface 111
SPI header, P24 111
UART interface 113
Serial port 2, RS232, X27 113
Serial port 1, MEI interface, X30 114
Serial port 3, TTL interface, X19 114
USB host interface 116
USB host connectors, J8 and J10 116
USB OTG interface 117
USB OTG connector, J11 117
User interface 118
Analog video interface 119
Analog video connector, X32 119
WLAN interface 121
Antenna connectors (WLAN) 121
Digi XBee interface 123
Digi XBee module connectors, X28 and X29 123
Module specifications
Mechanical specifications 126
Fasteners and appropriate torque 126
Environmental specifications 126
Network interface 126
Antenna specifications: 802.11 a/b/g antenna 126
Antenna specification: 802.11b/g antenna 127
Ethernet 1 128
Ethernet 2 129
WLAN 129
Electrical characteristics 131

ConnectCore for i.MX51 Hardware Reference Manual 7
Charger vs. battery 131
Supply voltages 132
Supply current 132
On-module power supplies 133
I/O DC parameters 134
Module dimensions
Top view 139
Bottom view 140
Side view 141
Connectors 141
Regulatory information
Federal Communication (FCC) regulatory information (USA only) 142
RF exposure 142
Modifications (FCC 15.21) 143
Industry Canada 143
Indoor/outdoor 143
Japan certification 143
Declaration of Conformity (DoC) 144
CE mark (Europe) 144
International EMC standards 145
Maximum power and frequency specifications

About the module
The network-enabled ConnectCore for i.MX51 is a highly integrated System-on-Module (SOM) solution
based on the new Freescale®i.MX51X application processor with a high-performance ARM®Cortex-A8®
core, powerful multimedia options, and a complete set of peripherals.
The module combines the fast integration, reliability and design flexibility of an off-the-shelf SOM with
complete out-of-the-box software development support for platforms such as Microsoft®Windows®
Embedded CE 6.0, Windows Embedded Compact 7Digi®Embedded Linux®and Timesys®LinuxLink®.
With industry-leading performance and key features like a dual-display interface and a hardware
encryption engine, the module is the ideal choice for a broad range of target markets including
medical, digital signage, security/access control, retail, industrial/building automation, transportation
and more.
Complete and cost-efficient Digi JumpStart Kits™ for Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 6.0 and Linux
allow immediate and professional embedded product development with dramatically reduced design
risk and time-to-market.
Features and functionality 9
Block diagram 11
Module pinout 13
Power 41
Memory 44
Chip selects 45
Multiplexed GPIO 46
ConnectCore for i.MX51 Hardware Reference Manual 8

Features and functionality
The ConnectCore for i.MX51 module is based on the i.MX51 processor from Freescale. This processor
offers a high number of interfaces. Most of these interfaces are multiplexed and are not available
simultaneously. The module has the following features:
nHigh-end, low-power 32-bit System-on-Module
n600/800 MHZ ARM Cortex-A8 core
l32 kB L1 instruction and 32 kB L1 data cache
l256 kB L2 cache
lNEON co-processor
lVector Floating Point (VFP) unit
nSLC and MLC NAND flash support on module
nUp to 512 MB 32-bit/200 MHZ DDR2-400 memory
nDebug interfaces
lJoint Test Action Group (JTAG)
lEmbedded Trace Macrocell™ (ETM) / Embedded Trace Buffer (ETB)
nReal Time Clock (RTC)
nSecurity co-processor
lEncryption: Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Data Encryption Standard (DES), 3DES and
RC4
lHashing algorithms: Message Digest (MD)5, Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA)-1, SHA-224 and
SHA-256
nTimer
nWatchdog
nUp to three universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) ports, up to 4 Mb/s each
nUp to three Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), two of them up to 54 Mb/s each
nTwo Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) (up to 400 kb/s)
nThree memory card interfaces (two for the wireless version of the module)
lSD/Secure Digital Input Output (SDIO) - 1 and 4-bits (up to 200 Mb/s)
lMultiMediaCard (MMC) - 1, 4 and 8-bits (up to 416 Mb/s)
nUSB
nUp to 3x USB 2.0 High-Speed USB Host ports
nOne USB 2.0 On-The-Go USB port with integrated Physical Layer (PHY) on the module
n1-wire
nKeypad 6x4
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About the module Features and functionality
ConnectCore for i.MX51 Hardware Reference Manual 10
nTwo independent pulse-width modulation (PWM) interfaces
n8, 16-bit External Memory interface
nGeneral-purpose input/output (GPIO) with interrupt capabilities
nUp to 3x 10-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) channels
nMultimedia
l2x Camera ports
l2x Display ports
l4-wire touch screen
nSony/Philips Digital Interface Forma (SPDIF) output
nThree I2S / Audio Codec '97 (AC’97) / Synchronous Serial Interfaces (SSI), up to 1.4Mb/s each
nOn-module three axis accelerometer (optional)
nOn-module 10/100 Ethernet controller (optional)
nSecond on-module 10/100Mb Ethernet interface (optional)
n2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a/b/g/n
wireless local area network (LAN) interface (optional)
nComplete Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 6.0 and Linux platform support with full source
code
Module variant
The ConnectCore for i.MX51 module is available with various population options such as network
interfaces (Ethernet, wireless local area network [WLAN]), memory (flash, random-access memory
[RAM]), processor (speed grade/operating temperature) and others.