Embedded Artists iMX Series User manual

Getting Started –iMX Developer’s Kit
Copyright 2016 © Embedded Artists AB
Getting Started With the
iMX Developer’s Kit

Getting Started With the iMX Developer’s Kit
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Copyright 2016 © Embedded Artists AB
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Embedded Artists AB
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Table of Contents
1Document Revision History................................. 4
2Introduction........................................................... 5
2.1 Conventions.................................................................................... 5
3Getting Started...................................................... 6
3.1 Kit Content...................................................................................... 6
3.2 Hardware Overview........................................................................ 6
3.3 Connect FTDI Cable ....................................................................... 7
3.4 Terminal / Console Application..................................................... 9
3.5 Powering the Board ..................................................................... 10
3.6 USB OTG....................................................................................... 12
3.7 Networking.................................................................................... 13
3.8 Further Information...................................................................... 14

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1 Document Revision History
Revision
Date
Description
A
2015-09-28
First release
B
2016-01-21
Made the document more general to also be valid for iMX6 Quad,
iMX6 DualLite and iMX6 UltraLite.
C
2016-05-17
Added information about iMX7 Dual uCOM and Adding Display
document.
D
2016-08-30
Added information about iMX7 Dual COM. Also specified that a
password (pass) is now required for the root user.
E
2016-09-24
Clarified console connector placement.
E1
2016-12-29
Added more documents in the "Further Information" section.

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2 Introduction
This document provides you with step-by-step instructions to start working with one of Embedded
Artists' iMX Developer’s Kit. The document is valid for any of the following iMX Developer’s Kits:
iMX6 SoloX Developer’s Kit (EAK00245)
iMX6 Quad Developer’s Kit (EAK00251)
iMX6 UltraLite Developer’s Kit (EAK00253)
iMX6 DualLite Developer’s Kit (EAK00263)
iMX7 Dual uCOM Developer’s Kit (EAK00268)
iMX7 Dual Developer’s Kit (EAK00273)
By following these instructions you will have a terminal application connected to the board and Linux
running on the board.
2.1 Conventions
A number of conventions have been used throughout to help the reader better understand the content
of the document.
Constant width text –is used for file system paths and command, utility and tool names.
$ This field illustrates user input in a terminal running on the
development workstation, i.e., on the workstation where you edit,
configure and build Linux
# This field illustrates user input on the target hardware, i.e.,
input given to the terminal attached to the COM Board
T
Th hi is s f fi ie el ld d i is s u us se ed d t to o i il ll lu us st tr ra at te e e ex xa am mp pl le e c co od de e o or r e ex xc ce er rp pt t f fr ro om m a a
d
do oc cu um me en nt t. .

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3 Getting Started
3.1 Kit Content
One iMX Developer’s Kit which consists of one COM board and one Carrier board (and in the
case of iMX7 Dual uCOM Developer's Kit, also a uCOM Adapter Board)
One micro-B to A USB cable
One FTDI cable (UART-to-USB bridge for console output)
One Debug interface board with 10-pos FPC cable
Power supply
One Micro-Fit 3.0 2-pos connector with 30 cm cables
One Micro-Fit 3.0 10-pos connector with 30 cm cables
3.2 Hardware Overview
Figure 1 and Figure 2 below shows the iMX6 SoloX Developer's Kit but the pictures are generic for all
iMX Developer's Kits.
Figure 1 - iMX6 SoloX Developer's Kit Top View
1
2
3
4
5

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Figure 2 - iMX6 SoloX Developer's Kit Side View
1. FTDI cable
2. Power supply
3. Micro-B to A USB cable connected to USB OTG
4. Network cable connected to the RJ45 connector
5. Reset button
3.3 Connect FTDI Cable
Begin by connecting the FTDI cable. Depending on which Developer’s Kit you have this cable should
be connected to either the J35 or J16 connector.
Connector
Developer’s Kit
J35
- iMX6 SoloX Developer’s Kit (EAK00245)
- iMX6 UltraLite Developer’s Kit (EAK00253)
- iMX7 Dual uCOM Developer’s Kit (EAK00268)
- iMX7 Dual Developer’s Kit (EAK00273)
J16
- iMX6 Quad Developer’s Kit (EAK00251)
- iMX6 DualLite Developer’s Kit (EAK00263)
Figure 2 above illustrates the location (1) of J16 and J35. There are three 6-position pin headers. The
one closest to the Ethernet connectors is J35. The middle one is J16 and the pin header closest to the
MXM3 connector is J15 (not used in this context).
1
2
3
4
5

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Connecting the FTDI cable is needed for console input/output. Two different kinds of cables can be
included in the kit. It could be a cable as shown in Figure 3 where each individual line must be
connected. The other alternative is a cable as shown in Figure 4.
Pin marked GND (1) is ground and should be connected to ground (black) on the FTDI cable. The pin
marked TX (4) is output from the board and should be connected to RX (orange) on the FTDI cable.
The pin marked RX (5) is input to the board and should be connected to TX (yellow) on the FTDI cable.
NOTE: Figure 3 and Figure 4 shows how to connect the cable to J35, but it should be
connected the same way to J16 (the middle connector, located just above J35 in the picture).
Figure 3 - Connected FTDI Cable with Independent Wires
Pin 1
Pin 6

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The picture below illustrates an FTDI cable with a 6-position header. Note the orientation. The black
wire shall be to the right in the picture below.
Figure 4 - Connected FTDI Cable with 6-position header
3.4 Terminal / Console Application
When the FTDI cable has been connected to the board and to your computer drivers are installed (if
they haven’t already been installed). Normally these are installed automatically.
Note: If you have problems with the drivers for the FTDI cable please visit www.ftdichip.com
The terminal application Tera Term will be used in these instructions and can be downloaded from
https://ttssh2.osdn.jp/index.html.en.
1. Start Tera Term and select the virtual COM port that was created when connecting the FTDI
cable to your computer. See Figure 5 for an example of how the dialog window looks like for a
new connection.
Pin 1,
Black

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Figure 5 - Tera Term, select COM port
2. Go to Setup Serial port and set the Baud rate to 115200 as shown in Figure 6. The
terminal application is now connected to the virtual COM port and the board.
Figure 6 - Tera Term, setup serial port
3.5 Powering the Board
Connect the power supply to the J4 connector as shown in Figure 7.

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Figure 7 - Power supply
When the power supply is connected to the board the u-boot bootloader will start to run and boot
Linux. When Linux has booted you will be requested to login as shown in Figure 8.
1. Enter root to login and pass if asked for password. Older versions of the Linux distribution
had by default no password associated with the root user.

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Figure 8 - Tera Term Linux login
3.6 USB OTG
This step is only needed when deploying new images to the board using the Manufacturing Tool.
Connect the micro-B to USB A cable to the micro-B connector on the board and to a USB A connector
on your computer.
For more details about using the manufacturing tool read section Deploying Images in the document
Working with Yocto to build Linux. This document can be found on Embedded Artists website.
Figure 9 - micro-B to A USB, OTG

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3.7 Networking
This step is only needed when connecting the board to a network. Connect an Ethernet cable (not
included) to one of the RJ45 connectors on the board, for example, the first port as shown in Figure
10.
Figure 10 - Ethernet cable
To check the available network interfaces run ifconfig as shown below. If you have connected
the cable to port 0 you will see an interface named eth0.
# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1A:F1:01:7F:28
inet addr:192.168.5.63 Bcast:192.168.5.255
Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::21a:f1ff:fe01:7f28/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:17 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:26 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:2207 (2.1 KiB) TX bytes:5762 (5.6 KiB)
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

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If you cannot see eth0 or if it doesn’t have a valid IP address (link addr) you can run ifdown
followed by ifup to “restart” the interface.
# ifdown eth0
# ifup eth0
fec 2188000.ethernet eth0: Freescale FEC PHY driver [Generic PHY]
(mii_bus:phy_addr=2188000.ethernet:01, irq=-1)
udhcpc (v1.22.1) started
Sending discover...
Sending discover...
libphy: 2188000.ethernet:01 - Link is Up - 1000/Full
Sending discover...
Sending select for 192.168.5.58...
Lease of 192.168.5.58 obtained, lease time 691200
/etc/udhcpc.d/50default: Adding DNS 192.168.5.2
You could try to see if you have a working network connection by using the ping utility. In the example
below google.com is “pinged”. For this to work you need a working Internet connection. An alternative
is to ping a computer on your local network.
# ping google.com
PING google.com (74.125.232.96): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 74.125.232.96: seq=0 ttl=55 time=21.507 ms
64 bytes from 74.125.232.96: seq=1 ttl=55 time=16.993 ms
3.8 Further Information
The board is now up-and-running. We recommend you to look at the other documents that are
available on Embedded Artists website. These will help you get a better understanding of the hardware
as well as the available software.
Some recommended documents:
Working with Yocto to Build Linux –if you want to build bootloaders, Linux kernel, and file
system yourself.
Interface Testing on iMX Developer's Kits –A document that show how you can test the
hardware by utilities in u-boot and / or Linux.
Security Considerations –Describes, for example, how to enable secure boot.
Working with Cortex-M4 on the iMX6 SoloX COM Board and the associated Working with
Cortex-M4 on i.MX7 Dual –Describes how to build and run applications for the Cortex-M4
core on the iMX6 SoloX / iMX7 Dual (u)COM Board.
Adding Displays to iMX Developer's Kits - Describes the process of adding a display to an
iMX Developer's Kit. The different display interfaces and how to connect to them are
presented. Available commands in the bootloader and Linux kernel are also presented.
Wireless Communication on iMX Developer's Kit - Describes different ways to add wireless
functionality to an iMX Developer’s Kit.
Developing with Phyton - Provides a step-by-step instruction guide to start writing Python
scripts executing on iMX COM boards.
Developing with Qt5 on iMX Developer's Kits - Provides an overview of Qt and a step-by-step
instruction for setting up Qt Creator - the development environment for Qt.

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If you have any questions, want to discuss your project requirements, need assistance in integrating
the board into your product; please don’t hesitate to contact us.
www.embeddedartists.com/contact

Mouser Electronics
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Embedded Artists:
EAK00245 EAK00253 EAK00273 EAK00263 EAK00268 EAK00251