Murata SprIoT 6UL User manual

SprIoT 6UL Development Platform for
Android Things
Quick Start Guide

1. Overview
This tutorial helps new developers get started with the NXP based development platform for
Android Things –SprIoT 6UL board, and software support. Specifically, it walks through the
hardware setup, Android Things image build and board booting process.
Code development, build, and unit testing take place on the developer’s host computer. The
resulting image is flashed to the target hardware for further integration testing and debugging over
USB or Ethernet. Just as Android Things is Android-based, the software development leverages
Android development tools including ADB (Android Development Bridge) and FASTBOOT mode to
interact with the target.
This development platform together with the Board Support Package software aim to enable faster
development of IoT devices based on Android Things, and flexible hardware/software customization
needed for the particular device.
2. Hardware Requirement
The development kit contains:
SprIoT 6UL System-On-Module (SOM)
•EVK6UL-Base Board
•DC power supply
The power adapter specification is rated as follows:
DC output voltage: 5V
DC output Current: 2A
DC plug dimensions (mm): 5.5 +/- 0.05 (OD) x 2.1 +/- 0.05 (ID) x 10 +/- 0.3 (L)
Besides, other required materials include:
•Cables:
For ADB/FASTBOOT/MFGTool
oUSB type-A to Micro USB cable
Serial console:
oUSB type-A to Micro USB cable

3. Getting Familiar with the Development Platform
The key interfaces of the board are shown in Figure 1:
Boot mode switch to choose boot mode or download mode for the device.
5V power supply interface.
Power switch.
Micro USB connector which is used for USB to Serial Console convertor for debugging.
Audio jack.
USB OTG interface.
Optional WiFi and BT antenna with U.FL interface.
Figure 1. Top view of the SprIoT 6UL SOM and EVK6UL-BB

Take a close look at the switch on the top view of the board. There are two different setups for
download mode and boot mode. Continue reading for further details.
Figure 2a. Switch Setup (Download Mode S1:2’b01)

Figure 2b. Jumper Setup (Boot Mode S1:2’b10)
4. Connect the board and host computer
1. Connect the Micro USB to USB type-A wire’s Micro USB end to the USB to UART interface
(Number 4 in Figure 1). Connect the type-A end to the host PC.
2. Get a USB type-A to micro USB cable. Plug the micro USB end to the micro USB OTG (number 6
in Figure 1) for ADB and FASTBOOT interface. Plug another end of the USB cable to your
computer.
3. Plug in the power supply (Number 2 in figure 1) and switch S1(Number 7 in figure 1) to “2’b1b”.
5. Instructions to set up the serial console terminal
1. Make sure the you connect to the UART serial console as shown in step 3 in “Connect the board
and host computer” section
2. Start the serial communication software
3. Choose operating system of host computer–Window
a. Once the PC recognizes the virtual USB to UART device, it can be seen in your PC Device
Manager list. You can determine the port number of the virtual COM port by looking under
the "Ports" group.

b. With the serial port driver installed, run your favorite terminal application to view the serial
output from i.MX6UL microprocessor's UART.
Recommended tools for serial communication terminal: Putty and Minicom
Serial port configuration: 115200 baud rate, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity.
Set up serial communication terminal in Putty as below:
Figure 7a. Screenshot of Putty
4. Choose operating system of host computer –Ubuntu
Install Minicom on host computer as below commands:
$ sudo apt-get install minicom
Set up serial communication terminal in Minicom as below:

Figure 7b. Screenshot of Minicom
6. Download Mode and Boot Mode
The board is designed as booting from the internal eMMC. There are two modes for the SprIoT 6UL
board. One is the download mode in which the board will receive the instructions from MFG Tools to
flash images to boot storage such as eMMC. The other one is boot mode in which the board will load the
image from the boot storage and boot from the image.
To make the board in download mode, please make sure that the four switch S1 is set as shown:
To make the board in boot mode, please make sure that the four switch S1 are set as shown:

The board comes with a working image burned in eMMC. To boot the board from that image, you can
boot the board directly with the power supply connected. Please make sure the board is in Boot Mode
with the switch S1 setting as above.
7. Prepare Android Things Images
7.1 Android Things Image Introduction
The table describes Android Things images and the targeted eMMC partition where the Android Things
images to be flashed into:
Image Name
Image Description
Target Parition
u-boot.imx
The u-boot bootloader image,
which is the first code run after
the SprIoT 6UL board
hardware reset. It will load and
jump to the boot.img either
from Slot a’s boot partition or
Slot b’s boot partition, based
The first boot partition of SprIoT 6UL

on the meta data stored in
misc partition
partition-table.img
The GUID Partition Table
image, which define the
partitions in the SprIoT 6UL
gpt partition(Slot a’s boot partition) for
SprIoT 6UL
boot.img
The Android Things boot image
which is composed by Linux
kernel zImage, linux kernel
dtb(Device Tree Binary) file,
Android Things ramdisk image,
and linux kernel boot
arguments. The code in
boot.img will mount the
related system.img based on
the meta data stored in misc
partition.
boot_a partition(Slot a’s boot partition)
for SprIoT 6UL
boot_b(Slot b’s boot partition) for
SprIoT 6UL
userdata.img
The Android Things user data
image
userdata partition for SprIoT 6UL
system.img
The Android Things system
image which includes all
Android Things related
binaries, libraries, and system
configuration files.
system_a partition(Slot a’s system
partition) for SprIoT 6UL
system_b partition(Slot b’s system
partition) for SprIoT 6UL
gapps.img
The Google application image.
gapps_a partition(Slot a’s system
partition) for SprIoT 6UL
gapps_b partition(Slot b’s system
partition) for SprIoT 6UL
oem.img
The oem image.
oem_a partition(Slot a’s system
partition) for SprIoT 6UL
oem_b partition(Slot b’s system
partition) for SprIoT 6UL

7.2 Prebuilt Android Things Images
The prebuilt Android Things images can be downloaded at
https://developer.android.com/things/preview/download.html
7.3 The mfgtools
The mfgtools can be downloaded at
http://www.nxp.com/products/software-and-tools/software-development-tools/i.mx-software-and-
tools/iot-development-platforms-based-on-i.mx-6ul-processor-and-android-things-os:IOT-DEV-
PLATFORMS-i.MX6UL?tab=Design_Tools_Tab
8. Testing and Debugging Tools
Unit tests run locally on the developer’s host computer and integration tests interact with the target
device via ADB.
SprIoT -6UL board is Android Things compatible and provides full support for ADB and FASTBOOT over
USB for debugging.
ADB and FASTBOOT are the tools in Android SDK. Please refer to the link
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html#Other to download the latest version of Android SDK
9 Flash Android Things Images
By default, a valid bootloader binary has been flashed into the SprIoT 6UL board. It will make the board
into FASTBOOT mode if Android Things Images are not been flashed yet. Please refer “11. Instructions to
make board into FASTBOOT mode” to check whether your board is into FASTBOOT mode.
9.1 Flash Android Things bootloader binary with MFG Tools
1. Unzip the mfgtools.tar.gz file to a selected location. The directory is named MFGTool-Dir in this
example.
2. Make your board into download mode
3. Switch power supply to “ON” to power on the board. Using USB cable on the SprIoT OTG port,
connect your WINDOWS/LINUX PC with SprIoT.
4. On WINDOWS, double click the file "mfgtool2-brillo-mx6ul-spriot-emmc-firmware.vbs" to flash
only the uboot.imx of Android Things, Click "Start".