SAMA7D65 Early Access Curiosity Board - Getting Started Guide for Linux®

Last modified by Microchip on 2024/06/20 12:44

Introduction

Thank you for taking the time to evaluate the SAMA7D65 development board. This instruction will guide you through running the demonstration application that comes with the kit. For a deeper dive into the features and capability of the kit, refer to the links provided in the "Additional Information" section of this guide.

Confirm the following components are present out of the box:

  • SAMA7D65 Curiosity Board (P/N: EA89C15A)
  • SD Card
  • USB A to USB C Cable (power)

Required components not included in the box:

  • Serial to USB Dongle
  • Ethernet Cable

This getting started guide will allow you to perform an “Iperf” networking test between your PC (acting as TCP Client) and the SAMA7D65 Curiosity Board (acting as TCP Server), through your local network infrastructure.

Information

Note: The instructions in this manual are intended for the iperf3 version of the networking test service available in Linux® distribution.  

Setup

    Download the image

Download the Yocto Project® image from the repo:
image-link
Place in any directory of your choice.

Copy the downloaded file into the SD memory card using Etcher.

Insert the SD memory card into the host computer.
Download, install and run balenaEtcher.
Select the downloaded linux4sam-poky-sama7d65_curiosity-headless-sama7d65-ea-1.0.img.bz2.
balenaEtcher window Flash from File button
Click image to enlarge.
Select the target to download.
balenaEtcher window Select Target button
Click image to enlarge.
Select SD card mounted.
balenaEtcher Select target window
Click image to enlarge.

Select Flash.

The SD card will be ready for use once flashing is completed.

balenaEtcher window Flash button
Click image to enlarge.

Back to Top

Connect the components as described in the following steps:
Ethernet cable to J14 connector,
SD card inserted on the SD Boot J10 slot (bottom side of the board),
Serial USB dongle to UART DEBUG J35 header, and
USB-A to USB-C  cable to J3 USB-C port for power.

SAMA7D65 development board and connected components

 

Information

Note:

  • SAMA7D65 Curiosity Board Serial Terminal setup in Step 4 will be referred to as "TCP Server" terminal.
  • The Host Computer command line started in Step 6 will be referred to as "TCP Client" prompt. 

Back to Top

Set Up and Start SAMA7D65 Curiosity Board Serial Terminal

Set up SAMA7D65 Curiosity Board Serial Terminal on the host computer.

On the host computer, open a Serial Terminal with the following settings:
  • Baud Rate: 115200
  • Data: 8-bit
  • Parity: None
  • Stop: 1-bit
  • Flow Control: None
check serial port in the system
user@comp:~/test$ dmesg | egrep
                     -i 'serial|ttyUSB'
confirm serial port settings, assuming ttyUSB0 is the hardware connected.
user@comp:~/test$ stty -F /dev/ttyUSB0 -a
set the parameters
user@comp:~/test$ stty -F /dev/ttyUSB0
             115200 cs8 -cstopb -parenb
set the serial port to use, for example ttyS0 is selected
user@comp:~/test$ setserial -g /dev/ttyUSB0
A built-in serial emulator is "cu". Assuming  /dev/ttyUSB0 is  the terminal you want to use, run cu:
user@comp:~/test$ cu -l dev/ttyUSB0

Back to Top

Press the RESET (SW4) button on the SAMA7D65 Curiosity Board to force a reset.
When the system is ready, the Serial Terminal you set up in Step 4 will show a prompt. This is the TCP Server terminal.

 Verify the login prompt is shown on the TCP Server terminal.

TCP Server terminal

Type or enter "root" to log in. No password is required.

Getting a lease with the DHCP server should be automatic. To make sure, on the TCP Server terminal, type "udhcp" in the command line:  

# udhcpc 

TCP Server terminal udhcpc

On the TCP Server terminal, type "ifconfig" on the command line and verify the internet address is assigned to the SAMA7D65 Curiosity Board.

# ifconfig 

TCP Server terminal ifconfig

Note the address assigned. This will be used to run the iperf3 test.  In the screenshot, the address assigned is 10.10.63.63.

Back to Top

Start PC Command Line

On the host computer run a command line application to execute the iperf application.

Run Linux Terminal Program:

Run Linux Terminal Program

Back to Top

Perform the test where SAMA7D65 Curiosity board is the TCP Server.
On the TCP Server terminal, run the iperf3 command:
# iperf3 -s -i 1

Back to Top

Switch to the TCP Client Terminal Program started in Step 6 of the host computer.

Execute the iperf3 command with the noted internet address assigned (which is 10.10.63.63 in the screenshot) in Step 5.5.

user@computer-name:~$ iperf -c 10.14.63.63 -i 1 -t 5

This will execute the test where the SAMA7D65 Curiosity Board as TCP Server and iperf application run on the host computer as the TCP Client.

Back to Top

Confirm the test results in the TCP Server Serial Terminal used in Step 7.

The TCP Server Terminal will show the results of the test similar to the accompanying image.

TCP Server Terminal results

 

Back to Top

Additional Information

Back to Top

Troubleshooting

Common

Serial Terminal is not showing anything

There are multiple possible reasons that the terminal does not show anything:

  • Double-check that the RX-TX signals of the serial cable are properly connected to the RX-TX signals of the board.
  • Double-check that ground signal is properly connected.
  • Verify that the SD card contains the right files.

Running iperf command in the host terminal results in "Connection refused" error.

[  1] tcp connect to 10.14.63.70 port 5001 failed (Connection refused) on 2024-05-31 11:43:21 (US Mountain Standard Time)

Verify the IP address used when sending the iperf command matches the target IP address.
Terminal shows RomBoot message.
  • Verify if the SD Card contains the right files.
  • Verify that the SD Card is inserted properly.
I ran 'cu' in Linux command line, how do I exit? Press keys Shift and ~ (tilde) then the . (dot) key and cu will exit and return to the command line

Back to Top