SAMA7D65 Curiosity Board - Getting Started Guide for MPLAB® Harmony v3
Introduction
Thank you for taking the time to evaluate the SAMA7D65 Curiosity 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 "Learn More" section of this guide.
This getting started guide demonstrates how to perform an iPerf networking test between a Windows PC (acting as iPerf TCP Client) and the SAMA7D65 Curiosity Board (acting as iPerf TCP Server).
Two network configurations are possible. Select the preferred one based on your local configuration:
- Network configuration one:
- The board and PC are connected directly with an Ethernet cable. In this case, a static IP will have to be manually assigned to the PC (admin rights needed).
- Network configuration two:
- The board and PC are connected through the local network infrastructure or a router. In this case, a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server will automatically assign an IP address to the board and the PC. (Ensure there are no IT restrictions for plugging the board on the local network.)
MPLAB® Harmony v3 Demo Setup
Download the iperf.zip from the repository, GitHub-EV63J76A.
Unzip the downloaded iperf.zip file into any directory of your choice. Note the location where the files are unzipped. You will execute the iperf.exe from this location using a command prompt to run the TCP Client.
Download the harmony.img file from the repository, GitHub-EV63J76A.
Copy the downloaded file into the SD memory card using balenaEtcher.
Insert the SD memory card into the PC.
Download, install, and run balenaEtcher.
Select the downloaded harmony.img file.
Click Select target to download.
Select the mounted SD card.
Select Flash.
The SD card will be ready for use once flashing is completed.
Connect the components as described in the following steps:
Ethernet cable to J14 connector.
Other side of the Ethernet cable shall be plugged in the PC (network configuration one) or in a wall plug/router (network configuration two).
SD card inserted in the SD Boot J10 slot (bottom side of the board).
Serial-USB dongle to UART DEBUG J35 header.
USB Type--A to USB Type-C cable to J3 USB Type-C port for power.
Set Up the SAMA7D65 Curiosity Board Serial Terminal and Start the iPerf TCP Server
Set up the SAMA7D65 serial terminal on the PC.
On the PC, open a serial terminal with the following settings:
- Baud Rate: 115200
- Data: 8-bit
- Parity: None
- Stop: 1-bit
- Flow Control: None
Open PuTTY.
Open Windows Device Manager to find out which COM port to use (COM10 will be used in this example).
Open Putty > Category > Connection > Serial and configure the parameters as shown in the accompanying image (adapt the COM port to your local setup).
Press Open.
Press the RESET (SW4) button on the SAMA7D65 Curiosity Board to force a reset.
When the system is ready, the SAMA7D65 serial terminal will show a prompt. This is the TCP Server running on the Curiosity Board and displayed on the PC.
In network configuration one, the board defines its own hardcoded IP address, 192.168.100.11. In network configuration two, the DHCP server will automatically assign an IP address to the board.
Verify that the iPerf MPLAB Harmony v3 application is running and displaying on the SAMA7D65 serial terminal.
Press the Enter key to show the prompt.
Note the assigned IP address as it will be used to run the iPerf test.
In this example, corresponding to network configuration one, the IP address is 192.168.100.11. In the case of network configuration two, the IP address will depend on your local environment.
Start the TCP Server on the SAMA7D65 Curiosity Board by running the following command:
The SAMA7D65 serial terminal will show that the iPerf application is started and listening:
Configure the Windows PC and Start the iPerf TCP Client
In network configuration one, the PC ethernet IP address and mask must be manually configured (admin rights needed).
Open Windows network settings (the exact steps depend on your Windows version), and switch to manual configuration for the Ethernet interface.
Since the board IP is 192.168.100.11, manually configure for example the PC to IP as 192.168.100.2 and mask as 255.255.255.0.
In network configuration two, there's no need to manually set the PC IP address. The DHCP server will automatically assign one.
On the PC, navigate to the folder where iPerf was downloaded in Step 1 and open a Command Prompt.
Start the TCP Client iPerf in the Command Prompt by running the following command:
This will test the performance of the network transfers between the PC and the SAMA7D65 Curiosity Board.
The TCP Client terminal will show the results of the test:
Come back to the SAMA7D65 serial terminal and confirm the test results:
Congratulations! Your SAMA7D65 board running MPLAB Harmony v3 is now connected over Ethernet to your PC.
What's next? See the "Learn More" section for more resources.
Troubleshooting
| The SAMA7D65 serial terminal is not showing anything. | There are multiple possible reasons why the terminal does not show anything:
|
Running the iperf command on the PC terminal results in a "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. |
| The terminal shows a RomBOOT message. |
|
| IT restrictions forbid the plugging of SD cards in the PC. balenaEtcher can't be used. | Another option for programming the SD card is to use the Microchip SAM-BA® In-system Programmer tool.
|
Learn More
- SAMA7D65 Curiosity Board (user guide and design files)
- SAMA7D65 product page (datasheet and errata)
- MPLAB Harmony v3 Iperf Demo Source Code (MPLAB X IDE Project)
- 1.6 TCP/IP IPERF Application (full demo documentation of iPerf application for MPLAB Harmony)
- MPLAB Harmony v3 Solutions
- MPLAB Discover Code Examples
- Linux® Solutions