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Introduction

The following quick start guide provides background information about the HummingBoard IIOT.

The guide will give a technical overview about the product and by the end of it you should be able to boot an operating system and begin testing your application.

Revision and Notes

Hardware Setup

Product specifications

Block Diagram

The following figure describes the i.MX8M Pro Block Diagram.

Visual features overview

Please see below the features overview of the connector side of the HummingBoard IIOT.

Print side connector overview of the HummingBoard IIOT.

Software Setup

Cable setup and prerequisites

Here is what you will need to power up and use the board:

• Linux or Windows PC

• HummingBoard IIOT with SOM

• 12V Power adapter (HummingBoard IIOT has wide range input of 7V-28V), alternatively you can use a PoE injector to power on the device.

• Micro USB Type-C to USB for console, the HummingBoard Pulse IIOT has an onboard FTDI chip.

• IP router or IP switch

Boot Select

Before powering up the board for the first time it is recommended to select the boot media. In order to configure the boot media, please refer to HummingBoard Pulse and Ripple Boot Select .

Booting from SD card

Boot Select

Boot Select

Here is the correct DIP switch position for SD boot:

 

Info
Note: The black rectangle represents the switch position.

Once you set the switches, you can apply the following for booting from an SD card.

1. Downloading the Debian image

Download the Debian image by running the following command on your Linux/Windows PC:

Code Block
wget https://solid-run-images.sos-de-fra-1.exo.io/IMX8/imx8mp_build/build_date_20240806-rev_449b768/imx8mp-sdhc-debian-449b768.img.xz

• For more Debian releases, please visit Debian Release for i.MX8.

2. Writing the image to the SD card

Use the following commands for writing the image to an SD card:

Code Block
xz -dc imx8mp-sdhc-debian-449b768.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX bs=4k conv=fdatasync status=progress

• For more information, please visit Flashing an SD Card .

Note: Plug a micro SD into your Linux PC, the following assumes that the micro SD is added as /dev/sdX and all it’s partitions are unmounted.

3. SD card insertion

Please Insert the SD card into your device.

4. Power connection

Connect your power adaptor to the DC jack, and then connect the adaptor to mains supply.

5. Serial Connection

Please insert the micro USB into your device, then you can refer to Serial Connection for installing necessary serial connection software in Linux/Windows.

Once you installed the necessary serial connection software, you should be able to see the following:

• In order to be able to log in , please insert “debian” as a username and password as follows:

More Features

Internet

Connect an Ethernet cable to your HummingBoard Pulse (for internet access during boot-up).
Models HummingBoard with WiFi, can be connected via WiFi or wired Ethernet.

• Please check you Ethernet connection.

• Use the following commands in order to keep your system up-to-date:

apt-get update 
apt-get upgrade 
reboot

• For more detailed information, please refer to i.MX8M Debian .

WiFi

• You can connect to WiFi using any application, such as : connmanctl or wpa_spplicant.

An example for connecting to WiFi using wpa_supplicant:

1. To bring a WiFi interface up, run the following :

ifconfig wlan0 up 

2. Install the wpa_supplicant package:

apt-get install wpasupplicant 

3. Edit network interfaces file :

At the bottom of the file, add the following lines to allow wlan as a network connection:

cat <<EOF > /etc/network/interfaces.d/wlan0
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
iface default inet dhcp

EOF

4. Create a configuration file with the relevant ssid:

cat <<EOF > /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
ctrl_interface=/run/wpa_supplicant
update_config=1

network={
    ssid="MYSSID"
    psk="passphrase" 
}

EOF

5. Make sure it works:

Restart your device and it should connect to the wireless network. If it doesn't, repeat above steps or get help from an adult.

• For more information about using wpa_supplicant , you can refer to wpa_supplicant or wpa_supplicant.

Bluetooth

1. For showing all Bluetooth devices, run the following:

apt-get install bluez
hciconfig -a

2. Choose a device, and turn it on:

 hciconfig hci0 up

3. Set up the Bluetooth name:

hciconfig hci0 name 'SolidRun_Ble'

4. Make your Bluetooth detectable by other devices:

hciconfig hci0 piscan

5. If you want to connect to other devices:

• Start by scanning for other Bluetooth devices:

hcitool scan

• Choose a MAC address and connect :

rfcomm connect 0  $MAC 10 & 

• You can check the communication between the devices by writing :

l2ping -c 4  $MAC

GPIO Pins Control

In order to be able to control the GPIO pins, please refer to GPIO Pins Control - HummingBoard Pulse/Mate & i.MX8M Plus SOM

Please Note

Cellular Modem

The cellular modem is a more fully featured extension of which contains a cellular module with additional hardware interfaces and a SIM card slot.

You can connect your cellular modem to the mPCIe, and insert a SIM card.

• For some cellular modules to be connected, please refer to Cellular Modules .

SPI

For testing you serial peripheral interface - SPI, please see this documentation SPI from Linux with spidev.

GUI On Debian

There is an option with the Debian image, up to the user, to work with a GUI like Weston, GNOME and etc.
For applying this option do the following steps:

First, connect your device to a screen using the working output (HDMI / uHDMI).

For working with Weston GUI:

1. Install the Weston package.

   Code Block
   $ sudo apt install weston

2. Make a directory for the output of the Weston GUI.

   Code Block
   $ mkdir /your/directory/location

3. Give permissions to this directory.

   Code Block
   $ chmod 0700 /your/directory/location

4. Set the XDG_RUNTIME_DIR env param to your directory.

   Code Block
   $ export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/your/directory/location

5. Run Weston.

   Code Block
   $ weston

    

For working with GNOME GUI on top of Xorg:

1. Install Xorg.

   Code Block
   $ sudo apt install xorg

2. Install your desired gnome.

   Code Block
   $ sudo apt install gnome-session

   NOTE: ‘gnome-session’ is an example of gnome that we can work with, you can replace the ‘session' with another GNOME extention.

3. Start your GNOME GUI.

   Code Block
   $ sudo systemctl start gdm

   • For logging in you need a user on your device to log into it. You can create one before step 3 by this command (replace the ‘username’ with name that you want) :

   Code Block
   $ sudo adduser username

   • You can jump between GUIs that you install (like gnome-session) by the setting button that locates in the down right corner of the home screen.

Basler Camera

For getting started with the Camera Module on your board, please see this documentation Basler Camera Quick Start Guide.

TLV EEPROM Support

Starting from April 01. 2022, the EEPROMs on Carriers, i.MX8M Plus SoMs are being programmed with identifying information such as the product name and SKUs to allow for programmatic identification of hardware. Check our iMXMP EEPROM documentation for additional information.

List Of Supported OS

OS
	Debian
	Yocto
	Buildroot

Build from source

• i.MX8M Software

Documentation

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