HummingBoard Mate & i.MX8M Plus SOM Quick Start Guide

Open

Introduction

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

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 Block Diagram.

Open

Visual features overview

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

Print side connector overview of the HummingBoard Mate.

Software Setup

Cable setup and prerequisites

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

• Linux or Windows PC

• HummingBoard Mate with SOM

• 12V Power adapter (HummingBoard Mate has wide range input of 7V-28V).

• Micro USB to USB for console, the HummingBoard Mate 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

The following shows how to set the switches on the boot source selector:

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

1. Downloading the Debian image

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

• 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:

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

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 “root” as a username and password as follows:

Programming eMMC

Boot Linux from uSD and follow the Instructions bellow to Program the eMMC

1. Programming the Bootloader on eMMC Boot Partition:

   # Download the bootloader binary (u-boot-mmc:2:1.bin) from https://images.solid-run.com/IMX8/imx8mp_build: wget http://solid-run-images.sos-de-fra-1.exo.io/IMX8/imx8mp_build/build_date_20241210-rev_ddc90d8/u-boot-mmc:2:1-ddc90d8.bin # Disable write protection: echo 0 > /sys/class/block/mmcblk2boot0/force_ro # Write the bootloader to the boot partition: dd if=u-boot-mmc:2:1-ddc90d8.bin of=/dev/mmcblk2boot0 conv=sync # Re-enable write protection: echo 1 > /sys/class/block/mmcblk2boot0/force_ro # Enable the eMMC boot partition: mmc bootpart enable 1 1 /dev/mmcblk2

2. Programming the Debian Image on the eMMC Main Partition:
   
   

3. Set the boot select to boot from eMMC as documented here and do reset to boot from eMMC.

Final stages

The following stages need to be done in order to finalise the imaging:

1. Run fdisk /dev/mmcblk1 if using SD and fdisk /dev/mmcblk2if using eMMC.

2. Recreate the rootfs partition (mostly the second partition) by deleting it and then creating a new partition that starts at the next sector after the first one and extends to the end of the drive (or less depending on your needs).

3. Write the new partition, when prompt about ‘Do you want to remove the signature?’ then answer with Yes.

4. Run resize2fs /dev/mmcblk1p2 if using SD Card and resize2fs /dev/mmcblk2p2if using eMMC.

5. In this stage the root partition should be big enough to start populating it; but first update the RTC clock.

6. Connect the RJ45 to your network with internet access (and DHCP server); and then run dhclient.

7. Update the RTC clock by running ntpdate pool.ntp.org and then hwclock -w.

8. Run apt-update commands below and then populate the root filesystem as you wish.

Here is an example of the same process in the HB-IIOT device until step 4 (include):

In the end you should see with “lsblk” that the partition size is in the required size.

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:

• 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 :

2. Install the wpa_supplicant package:

3. Edit network interfaces file :

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

4. Create a configuration file with the relevant ssid:

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:

2. Choose a device, and turn it on:

3. Set up the Bluetooth name:

4. Make your Bluetooth detectable by other devices:

5. If you want to connect to other devices:

• Start by scanning for other Bluetooth devices:

• Choose a MAC address and connect :

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

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

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 .

Enable the MINI-PCIe slot ‘J20’

To activate the mini-pcie connector you should run the commands bellow (Enable the modem Power & do Rest):

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 .

Enable the M.2 slot ‘M1’

To activate the M.2 connector you should run the commands bellow (Enable the modem Power & do Rest):

SPI

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

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.

MAC Address

There are two options for storing MAC addresses on the i.MX8MP platform:

1. Store the MAC address in OTP eFuses

   • This is a non-reversible action, as the eFuse is permanently programmed.

2. Store the MAC address in EEPROM using TLV format (Recommended)

   • This method allows flexibility and is the preferred approach.

   • Guidelines for Programming a MAC Address in TLV Format

Default Configuration

• By default, the MAC address is stored in the SOM's TLV EEPROM.

• All SOMs are pre-flashed with SolidRun's default MAC address range in the TLV EEPROM.

Custom MAC Address Option

• There is an option to provide a custom MAC address range.

• SolidRun can program the custom MAC addresses into the TLV EEPROM upon request.

List Of Supported OS

Build from source

• i.MX8M Software

Documentation

Related Articles