ClearFog A388 Base Quick Start Guide

Revision and Notes

Date

Owner

Revision

Notes

Date

Owner

Revision

Notes

Dec 7, 2021

 

1.0

Initial release

Nov 12, 2024

Yazan Shhady

1.1

Revised the block diagram to include the uSIM connection within the M.2 module and updated the M.2 type from Key-M to Key-B.

Nov 28, 2024

Yazan Shhady

1.2

Add Clearfog-Base schematics rev 1.4

Table of Contents

Introduction

The following quick start guide provides background information about the ClearFog Base product which use the A388 System on module.

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.

For CN9130 SOM Software, please refrer to the following link:CN913x Build

Hardware Setup

Product Specifications

SOM CPU

ARMADA A388

Processor

32-bit Cortex A9

Core Frequency

up to 1.6GHz

Memory & Storage

32bit DDR3 W/ ECC, Up to 2GB at 1600MT/s

 

M.2**

 

MicroSD or 8GB eMMC (Optional)***

Connectivity

1 x mPCIE PCIe X1 Gen2.0

 

1 x USB 3.0 port

 

2 x Port dedicated Ethernet

 

1 x SFP 2.5GbE

I/O & Misc.

mikroBUS

 

Indication LEDs

 

User Push Buttons

 

PoE expansion header

 

RTC Battery

 

FTDI (Console Only)

OS Support

Linux, OpenWrt/LEDE, Yocto

Power

Wide range 9V-32V

Dimensions

103mm x 75mm (PCBA)

 

125mm x 80mm x 31mm (enclosed)

Enclosure

Optional Metal Enclosure

 

 

Please Note :

(**) M.2 includes USB 3.0, SATA, GNSS, 3G modules support (in carrier Base only)
(***) Assembly option on the SOM

Supported with A388 SOM. For more detailed information about our A388 SOM series please visit this user manual : A388 SOM Hardware User Manual .

 

Block Diagram

The following figure describes the ClearFog Base Block Diagram.

image-20241112-175104.png

Visual features overview

Please see below the features overview of the connector side of the ClearFog Base (A388 SoM assembled).

Print side connector overview of the ClearFog Base.

Software Setup

Cable setup and prerequisites

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

  • Linux or Windows PC

  • ClearFog Base with SOM

  • 12V Power adapter (ClearFog Base has wide range input of 9V-32V, it is recommended to use 12V power adapter)

  • Micro USB to USB for console, the ClearFog Base has an onboard FTDI chip.

  • IP router or IP switch

Recommended Cables

The following is a list of industry-standard cables, sorted by type, with the necessary compliance requirements that have been proven to work well with the ClearFog product family (ClearFog Base / Pro).

These examples are the cables which SolidRun uses for testing, and should provide enough information to source products from your preferred cable vendor.

  • Ethernet cable: Monoprice 24AWG Cat6A 500MHz STP

  • USB Cable: SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Type A Male to Female Extension Cable in Black

  • SFP connector: GigaLite GE-GB-P1RT-E SFP module with Monoprice 24AWG Cat6A 500MHz STP cable

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 ClearFog A388 Boot Select .

Booting from an SD card

The switches on the boot source selector must be set as follows:

Switch 1

Switch 2

Switch 3

Switch 4

Switch 5

OFF

OFF

ON

ON

ON

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 an SD card.

1. Downloading the Debian image

wget https://images.solid-run.com/A38X/Debian/sr-a38x-debian-bullseye-20220427.img.xz

2. Writing the image to the SD card

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

xz -dc sr-a38x-debian-bullseye-20220427.img.xz | dd of=/dev/sdX bs=4k conv=fdatasync

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. U-Boot installation

wget https://images.solid-run.com/A38X/U-Boot/u-boot-clearfog-base-sdhc.kwb

4. Writing U-Boot to the SD card

dd if=u-boot-clearfog-base-sdhc.kwb of=/dev/sdX bs=512 seek=1 conv=sync status=progress

5. SD card insertion

Please Insert the SD card into your device.

6. Power connection

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

7. 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:

GPIO pins Control

To control on the GPIO pins, please follow this page ClearFog Base/Pro GPIO Pins Control .

SFP Modules

For some SFP modules that work on SolidRun networking hardware platforms, please refer to SFP Modules .

SIM Card Slot

It is possible to utilize a Cellular connection by inserting a SIM card into the SIM card slot. Please observe that a GSM Cellular modem needs to be installed utilizing the mini PCIe connection in order to exploit the cellular connection.

Please Note

If your ClearFog has dual SIM card slots, an additional cellular modem will need to be installed in the mini PCIe connection in order to utilize the 2nd SIM connection.


List Of Supported OS

OS

 

OS

 

A388 Buildroot

Yocto for Clearfog Platforms  

OpenWrt

SolidRun Images


Build U-Boot & kernel from sources

Documentation