MIMXRT1050
This NXP evaluation board (including integrated debugger and available for around $79) is based on the MIMXRT1052DVL6A, which is the consumer version [0..95°C] of the 600MHz Cortex-M7 base part with double-precision VFPv5 FPU in LFBGA196. It has 512k of internal RAM, external memory interface, 1 10/100M Ethernet, Dual-high speed USB (with integrated PHY), 8 low power UARTs, 4 I2C controllers, 3 synchronous audio interfaces, 2 SD card interfaces, 2 CAN interfaces, 2 FlexSPI interface (connected to 64MByte Hyper flash), 2 ADC, LCD and touch controller, a True Random Number Generator, plus various other features.
The processor's budget price for 10'000 pieces is $3.13 (low quantity distributor price for 100 pieces under $6), potentially making it very attractive for low cost products requiring connectivity, HDI, high processing performance and audio.
A 24MHz crystal on the board allows for accurate generation of up to 600MHz processor and 480MHz USB clocks.
The µTasker target for the MIMXRT1050 allows immediate use of the board for various functions with simple control of performance/consumption as well as the ability to switch operation between this and other i.MX board/processors and Kinetis parts. Accurate simulation of the device in VisualStudio combined with integrated µTasker application functionality ensures reliable, low footprint product development solutions with minimum effort, risk and investment.
MIMXRT1050 Binaries
Here are some binary files that can be loaded to the board. These were built using the µTasker applications (serial loader and V1.4 application) and can be simply generated using the supported compilers/IDEs [these were built using GCC], built using different configuration options or modified to suit specific requirements or hardware derived from this board :-
uTaskerSerialLoader_i.MX-RT1050_USB-MSD_Kboot-HID_SREC-UART.bin [44.6k] HS USB-MSD / KBOOT-HID composite USB bootloader, including iHEX/SREC UART loader on the board's VCOM UART which can be loaded (copied to its internal QSPI-Flash) using your favorite loading tool - for example NXP MCUBootUtility.
This boot loader enables uploading applications by one of three methods:
- USB-MSD drag-and-drop onto the external hard drive that appears when the processor's USB is connected to a host PC
- KBOOT-HID (compatible with the NXP protocol and loading tools, such as KinetisFlashTool) via USB-HID
- iHEX/SREC-UART (connected at 115'200Baud on the board's VCOM UART)
To force the loader when there is already an application installed, reset the board with the USER button SW8, held down. When operating, the green LED blinks at 5Hz.
To quit the loader mode to start an installed application the USB-MSD driver can be simply ejected by the host.
The serial loaders are described in the µTasker Serial Loader guide
- This loader also includes integrated OTA (Over-The-Air) upload support in the form of the µTasker "Bare-Minimum" Loader which allows firmware to be uploaded by the application's web server
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uTaskerV1.4.12_i.MX-RT1050_USB-TCP_SDcard.bin [100.0k] i.MX RT 1050 application with command-line menu on LPUART 1 (via the board's virtual COM port connection at 115'200 Baud) with various menu items, such as RAM and Hyper flash viewing, low power operation, control of GPIOs, etc. Furthermore the application allows the following to be utilised:
- Ethernet with embedded web server according to the i.MX RT tutorial, whereby the web pages are served from the µFileSystem operating in Hyper flash or, when available, from an inserted SD card
- FTP to load and view files to the Hyper flash (or SD card)
- µParameterSystem in Hyper-flash storing IP and MAC configuration and various other settings
- Telnet as alternative connection to the command line interface
- IGMP according to the document µTasker - Multicasting and Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP)
- utFAT on SD card that interfaces to FTP and the web server. Files located in a director called "web" on the SD card can be served by the web server
- HS USB-MSD and USB-CDC composite allowing an alternative command line interface or performing USB-CDC to UART bridging and the viewing of memory (ITC, DTC and QSPI flash) based on FAT emulation as described in µTasker - FAT emulation. The SD card appears also to the PC host as if it were an external pen-drive.
When the application is running, the green LED blinks at 2.5Hz and the processor is operating at its maximum speed of 600MHz. All code and data accesses are in tightly coupled RAM, thus achieving maximum speed of operation.
The board can be reset or commanded into the boot loader mode using commands found in the "Administrator" menu on the command line interface.
A set of web pages can be loaded to the board by using the bat file found in the web page package, or with your favorite FTP client. These show dynamically generated content and allow setting parameters and controlling GPIOs etc., as well as posting new images to the web server.
The default IP address of the board is 192.168.0.3 - its IP configuration can be changed and saved in the "Lan" menu on the command line interface.
These binary files and web pages are suitable for use with the i.MX RT tutorial.
The disk interface is accessed via menu item 8 and allows displaying display directories and files, plus advanced commands to view file details and read/write raw sectors on the disk:
Disk interface =================== up go to main menu info utFAT/card info dir [path] show directory content dird [path] show deleted directory content dirh [path] show hidden content infof [path] show file info infod [path] show deleted info cd [path] change dir. (.. for up) comp compare [file1] with [file2] file [path] new empty file write [path] test write to file mkdir new empty dir rename [from] [to] rename trunc truncate to [length] [path] copy [file1] to [file2] hide [path] file/dir to hide unhide [path] file/dir to un-hide prot [path] file/dir to write-protect unprot [path] file/dir to un-protect print [path] print file content del [path] delete file or dir. sect [hex no.] display sector sectw [hex no.] [offset] [val] [cnt] help Display menu specific help quit Leave command mode
This binary file can be loader by USB-MSD drag-and-drop or by KBOOT HID
WARNING: The application will initially flash the green LED at 2.5Hz but, due to the board's HW design, this will not allow the Ethernet interface to be used - the reason being that the same GPIO output that is used to drive the green LED is also connected to the reset line of the Ethernet PHY!!
Rather than configure the application to not blink the LED by default it was decided to leave it so that it initially confirms that the processor is running normally; the side effect being that the Ethernet PHY is being repeatedly reset and the LEDs on the Ethernet socket also flash in time with the board's green LED. This of course won't allow the Ethernet interface to work at the moment, but doesn't disturb USB or the UART.
To work with the Ethernet the green LED output can be disabled by entering into the I/O menu on the command line interface (either on the UART or the processor's USB-CDC interface) and commanding "set_ddr 1 i", which configures this pin to be an input rather than an output. Once the LED has stopped blinking (because it is now an input, command "save" to commit this to the parameter system. Make a reset of the board and now the Ethernet interface works.
If the green LED is to be enabled at a later date the command "set_ddr 1 o" can be used.
This binary file can be loader by USB-MSD drag-and-drop or by KBOOT HID
This SREC file can be loader using any terminal emulator connected to the board on LPUART1 at 115'200 Baud
This binary file can be loader by USB-MSD drag-and-drop or by KBOOT HID
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µTasker i.MX RT 1050 support. Copyright (c) 2004..2020 M.J.Butcher Consulting