µTasker i.MX RT 1060 support

MIMXRT1060

This NXP evaluation board (including integrated debugger and available for around $99) is based on the MIMXRT1062DVL6A, which is the consumer version [0..95°C] of the 600MHz Cortex-M7 base part with double-precision VFPv5 FPU in MAPBGA196 package. It has 1M of internal RAM, an external memory interface, dual-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 interfaces (the principal one connected to 8MByte QSPI flash), 2 ADC and LCD controller, a True Random Number Generator, plus various other features.

The processor's budget price for 10'000 pieces is $5.80 (low quantity distributor price for 100 pieces under $15), 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, 100MHz Ethernet and 480MHz USB clocks.

The µTasker target for the MIMXRT1060 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.

MIMXRT1060 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 RT 1060_USB-MSD_Kboot-HID_Kboot-UART.bin [37.0k]
HS USB-MSD / KBOOT-HID composite USB bootloader, including KBOOT UART loader on the board's VCOM UART which can be loaded (copied to its 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
- KBOOT-UART (connected at 57'600Baud 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
uTaskerV1.4.12_i.MX-RT1060_USB-TCP.bin [72.1k]
i.MX RT 1060 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 QSPI 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 QSPI flash
- FTP to load and view files to the QSPI-flash
- µParameterSystem in QSPI-flash storing IP and MAC configuration and various other settings
- Telnet as alternative connection to the command line interface
- 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
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.

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.

uTaskerSerialLoader_i.MX-RT1060_USB-MSD_Kboot-HID_SREC-UART_SD-Card_AES256.bin [53.2k]
HS USB-MSD / KBOOT-HID composite USB bootloader, including SREC UART loader on the board's VCOM UART which can be loaded (copied to its QSPI-Flash) using your favorite loading tool - for example NXP MCUBootUtility.
This boot loader enables uploading applications by one of four 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
- SREC-UART (connected at 115'200Baud on the board's VCOM UART)
- SD-Card
This version of the serial loader supports either AES256 encrypted applications or non-encyrpted ones. In addition the serial loader itself is stored in an AES256 encrypted form in the QSPI flash. The same application, in plain-text and encryted forms are below, in order to allow testing this.

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. Beware that the SD card content will be checked for new firmware and the application will start after the check if it exists; to stay in the serial loader mode hold the USER button down for about 3..4s.
To quit the loader mode to start an installed application the USB-MSD driver can be simply ejected by the host. Alternatively the "go" command can be executed on the LPUART connection.
The serial loaders are described in the µTasker Serial Loader guide

uTaskerV1.4.12_i.MX-RT1060_USB-SD-Card.bin [59.4k]
This i.MX RT 1060 application shows SD card and USB-MSD / USB-CDC composite operation. It has a command-line menu on LPUART 1 (via the board's virtual COM port connection at 115'200 Baud) or on USB-CDC with utFAT disk interface to control an SD card inserted in the board's socket. The disk interface is accessed via menu item 8 and offers a DOS-like user interface to 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

The SD card also appears as an external hard drive to the PC host. A second USB-MSD disk allows the viewing of memory (ITC, DTC and QSPI flash) based on FAT emulation as described in µTasker - FAT emulation

This unencrypted binary file can be loaded after installing the µTasker bootloader (above) via USB-MSD or KBOOT-HID. It can also be copied to the SD card and given the name "software.bin" so that it will be loaded by the serial loader.

uTaskerV1.4.12_i.MX-RT1060_USB-SD-Card.srec [159k]
SREC formatted version of the application, which can be loaded by transferring via the LPUART interface.
uTaskerV1.4.12_i.MX-RT1060_USB-SD-Card_AES256.bin [59.4k]
This is the same i.MX RT 1060 application but in an AES256 encrypted form. This can also be loaded in the same ways as the un-encrypted one, whereby the boot loader recognised whether it is encrypted or not and handles it accordingly. The encrypted version of the application ensures that it can't be retrieved from the QSPI flash and reverse engineered.
uTaskerV1.4.12_i.MX-RT1060_USB-SD-Card_AES256.srec [159k]
SREC formatted version of the AES256 encrypted application, which can be loaded by transferring via the LPUART interface.

uTasker_i.MX-RT1060_DualUSB_CDC_Dev_Complete.bin [166k]
Complete project reference with dual-USB-CDC device, including boot loader, which can be loaded (copied to its QSPI-Flash) using your favorite loading tool - for example NXP MCUBootUtility.
This application supports a command line interface on the LPUART (connected to the board's VCOM interface) at 115'200 Baud. When the first HSUSB interface is connected to a host it appears as the same command line interface via USB-CDC [if blocked by the LPUART interface command "quit" to free it]. In the USB menu a USB-CDC to LPUART bridge can be commanded using the comand "usb-serial", whereby the LPUART's baud rate follows that set by the terminal emulator on the USB-CDC interface.

The second HSUSB enumerates as a second USB-CDC device and will echo back all received data.

uTasker_i.MX-RT1060_DualUSB_CDC_Dev.bin [37k]. The same encrypted application that can be uploaded to the MIMXRT1060-EVK when already running the µTasker boot loader

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