GSG: AM35x EVM Hardware Setup

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This page tells you how to set up the EVM hardware. Elaborate setup instructions are provided in AM3517 EVM Quick Start Guide

Board View

The board view for AM3517 EVM base board is as shown below.

Main Board S7 DIP Switch: Boot Modes

The main board’s S7 DIP switch controls the boot mode of AM3517 processor. The default setting shown above will try to boot from the attached flash memory.

To boot from MMC/SD, S7-1 and S7-4 should be set in the ON position

S7 DIP Switch : HDMI Selection

To enable HDMI transmitter(DVI output) S7-8 should be set in the ON position.

UART3

Connect the supplied serial cable to the UART3 - RS232 serial debug port on the EVM. The other end of the serial port should be connected to a PC. The PC should run a terminal emulator such as HyperTerm or TeraTerm for Windows or minicom or gtkterm for Linux. The terminal program should be set for 115200 Baud rate, 8 data bits, no parity, and all flow control off.

During boot and while the demo application is running, status messages will appear on the serial port connection.

Ethernet

Connect an Ethernet cable to the RJ-45 Ethernet jack on the board. The Ethernet connection is used for TFTP transfers of software and can be used for Telnet and NFS.

Power Cable

After all other steps are performed, ensure the power adapter is unplugged and then insert the adapter’s DC plug into Power-in jack. Finally the power adapter can be plugged into the AC wall source.

Application Board View

The board view for AM3517 EVM application board is as shown below.

Audio Out

PC style speakers or headphones (not supplied) can be connected to the Line Out 1. This is used during the audio playback.

Audio In

Audio input from line out jack of a PC sound card or the headphone jack of a MP3 player can be connected to the Line In 1. This is used during audio capture / loopback applications

Setup Terminal Program

A serial port terminal program should be used to communicate with the AM35x EVM board’s serial port console. For Windows users HyperTerm or TeraTerm are recommended. For Linux users Minicom is recommended. In any case, the serial modem settings are the same:

• Bits per second: 115200
• Data bits: 8
• Parity: None
• Stop bits: 1
• Flow control: none

Once the settings are in place, connect to the board using the serial terminal program and power up the board by plugging in the AC adapter. The U-Boot start up screen will appear. If not interrupted, the EVM will continue to boot into a Linux command prompt. To send text file scripts to the EVM a per-line delay of approximately 200 ms must be configured into the terminal program. The following sections give specific setup guidance for three serial terminal programs.

1. HyperTerm Setup HyperTerminal comes with Windows XP and can be found in Start Menu -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Communication -> HyperTerminal. After initial dialogs, create a new connection and select the appropriate COMn port. The next dialog will allow you to set the communication parameters as described above. Finally set the line delay by choosing File -> Properties -> Setting Tab -> ASCII Setup button -> and enter 100 in the Line Delay box. Press OK.
2. TeraTerm Setup TeraTerm is a commonly used terminal emulator for Windows. It can be found at the following URL: http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA002416/teraterm.html When you start TeraTerm it will normally ask you for TCP or COM port. Select the correct COM port. Serial port settings can be found in Setup -> Serial Port …. Set the serial port as described above and enter 100 in the msec/line entry. You can save your settings using Setup -> Save Settings …. If you save to the teraterm.ini file in the TeraTerm install directory you will set the startup options for the program.
3. Minicom Setup In order to run minicom as a regular user, make sure the user is in the proper group, allowed to create lock files in /var/lock (the default location), which is usually the "uucp" or "dialup" group. To create a new configuration for the serial port, run minicom as follows under root:

    # minicom -c on -s
   

   Command line options used above enable color (-c on) and start the setup procedure (-s).

   From the setup menu configure the serial port name and parameters - "Serial port setup" -> "A" for the "Serial Device" (/dev/ttyS0 or /dev/ttyS1) and "E" for the "Bps/Par/Bits" setup, which is "115200 8N1" by default.

   You may want to remove the Init (A) and Reset (B) modem strings under "Modem and dialing" menu.

   Once ready, save the configuration either into default location (Save setup as dfl) or otherwise into a separate name (Save setup as...), in which case you will have to specify the non-default configuration every time you start minicom.

   Now, you can start minicom as a regular user:

   $ minicom -c on
   

   And with the non-default configuration, assuming you saved it under "ttyS0" name:

   $ minicom -c on ttyS0
   

   In order to send multi-line scripts to the target, set the "Newline delay (ms)" under "Terminal settings" (Alt+T) to 99. This step must be completed each time before sending a multi-line text file.