Running Zephyr on NXP S32K344 Evaluation Board

Connecting S32K344 Evaluation Board to the NAVQ+ Kit

The following hardware setup is required for installing and running a Zephyr sample on the NXP S32K344 Evaluation Board:

1. The serial console is provided through “lpuart2” on the 7-pin DCD-LZ debug connector “P6”. Connect it to the UART3 on the NAVQ+ J9 connector:

2. The SEGGER J-Link is connected to the P26 connector (this is a 10 pin 0.50” space JTAG with the standard pinout used by standard Arm debuggers). Ensure pin 1 on the PCB silkscreen is aligned with pin 1 on the debugger (refer to the picture above). Connect the SEGGER J-Link to the USB port of the NAVQ+ kit.

3. The Ethernet connection to the local network using the RDDRONE-T1ADAPT Ethernet media converter connected to the P9 100Base-T1 Ethernet Connector:

The power is provided by the NAVQ+ kit:

4. The power is to be supplied at the 5 pin P27 connector at the top left corner of the board (Pin 1-2 power, Pin 3 NC, Pin 4-5 ground):

Connecting S32K344 Evaluation Board to a Linux PC

The following hardware setup is required for installing and running a Zephyr sample on the NXP S32K344 Evaluation Board:

1. The serial console is provided through “lpuart2” on the 7-pin DCD-LZ debug connector “P6”

2. The SEGGER J-Link is connected to the P26 connector (this is a 10 pin 0.50” space JTAG with the standard pinout used by standard Arm debuggers). Ensure pin 1 on the PCB silkscreen is aligned with pin 1 on the debugger (refer to the picture above).

3. The Ethernet connection to the local network using the RDDRONE-T1ADAPT Ethernet media converter connected to the P9 100Base-T1 Ethernet Connector.

4. The power is to be supplied at the 5 pin P27 connector at the top left corner of the board (Pin 1-2 power, Pin 3 NC, Pin 4-5 ground). The input voltage range is from 5V to 40V.

Building Zephyr for S32K344 Evaluation Board

Zephyr samples can be built as described in the Zephyr Project documentation:

https://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/develop/getting_started/index.html

For example, use the following command to build the hello_world sample for the S32K344 Evaluation Board:

cd zephyr
west build -p always -b mr_canhubk3 samples/hello_world

Installing Zephyr on S32K344 Evaluation Board from the NAVQ+ Kit

Use west to install Zephyr from the NAVQ+ Kit:

user@imx8mpnavq:~/work/zephyrproject/zephyr$ west flash
-- west flash: rebuilding
ninja: no work to do.
-- west flash: using runner jlink
-- runners.jlink: JLink version: 7.92g
-- runners.jlink: Flashing file: /mnt/sdcard/work/zephyrproject/zephyr/build/zephyr/zephyr.bin

As soon as a Zephyr image is flashed, it can be started by resetting the board using the reset button. Now you can connect to the target serial console using the “picocom” terminal program on the NAVQ+ kit:

$ sudo picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttymxc2
...
Type [C-a] [C-h] to see available commands

Terminal ready

Depending on the installed Zephyr application, you will see some output on the serial console after reset. The Zephyr banner is usually printed:

*** Booting Zephyr OS build emcraft-ef041c6-2-gdaa341a973af ***

Installing Zephyr on S32K344 Evaluation Board from a Linux PC

If the J-Link probe is directly connected to the build machine then the “west flash" command can be used to flash the sample as described in the Zephyr Project documentation:

https://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/develop/getting_started/index.html

However, it is not always convenient to use the same PC for building and flashing. It is actually enough to install the J-Link software

https://www.segger.com/downloads/jlink/

on the host PC to be able to Flash the boards over the J-Link probe. After installing the J-Link software, verify that the J-Link probe is detected by the SEGGER J-Link Commander and identifies the MCU successfully:

$ JLinkExe -nogui 1 -if swd -speed auto -device S32K344
SEGGER J-Link Commander V7.92c (Compiled Aug 30 2023 14:58:04)
DLL version V7.92c, compiled Aug 30 2023 14:57:42

Connecting to J-Link via USB...O.K.
...
J-Link>connect
...
Cortex-M7 identified.
J-Link>

Create the J-Link Commander script for flashing Zephyr onto the S32K344 Evaluation Board:

$ cat runner.jlink
ExitOnError 1
r
loadfile "zephyr.hex"
r
g
writeDP 1 0
readDP 1
q
$

Put the build/zephyr/zephyr.hex file into the current directory and run the following command:

$ JLinkExe -nogui 1 -if swd -speed auto \
> -device S32K344 -CommanderScript runner.jlink
...
Downloading file [zephyr.hex]...
Comparing flash   [100%] Done.
Erasing flash     [100%] Done.
Programming flash [100%] Done.
J-Link: Flash download: Bank 0 @ 0x00400000: 1 range affected (57344 bytes)
J-Link: Flash download: Total: 0.661s (Prepare: 0.082s, Compare: 0.055s, Erase: 0.032s, Program & Verify: 0.442s, Restore: 0.049s)
J-Link: Flash download: Program & Verify speed: 126 KB/s
O.K.
...
Script processing completed.

$

As soon as a Zephyr image is flashed, it can be started by resetting the board using the reset button or the “reset/go" command sequence of the J-Link Commander:

$ JLinkExe -nogui 1 -if swd -speed auto -device S32K344
...
J-Link>connect
...
J-Link>reset
...
J-Link>go
J-Link>

Now you can connect to the target serial console using a terminal program on your Linux PC, for example:

$ picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttyUSB0
...
Type [C-a] [C-h] to see available commands

Terminal ready

Depending on the installed Zephyr application, you will see some output on the serial console after reset. The Zephyr banner is usually printed:

*** Booting Zephyr OS build emcraft-ef041c6-2-gdaa341a973af ***

Controlling S32K344 Evaluation Board LEDs from the NAVQ+ Kit

Emcraft provides the simple Zephyr demo (emcraft/app/led_network_control) that allows to control the board LEDs from the NAVQ+ kit over the local network.

1. Before building the demo, choose a static IP address for your target board and configure the demo appropriately, for example:

   $ grep CONFIG_NET_CONFIG_MY_IPV4_ADDR emcraft/app/led_network_control/prj.conf
   CONFIG_NET_CONFIG_MY_IPV4_ADDR="192.168.0.111"
   $

2. Build the led_network_control sample for the S32K344 Evaluation Board:

   cd zephyr
   west build -p always -b mr_canhubk3 emcraft/app/led_network_control

3. Install the demo on the target board as described above. If you connect to the target serial console, you will see the following output after reset:

   *** Booting Zephyr OS build emcraft-ef041c6-2-gdaa341a973af ***
   user_led1_green: ready
   user_led1_blue: ready
   user_led1_red: ready
   Single-threaded TCP server waits for a connection
       on address 192.168.0.111 port 4242...

4. From the NAVQ+ console, connect to the target board using telnet:

   $ telnet 192.168.0.111 4242
   Trying 192.168.0.111...
   Connected to 192.168.0.111.
   Escape character is '^]'.
   
   list: print supported LEDs
   <LED> on: turn on the specified LED
   <LED> off: turn off the specified LED
   
   

5. Type “list" to see the available LEDs on the target board:

   list
   user_led1_green
   user_led1_blue
   user_led1_red
   
   

6. Turn user_led1_green on and off:

   user_led1_green on
   OK
   
   user_led1_green off
   OK