Running Zephyr on NXP i.MX RT
- 1 Connecting MIMXRT1060-EVKB Board to the NAVQ+ Kit
- 2 Connecting MIMXRT1060-EVKB Board to a Linux PC
- 3 Building Zephyr for MIMXRT1060-EVKB Board
- 4 Installing Zephyr on MIMXRT1060-EVKB Board from the NAVQ+ Kit
- 5 Installing Zephyr on MIMXRT1060-EVKB Board from a Linux PC
- 6 Controlling MIMXRT1060-EVKB Board LEDs from the NAVQ+ Kit
This application note has been explicitly tested on the NXP MIMXRT1060-EVKB board, however, it should apply to the other NXP EVK boards in the i.MX RT family as well, perhaps, with some minor changes to the software.
Connecting MIMXRT1060-EVKB Board to the NAVQ+ Kit
The following hardware setup is required for installing and running a Zephyr sample on the NXP MIMXRT1060-EVKB board:
Remove jumpers J9 and J10, to disconnect the SWD signals from onboard debug circuit. These jumpers are installed by default.
Use default power selection on J40 with pins 5-6 shorted (power supply via J1).
Connect the external J-Link probe to J2, 20-pin dual-row 0.1" header.
Connect the Ethernet cable to the RJ45 connector (J43) and to the local network.
Connect a USB hub to the NAVQ+ kit.
Connect a USB cable from the USB hub to J1. The USB connector J1 is used to power the board, and provides a UART/USB bridge through the onboard debug circuit (serial console). It is important to power up the board before powering up J-Link.
Connect a USB cable from the USB hub to the J-Link probe. It is important to do so after the board has been powered up, otherwise, the J-Link probe won't be able to detect the MCU.
Connecting MIMXRT1060-EVKB Board to a Linux PC
The MIMXRT1060-EVKB Board can be connected to any Linux PC the same way as it is connected to the NAVQ+ kit. Note that the USB hub is not necessary if the Linux PC has more than one USB port.
Building Zephyr for MIMXRT1060-EVKB 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 MIMXRT1060-EVKB board:
cd zephyr
west build -p always -b mimxrt1060_evkb samples/hello_world
Installing Zephyr on MIMXRT1060-EVKB 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
Installing Zephyr on MIMXRT1060-EVKB 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 MIMXRT1062xxx6A
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 MIMXRT1060-EVKB board:
$ cat runner.jlink
ExitOnError 1
r
loadfile "zephyr.bin" 0x60000000
g
writeDP 1 0
readDP 1
q
$
Put the build/zephyr/zephyr.bin
file into the current directory and run the following command:
$ JLinkExe -nogui 1 -if swd -speed auto \
> -device "MIMXRT1062xxx6A?BankAddr=0x60000000&Loader=QSPI" \
> -CommanderScript runner.jlink
...
Downloading file [zephyr.bin]...
Comparing flash [100%] Done.
Erasing flash [100%] Done.
Programming flash [100%] Done.
Verifying flash [100%] Done.
J-Link: Flash download: Bank 0 @ 0x60000000: 1 range affected (65536 bytes)
J-Link: Flash download: Total: 1.118s (Prepare: 0.325s, Compare: 0.148s, Erase: 0.107s, Program: 0.249s, Verify: 0.144s, Restore: 0.142s)
J-Link: Flash download: Program speed: 257 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 MIMXRT1062xxx6A
...
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/ttyACM0
...
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 MIMXRT1060-EVKB 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.
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="192.168.1.11"
$
Build the
led_network_control
sample for the MIMXRT1060-EVKB board:
cd zephyr
west build -p always -b mimxrt1060_evkb emcraft/app/led_network_control
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 ***
led-1: ready
Single-threaded TCP server waits for a connection
on address 192.168.1.11 port 4242...
From the NAVQ+ console, connect to the target board using
telnet
:
user@imx8mpnavq:~$ telnet 192.168.1.11 4242
Trying 192.168.1.11...
Connected to 192.168.1.11.
Escape character is '^]'.
list: print supported LEDs
<LED> on: turn on the specified LED
<LED> off: turn off the specified LED
Type “
list
" to see the available LEDs on the target board:
list
led-1
Turn
led-1
on and off:
led-1 on
OK
led-1 off
OK