MarsBoard AM335X

MarsBoard AM335X
mini PC

MarsBoard AM335X, Flexible Designed Development Board Powered by TI AM335X

Introduction

MarsBoard AM335X, Flexible Designed Development Board Powered by TI AM335X

Getting started

MarsBoard AM335X supports the System Firmware of Debian, Angstrom, etc. And the source codes are also provided. MarsBoard AM335X comes with a preloaded Debian OS, which is supporting an external HDMI monitor. Other versions of system image can also be downloaded into AM335X, as required.

System Firmware downloads

You can get the related system firmware resource from:

Firmware descriptions:

“eMMC” means the firmware is used for onboard eMMC, that is, at the first time of boot up from TF card, the image will be written into the eMMC automatically.
“TF” means the firmware used for TF card will not be written into eMMC. and has no effect to the original eMMC system.
“HDMI” means the firmware supports external HDMI.
“LCD” means the firmware supports LCD display of 4.3inch or 7inch.

How to write OS to a TF card

Unzip the firmware.
A file archiver software, such as 7-Zip, is required to unzip the corresponding image file.
Format your TF card.
Run the software SDFormatter.exe to format your TF.
Write the system firmware.
Note: before the image written, please make sure the capacity of the TF card is bigger than the size of the firmware image!

Run the software Win32DiskImager.exe, choose the unzipped .img file and storage device then click the button Write.

Boot up from the TF card system

Note: a 5V/2A adapter is used for power supply.

Insert the TF card into the TF card socket;
Set the boot up switch (hereafter BOOT) to “SD”;
Power up to start the system.

Program the eMMC system from the TF card

Insert the TF card, in which firmware should be eMMC , into the TF card socket;
Set the BOOT to “SD”;
Power up and then the LED1 and LED2 blink.
The eMMC programming isn’t completed until both the LED1 and LED2 are lighten steady or extinguished (The programming process lasts about 30 min);
Disconnect the power and remove the TF card.
Set the BOOT to “NAND”.
Power up to start the system.

Using the serial port for debugging

First install the CP2102 driver on a PC and then connect the DEBUG port to the PC using a mini-USB cable.
Run the software PuTTY.exe, and set the COM number, baud: 115200. The corresponding COM port can be confirmed by device manager. Click the button Open to enter the terminal.

Using the OTG port

Install the driver which is located in the drive recognized as “boot” or “TI_AM335X”.
Power up and wait until the system is ready;
Connect the onboard OTG to the PC using a Mini USB cable;
Run PuTTY and set the Host Name (or IP address) as “192.168.7.2” then click Open.
Input “root” and press Enter to enter the system.

System development

Note: the compiling environment is ubuntu12.04.

Getting Linux source code resource

You can get the related system resource code from:

Linux kernel compilation

To upgrade and download the necessary library, enter the terminal and input the command without newline:

sudo apt-get install git-core gnupg flex bison gperf libsdl-dev libesd0-devlibwxgtk2.8-dev build-essential zip curl libncurses5-dev zlib1g-dev ia32-libs lib32z1-dev lib32ncurses5-dev gcc-multilib g++-multilib sharutils lzop

Extract the tar file:

tar -xjvf MarsBoard-AM335X-Debian-kernel-HDMI-3.8.tar.bz

Enter the root directory of the kernel:
```
cd kernel/kernel
```
Copy the configuration file:
```
cp ../../config/beaglebone .config
```

Modify the Makefile:

vi Makefile +192

ARCH ?= arm

Specify a path for Cross compilation, e.g.

CROSS_COMPILE ?= /home/waveshare/BBB/toolchain/arm-2010.09-50-arm-none-linux-gnueabi-

Make the kernel:
```
make uImage dtbs –j4
```

Resources