Frequently asked questions/verdex
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If your question is not in this FAQ, please feel free to ask it on the Mailing list
Which expansion boards can be connected to the gumstix motherboards?
To expand function in the gumstix product line, our engineering team has designed the gumstix motherboards with connectors on one or both sides as follows:
basix motherboard
Only one 60-pin expansion board may be connected to the basix motherboard via the 60-pin hirose connector.
connex motherboard
Two expansion boards may be connected to the connex motherboard: one expansion board on either side forming up to a three board sandwich.
Only one 60-pin expansion board may be connected via the 60-pin hirose connector while, on the other side of the connex, only one 92-pin expansion board may be connected via the 92-pin bus header.
verdex motherboard
Two currently available expansion boards may be connected to the verdex motherboard: one expansion board on each side forming up to a three board sandwich.
Only one 60-pin expansion board may be connected via the 60-pin hirose connector while, on the other side of the verdex motherboard, only one 120-pin expansion board may be connected via the 120-pin bus header.
The one exception to the statements above is the tweener board which can connect between the 60-pin expansion board and any of the three motherboards on the 60-pin hirose connector side.
Notes:
1. Connecting the tweener with the robostix board requires this tweener modifications.
2. The tweener must be connected in the direction that makes it face outside the connex board configuration in order to function properly.
This picture may help explain the tweener setup better:
The tweener board can work with all 60-pin expansion expansion boards EXCEPT the breakout-SMT, the breakout-TH or the thumbstix. These three boards have physical limitations that prevent the connection to the tweener board.
.
Which gumstix boards should be ordered to get USB host, compact flash and ethernet?
1/ Product selection without bluetooth
| Function | gumstix board |
|---|---|
| USB Host, 18-bit LCD & RS-232 Serial & LCD-ready for Samsung screen | |
| 400mhz or faster processor | verdex XM4 motherboard or verdex XL6P motherboard |
| Compact Flash & 10/100 ethernet | netCF-vx expansion board |
| secure assembly | screws & spacers kit |
| power | 5v power adapter |
| USB Host cables | USB A - miniB cable plus a USB A Gender changer. |
| The mini-b end of the usb cable plugs into the console-vx | |
| Temperature rating | All PXA270-based verdex products are rated from -25C to 85C |
2/ Product selection with bluetooth
| Function | gumstix board |
|---|---|
| USB Host, 18-bit LCD & RS-232 Serial & LCD-ready for Samsung screen | |
| 400mhz or faster processor | verdex XM4-BT motherboard |
| Compact Flash & 10/100 ethernet | netCF-vx expansion board |
| secure assembly | screws & spacers kit |
| power | 5v power adapter |
| USB Host cables | USB A - miniB cable plus a USB A Gender changer. |
| The mini-b end of the usb cable plugs into the console-vx | |
| Temperature rating | All PXA270-based verdex products are rated from -25C to 85C |
.
Which processor does the verdex motherboard use?
Each verdex motherboard is powered by the Marvell(R) PXA270 model VFBGA processor which is 13mm x 13mm.
The PXA270 processor is offered in two packages: 13x13 mm VFBGA and 23x23 mm PBGA. Due to the small dimensions of the gumstix motherboards, the smaller and more expensive VPFGA model has been incorporated into the verdex motherboards.
How many connectors have been mounted on the verdex motherboard?
There are three connectors on the verdex motherboard:
1/ 60-pin connector located on one side
• this 60-pin connector is intended to be compatible and positioned equally on the board to the 60-pin connector of the basix and connex motherboards to allow motherboard upgrades to customer designed 60-pin expansion boards.
• Brings out USB OTG signals.
• The PXA270 has three UARTS so the fourth UART was dropped from the 60-pin connector.
• The pinouts for the 60-pin connector are here.
2/ 24-pin flex connector located on the opposite side – brings out USB host and UART signals on the opposite side of the motherboard. The 24-pin connector pinouts are here.
3/ 120-pin connector located on the opposite side – replaces the 92-pin connector of the basix and connex motherboards. Pinout information is posted here.
From where can the verdex software be downloaded?
The verdex software branch is now integrated with the main gumstix Software development kit
Why can 92-pin expansion boards NOT be used with verdex?
As the verdex motherboard does not have a 92-pin connector, it cannot be connected to expansion boards like netCF or wifistix which have the mating 92-pin bus header connector.
The verdex motherboard has 3 connectors for expansion: a 60-pin hirose connector on one side, and both a 24-pin ribbon and a 120-pin MOLEX connector on the other side.
Future 120-pin expansion boards will have "-120" in their product names, such as "netCF-120", to denote connectivity to the 120-pin connector.
Why should any 120-pin expansion board be connected to the verdex motherboard before any other expansion board ?
REQUIREMENT:
Connect any 120-pin expansion to the verdex motherboard first. Then, connect a 60-pin expansion board after connecting the 120-pin board.
WARNING:
There is a warning printed right on the verdex motherboard that shows exactly where the squeezing force must be applied by the user when attaching the verdex motherboard to any 120-pin expansion board.
REASON:
The 120-pin connector needs a good squeeze to cause a verdex motherboard and a 120-pin board to connect together. If that squeeze is not applied to the designated location on the verdex motherboard, then the memory chips may take some of that misplaced force and snap. These memory chips on the verdex motherboard are fragile and can snap with excessive force.
What pinouts changes were made on the verdex 60-pin connector as compared the 60-pin connector of the basix and connex motherboards ?
• JTAG will not be on the verdex 60 pin connector but will be on test pads on the 24-120 side of the verdex motherboard.
• DREQ0 is replaced with GPIO101 SDATA_IN1 is replaced with CLK_32
• There are only 3 UARTs on the PXA270, but there were 4 UARTS on the 60-pin Hirose.
• Reconciliation: we consider the BT and HW UARTs as redundant. Gumstix decided to put the BT-UART pins where the HW-UART pins were and to drop the BT pins (which are in the place of the old JTAG pins).
• Added pins:
- LDD_16, LDD_17 for increased LCD resolution
- GPIO_41 for OTG_ID
- SYS_EN for daughtercard power management (will enable powering down daughtercads in sleep mode)
What is the 24-pin flex connector?
FH12A-24S-0.5SH(55) Digikey part HFK124CT-ND
The 24-pin flex connector was added to the verdex motherboard in response to customer demands for a daughtercard on the 120-pin side of the motherboard that provides UART, USB host etc function on the 24pin/120pin side of the verdex motherboard as these functions are normally "60-pin" type functions.
With a flat flex cable, it should be easy to bring those functions from the 24-pin flex connector onto a custom board on the120-pin side of the verdex motherboard in order to reduce the thickness of the board "sandwich".
Additionally, for very simple gumstix implementation scenarios, (e.g. connecting say an I2C sensor to a gumstix), the 24-pin flex connector is lower cost & easier to integrate than the 60- or 120-pin connectors.
Gumstix added the 24-pin flex connector to address several issues:
1) being able to get a console while the motherboard is otherwise in use without the physical limitations of the tweener.
2) USB Host.
3) Battery for RTC.
4) Daughtercards that need a flex connector.
.
What are the part numbers for the 120-pin connector?
- The 120 pin connector that goes on the gumstix is the part #55686-1274 from Molex.
- the mating connector from Molex is part #54876-1274 (discontinued)
- The new mating connector from Molex is part # 0546841204
Can the existing 60-pin boards that have USB device be used with a verdex motherboard to provide USB Host?
Yes, the breakout-gs and console-st expansion boards may be used with a verdex motherboard to provide USB Host – with a modification. By populating the FB intended to USB Power the devices and supplying power through the power jack, a USB device connected to the USB port on a console-st or breakout-gs expansion board can be “tricked” into believing the gumstix is the USB host.
Audiostix2, ConsoleVX, ConsoleVX-LCD, and ConsoleVX-LCD16 don't need any modification. If you have the USB gender changer, you can plug USB client devices right in.
What steps are needed to get the consoleLCD-vx working ?
Follow Matt Hamrick's wiki steps to bring up the consoleLCD-vx, posted here.
How do I get a gumstix to talk through a USB wifi dongle to a wireless network?
With this setup:
verdex motherboard <-> breakout-vx or console-vx expansion board <-> USB gender switcher <-> USB wifi module
(The connex and basix motherboards cannot be a USB host, so they cannot use a USB wifi module peripheral. To get them to talk to a wireless network, use one of the wifi expansions boards).
Once the gumstix boots:
# lsmod # modprobe ohci-hcd
Your wifi module should now be detected, and if you had done a depmod -a after adding its module, it should have its module loaded automatically by udev. You can then add an interface definition in the file
/etc/network/interfaces
by copying and modifying one of the existing definitions for your wifi dongle. You can then issue the command
ifup rausb0
replacing "rausb0" with whatever your wifi dongle's interface name is.
More detailed instructions found on the mailing list, works for D-Link with the rt2570 driver:
First, I had to add the following line to /etc/modprobe.conf :
alias rausb0 rt2570
Next, I added this to /etc/network/interfaces :
auto rausb0 iface rausb0 inet dhcp # pre-up /sbin/iwconfig rausb0 essid <essid> # pre-up /sbin/iwconfig rausb0 enc <wep key>
I think the last two lines are commented out, but I'm not 100% sure how that works in this file.
Finally, I created a file in /etc/init.d called 'S45wireless' (which is really just a copy of one of the other files, with mods in the start function):
#!/bin/sh
#
# Start the wifi....
#
start() {
echo "Starting wifi..."
modprobe ohci-hcd
mount -t usbfs none /proc/bus/usb;lsusb -v
ifconfig rausb0 up
ifup rausb0
iwconfig rausb0 essid <essid>
iwconfig rausb0 enc <wep key>
}
stop() {
echo -n "Stopping wifi..."
}
restart() {
stop
start
}
case "$1" in
start)
start
;;
stop)
stop
;;
restart|reload)
restart
;;
*)
echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
exit 1
esac
exit $?
You have to have the wifi dongle plugged in when you reboot the verdex in order for this to work.
Posted by Jon Hylands
note on /etc/modprobe.conf
aliases in here just allow you to modprobe from either name not much more Its ussually unneeded. to acctually get the device to use a different name you would have to pass an argument to the driver.
Posted in mailing list by Jeff Sadowski
What must be done to load a USB memory stick?
With this setup:
verdex motherboard <-> breakout-vx or console-vx expansion board <-> USB cable with gender switcher <-> USB memory stick
Once the gumstix boots:
# lsmod Module Size Used by ipv6 248776 10 unix 22964 8 # modprobe ohci-hcd usbcore: registered new driver usbfs usbcore: registered new driver hub pxa27x-ohci pxa27x-ohci: PXA27x OHCI pxa27x-ohci pxa27x-ohci: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1 pxa27x-ohci pxa27x-ohci: irq 3, io mem 0x4c000000 usb usb1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found hub 1-0:1.0: 3 ports detected # usb 1-2: new full speed USB device using pxa27x-ohci and address 2 usb 1-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice SCSI subsystem initialized Initializing USB Mass Storage driver... scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage USB Mass Storage support registered. Vendor: Memorex Model: TD Classic 003B Rev: PMAP Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 00 SCSI device sda: 2015232 512-byte hdwr sectors (1032 MB) sda: Write Protect is off sda: assuming drive cache: write through SCSI device sda: 2015232 512-byte hdwr sectors (1032 MB) sda: Write Protect is off sda: assuming drive cache: write through sda: sda1 sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi removable disk sda
You can then mount /dev/sda1 or create a udev rule to do this automatically when the device is created. To create the udev rule, navigate to /etc/udev/rules.d. Next create the file 10-local.rules or whatever you want to state it. However this has to be lexicographically lower then the default rules (50-udev-default.rules). Inside this file place the following:
KERNEL=="sda1", ACTION=="remove", RUN+="/bin/umount /mnt/usb" KERNEL=="sda1", ACTION=="add", RUN+="/bin/mount /mnt/usb"
If you get an error "No such file or directory" when doing the mount, you might need to explicitly state the filesystem type on the thumbdrive (generally vfat), e.g.
mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb
You can also add a line for ohci-hcd to /etc/modules if you want it to load automatically at boot.
Does a verdex motherboard provide USB 2.0 ?
The verdex motherboard, based on the PXA270 provides USB 1.1 and full speed - which is 12 Mbps on both the device and the host.
A lot of people get USB 2.0 mixed up when referring to USB. 12MBps is "USB Full Speed".
How can a USB drive, camera or other USB device be attached to a gumstix?
A USB device can be connected to:
• A 60-pin expansion board which is connected to a verdex motherboard and is using a 5v wall adapter or • A custom expansion board developed for the 24/120 pin side of the verdex motherboard that utilizes the USB host function of the 24-pin flex connector.
Is the USB host function of the verdex 60-pin connector provided on the same pins as the USB device function of the 60-pin connector on the basix and verdex motherboards?
Yes, the USB Host data pins are the same pins as used by the USB Device (or Client) so it's an 'either-or' situation – either USB host or USB client
There is a GPIO pin that carries the 'OTG_ID' to determine whether the pins are acting as a host or a device. This is not used in the breakout-gs or console-st (waysmall stuart) expansion boards.
Is support available for memory expansion and DMA transfers on verdex motherboards?
Yes, there are SDRAM control signals on the 120-pin connector to enable off-motherboard RAM expansion.
Do you have any plans to introduce any type of imaging expansion board?
We would like to provide an imaging board but have no immediate plans to do so.
The 120-pin connector includes the PXA270 "Quick Capture" interface, allowing direct connection to a range of imaging sensors. This should allow a designer to take one of our (published, open-source) 120-pin board designs and edit that design to add an imaging sensor tied to the QC interface lines.
How does the verdex motherboard offer better power management?
The verdex:
1. Uses the TPS65020 Power Management IC for power management.
2. Uses 1.8V memory (both SDRAM and Flash).
3. Makes available a backup battery line.
Are the mounting holes on the verdex motherboard physically aligned to the same patterns as the mounting holes on the basix and connex motherboards?
The basix and connex motherboards have three 1.65mm mounting holes to use 0-80 screws; however, one of those holes is so close to the memory chips as to require using a smaller (e.g. 1.0mm) screw. Two of these are next to 60-pin Hirose and one in the middle opposite the 92-pin connector.
The verdex motherboard has four 1.65mm (0-80) holes: there are the same two holes near the 60-pin Hirose, and now there are two mounting holes at other end of verdex motherboard.
The two mounting holes are equally aligned between these generations of gumstix motherboards. Two new mounting holes are introduced with the verdex motherboard.
What is the temperature rating of the verdex motherboard?
The verdex motherboard is supported to a maximum of -25 deg C to 85 deg C.
According to table 5.2 of the PXA270 Electrical, Mechanical, and Thermal Specification [280002-005] PDF, posted here, the verdex motherboard will only be supported to a max. -25C / +85C rating.
What is the circuitry to provide a controlled power down with the loss of main power to the verdex motherboard?
The TI PMIC TPS65020 provides signals nBATT_FAULT and nLOW_ BATT (GPIO33).
How can the boot speed be increased on larger flash devices?
The instructions are posted here.
Can I use bluetooth together with my console-vx board?
That seems not to work. Use the breakout-vx instead or you try this one (from the mailing-list --Dave Hylands):
I think I know what the problem is for this. The console vx ships with the rs-232 voltage converter tied to the bluetooth Tx/Rx lines, which would prevent the bluetooth module from working. If you hold your console-vx (with no gumstix plugged in) so that the 3 serial connectors are across the top-left, you'll see a silk screened box just below the power jack that has two zero-ohm resistors with labels "BT RxD" and "BT CTS". These resistors need to be removed in order for the the bluetooth module to work properly.
Why doesn't the ethernet connection on my netCF-vx work?
If you get the message:
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
when booting your Verdex + netCF-vx and you have the r1410 firmware, you need to upgrade your firmware. The r1410 firmware contains a bug which prevents the ethernet connection from working.
Why doesn't the ethernet connection on my netmicroSD-vx work?
Background:
- When you receive a netmicro-SD expansion board, it may seem like the Ethernet port might be faulty. If you try to tftp from within U-Boot, the attempt may time out. The same CPU can load over tftp without trouble from a NetCF-VX.
- Also, if you boot the processor into Linux, the Ethernet device may not appear.
Answer:
- The netmicro-SD board uses the SMC9117 ethernet controller chip. The netCF-vx expansion board uses the SMC91C111.
- These two ethernet controller chips are not compatible with each other and require a different ethernet driver to be compiled into u-boot.
- You need to ensure that the smc911x driver (as opposed to smc91x) is compiled and loaded in order for the netmicroSD-vx card to work.
