MYS-6ULX-IOT development board evaluation - cost-effective solution for high-end IoT
Last week, I successfully applied for the trial of the MYS-6ULX-IOT development board on Iban.com. After receiving the MYS-6ULX-IOT development board from Mir Technology, um... It is smaller than I imagined, the packaging box is not big, and there is no With too many accessories.
I opened the box and saw that in addition to the protagonist MYS-6ULX-IOT in this article, there is only a WiFi antenna and a pack of desiccant, haha... There is not even a "User Guide", but it doesn't matter, we can use it at http://down.myir-tech.com/MYS-6ULX to find the relevant information of the MYS-6ULX-IOT development board.
Unlike some other development boards with on-board WiFi antennas, the external WiFi antenna of this board looks a little ugly, but it is estimated that this design makes sense, after all, the development board is designed to be quite compact.
Since it is known as a cost-effective solution for high-end IoT, let's take a look at MYS-6ULX-IOT. Its interface is defined as follows.
MYS-6ULX-IOT adopts 8-layer board design, and the size is only 70mm*55mm, which is smaller than a credit card, but the sparrow is small and complete.
CPU
MYS-6ULX-IOT is equipped with I.MX6ULL processor, model MCIMX6Y2DVM05AA, single ARM Cortex-A7 core, clock frequency up to 528MHz. The figure below shows the model naming rules for the I.MX6ULL series processors. You can see that this is a commercial-grade processor with a temperature range of 0~95°C.
Flash
MYS-6ULX-IOT integrates a 256MB Nand Flash, the model is Micron MT29F2G08ABAEAWP, which is connected to the GPMI controller of I.MX6ULL, which can save the boot information and use it as system startup boot. The eMMC pins on the MYS-6ULX-IOT are multiplexed with the Nand Flash function, and the Nand Flash is soldered by default instead of eMMC.
Memory
The memory chip is Samsung's 256MB (128M * 16bit) DDR3L SDRAM, the model is K4B2G1646F-BYK0, which is connected to the I.MX6ULL through the MMDC bus, the maximum operating clock frequency of the bus is 400MHz, and the bus width is 16bit.
Ethernet
MYS-6ULX-IOT is equipped with one 10/100M Ethernet and provides standard RJ45 interface. The Ethernet PHY chip is Microchip's LAN8720A, which is connected to the ETH1 controller of the I.MX6ULL through RMII.
USB
I.MX6ULL has two built-in USB controllers, both of which support USB OTG function. MYS-6ULX-IOT directly leads one of them out through the Micro Type AB type interface, that is, J7 (USB OTG), which can be directly connected to the Slave device or to the Host device. The other channel uses Microchip's USB Hub chip USB2422/MM to expand 2 channels of USB Host ports, one of which is directly led out through the USB Host connector, that is, J9 (USB Host), and the other channel is connected to the onboard USB WiFi module.
WiFi
MYS-6ULX-IOT is equipped with a USB WiFi module with a maximum communication rate of 150Mbps, the built-in WiFi chip model is RTL8188ETV from Realtek, and the onboard IPEX antenna interface is used to connect an external antenna. The WiFi module is on the back of the MYS-6ULX-IOT, so it can't be seen in the picture above.
Expand IO
In addition, the Expand IO (J2, J3) on both sides of MYS-6ULX-IOT also provide us with a wealth of expansion interfaces, including GPIO, network port, serial port, I2C, CAN, SPI, ADC, PWM, I2S, Camera and JTAG. In this way, we can expand according to our own needs, such as adding Bluetooth, GPS and various sensors.
Okay, having said all that, let's get it started now!
First of all, we need to supply power to it. The power part of MYS-6ULX-IOT provides 5v DC input. In order to start it smoothly, I deliberately searched the bottom of the box to find a 5v output power adapter, and a CH340 USB to serial port module connected to the board UART Debug interface loaded.
Open the serial port terminal on the PC side, set the serial port baud rate to 115200, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity, and no flow control.
3, 2, 1, power up! Startup failed. . .
After inspection, it is caused by the wrong dialing of the DIP switch. After careful observation, we found that MYS-6ULX-IOT has reserved a 4-bit DIP switch for us to set the startup mode. Among them, bit1 and bit2 of the DIP switch are used to select the boot device. The settings for the Nand Flash version are defined as follows:
The settings for the eMMC version are defined as follows:
The bit3 and bit4 of the DIP switch are used to select the startup type. The settings are defined as follows:
So, for our MYS-6ULX-IOT, the setting of bit1~bit4 should be: 1001.
After setting, power on again! Print the following UBoot startup information in the terminal, the startup is successful~
Then you can log in to the Linux Shell, enter the user name root to log in, and you can see that the current Linux kernel version is 4.1.15.
Before ending this article, let's discuss why the MYS-6ULX-IOT is a cost-effective solution for high-end IoT.
I think in addition to the excellent performance and rich peripherals of the I.MX6ULL SoC itself, it also supports Linux systems, and also supports Yocto build and custom Linux like other i.mx series processors. More importantly, the development kit provides complete development materials and tools including Linux system, BSP source package, peripheral drivers and user manuals. For developers, it is crucial to effectively improve development efficiency and shorten the development cycle. Obviously, for most IoT applications, the MYS-6ULX-IOT equipped with a WiFi module should be more than enough, and the official price is only ￥169.
How, it really is very cost-effective, aren't you as excited as I am?