This guide documents how to quickly get up and running with the Laird Connectivity’s Nitrogen8M Mini SMARC module and Universal SMARC Carrier.

In the Box

The development kit contains the follwoing items:

  • 1x Nitrogen8M Mini SMARC module
  • 1x Universal SMARC Carrier
  • 2x Mounting Screws
  • 1x Power Supply 5V
  • 1x Serial Cable

On the Board

The Nitrogen8M Mini SMARC module and Universal SMARC Carrier contains the following components and interfaces:

Front Numbered

Back Numbered

  1. Nitrogen8M Mini SMARC module
  2. DSI 0 Display Connector (J13)
  3. LVDS I2C connector - Touch (J23)
  4. LVDS 0 Display Connector (J22)
  5. Barrel Plug Power Adapter (J17)
  6. 3 Pin Molex Connector for Mic (J8)
  7. 3.5mm Audio Jack (J4)
  8. 2 Pin Molex Connector for Line In (J6)
  9. 2 Pin Molex Connector for Speaker Right (J7)
  10. 2 Pin Molex Connector for Speaker Left (J5)
  11. 2x USB-A 2.0 Ports (J24)
  12. 1x USB-A 2.0 Port (J2)
  13. High-Speed USB-C OTG Connector (J25)
  14. 6 Pin Molex Connector for Serial (J18)
  15. On/Off Switch (SW2)
  16. Reset Switch (SW1)
  17. Gigabit Ethernet 0 Connector (J31)
  18. Boot Mode Switches (S1)
  19. 2x Expansion Connectors (J27 and J28)
  20. M.2 Connector (Note: PCI/UART only, SDIO possible with BOM change, no USB) (J15)
  21. CSI 1 Connector (J10)
  22. Micro SD Card Slot (J26)

Board Assembly

The Nitrogen8M Mini SMARC module and Universal SMARC Carrier arrive disassembled. In order to assemble, you will need to insert the Nitrogen8M Mini SMARC module into the Universal SMARC Carrier and mount it using the screws.

To assemble, complete the following steps:

  1. Insert the Nitrogen8M Mini SMARC module into J1 of the Universal SMARC Carrier.

  2. Use the mounting screws to mount the Nitrogen8M Mini SMARC module on the Universal SMARC Carrier.

Serial Console

A console cable is provided with our Nitrogen8M Mini SMARC module and Universal SMARC Carrier.

  1. Attach the DB9 connector labeled “CONSOLE” to a serial port or a USB-to-Serial Converter.

  2. Connect the other end of the console cable to J18 on the SMARC Carrier.

Connecting USB-To-Serial Converter to Linux

Verify mounting information by grepping dmesg

Type the following command:

dmesg | grep ttyUSB

You will notice that it mounts on :

/dev/ttyUSB0

Connecting USB-To-Serial Converter to Windows

Verify under Device manager:

Device Manager

Serial Configuration

  • The default serial speed rate is 115200.

Linux: minicom

Use the following command to set the correct permissions:

sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER

The minicom command is simple:

minicom -wD /dev/ttyUSBx

Windows: PuTTY

Download PuTTY Here.

For Windows, you will need to configure the serial port under Device Manager. See the following steps:

  1. Open up the Device Manager.

  2. Expand the Ports (COM & LPT) tab

  3. Right click on Keyspan USB Serial Port and select Properties

    Properties

  4. Select the Port Settings tab and change the Bits per Second to 115200

    Bits per Second

  5. Open PuTTY and select the serial radio button and enter the COM# shown in Device Manager as well as setting the baud rate to 115200 and open the console.

    Serial

Programming eMMC

The Nitrogen8M Mini SMARC module comes with U-Boot flashed into the eMMC. An OS image can either be flashed on a SD card or the eMMC.

Using U-Boot USB Mass Storage Gadget

  1. Plug a micro-USB cable from your host machine to the target

  2. Connect the board serial output (console) to your computer

    • On the host machine, start a terminal software

  3. Power up the board and stop auto-boot process to get U-Boot prompt

    • Enter any character on the terminal software to stop auto-boot

  4. Enable the UMS Gadget for the eMMC . eMMC wil always be 0

    • Inside uboot type the following command:
     ums 0 mmc 0:0

  5. At this stage you should now see a new USB drive attached, you can now flash it. It is recommended to use balenaEtcher utility to flash the eMMC. Download Here

Using Fastboot

  1. Connect the board serial output (console) to your computer

  2. On the host machine, start a terminal software

  3. Power up the board and stop auto-boot process to get U-Boot prompt

  4. Go into Fastboot Mode on the Board by using the following command

     fastboot 0

Android

  1. Download android platform tools from the following link and install it

    Download Here

    For Windows users, use this link Here

  2. Use the flashing script below

     ./device/boundary/scripts/flash_fastboot.sh

Other OSes

  1. Make sure your U-Boot is up-to-date (2022.04+)

  2. Use the following commands:

     $ gunzip image.img.gz
	
 $ img2simg image.img image.simg
	
 $ fastboot flash emmc image.simg

Auto Programming in Uboot Using SD Card or USB Flash Drive

  1. Get the autoprogram_emmc package using the following command:

     wget -r -np -nH -R "index.html*" \linode.boundarydevices.com/autoprogram_emmc/
	
 cd autoprogram_emmc/ && chmod +x *.sh

  2. Copy your image file to the same directory as scripts. (Lets assume your image file name is ubuntu.img.gz)

  3. Determine whether your eMMC is “mmc 0” or “mmc 1” using the following command in uboot:

     mmc list

  4. Run the following command on your host machine: (here we assume that emmc is: mmc 0)

     ~/autoprogram_emmc$ ./create_autoprogram_image.sh 0 ubuntu.img.gz out.img

  5. At this stage the out.img image is created, you can now flash it onto your SD Card or USB flash drive

Windows

Put the SD Card or USB flash drive onto the board, turn on the board, and let it automatically flash emmc. You can also monitor the process through serial console.

Additional Resources

Additional resources can be found Here.