Frequently Asked Questions and Their Answers

IGEP Technology General related questions

Which IGEP board do I have?

• Which IGEP board do I have

Which Board Revision (for example RA, RB, etc.) do I have?

• IGEP Technology devices revisions

Where can I get more documentation (manuals,schematics,...)?

If you need more than these wiki pages, you can get manuals from the Official ISEE website of all IGEP devices.

You can get a free self-registered user account and go to user downloads section.

Check the main Resources that are available for you.

IGEPv1 Software related questions

igep_core

IGEP core refers to all ISEE software framework to develop applications.

IGEPv2 Hardware related questions

What does "IGEP2: Hardware Revision B/C (B compatible)" mean?

People who need IGEP0020-RB1 boards,  use IGEP0020-RC3 boards (IGEP0020-RCx PCB with specific assembly for software compatibility).

See wireless feature and IGEP0020-RB1 backward compatibility

Linux kernel autodetects [1] B or C assembly configuration. Its uses gpio28 input:

	BOARDS	GPIO28	R243	R244
B assembly configuration	IGEP0020-RB1 IGEP0020-RC3	high level (1v8)	Assembled	N/A
C assembly configuration	IGEP0020-RC1 IGEP0020-RC4	low level (0v)	N/A	Assembled

Is it possible to connect a battery to maintain the real time clock in the board?

Battery backup is not implemented on IGEPv2-RA and IGEPv2-RB.

You can use i2c external rtc or connect externally a super-cap/rechargable battery on R768 pins.

R768 is 0 Ohm resistor connected between GND and BKBAT (M14) input from TPS65950.

IGEPv2-RC has available an unpopulated super-cap/rechargable battery footprint (BT741) for real time clock backup batter.

How to connect Bluetooth chipset to OMAP ?

• Control serial link uses OMAP3 UART2
• Audio link use OMAP McBSP3 and TPS65950 audio codec + mixer
  

How many UARTs are available?

OMAP3530 has 3 UARTS:

UART1 --> RS485 on connector J940
UART2 --> bluetooth
UART3 --> debug console on connector J960

OMAP3730 has 4 UARTS:

UART1 --> RS485 on connector J940
UART2 --> bluetooth
UART3 --> debug console on connector J960 
UART4 --> (NOT AVALIABLE on IGEPv2: it uses GPMC_WAIT2 and GPMC_WAIT3 pins)

All of this UART are also available on other connectors:

UART1 --> on connector JA41 without DVI transceiver with CMOS 1v8 logic.
UART1 --> on connector J940 with CMOS 3V3 logic
UART2 --> on expansion connector J990 without bluetooth feature.
UART3 --> on connector JA41 without DVI transceiver with CMOS 1v8 logic.

Read this How to use debug serial port.

Is it available s-video or video composite output?

A dual-display interface equips the OMAP3530/25 processor. This display subsystem provides the necessary control signals to interface the memory frame buffer directly to the external displays (TV-set).

Two (one per channel) 10-bit current steering DACs are inserted between the DSS and the TV set to generate the video analog signal. One of the video DACs also includes TV detection and power-down mode. For more information, see the DSS chapter of the OMAP35x Technical Reference Manual.

IGEP v2 board hasn't s-video or video composite output connector, but there are available on the board some test points to implement a fully-functionaly s-video output.

Which pins are free available on J990 IGEPv2 connector?

• IGEP0020-RC1/IGEP0020-RC4 models: You could use McBSP1 pins (12,14,16,18,20,22,24), I2C2 pins (23,24) on J990. You could use software configuration to disable wifi interface and others because of shared wifi hardware lines.
  • MMC2 interface is used by wifi of built-in wifi/BT module.
  • McBSP3 interface is used by TPS65950 PCM  interface and Bluetooth PCM interface of built-in wifi/BT module.
• IGEP0020-RC2 model (no WIFI): these boards are fully functionality compatible to other third boards and all pins are free available (they aren't shared).

What is the max Ethernet throughput with LAN9221i?

The ethernet throughput it's 94-96 M/bits second, LAN9221i it's connected direcly to OMAP processor addressable space and dedicated IRQ (no USB, SPI, converters ...).

# iperf -c 192.168.3.2
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.3.2, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 25.4 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 3] local 192.168.3.100 port 59439 connected with 192.168.3.2 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 3] 0.0-10.0 sec 113 MBytes 94.6 Mbits/sec

Is it possible to config the wireless LAN and bluetooth so they are completely off, and not consuming any power at all?

Yes, you could use powerdown and reset pins:

On IGEP0020-RB1/IGEPv2-RB, wifi powerdown and reset lines are available on GPIO_94 and GPIO_95 pins, and it is not available reset bluetooth line (only TPD06 hardware test point).

On IGEP0020-RC1/IGEPv2-RC or IGEP0020-RC4, wifi powerdown and reset lines are available on GPIO_138 and GPIO_139 pins, and reset bluetooth line is available on GPIO_137.

On IGEP0020-RC3, reset bluetooth line is available on GPIO_137, but they use GPIO_94 and GPIO_95 pins for wireless pins like IGEP0020-RB1 board configuration (IGEPv2-RCx PCB compatible IGEPv2-RB1) board software compatibility.

	Wifi Reset	Wifi PowerDown	Bluetooth Reset
IGEP0020-RB1	GPIO_94	GPIO_95	Not Available (TPD06)
IGEP0020-RC1 IGEP0020-RC4	GPIO_138   (RD42)	GPIO_139 (RD44)	GPIO_137 (RD17)
IGEP0020-RC3	GPIO_94 (RD41)	GPIO_95 (RD43)	GPIO_137 (RD17)

The GPIO_94/GPIO_95 of IGEP0020-RB1 version is changed to GPIO_138/GPIO_139 of IGEP0020-RCx version because GPIO_94/GPIO_95 are camera interface lines.

Linux kernel autodetects B or C assembly configuration. Check you IGEPv2 board revision and IGEPv2-RCx PCB compatible IGEPv2-RB1.

Can I attach an LCD with LDVS interface?

You have to translate or convert it to LVDS which is a differential and serialized interface. For example you can use MAX9213 serializer LVDS to translate the parallel interface to LVDS.

Is there a way to attach a VGA monitor directly?

IGEPv2 does not has VGA output. But you can use:

• a DVI to VGA converter connected to the IGEPv2 DVI output.
• an IGEPv2 expansion board, which expands IGEPv2 board capabilities. Among other things provides the VGA interface on D-SUB15 connector.
  

Is it possible to connect a CMOS sensor (ie are the camera signals available on a board connector)?

The camera signals are not available on IGEPv2 board.

Mini usb OTG must be a MINI A Male?

Review the Official IGEPv2 Hardware Reference Manual: Page7: USB 2.0 LS/FS/HS OTG 1 Mini AB USB socket connector (dual slave and host role) – That means you can use MINI-A and MINI-B cable.

Is the external wifi antenna easy to install? Where can I acquire a compatible external antenna?

On IGEP0020-RB boards:

The JD11 is a GSC connector for the external Wifi interface. It is a MURATA GSC connector, Part number MM9329-2700RA1.

You only have to find a cable that fits with this MURATA connector.

Regarding the antenna, just need a 2.4Ghz Antenna. 

On IGEP0020-RC boards:

The JD11 is a "HRS (HIROSE) - U.FL-R-SMT(01) - RECEPTACLE, SMT, U.FL " connector

A popular Hirose U.FL (MHF IPEX) connector to SMA-RP (reverse polarity) connector cable fits in

Is it possible to add analog video output?

Yes, it is possible. There is no connector for S-video, but signals are available on board test points.

TP400 and TP401 which are located on bottom side, belongs to luminance and chroma so:
TP401 = TVOUT_1R sch signal = PIN 3 S-video connector = Y = luminance
TP400 = TVOUT_2R sch signal = PIN 4 S-video connector= C = chroma

Is it possible to power using USB OTG connector?

No, it is not possible on IGEPv2 boards.

What is the maximun power consumption?

The power consumption of IGEPv2@600Mhz is between 690 and 720mA

The power consumption of IGEPv2@720Mhz is between 750 and 780mA.

IGEPv2@720MHz has aprox. 15% more power consumption on core and mpu_iva than at 600MHZ.

What about "Skip erase bad block 124 at 0xf80000" means at bootlog?

Flash devices (nandflash or onenand or ...) have been factory marked with bad blocks. 

New bad blocks could appear along flash life, and you should mark
them (or JFFS2 file-system does automatically ).

Boot up sequence

1. OMAP3 ROM Boot with IGEPv2 hardware configuration (sys_boot[6..0]=0110000) tries to load x-loader from ...
   1. USB
   2. UART3
   3. MMC1
   4. OneNAND
2. X-loader (Flash or microSD) loads uboot
3. U-boot (Flash or microSD) uses "bootcmd" environment command
4. Default ISEE U-boot "bootcmd" environment (Flash) tries to load Linux kernel from...
   1. Network boot (Linux TFTP download + NFS rootfs export from ISEE SDK Virtual Machine)
   2. microSD boot
   3. Flash boot
5. Linux kernel (Network or microSD or Flash) uses configured rootfs cmdline
6. Root FS (Network or microSD or Flash or USB or RAMDISK ...)

IGEPv2 Software related questions

Are the sources for the xloader, uBoot and kernel supplied with IGEPv2 board available?

All of them are available at the Official GIT repositories. You need registered user.

How do I stop U-Boot command line at "Hit any key to stop autoboot" prompt ?

U-Boot command line is a Serial tty console. IGEPv2 normally uses the UART3 to communicate and prompt out.

Follow this how to setup the IDC10 cable article to connect you Serial cable to your IGEPv2 board.

Next, you need to send a key to this serial port using some Serial terminal application.

Note:Do not press any key of any usb keyboard connected to IGEPv2, as you need to press a key of your computer keyboard in the Serial console, which is attached to serial link to IGEPv2 via Serial cable.

( minicom, putty or other Serial console running on your computer -> your computer DB9 connector -> Serial cable -> IGEPv2 board )

IGEPv2 EXPANSION Board Software related questions

Which x-loader, u-boot and Linux kernel does IGEPv2 EXPANSION board use?

You can download software from the Official GIT repositories and then you can follow the IGEP0020 steps in Howto the Linux kernel.

IGEP MODULE Hardware related questions

Which revision is my IGEP MODULE board?

• IGEP MODULE RevD: They were sold on 2010-4Q (silkscreen: "IGEPv3 MODULE RD")
• IGEP MODULE RevE: They were sold on 2011 (silkscreen: "IGEPv3 MODULE RE")
  

Which differences are between IGEP MODULE board and IGEPv2 Board

IGEPv2 Board is a start board for testing purposes that you can use for testing the possibilites of the IGEP Platform boards and for developing your own applications.

You can also test this technology with the IGEPv2 EXPANSION, which you can instantly attach to the IGEPv2 Board and test even more features and interficies.

Once you have tested and checked all the IGEP Platform possibilites you can use the IGEP COM MODULE, which consists on a single mini-board with all the IGEPv2 Board capabilities but with just a few of them implemented. That means you can create your own expansion board with any peripheral you want and attach it to your product, or you can contact with the ISEE team (Integration Software Electronic Engineering) where you can ask for a customized board design with your own specifications.

Is it possible to power using USB OTG connector?

Yes, it is possible to power standalone IGEP MODULE boards (without any baseboard plugged).
NOTE: DON'T POWER IGEP MODULE through USB OTG and ANY base board AT SAME TIME.

See also: Getting Started with IGEP0030 board

What is the maximun power consumption?

T.B.D.

Is the external wifi antenna is easy to install? Where can I acquire a compatible external antenna?

Default configuration will use the internal shared wifi/BT omni-antenna.

But on IGEP MODULE boards you can hardware-hack the board and disconnect the internal antenna to populate U.FL connector for pigtail and external antena:

The J2 is a "HRS (HIROSE) - U.FL-R-SMT(01) - RECEPTACLE, SMT, U.FL " connector

A popular Hirose U.FL (MHF IPEX) connector to SMA-RP (reverse polarity) connector cable fits in

Check your revision case:

• IGEP MODULE revision D boards do not have the internal antenna populated, but there connector for the external antenna is actually installed.
  
• IGEP MODULE revision E boards have the internal antenna.
  

You can get an external antenna at the ISEE online shop.

Is it possible to config the wireless LAN and bluetooth so they are completely off, and not consuming any power at all?

Yes, you could use powerdown and reset pins:

	Wifi Reset	Wifi PowerDown	Bluetooth Reset
IGEP MODULE RevD IGEP MODULE RevE	GPIO_138	GPIO_139	GPIO_137

IGEP MODULE Software related questions

Which x-loader, u-boot and Linux kernel does IGEP MODULE use ?

You can download the software from the GIT repositories and then you can follow the IGEP0030 steps in Howto the Linux kernel.

IGEP MODULE BASEBOARD Software related questions

Which x-loader, u-boot and Linux kernel does IGEP MODULE BASEBOARD use ?

You can download the software from the GIT repositories and then you can follow the IGEP0030 steps in Howto the Linux kernel.

IGEP RADAR Kit  software related questions

Which x-loader, u-boot and Linux kernel does IGEP RADAR Kit use?

You should use IGEPv2 standard software distribution for system base.