Dragonboard 410c Installation Guide for Linux and Android
All Linux and Android downloads & instructions have been moved to the DragonBoard 410c landing page in the 96boards/documentation repository
A UART serial console can be optionally connected from a host PC USB port to UART1, which is available on the DB410c low speed expansion connector (J8). This allows a developer to bring up a terminal emulator on the host PC and communicate with the DB410c using a command line interface. This can be very valuable when performing in depth debugging as well as using fastboot. The following defines the pins used for UART1 on the J8 connector:
- PIN1 is GND
- PIN11 is TX
- PIN13 is RX
A standard USB TTL FTDI cable, such as Part Number: TTL-232RG-VREG1V8-WE, that steps up the 1.8 volts available on the DB410c is required. If one with the part number highlighted is used, the the pinout is as follows:
- BLACK -> PIN1
- YELLOW -> PIN11
- ORANGE -> PIN13
Warning: The FTDI cable above is required to be 1.8 volts (this is denoted VREG1V8 in the part number above). Damage can occur to your hardware if the wrong voltage cable is used.
A picture of the FTDI cable connected to the DragonBoard™ 410c is shown below:
Figure 1: FTDI Cable connected to J8 Header on DragonBoard™ 410c
Warning: Make sure that the extra wires are not touching the board in any way. This can cause a short and damage the hardware. It is recommended to either clip and tape the unused wires on the cable or to solder a small header onto the end of the cable.
Warning: Never install the wires while the DragonBoard™ 410c is plugged into power or has USB cables plugged into it.
Warning: Always wear safety glasses when working with any hardware to avoid personal injury.
Warning: It is recommended that developers use an ESD compliant environment when handling the DragonBoard™ 410c to avoid damaging the electronics on the board.
After the above is completed, the user can perform the following steps to access the DB410c serial console:
- Connect the USB connector of the FTDI cable to the host PC. This assumes that the other end is already connected to the DB410c
- Open a terminal on the host PC
- On the host PC find the full path of the FTDI cable in the /dev/… device tree
- On the host PC use a terminal emulator application to bring up the console. For purposes of example, these instructions use “screen”
sudo screen /dev/<path of the FTDI> 115200Note: The default speed of UART1 is 115200 Baud on the DB410c.
- Once the above has been executed, power on the DB410c and the user will see boot sequence text scroll in the console on the host PC ending with a Linux command prompt once the DB410c is booted.
Throughout this document, references are made to certain board connectors, headers and switches. There are also six activity LEDs on the board. These items are described further in this section
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
| Board Identifier | Description | Behavior |
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
| J8 | Low Speed Connector | This connector contains |
| | | low speed peripheral |
| | | signals just as UART and |
| | | GPIO. In context of |
| | | this document, we use it |
| | | for connecting the UART. |
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
| S6 | 4 channel Dip Switch | Located on the back of |
| | | the board, this Switch |
| | | provides some manual |
| | | configuration settings. |
| | | In context of this |
| | | document, it is used to |
| | | select boot order (SD |
| | | Card first or eMMC |
| | | first) OTG modes. |
| | | |
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
Located by the USB ports are a series of LEDs used to provide information to the user. Their usage is defined as follows:
When Debian-based images are installed, the following table defines the LED usage/behaviors.
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
| LED Board Identifier | Description | Behavior |
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
| User LED 1 | Heartbeat | Green: This LED is |
| | | should always be |
| | | blinking about once a |
| | | second. If solid off or |
| | | solid on, the board is |
| | | not executing correctly |
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
| User LED 2 | eMMC | Green: This LED blinks |
| | | during accesses to eMMC |
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
| User LED 3 | SD | Green: This LED blinks |
| | | during accesses to SD |
| | | Card |
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
| User LED 4 | currently unassigned | N/A |
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
| Wifi | Wifi | Yellow: This LED blinks |
| | | during network accesses |
| | | over Wifi |
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
| BT | Bluetooth | Yellow: This LED blinks |
| | | when Bluetooth is being |
| | | used |
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
When Android-based images are installed, the following table defines the LED usage/behaviors.
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
| LED Board Identifier | Description | Behavior |
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
| User LED 1 | currently unassigned | Green: |
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
| User LED 2 | currently unassigned | Green: |
| | | |
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
| User LED 3 | currently unassigned | Green: |
| | | |
| | | |
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
| User LED 4 | Boot | This LED illuminates at |
| | | at the start of boot |
| | | and turns of after |
| | | completion of boot. |
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
| Wifi | Wifi | Yellow: TDB |
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
| BT | Bluetooth | Yellow: TBD |
+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------------+
On this board, both USB Host and USB On-The-Go (OTG) are available, however they cannot be used simultaneously. OTG is used by the bootloader for fastboot. USB Host is also supported.
To use USB OTG:
- plug a micro USB cable in J4 connector and the other end of the cable plugged into the host PC. Note that if either end of this cable is disconnected, USB OTG mode will not be entered. Nothing else is required as the software auto-detects the USB connection and places the DB410c into OTG mode
- Note the when in this mode, devices such as keyboard and mouse may not work on the DB410c
To use USB Host:
- unplug the micro USB cable from J4. The software will auto-detect no connection on J4 and will enter USB Host mode.
- plug one (or more) USB devices into J2 or J3 such as a keyboard, mouse, etc.
Note that several keyboards, mice, USB Memory sticks, ethernet adaptors and other peripherals have been tested. However, there is still as chance that your device might not work properly. If this occurs, please submit a bug to the 96Boards bug tracking system located here.
If you use an ethernet dongle, once you configure the USB in HOST mode, and insert the dongle, the physical ethernet connection should automatically be established (generally as eth0, assuming that an active physical connection exists on the ethernet cable):
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