Microsemi:VSC8531BB1G/getting-started

Getting Started with your Microsemi VSC8531BB1G - BeagleBone Black 1G - Development Board


Step 1: Plug in your Microsemi VSC8531BB1G (BeagleBone Black 1G) Development Board to a recommended +5V DC / 2A (or higher) power supply. Note: The VSC8531BB1G can NOT be powered from USB due to the PMIC (power management IC) limiting the max current to 500mA. See below for description of a possible power supply.

Step 2: Plug in your Microsemi VSC8531BB1G via supplied micro USB cable Note: The VSC8531BB1G can NOT be powered from USB due to the PMIC (power management IC) limiting the max current to 500mA. If you accidentally did this step first, please unplug the USB cable and go to Step 1.

Step 3: Install drivers

Step 4: Browse to web server on the Microsemi VSC8531BB1G (using your favorite browser, like Chrome or Firefox) Note: Internet Explorer will NOT work

Getting Started with the Microsemi VSC8531BB1G Development Board

The Microsemi VSC8531BB1G (based on Rev C of the BeagleBone Black open-source HW design files) is a tiny computer with all the capability of today’s desktop machines, without the bulk, expense, or noise. Please read the step-by-step getting started tutorial below to begin developing with your VSC8531BB1G in minutes.

For additional VSC8531BB1G details, please visit the following support wiki page: VSC8531BB1G Specifications & Resources

Plug in your VSC8531BB1G +5V DC / 2A (or higher) power supply.

Note: The power adapter needs to provide 5V over a 5.5mm outer diameter and 2.1mm inner diameter barrel connector. A barrel connector length of 9.5mm is more than sufficient. The currently recommended supply current is at least 1.2A (or 6W), but at least 2A (or 10W) is recommended if you are going to connect up anything over the USB Type A port. The actual power consumption of the VSC8531BB1G will vary greatly with changes on the USB load as well as any BeagleBoard compatible "Cape Boards" that may also be connected to the VSC8531BB1G. One such recommended power supply is the: PHIHONG USA PSC12R-050 - Please be sure to get the right adapter for your country!

Plug in your VSC8531BB1G via micro USB

Use the provided micro USB cable to plug your VSC8531BB1G into your computer. This will provide a development interface. The VSC8531BB1G will boot the default Debian Linux image from the on-board 4GB eMMC. Alternatively, the VSC8531BB1G may also boot from a microSD card.

The VSC8531BB1G will operate as a USB flash drive providing you with a local copy of the latest available documentation and drivers (at the time the unit was assembled) when booting from the 4GB eMMC. Note that this interface may not be used to re-configure the microSD card with a new image, but may be used to update the boot parameters using the uEnv.txt file.

You'll see the PWR LED lit steadily. Within 10 seconds, you should see the other LEDs blinking in their default configurations.

USR0 is configured at boot to blink in a heartbeat pattern USR1 is configured at boot to light during microSD card accesses USR2 is configured at boot to light during CPU activity USR3 is configured at boot to light during eMMC accesses

Install drivers

Install the drivers for your operating system to give you network-over-USB access to your VSC8531BB1G. Additional drivers are available to give you serial access to your board.

Note: Additional FTDI USB to serial/JTAG information and drivers are available from https://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm.

Note: Additional USB to virtual Ethernet information and drivers are available from https://www.linux-usb.org/gadget/ and https://joshuawise.com/horndis.

Browse to your VSC8531BB1G

Using either Chrome or Firefox browsers (Internet Explorer will NOT work), browse to the web server running on your board. It will load a presentation showing you the capabilities of the board. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate the presentation.

Click here to launch the Web Page running on the Web Server on your VSC8531BB1G: http://192.168.7.2

Troubleshooting

Do not use Internet Explorer.

Virtual machines are not recommended when using the direct USB connection. It is recommended you use only network connections to your board if you are using a virtual machine.

When using 'ssh' with the provided image, the username is 'root' and the password is blank.

Please visit beagleboard.org/support for additional debugging tips.

Update board with latest software

Step #1: Download the latest software image

Download the desired image from https://beagleboard.org/latest-images.

Note: Due to sizing necessities, this download may take 30 minutes or more.

The file you download will have an .img.xz extention. This is a compressed sector-by-sector image of the SD card, so it is substantial in size.

Step #2: Install the 7-zip compression utility Download and install 7-zip from |http://www.7-zip.org/download.html

Step #3: Decompress the image Use 7-zip to decompress the SD card .img file

Step #4: Install SD card programming utility Download and install Win32DiskImager for Windows from the Ubuntu Wiki page. Be sure to download the binary distribution.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Win32DiskImager

Some general help on programming microSD / SD cards can be found on the Win32DiskImager page below.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Win32DiskImager/iso2usb

Step #5: Connect SD card to your computer Use a microSD card to SD adapter or a USB adapter to connect the SD card to your computer.

Step #6: Write the image to your SD card Use the instructions on the page to write the decompressed image to your SD card.

Note: You may see a warning about damaging your device. This is fine to accept as long as you are pointing to your SD card for writing.

Note: You should NOT have your VSC8531BB1G connected to your computer at this time.

Step #7: Eject the SD card Eject the newly programmed SD card.

Step #8: Boot your board off of the SD card Insert SD card into your (powered-down) board, hold down the USER/BOOT button and apply power using the +5V DC adapter.

If you desire to write the image to your on-board eMMC, you'll need to follow the instructions at http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack_Debian#Flashing_eMMC. When the flashing is complete, all 4 USRx LEDs will be steady on or off. The latest Debian flasher images automatically powers down the board upon completion. This can take up to 45 minutes so please be patient. Again, ensure that all LED activity has stopped before attempting to power-down your board - if this doesn't happen automatically - by removing the power adapter cable, remove the SD card and then plug in the power adapter cable to complete the process.

Other currently available software images Some of the starting images below involve multiple steps to produce an SD card image or otherwise change some of the steps above, so be sure to read all the instructions on their pages. Choose the starting point you want, download or produce the SD card image and follow the steps above.

Supported Distributions

At the time of release, not all of these distributions support BeagleBone Black, but should soon.

Texas Instruments releases: Android, Linux, StarterWare (no OS) Linux: Debian, Angstrom Distribution, Ubuntu, ArchLinux, Gentoo, Sabayon, Buildroot, Erlang, Fedora Other: QNX, FreeBSD

Creative Commons Attribute-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit creativecommons.org or send a letter to: Creative Commons 171 Second Street, Suite 300 San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

This page is a derivative work of http://www.elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBoneBlack and is attributed to the work originally created by Gerald Coley of BeagleBoard.org. For more information, see Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License