Getting Started with the SBC-S32V234

Last Modified: 2019-09-09 09:41:06Supports S32V2 Vision and Sensor Fusion low-cost Evaluation Board

Contents of this document

  • 1

    Plug It In
  • 2

    Get Software

1. Plug It In

1.1 Plug the 12 V / 2 A DC Power Supply

1.2 Configure the USB Drivers

Allow the PC to configure the USB drivers automatically. You will need to download the FTDI drivers if your computer is not detecting the USB-serial device.

Get the FTDI drivers

1.3 Setup a Serial Terminal

Install and run any serial terminal (like TeraTerm, Putty, or other) on your Windows PC.

Select the port where the SBC-S32V234 is connected and configure it to '115200' baud rate, '8' data bits, 'no parity', and '1' stop bit.

1.4 Insert the SD Card

Insert the SD card (with pre-installed Linux Board Support Package) in the respective slot.

1.5 Power the SBC-S32V234 ON

Power on the device by pressing the Power button. You will see the SBC-S32V234 booting U-Boot, followed by Linux in the terminal window. Use the username = 'root'.

2. Get Software

The two most important software components for S32V2 devices are Linux and the Vision SDK:

  • Linux runs on the S32V2 vision processor and supports various NXP development boards. NXP uses the Yocto project to create a custom Linux BSP
  • Vision SDK is the collection of libraries that can be used to create Vision specific programs. It includes libraries for Image Signal Processor (ISP), Image Cognition Processor (APEX), IOs, MIPI-CSI2, display, and others. Also includes useful utilities and third party software to aid development, like OpenCV, FFmpeg, Pthreads, and more

2.1 Download the SBC-S32V234 Quick Start Package (QSP)

Get the SBC-S32V234 QSP and check both the '1a_understand_Linux_BSP.pdf' and the '1b_understand_Vision_SDK.pdf' to understand different components of Linux BSP.

Download the SBC-S32V234 QSP

2.2 Download the Latest Linux BSP

Get the 'precompiled Linux binarie' together with the 'Linux User Manual'.

Download Automotive SW - Linux BSP

2.3 Extract the Compressed Linux Files

The SBC-S32V234 specific files are available under the 'FILE IS MISSING' folder.

2.4 Flash the SD Card

Use the '.Sdcard' image to flash the SD card.

2.5 Download the Vision SDK

The Vision Software Development Kit (VSDK) for S32V234 Vision processors is an essential part of vision application development.

Download Vision SDK Software

2.6 Create a Linux BSP that Supports VSDK

The Linux BSP that came with the SBC-S32V234 is generic; it DOES NOT support Vision SDK out-of-the-box. NXP provides the precompiled Linux BSP binaries with all VSDK specific modifications.

2.7 Download the Pre-Compiled Binaries

Download the prebuilt Linux binaries supporting VSDK.

2.8 Extract the Compressed File

Go to build_content\v234_linux_build\s32v234sbc from the Vision SDK. You will find all components of Linux BSP in both 'boot' and 'rootfs' folders.

2.9 Format the SD Card and Create the Partitions

Insert the card into the card reader of your PC. Using a Linux Machine, get the name of SD card by using cat /proc/partitions

  
  Sudo fdisk /dev/sdb 

  d [repeat this until no partition is reported by the 'p' command] 

  n [create a new partition] 

  p [create a primary partition] 

  1 [the first partition] 

  [enter] [using the default value will create a partition that starts at offset 2048] 

  +255M [size of the actual partition = 255 MB]

  

  n [create a new partition] 

  p [create a primary partition] 

  2 [the second partition] 

  [enter] [using the default value will create a partition that starts at offset 67584] 

  [enter] [using the default value will create a partition that uses the remaining space on the
  card] 

  

  t [set partition type] 

  1 [partition #1]

  c [FAT32] 

  t [set partition type] 

  2 [partition #2] 

  83 [Linux] 

  

  w [this writes the partition table to the medium and fdisk exits] 

  

  Remove the SD card from the slot and put it back again.

  sudo mkfs.vfat -n boot /dev/sdb1

  sudo mkfs.ext3 -L rootfs /dev/sdb2
  

  Remove the SD card from the slot and put it back again.
  

2.10 Load the Content onto the SD Card



  cd path_to_fsl-auto-yocto-bsp/build_s32v234sbc/tmp/deploy/images/s32v234sbc 

  sudo dd if=u-boot.s32 of=/dev/sdb bs=512 seek=8 conv=fsync 

  sudo cp Image /media/boot

  sudo cp s32v234sbc.dtb /media/boot

  cd /media/rootfs

  sudo tar xvf
  path_to_fsl-auto-yocto-bsp/build_s32v234sbc/tmp/deploy/images/s32v234sbc/fslimage-vsdk-s32v234sbc-xx.rootfs.tar.gz

  Sync

2.11 Boot the SBC-S32V234 Board

Insert the SD card into the board and turn the power supply on. The UART is running on '115200' baud. The Linux will boot into command line and automatically loads OAL, APEX, CSI, FDMA, and other drivers.