Connecting Serial Console to the NXP i.MX RT1060 EVK Board Print

 

Running Linux (uClinux) on the i.MX RT1060 will require a serial console. U-Boot and Linux make use of the serial console to print messages and provide an interactive user interface. You won't be able to do much unless you have access to the serial console.

Both U-Boot and Linux are configured to use LPUART1 for the serial console on the NXP i.MX RT1060 EVK.

On the NXP i.MX RT1060 EVK, LPUART1 interface is available at UART level on J45.2 and J46.2 connectors. Remove jumpers from J45 and J46 connectors to access the pins. In order to connect the serial console to a PC, you must convert the UART interface either to an RS-232 interface or to a USB interface. This requires connecting an external device ("dongle") to the i.MXRT1060 EVK. There are various such devices available on the market. One specific device we have been using (among others) is the WaveShare FT232 USB UART board:

i.MX RT1060 i.MX RT1060 Function NXP i.MX RT1060 EVK Boad
Connection
WaveShare FT232 USB UART Board Connection Notes
GPIO_AD_B0_13 lpuart1.RX J45.2 CON6.3 (TXD)
GPIO_AD_B0_12 lpuart1.TX J46.2 CON6.4 (RXD)
GND GND J21.8 CON6.2 (GND)


To power the board up from a 5V wall power supply, check that J1 have a jumper on J1.1 and J1.2, then set the SW1 switch to the "2-3" position.

Assuming a connection using an USB UART board, on the Linux PC the i.MX RT1060 serial console will be visible as a /dev/ttyUSBx device. The U-Boot and Linux software configures the console for 115.2 Kps operation.

There are various serial communication tools available for Linux, the most popular perhaps being kermit. kermit is a very powerful tool that can be run in interactive mode or controlled by a script. There is abundant documentation on kermit avialable in the Internet, if you require details.

One possibility is to define on the host a shell script similar to the one below:

$ vi console-imxrt1060.script
#!/usr/local/bin/kermit

set port /dev/ttyUSB0
set speed 115200
set carrier-watch off
set flow-control none
set prefixing all
c

Change the file mode to make the script an executable file:

$ chmod +x console-imxrt1060.script

Then run the script whenever you need to get access to the console (you will need sufficient system privelegies to run this script):

$ sudo ./console-imxrt1060.script
[sudo] password for :
Connecting to /dev/ttyUSB0, speed 115200
Escape character: Ctrl-\ (ASCII 28, FS): enabled
Type the escape character followed by C to get back,
or followed by ? to see other options.
----------------------------------------------------

=> version
U-Boot 2017.09-rc1-gdf312544d6 (Oct 13 2017 - 23:16:48 +0300)
arm-v7-linux-uclibceabi-gcc (20170818-165657- build on build.emcraft by build) 4.7.4 20130508 (prerelease)
GNU ld (20170818-165657- build on build.emcraft by build) 2.28
=>

To exit kermit, type Ctrl-\ and then q.