Dacu

Info Box Applies to Dacu Applies to Lizard Applies to Android

Introduction

Dacu is an ARM Cortex-A8 industrial tablet platform, built around a carrier board hosting the Lizard CPU module. The main system specifications are the following:

Microprocessor	ARM Cortex-A8 @ 500 MHz
Power	12-24 V
Serial Ports	1x UART RS232 on DB9 1x UART RS232/RS485/CAN on DB9 1x UART RS232 on pin strip (debug port)
Ethernet	1x Fast Ethernet on RJ45 connector
Display	7" 800x480 LVDS
Storage	1x microSD slot
USB	1x USB Host full speed port 1x USB Host high speed port
Audio	UDA1345 codec
Buses	I2C SPI
Other	On board touch controller Optional Wi-Fi module GPIOs

Block Diagram

The following picture shows block diagram of Dacu:

Mechanicals

The following picture shows the mechanical layout of Dacu:

Connectors pinout

The following section describes the on-board connectors and their pinout.

Power supply

Power is provided through the JP2 DC Power Jack. Power voltage range is [12-24 V]

Lizard module connectors – J1, J2

J1 and J2 are the mating connectors for Lizard CPU module.

UART1 - J4

J4 is a standard DB9 connector for the RS232 four-wires UART1 port. The following table reports the connector's pinout:

Pin#	Pin name	Function	Notes
1, 4, 6, 9	N.A.	N.A.	Connected to protection diode array
2	UART_EXT_RX	Receive line
3	UART_EXT_TX	Transmit line
5	DGND	Ground
7	UART_EXT_RTS	Request To Send line
8	UART_EXT_CTS	Clear To Send line

UART2 - J5

J5 is a standard DB9 connector for the configurable UART/CAN port. The board provides some mount options for the selection of the UART mode (RS232/RS422/RS485) or the CAN mode. The following table reports the connector's pinout:

5V for bluetooth

Pin#	Pin name	RS232 mode	RS422 mode	RS485 mode	CAN mode	Notes
1	N.A./CAN_SHIELD	Not connected			Can shield
2	UART2_A/CAN_M				CAN bus low signal	CAN mode primary mount option
3	UART2_Y/CAN_GND				CAN bus GND
4	N.A./CAN_M(opt)				CAN bus	CAN mode secondary mount option
5	DGND/CAN_SHIELD
6	N.A./GND(opt)					CAN mode secondary mount option
7	UART2_Z/CAN_P					CAN mode primary mount option
8	UART2_B/CAN_P(opt)					CAN mode secondary mount option
9	5V_BT/CAN_V+
		CAN bus +5V

Configuration Jumpers J26 e J27

Selection

UART3 - J25

Debug

Ethernet port - J6

J6 is a standard RJ45 connectors connected to the Lizard integrated ethernet controller and PHY.

LCD Ziff connecor - J7

Optional

JTAG - J16

Bottom

Software and hardware usage notes

Quick start

This section describes how to quick start Dacu system.

"Full control" mode

1. connect the serial cable, provided with the board, to J3 pin-strip connector
2. connect this cable to PC COM port through a NULL-modem cable (not provided)
3. start your favourite terminal software on PC; communication parameters are:
   • baud rate: 115200 Bps
   • data bits: 8
   • stop bits: 1
   • parity: none
4. connect the system to Ethernet LAN (RJ45 connector, J6)
5. connect a 12Vcc power supply to to the power jack (JP2)

Once power has been applied, U-Boot bootloader will be executed and the following messages will be printed on serial console:

U-Boot 2009.11-00074-g34e0d5b-dirty (Jul 17 2012 - 11:00:55) [dacu-android-0.9.2]

AM35xx-GP ES2.0, L3-165MHz
DAVE Lizard board + LPDDR/NAND
I2C:   ready
DRAM:  256 MB
Flash: 32 MB
NAND:  1024 MiB
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Die ID #7cf60001000000000160ae2d0b01e00a
Net:   davinci_emac_initialize
Ethernet PHY: GENERIC @ 0x11
DaVinci EMAC                                                                                                       
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0                                                                                   
=>

Once the boot process has completed, you'll get the default Android "desktop":

Android default lock screen

Moreover, you'll have immediate access to the Android shell, so you can use the shell commands to interact with the system and see the output messages on the console. Using the serial console doesn't prevent you from using also the adb tool to access the system.

"Normal" mode

1. connect the system to Ethernet LAN (RJ45 connector, J6)
2. connect a 12Vcc power supply to to the power jack (JP2)

Once power has been applied, the system will boot loading the software components from the internal flash. Once the boot process has completed, you'll get the default Android "desktop":

You can now access the system using adb.

Default IP address

The default IP address is 192.168.0.122

Running the Android Debug Bridge (ADB)

ADB is a fundamental development tool and enables remote access to the Android device. ADB is provided with the Android SDK, so before using it you must install the SDK.

To establish the ADB connection, on a Linux host machine open a shell and launch the following commands:

$ export PATH=${PATH}:<your_sdk_dir>/platform-tools
$ export ADBHOST=<target's ip address>
$ adb kill-server
$ adb start-server

On a Windows host machine, open a shell and launch the following commands:

adb tcpip 5555
adb connect <target's ip address>:5555
adb kill-server
adb start-server

To check the connection, please launch

$ adb devices 

If everything is working properly, you should see the following messages:

$ adb devices
List of devices attached
emulator-5554    device

You can open a remote shell using the following command:

$ adb shell

To install an application (in .apk format), you can use the following commmand:

$ adb install <path to apk>

Useful Links

Video: Android Multitouch demo on Dacu

Android Debug Bridge