Difference between revisions of "FAQ"

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The goal of this project is to allow everyone to easily develop embedded Open Source systems.
 
The goal of this project is to allow everyone to easily develop embedded Open Source systems.
 
When all the embedded systems in the world will run open source software, life will be better ;-)
 
When all the embedded systems in the world will run open source software, life will be better ;-)
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===What does "Armadeus" mean ?===
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"Armadeus" is the contraction of "ARM" and "Amadeus". Indeed we choosed ARM architecture for its symplicity and efficiency and our boards are as gifted to run embedded systems as Mozart was for composing music. Moreover, Armadeus project is born in 2006, year of the 250th Mozart's Birthday.
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===How do I get help ?===
 
===How do I get help ?===
First take a look at the whole Wiki. If you can't find help contact us directly: [[Help:Contents]]. If you are located in France, we have members in Besançon, Montbéliard & Mulhouse who can provide you help. For Swiss members, we can provide help in Basel, Lausanne & Zürich.
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First take a look at the whole Wiki. If you can't find help contact us directly: [[Help:Contents]]. If you are located in France, we have members in Besançon, Montbéliard & Mulhouse who can provide help. For Swiss members, we can provide help in Basel, Lausanne & Zürich.
  
=== Why are there http://armadeus.org and http://armadeus.com ? Is there a company backing/hiding behind the association? ===
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=== Why are there http://armadeus.org and http://armadeus.com ? Is there a company backing/hiding behind the project? ===
<http://armadeus.com> is a more 'professionnal' webpage built to help founders find backing for the project (like device samples, board manufacturing). It is easier to obtain those with a this professionnal-looking webpage.
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We have founded (litteraly) the association for our own pleasure and also to help universities and enthousiasts. Association bylaw protect members' intellectual property by forbidding any commercial use of the work done for the association.
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<http://armadeus.com> is the webpage dedicated to Armadeus Systems. <br>
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The company develops and produces the main boards which are then available at a discount price to the association members (non commercial usage only!).  
  
The association works mostly on founders free time (we all work in embedded systems industry), which partly offsets the price of boards bought by members:<br/>
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Historically the Armadeus Project (association) was founded before Armadeus Systems (company). <br>
*Initial costs were entirely founded by the founders, and are not matched in the boards selling price.<br/>
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After one year of existence we realized that it was quite impossible to achieve our goals without investing more time and more cash. That's why the company was founded.
*Tests, FPGA assembly and dispatching are made for no cost by volunteers.<br/>
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*Warranty and dead boards are not accounted for in the association until break-even.<br/>
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Those costs are not accounted for in boards selling price, mostly because the price would have been prohibitive and the project could not have started with such a high selling price. We do not want however to give all these for free to a 'for profit' project.
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The association was started for our own pleasure and also to help universities and enthusiasts develop Linux embedded systems. <br>
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It is a non profit association and works mostly on founders' free time.
  
We have been quite surprised by the board success - and therefore believe that a company could have an interest in the design. Many alternatives could then be found then - even if it would be unlikely to occur in the short term: partnering with the association, separate (yet to create) licensing company...
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The developments (hardware/firmware/software) performed within the association are under GPL/LGPL licence.  <br>
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The hardware funded by the association can not be used in a commercial product.
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=== Is there some rule to respect to contribute to the wiki? ===
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Yes there are few rules that help you to contribute to update the wiki there:  [[WritingRules |HowTo write articles for armadeus wiki]] 
  
 
==Hardware Questions==
 
==Hardware Questions==
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===Are the Armadeus boards RoHS compliant ?===
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Yes
  
===What does an Armadeus APF9328 board contain ?===
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===I have an APF27 kit and my 7" Chimei LW700 LCD is blinking (RGB colors), what can I do ?===
The heart of the APF9328 board is an i.MXL processor from Freescale (ex Motorola), with an ARM920T core, running at 192MHz. It has the following integrated peripherals:
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You're probably running an old (< 3.3) Armadeus BSP release and so default LCD is Sharp LQ043. You have to change your Linux configuration to support your LCD. Please follow instructions on [[FrameBuffer|this page]].
* 1x LCD controller (TFT, CSTN, STN) up to 640x480 resolution and with backlight control
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* 1x USB 1.1 device
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* 2x SPI
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* 1x I2C
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* 2x asynchronous serial ports (RS232)
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* 2x synchronous serial ports (SSI)
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* 1x MMC/SD controller
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* 1x PWM (able to reproduce low frequency sounds)
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* a serial bootstrap mode (removing the need of JTAG interface to program the board)
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* a lot of General Purpose Inputs/Outputs (GPIOs), depending on the configured peripherals
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<br>
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Around this processor, the board is equipped with:
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* 16 MBytes of high speed SDRAM
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* 8 MBytes of NOR Flash (16 bits bus)
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* a 10/100Mbits Ethernet controller (Davicom DM9000)
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* a 200K Xilinx Spartan3 FPGA
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* a SPI ADC and an I2C DAC
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* level converters for serial (console), USB and Ethernet port
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* 2 connectors for accessing main signals
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== Gateware Questions (FPGA) ==
  
Have a look at this link for more informations: [http://www.armadeus.com/downloads/apf9328/documentation/dataSheet_APF9328.pdf]
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=== My bitstream break my APF ===
  
===What is the DevLight board ?===
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If you are using ISE13.x or upper, there is a bug loading script TCL file. When design is generated by POD, a script is sourced to make bitstream (myproject.tcl), the source commande ignore the constraint file (ucf) and FPGA pinout is done randomly. To avoid this, once tcl script sourced, re-run all design.
APF9328 boards were designed to be as small as possible and ready to be embedded on any systems. So an APF9328 is not usable alone. You should see it much more like a module you can plug in everywhere.
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To develop for APF9328 boards you can either develop your own "motherboard" and plug the APF9328 into it or use the one we develop for our needs.
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Currently only the DevLight board is available. It contains:
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* a serial connector
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* an USB connector
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* an Ethernet connector
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* a prototype zone to test your developments
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* a DC power regulator
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For more informations look at here:
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[http://www.armadeus.com/downloads/apf9328DevLight/documentation/dataSheet_APF9328_DevLight.pdf]
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A DevFull board is currently in production and will contain:
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* an AC97 + touchscreen chip
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* a CAN bus controller
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* an USB 2.0 Fullspeed Host
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* a video (PAL/NTSC) output
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* a MMC connector
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* external SRAM for the FPGA
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* any other idea ??
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===Are the Armadeus boards RoHS compliant ?===
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Yes
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==Software Questions==
 
==Software Questions==
 
===Where are the sources ?===
 
===Where are the sources ?===
We have a project on SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/armadeus/ with a SVN repository
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<br>
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We have a project on gitlab : https://gitlab.com/armadeus/armadeus-bsp
  
 
===What are the performances of your board ?===
 
===What are the performances of your board ?===
[[Performances]]
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[[Performances | Wiki page talking about board performances]]
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===How do I get help/support===
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[[Help:Contents]]
 +
 
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=== How to register my interrupt routine in Linux application ? ===
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[[How to register my interrupt routine in Linux application ?]]
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=== How to launch my application at startup ? ===
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See [[Automatically_launch_your_application | Automatically launch your application]] page.
  
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===U-Boot seems ok but prints: *** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment - Is there something wrong?===
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Everything is ok. It is an U-Boot feature that happens if the environment partition is empty.<br>
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Please read the U-Boot FAQ on this issue: http://www.denx.de/wiki/view/DULG/WarningBadCRCUsingDefaultEnvironment
  
[[Image:FrenchFlag.png]][[Fr:FAQ | Cette page en Français]]
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{{LanguageBar|FAQ|FAQ|FAQ}}

Latest revision as of 11:34, 30 June 2022

General Questions

What is the "Armadeus Project" intended for ?

The goal of this project is to allow everyone to easily develop embedded Open Source systems. When all the embedded systems in the world will run open source software, life will be better ;-)

How do I get help ?

First take a look at the whole Wiki. If you can't find help contact us directly: Help:Contents. If you are located in France, we have members in Besançon, Montbéliard & Mulhouse who can provide help. For Swiss members, we can provide help in Basel, Lausanne & Zürich.

Why are there http://armadeus.org and http://armadeus.com ? Is there a company backing/hiding behind the project?

<http://armadeus.com> is the webpage dedicated to Armadeus Systems.
The company develops and produces the main boards which are then available at a discount price to the association members (non commercial usage only!).

Historically the Armadeus Project (association) was founded before Armadeus Systems (company).
After one year of existence we realized that it was quite impossible to achieve our goals without investing more time and more cash. That's why the company was founded.

The association was started for our own pleasure and also to help universities and enthusiasts develop Linux embedded systems.
It is a non profit association and works mostly on founders' free time.

The developments (hardware/firmware/software) performed within the association are under GPL/LGPL licence.
The hardware funded by the association can not be used in a commercial product.

Is there some rule to respect to contribute to the wiki?

Yes there are few rules that help you to contribute to update the wiki there: HowTo write articles for armadeus wiki

Hardware Questions

Are the Armadeus boards RoHS compliant ?

Yes

I have an APF27 kit and my 7" Chimei LW700 LCD is blinking (RGB colors), what can I do ?

You're probably running an old (< 3.3) Armadeus BSP release and so default LCD is Sharp LQ043. You have to change your Linux configuration to support your LCD. Please follow instructions on this page.

Gateware Questions (FPGA)

My bitstream break my APF

If you are using ISE13.x or upper, there is a bug loading script TCL file. When design is generated by POD, a script is sourced to make bitstream (myproject.tcl), the source commande ignore the constraint file (ucf) and FPGA pinout is done randomly. To avoid this, once tcl script sourced, re-run all design.

Software Questions

Where are the sources ?

We have a project on gitlab : https://gitlab.com/armadeus/armadeus-bsp

What are the performances of your board ?

Wiki page talking about board performances

How do I get help/support

Help:Contents

How to register my interrupt routine in Linux application ?

How to register my interrupt routine in Linux application ?

How to launch my application at startup ?

See Automatically launch your application page.

U-Boot seems ok but prints: *** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment - Is there something wrong?

Everything is ok. It is an U-Boot feature that happens if the environment partition is empty.
Please read the U-Boot FAQ on this issue: http://www.denx.de/wiki/view/DULG/WarningBadCRCUsingDefaultEnvironment

Other languages:

English Flag.svg English  •  French Flag.svg Français