GuruCE are continuing to develop their i.MX6 BSP and have a new release with many new features and fixes.
Check out their video which details all the updates!
The GuruCE BSP support the Solo, DualLite, Quad and QuadPlus Opal-6 variants. Contact us to get an Opal-6 dev kit so you can test it for yourself.
Yes – we are still here!
It has been a long time since our last post, but there has been a lot going on in the background at Device Solutions. We have been working on some exciting projects with great customers.
GuruCE have also been hard at work and have a new BSP release for i.MX6. It now supports the Opal-6 SOLO along with Dual-Lite, Quad and QuadPlus variants.
Check out the post from GuruCE for all the details, including download links, and contact us to get hold of an Opal-6 Development Kit to kick start your new WEC project.
The team at GuruCE have another i.MX6 WEC 7 and 2103 release ready to go!
Along with many other features and enhancements, this release adds support for the Opal-6 Quad and QuadPlus modules. One of the key features of Opal-6 is the ability to scale – from a single core, through to the powerful QuadPlus for demanding graphics applications.
Check out this video GuruCE put together to show the difference in capabilities between the Quad and QuadPlus.
We have a BETA release of Linux 4.1.15 available for Opal-6!
Apart from an update to Linux v4, this is also the first release to support the Opal-6 QUAD SoM.
All the details are on the release page. There will be a further update early June which will include new documentation.
Drop us a line of you need hardware to try it out!
GuruCE have a new release for Windows Embedded Compact 7 and 2013.
This is the first release to support the i.MX6 QUAD version of Opal-6.
It also has multi-monitor support and other graphics enhancements.
The image above shows WEC7 running on the Opal-6Q and our development kit. It is driving an LVDS display at 1024×768 and the monitor via HDMI at 1920×1080. The monitor is the primary panel and has the shell task bar. The secondary LVDS panel shows a couple of control panel applets we have dragged across from the primary display.
For more details, check out the GuruCE release notes and download the official release here.
We recently posted on the ARM Community site about how and why a customer chose Opal-6 for their new product.
They worked with ILR, one of our design partners on this camera-based project.
Drop us a line if you would like to talk about how Opal-6 could be an option for your new development.
Christmas came early for us!
Opal-6 now has more than just the i.MX6 Solo and DualLite options.
Our i.MX6 Quad prototypes are in-house and we will have samples for customer testing early in the New Year.
The power supply on Opal-6 also has more than enough head-room to support the QuadPlus variant with enhanced graphics. Drop us a line if you want to be one of the first to get the Quad, or to discuss Opal-6 for your new project.
Our last post looked at CAN bus on the Opal-6 Development Kit and how easy it is to connect to and get a prototype working. In this post, we want to highlight the RS485 implementation, which also uses the push-wire wire connectors.
The Opal-6 Dev Kit includes an RS485 transceiver on UART2. If your products interface to other devices using RS485, then getting everything talking with Opal-6 will be easy. Just connect your device – no soldering required.
When it comes to software, the Linux driver takes care of managing the transmit enable line. Just go ahead and use UART2 and it will work in RS485 mode with our dev kit image.
RS485 is also supported in Windows Embedded Compact 2013. To get this working, simply enable the fRtsControl option to be RTS_CONTROL_TOGGLE when you are opening the COM port and the driver will take care of the rest.
Do you use RS485 in your devices? Is this a helpful feature for you? Let us know in the comments, or contact us to talk more about how Opal-6 could help you take the hassle out of your new product development.
We have customers using CAN for a wide variety of applications. Vehicle-based devices are the most common, and these range from earth moving machinery, to busses to boats. It is also used on non-moving industrial devices as an easy and reliable way for parts of a physically distributed system to communicate.
The Opal-6 IoT Development Kit includes CAN PHYs and super-quick push-wire connectors to enable rapid prototyping of applications.
We have put together a short video showing the key features along with a quick look at a demo application running under Windows Embedded Compact 2013
The WEC 2013 source code is here.
If you are using Linux, the SocketCAN API is a good way to access the CAN bus.
If CAN is a requirement for your next project, or if you think it might be a useful feature to include, drop us a line so we can talk further about getting you up and running.
And now for something completely different!
If New Zealand (our HQ) is on your list of places to visit (and it is for almost everyone I talk to when travelling), then this is for you.
Often Kiwi’s are guilty of exploring other parts of the world before they see their own country, and I’m no exception. I’ve been to the Grand Canyon (twice!) but not some of the more famous parts of the Island I live on!
My wife and I had a chance to remedy that a few weeks ago, with the gift of a scenic flight over some of the spectacular Southern Alps in the South Island. If you are planning a trip to NZ, add this to the list of things to do.
Here are some of the highlights. Click a picture to get the full-size version.
This flight was the time I’ve had an upgrade that took me ALL the way to the front of the plane!
Lake Tekapo town and the Mackenzie Basin
Southern Alps and the Tasman Sea
Lake Alexandrina (foreground – Tekapo in the background)
