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.
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.
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.
GuruCE have been hard at work on their latest BSP release for WEC 7 and 2013 for i.MX6.
This release includes a big performance boost, GPU driver update and improved display support. Chose between HDMI or LVDS display output in the bootloader. HDMI will autodetect the resolution.
The demo image includes several GPU demo applications and GuruCE have done a video showing it running on several boards. Opal-6 (based on the i.MX6 DualLite) managed to beat even the quad core modules and record an impressive 250+fps with one of the demos!.
If you are looking for 3D graphics on a single display, the DualLite might deliver the performance you need without the cost and power issues of going to one of the higher-end i.MX6 options. Contact us to find out more, or request a development kit.
GuruCE have released an update to the WEC 7 BSP for the Opal i.MX53 CPU Module. You can get details and download the latest version here.
The update includes bug fixes, performance tweaks and a couple of new features:
1. Fully re-written SPI driver for the i.MX53
2. Update feature allowing eboot and nk updates from within Windows CE.
Please contact us if you want to know more about this update, or think Opal might be a good solution for your new product design.
You may have also noticed the product section of our web site has had an update, and something new has appeared… watch out for some more information on the blog and mailing list in the coming weeks as we get the hardware finished up.
We have a new sample app for the Opal Development Kit.
This is a Windows Embedded Compact 7 application and uses the Silverlight tools for the user interface. The goal is to demonstrate how to access the extra features we have on the Opal Development Kit including the I/O, accelerometer and GPS.
You can download the source and a pre-built binary here.
GuruCE have a new software release for Topaz. It adds an SDK for the General Purpose Timers (GPT) feature on the i.MX25 along with fixes and enhancements to the boot-loader and a number of drivers.
The full list of changes is here, and you can download the new release here.
