Hey everybody,
I am a French student at the University of Plymouth, UK.
I am working on a MSc project with an SAM9-L9260 board.
It is my first time with this device.
I have the datasheet, but some information is missing. Can I find a tutorial with the first steps, and how to run the example code provided BUTT with IAR?
The aim of my project is to create an interface between this card and the LCD Nokia6610 screen.
Thank you in advance for all information.
Regards,
Arnaud

hello,
what kind of tutorial are you looking for?
if you are not familiar with microcontroller programming then a 9260 isn't the right choice.
if you already have some kind of experience take a look at the examples provided with the iar workbench. the getting-started-project is a good starting point.
also the datasheet is a good source of information.

regards
gerhard

Hi Gerhard,
Thank you for your response.
I succeeded in turning on a LED thanks to the example provided.
But I do not understand all the commands like:
PIO_ODR
PIO_PER
PIO_PDSR
PIO_CODR

In addition, I do not know how to use a delay to make this LED blink.

What do you suggest me to use as board?
I need a cheap board with which I could connect a GPS module (it is a TTS/RS232 module so easy), a LCD screen type Nokia6610 and a Wireless module (I use the Olimex MOD-24LR).
I have seen tutorials providing drivers for the screen, and I just would like to display a hello world on this screen, but I do no know how to do.
I know that I have a lot of questions, But I think that if all of them are clarified, it will help me a lot to resolve the problem.
Regards,
Arnaud

hello arnaud,
you didn't mention what kind of software you would like to run on your microcontroller, but all of the hardware you mention can easily be connected to a more simple controller, like a sam7s.

but even with a sam7s you have to read the datasheet and try to understand the examples.

regards
gerhard

Hello Gerhard,
I would like to run a program which display the GPS coordinates on the screen, the velocity, and an audio wireless communication to an other similar board.
I already read the datasheet, but thet are not a lot explained.
I think that the SAM9 board is also a good choice but it is less documented than SAM7.
I am trying to find SAM9 examples but I do cannot find working examples.
If you have any websites or .pdf or any information.
Regards,
Arnaud

hello arnaud,
do you already own a 9260 board?
if yes which is it?
did you find the examples for the 9260 coming with iar workbench?
the examples are written mainly for the SAM9260-EK from atmel.
so if your board differs from the SAM9260-EK you will have to chnage the examples.

regards
gerhard

Hi Gerhard,
yes I have the SAM9-L9260 with the AT91SAM9260. I have seen the examples, but it is just software. There is no "physical" explanation. I will have a look on it and ask you more precise questions.
I am looking for a delay function for the moment.
Thank you very much for your answers.
Regards,
Arnaud

hello arnaud,
my i ask you a ver y simple question:
do you have any experience with microcontroller hardware and software development?

regards
gerhard

I have already programmed PIC and I am quite skilled in C programming. But never on ARM's microcontrollers.
I will have a look on the provided examples.

Regards,
Arnaud

hello arnaud,
so you even have some experience with micro's.
i would say that the main difference between a micro like pic and an arm controller is, that at arm the peripherals are memory mapped io's.
there are some more difference like you need a set and a clear register for setting and clearing bits in different peripheral registers.

afaik there is no tutorial available for the 9260 or other atmel arm controller.
you can take a look at the "The Insider's Guide To The xxxxx" series from hitex.com, but they are only available for NXP and ST controllers and are only mentioning keil development tools.

regards
gerhard

Hello Arnaud

For information on the AT91SAM9260 go to http://www.atmel.com/devices/SAM9260.aspx?tab=documents

Download SAM9260 Complete datasheet. This will tell you all about the PIO_ODR,
PIO_PER,PIO_PDSR,PIO_CODR registers under the gpio section.

For everything you want to do, it might be worthwhile to look at your devboard schematics to see what you have available on there, and maybe consider using a linux kernel (http://www.at91.com/linux4sam/bin/view/ ... ingStarted). Depending on how close to the AT91SAM9260-ek devboard your target board is, it might be easier than you expect. The big challenge here would be to get familier with linux driver development (If the hardware you want to use differ from the available drivers).

This all depends on your preferred area of learning. Bare metal programming of drivers, application etc, or low-level driver programming for drivers and OS level programming for application.

Good Luck

Hi both of you, and thank you very much for your answers.

I think that using Linux kernel could be great as well. There is a driver for the LCD Nokia 6610 Screen; however, I have to understand how to add it to the board and use it with my C program. I will have a look on the Linux website and try to make my own project with previous existing models.
Thank you very much for your answers. I will work on it today.
I let you know later.
Regards,
Arnaud

Just to clarify my situation,
I just installed everyrhing such as http://www.at91.com/linux4sam/bin/view/ ... ingStarted
My demo board is running on Linux. But for example, how can I add my Nokia LCD screen? It is connected on the external 40 pins port. (a student already did it). How can I program that? Because the only thing I can do is having a serial communication between the board an me. I cannot have a main.c, with all the peripherials (LCD screen, GPS module, Wifi transmitter) and run it on my board?
The tutorial does not explain that.
To clarify; 2 ways of working:
1) With Linux embedded and I program it to display what I want on the screen and configure my GPS module. (difficulty, make working the peripherials)
2) Program with IAR a program. It is not Linux any more and I have to create everything.
Is it true?
A student last year already did this project, using IAR. I have the gps.c, main.c, and the driver.c for the screen.
I will try to launch it in a new workspace with IAR because I just have the sources.

If you already have all the needed drivers in a IAR project, it might be less painfull to do it that way. If you can get it started up, you can start writing your program immediately.

For a linux based system you might have to get a lot of drivers in place first. (You'll have to go look through the linux drivers directory to find out what is available in terms of non standard drivers for your board). If there are drivers available, you'll have to modify the AT91sam9260-ek board and devices files to bring up the relevant drivers.

On a linux based embedded system there is a steep learning curve with respect to writing drivers. A good place to start would be the Atmel framebuffer driver for the LCD (depending on how(which bus) the Nokia screen is connected it might only be a modification in stead of a rewrite - if it uses the same pinout as the LCD on the AT91SAM9260-EK board).

For running a program on the board you would have to compile it to run on an embedded linux environment, and run it automatically at startup or from the command line (normally accessible via DBGU serial port)

Thus, it all depends on the amount of effort you want to put in to learn something new, the size of the challenge that you are ready for and also the time you have available.

Thank you very much for your answer. It is already more clear.
I just used the provided drivers, and it works. I can display something on the screen.
I will try to use Linux and configure the screen if a driver is existing.
For the moment, I am just trying to find and understand where are the pins attributed for the screen in the provided source code.
Thank you for your explanation.
Regards,
Arnaud

edit: the red color is not displayed on my screen. I used the drivers provided by James Lynch here:
http://www.electro-tech-online.com/cust ... iver-3.pdf
I will check my pins. If you have any idea...