Introduction: ARM7 Development Board Quick Start

About: ENTESLA is an Embedded Systems Design and Solution provider based in Mumbai,India.

The ARM7 Development Board comes with NXP’s LPC2148 microcontroller. The microcontroller can be programmed through the serial port using the on-chip serial bootloader. The board features various interfaces available on-board like LEDs, Push Buttons, Analog Input, Dual-RS232 port, EEPROM, Power Amplifier, USB connector, Buzzer, Character LCD and dedicated connectors to plug-in a Temperature Sensor, Distance measurement sensor, Accelerometer and an XBEE wireless device. A JTAG connector is also provided to enable programming and debugging of the microcontroller. The board can be powered using an external power source like an adapter or can be powered using the USB port on the computer. The ARM7 Development board has been designed for optimal use of the peripherals on-chip and interfaces on-board to create a variety of applications.

Link to the producthttp://bit.ly/arm7_dev_brd

Package Content:
The ARM7 Development Board package comes with ARM7 Development board itself, a CD-ROM with related resources, a Mini-USB cable and a Serial cable.

Prerequisites:
1. A Workstation with ...
    • Installed with WindowsXP or Later.
    • A CD/DVD Drive.
    • A spare USB port.
    • A Serial port (if absent, use an external USB-to-Serial Converter).
2. Enthusiasm.

Step 1: Installing Flash Magic

  • Ensure you place the development board on a clean flat surface. Avoid using a static prone material right beneath the development board.
  • The development board ships with a LED blinking code. Power the board using Mini-USB cable provided. The LEDs present on-board must start blinking. Alternately, the board can also be powered using an external adapter with an output rating of D.C 8-16V sourcing at least 500mA.
  • The CD-ROM consists of demo test codes for all the peripherals on-board. To test the peripherals like on-board  LCD 16x2, flash the LPC2148 microcontroller using the demo HEX codes.
  • Flash Magic is a software used to flash the HEX file to the microcontroller. Browse for the Flash Magic software from the CD-ROM under the /ARM7 Dev Board/Software/ directory or download the latest version here.
  • Install the Flash Magic software on your HDD. The installation is pretty straight forward.

Step 2: Import the Flash Magic Settings

  • Execute the installed Flash Magic software
  • Load the settings by importing the settings file from the Flash Magic Software directory of your CD-ROM as shown or find the settings as an attachment here

Step 3: COM Port Selection

  • Connect one end of the Serial cable provided to your Workstation's serial port (or USB-to-Serial converter if a serial port is absent) and the other end to ISP/RS232-0 port on the ARM7 development board.
  • Open Device Manager and find the COM port section from the Device tree to know your COM port number as shown. Select the respective COM port from the drop down list in your Flash Magic tool. In this case it is COM1.

Step 4: Program the Microcontroller

  • Browse for the LCD.hex file from the Firmware v1.0/HEX/LCD.hex directory on the CD-ROM as shown below.
  • Click Start button to Program the device. Wait until the Programming Status Bar shows Finished as shown. Note: Refer the Flash Magic Manual for detailed information on how the ISP operation is executed for LPC2xxx series of microcontrollers.

Step 5: Executing the Code

The board shall automatically reset itself to execute the LCD Demo code as shown.

Step 6: Manual Entering the Bootloader

The LPC2148 microcontroller can also be programmed serially by manually entering the on-chip bootloader. This procedure can be used if using a USB-to-Serial converters or if Step 4 fails. To manually enter the bootloader for programming follow the following steps:

    1. Disconnect the jumpers BSL and RST from jumper
        group JP2.
    2. “Press” and “Hold” the RESET and ISP button
         simultaneously.
    3. Release RESET button and then the ISP button.