BEAM Tool for VMK180 Evaluation Kit
The Board evaluation and management (BEAM) tool is a brand new System Controller based tool for enhanced out-of-the-box experience for Versal Evaluation Kit users.
The BEAM Tool is currently in OPEN BETA and this version gives you an early view of the features planned for the upcoming production release. For features unavailable in this version of the BEAM tool, users can follow instructions (Appendix A) to launch the existing Board UI / Board Interface Test (BIT) tool which is also supported by the pre-programmed System Controller micro SD card image.
Table of Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Requirements
- 3 Board Setup and Connection
- 4 Launching to the Home screen and Navigation options
- 5 Known Issues
- 6 Appendix A - Launching Board UI / Board Interface Test (BIT) tool
- 7 Appendix B - Create micro SD card image file from Petalinux BSP
- 8 SD card image Version History
- 9 Appendix C - 8A34001 Configuration Files
- 10 Related Links
Introduction
The Board evaluation and management (BEAM) tool is a web-based GUI application that connects to the webserver running on the System Controller. It allows users to monitor and modify different parameters (clocks, voltages, power, etc.) on the evaluation board and also run the Board Interface Test (BIT) to ensure that the board functions properly. The BEAM tool home page consists of various navigation options and links. The purpose of the BEAM tool is to provide Versal users a much easier and far more intuitive experience with Xilinx Evaluation Kits. The goal is to help users get started faster and have all the available resources at one place for easy access. Depending on the persona type (Hardware, Software or Embedded developer), users can choose to start with either testing the board, using the power advantage demo, downloading Versal reference designs or learning more about the latest Xilinx tools and libraries.
Requirements
You must have a VMK180 Evaluation Kit and some of the accessories provided inside the kit to launch the BEAM tool. These accessories are as follows:
Micro SD Card (16GB) provided for the System Controller. It is shipped with an image pre-installed as shown below
Ethernet Cable
USB-C to USB-A Cable
A Windows PC (Host) with ethernet port is needed to connect an ethernet cable to the System Controller ethernet connector on VMK180 Evaluation Board.
Board Setup and Connection
The VMK180 Evaluation Kit comes with an image pre-installed on the System Controller micro SD card. You can proceed to the Board Connections step and skip the instructions below for writing the image to micro SD card.
If your micro SD card is corrupted and would like to install the micro SD card image from scratch, please follow the micro SD card instructions below.
Download the pre-programed system controller Micro SD Image
(The downloaded file is in .zip format and named ‘sc2.2_01.img.zip’, extracting this gives .wic image named ‘petalinux-sdimage.wic’ which needs to be flashed onto the SD card)
Location of 'petalinux-sdimage.wic’ after extracting= \Downloads\proj\petalinux\2021.1\petalinux-v2021.1_0902_1\bsp\release
Writing the image to micro SD card
Board Connections
Please make the necessary connections and switch settings as per the image shown above. You will only need the Pre-programmed Micro SD (SysCont) to launch the BEAM tool
IP Configuration
NOTE: The current SD image has been configured to support Board UI (Appendix A) by default. When connecting to the System Controller’s console, the boot won’t reach Linux’s login prompt. In order to obtain the prompt, please enter the following key-sequence. If you exist the Board Framework by entering these key-sequence and wish to use Board UI, please refer to Appendix A for instructions on how to re-enable Board Framework.
Set up a Tera Term session between a Windows PC COM port and the serial port (JTAG / UART) on the evaluation board. Ensure that the correct COM port is selected and port speed is set to 115200.
Board and Windows PC with Ethernet port can be connected with an ethernet cable provided in the kit [Picture: Direct connect to laptop] OR the board can be connected to network with DHCP server running to provide address [Picture: Wall RJ45].
If board is in network with DHCP, jump to step 6. If board is connected to the host, continue with step 4 below.
Please follow below instructions to set a static IP address in the Windows PC.
For example, IP address: 192.168.1.2 and Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Go to: Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections and open Properties
Please make sure:
The last digit of the IP Address on Windows PC should be different than what is being set on the Board.
The default gateway should have last digit as one, rest should be same as IP Address field.
Refer to the snapshot below for IP Setting
If your board Ethernet is directly connected to your PC, you will need to manually set your IP Address (because there is no DHCP to automatically assign an IP Address). Enter the following command in your Linux terminal to manually set your IP Address.
ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.11
Note: The Linux console may instruct you open a browser to a URL. Please ignore those instructions. |
Or to make the IP Address persistent through boot, follow this procedure. (To make the IP address again configurable by DHCP, undo the change by un-commenting line 3 and commenting out lines 4 though 7.)
Edit: /etc/network/interfaces
auto eth0
#iface eth0 inet dhcp
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.11
netmask 255.255.0.0
gateway 192.168.1.1
6. Verify/check the IP address of the board. If you are on DHCP but the IP Address is coming up as 192.168.1.11 please check if someone has set it to be persistent as in step 5.
ifconfig
7. Ping the Windows PC with the below command. To stop the ping command, use (Ctrl+C)
Launching to the Home screen and Navigation options
On Windows PC, Open Chrome web browser and enter the below in the address bar of your web browser. The BEAM tool GUI is displayed once the loading is finished.
The GUI contains Home, Help, About and various navigation options such as Test the board, Linux prompt, Demos & Design and Develop using Tools tabs. At the bottom right, the BEAM tool version is displayed.
The home screen contains pictures and links to two Versal pages, product page link and navigation options to other tabs. Click on the “Home” button located on the top-right to navigate to this screen from any other tabs.
Now we’ll be looking at each of the navigation options in the BEAM tool:
Known Issues
User has to logout from jupyter notebook before exiting. Failing doing so may show login screen for next notebook launch.
User cannot run jupyter notebook and Board settings and BIT at the same time. User has to shut down any jupyter notebook kernels to use “Board Interface Tests” or “Board Settings” tabs components.
Terminating notebook server using kill command may not able to launch notebook in new tab.
Run below command to start notebook server or when “No Active notebook sessions” error message is shown.
jupyter notebook --no-browser --allow-root --debug --ip=192.168.1.11
VMK180 resets multiple times at power up using the Beta 2.2 BEAM tool image - Solution:
Download the sc_app binary file from https://support.xilinx.com/s/article/000034111?language=en_US .
Copy the binary to System Controller, replace ‘/usr/bin/sc_app’ with this binary, and reboot.
Appendix A - Launching Board UI / Board Interface Test (BIT) tool
NOTES
Make sure that you have already followed the above steps [Board Setup and Connection] to download the SD card image and flashed it to the System Controller SD card
System Controller’s serial console needs to be closed, otherwise Board UI can not operate properly.
You need to have the Vivado Design Suite HW Manager installed on your host system.
The 'Production Test' mode of Board Interface Test is used in Manufacturing environment and some tests may require additional hardware/configuration to pass.
Enable/Disable Board Framework
Start Board Framework from Linux command line:
Exit Board Framework to Linux command line:
Disable Board Framework persistently:
Enable Board Framework persistently:
Download the Board UI / Board Interface Test (BIT) tool from the VMK180 Evaluation Kit product page.
Appendix B - Create micro SD card image file from Petalinux BSP
SD card image Version History
Latest version - Beta 2.2 (updated intermediate) release - September 2021
Download this version for pre-production and production boards
(File downloaded is in .zip format. After extracting, the SD card image obtained is in .wic format)
Major updates:
Bug fixes related to Clocks and FMC setting
Adding a new Power Management Dashboard along with existing Versal Power Demo in BEAM tool
New ACAP Cockpit tool integrated in BEAM tool
Minor fixes related to broken links and bug related to launching Jupyter notebooks
Past version - Beta 2.1 (Intermediate) release – May 2021
Download this version (it’s always recommended to use the latest version, only download if absolutely needed)
(File downloaded is in .zip format. After extracting, the SD card image obtained is in .img format)
Major updates:
Clocks - Set si570 Frequency, Set si570 Boot Frequency, Restore si570 Device Default
FMC (Current) - Set VADJ_FMC and Get VADJ_FMC
FMC (Boot Up) - Set Boot VADJ_FMC
Please note that all the default Board Interface Test (BIT) are still not supported in BEAM tool. Users need to use Board UI to run all the BIT (refer to above Appendix A section)
Past version - Beta 2.0 (First) release – November 2020
Download this version (it’s always recommended to use the latest version, only download if absolutely needed)
(File downloaded is in .zip format. After extracting, the SD card image obtained is in .img format)
Appendix C - 8A34001 Configuration Files
The 8A34001 clock files are referenced to program this device on the board. Users with custom design for this device will need to copy their clock files (tcs and txt files) to following directory:
A reboot is required for new clock files to be detected by the BEAM tool.
For more information on generating your own clock configuration files, refer to the Renesas Timing Commander website.
Steps to upload new clock files
Connect to your evaluation platform using the JTAG / UART connector (refer to the “Component Location” section of your User Guide)
Using TeraTerm (UG1036) or similar, connect a terminal to the last port number that shows up, in this example, COM6
Turn on the power (SW13)
Once you get the IP address
Connect to the System Controller using SCP with a tool like WinSCP
The default password for root user is the word ‘root’
Connect to the System Controller and copy the files from inside the clock_files folder in your host PC to the home directory in SC
Back in the terminal, exit the Board Framework by entering ‘EXT <Enter key><Tab key>’ key-sequence to reach Linux’s prompt
Check that the files you copied are present
From your home directory, execute the below commands to copy the clock files into the clock_files location BEAM uses to list clock files:
Double check that the clock files are present
Now reboot the system controller - DO NOT CLOSE your terminal application
Once the System Controller has booted, navigate to the web address presented
Navigate the menus:
Test the Board → Board Settings → Set Clock
Select the each of the clock files for each selector, in this case “VCK190_8A34001_100MHz.tcs” and “VCK190_8A34001_100MHz.txt”
Finally, click Set
If you see a green checkbox to the right, you have successfully programmed the clock with your custom file!
Related Links
Product Page - https://www.xilinx.com/products/boards-and-kits/vmk180.html
Product Specification https://www.xilinx.com/products/boards-and-kits/vmk180.html#specifications
Master Answer Record - https://xilinx.sharepoint.com/sites/xkb/SitePages/ArticleViewer.aspx?articleNumber=72739
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