an1283: using rs9116n with i.mx6 wandboard

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AN1283: Using RS9116N with i.MX6 Wandboard Version 1.8 10/12/2020

AN1283: Using RS9116N with i.MX6 Wandboard Version 1.8


Table of Contents 1 RS9116 n-Link Evaluation Kit Contents ............................................................................................................... 4 2 RS9116 n-Link EVK-Overview............................................................................................................................... 5 2.1 The RS9116 n-Link™ ........................................................................................................................................... 5 2.2 Solution Highlights ............................................................................................................................................... 5 2.3 Hardware Details .................................................................................................................................................. 5 3 RS9116 n-Link Hardware Requirements .............................................................................................................. 7 4 RS9116 n-Link Software Requirements ............................................................................................................... 8 5 RS9116 n-Link - Preparing a Bootable SD Card for Wandboard Solo ............................................................... 9 5.1 Download the image file from the following link :.................................................................................................. 9 6 RS9116 n-Link Assembly and Accessing Wandboard ..................................................................................... 11 6.1 Assembling Wandboard with Silicon Labs EVK ................................................................................................. 11 6.2 Accessing Wandboard using SSH ..................................................................................................................... 11 7 Steps to Connect RS9116 STA to Access Point ............................................................................................... 12 8 RS9116 n-Link Reference Materials ................................................................................................................... 21 9 RS9116 n-Link Troubleshooting ......................................................................................................................... 22



About this Document This document describes how to setup the RS9116 Module's Evaluation Kit(EVK) to evaluate Silicon Labs' RS9116 based ultra-low-power, single spatial stream, single-band (2.4 GHz) 802.11n + BT 5.0 modules in n-LinkTM mode.



1 RS9116 n-Link Evaluation Kit Contents RS9116 Evaluation Kit includes following:

1. RS9116 Module Evaluation Board (IO Base Board)

2. Wireless daughter card

3. SDIO Adaptor Cable

4. Micro USB connector

Figure 1: Evaluation Kit Contents*



2 RS9116 n-Link EVK-Overview Silicon Labs' RS9116 family of SoCs and modules provide a comprehensive multi-protocol wireless connectivity solution including 802.11bgn (2.4 GHz) and Bluetooth 5.

2.1 The RS9116 n-Link™

The n-Link™ products provide single band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz, 802.11bgn 1x1) connectivity and also Bluetooth 5.0 in systems which have 32/64-bit host processor/microcontroller running Linux OS. These products can be interfaced over interfaces like SDIO and USB bus to host processor/microcontroller where generic TCP/IP network stacks, Wireless stack/profiles running.

2.2 Solution Highlights

• Wi-Fi connectivity (802.11bgn) support with multiple operating modes such as Wi-Fi Client, Wi-Fi AP, Simultaneous Wi-Fi Client & AP.

• Bluetooth 5.0 support - Bluetooth classic and BLE 5.0, dual mode support

• Wi-Fi + BT/BLE Concurrent mode (Co-existence) mode support

• Operates in industrial (-40°C to +85°C) temperature range.

• Choice of several module package (with and without antenna) options depending on system requirements.

• Co-existence of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth protocols with single radio managed by an internal intelligent arbitration manager.

• Ultra-low power consumption with multiple power modes to reduce the system energy consumption.

• Leading edge RF performance providing the best power and performance, showing robustness and reliability in wide range of applications and power scenarios.

• Suitable for high throughput applications where software stack runs on the host processor utilizing the networking stack of OS such as Linux.

• OneBox™ software package developed by Silicon Labs allows for the same hardware design to operate in Wi-Fi station with Bluetooth Classic and LE.

2.3 Hardware Details

This section describes the RS9116 EVK's various components and headers. The OneBox-Hosted software for the n-Link™ modules supports SDIO & USB interfaces to connect to the Host.



Figure 2: RS9116 EVB

Option Feature Name Description

1 Power USB It is used to supply power to the EVB. While using USB interface, connecting power USB is optional as power drawn from USB itself.

2 USB It is the port for USB interface used to communicate with host.

3 SDIO/SPI It is the common port for both SDIO and SPI interface, used to communicate with host.. Note: In nLink only SDIO is supported.

4 Measurement It is a provision to measure current consumption of chip using ammeter or Digital Multi meter.

5 3.3V/1.8V Voltage selection

It is a provision to select the operating voltage of chip. User need to set this to either 3.3V or 1.8V selection.

6 Reset Switch Provision to reset chip

7 Power save GPIO’s These are GPIO’s which need to be connected appropriately to the host, while using GPIO handshake in ULP or WOWLAN. Please refer TRM for more details.

8 Onboard antenna /Internal Antenna

This is an onboard antenna used for wireless communications

9 External Antenna UFL connector

Provision given to connect external antenna as per the requirement.

10 RS9116 SOC Chip number will be printed on top of SOC which has below information included in it.

M/N:M7DB6

RS9116-CC0-2

FCC ID:KFS-M7DBN6

For details refer to RS9116 Product Brief

https://www.silabs.com/documents/login/brochures/RS9116_Connectivity_Product_Brief.pdf



3 RS9116 n-Link Hardware Requirements

RS9116 SB (2.4 GHz) EVK

Wandboard Solo (I.MX6-SD) with power supply

(not included in EVK Kit)

SKU: WB-IMX6S-BW

Click here for Specifications

Ethernet cable (not included in Kit)

SDIO connector

2 x Micro A/B-type USB Cable

Access point (2.4GHz)

802.11 b/g/n compliant Wi-Fi AP

Linux PC

https://www.wandboard.org/products/wandboard/WB-IMX6S-BW/



4 RS9116 n-Link Software Requirements 1. Wandboard image to flash on sd card (Provided by Silicon Labs). Refer to section "EVK 2.0Preparing a bootable

SD Card for Wandboard Solo with Silicon Labs RS9116 Wireless EVK"

2. Win32DiskImager.exe (image flashing tool) - this can be downloaded directly from Internet. (For example : https://osdn.net/projects/sfnet_win32diskimager/downloads/Archive/Win32DiskImager-0.9.5-install.exe/ )

3. "SSH" tool installed on remote/development PC (to access Wandboard) - this can be downloaded via command line utility (For Ubuntu/Debian : apt-get install ssh) (For Fedora/CentOS : yum install ssh or dnf install ssh) also it is up and running. This can be verified by "service ssh status" and to restart "service ssh restart"

https://osdn.net/projects/sfnet_win32diskimager/downloads/Archive/Win32DiskImager-0.9.5-install.exe/



5 RS9116 n-Link - Preparing a Bootable SD Card for Wandboard Solo RS9116 n-Link EVB evaluation using ARM platform (Wandboard-SOLO Linux) with Linux Image downloaded from Silicon Labs website along with EVK (Evaluation Kit).

5.1 Download the image file from the following link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ot09zanu5jqddop/AAAE-xWRXcd0Rm6X0981OuEGa?dl=0

You will need to sign an SLA in order to access the driver source package, to sign an SLA please get in contact with your Area Sales Representative/Distributor.

Steps to Flash SD Card on Linux PC

1. Copy/Download the image to your local folder in your PC. Enter the below commands to load / flash the image on sd card.

2. Check if the sd card detected or not. # fdisk -l Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type /dev/sdb1 8192 15126527 15118336 7.2G b W95 FAT32

Formatting the SD card:

1. For windows, user can use multiple applications such as SDFormatter.exe to format the sd card.

2. For Linux, user can enter the below command, to erase partition table / labels on micro SD card : # sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb1 bs=8192 Example : sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb1 bs=8192

3. Copy the image using the command : #. sudo dd if=NameOfImageToWrite.img of=/dev/sdb1 bs=4M Example : # sudo dd if=n-Link_evk_xxxx.img of=/dev/sdb1 bs=4M

4. unmount the device # umount /dev/sdb1

Steps to Flash SD Card on Windows PC

1. Download a software(Win32DiskImager.exe) to flash the image on to sd card.

2. After download, double click on "Win32DiskImager.exe". A window will pop-up:

3. Select the image file from local PC.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ot09zanu5jqddop/AAAE-xWRXcd0Rm6X0981OuEGa?dl=0

https://www.silabs.com/about-us/contact-sales?view=map



4. Click "Write"

5. It will take a while to flash the image on sd card. Once, flashed - a pop up will appear.

6. Click OK.

7. Remove the sd card from sd card reader and insert it on Wandboard.



6 RS9116 n-Link Assembly and Accessing Wandboard

6.1 Assembling Wandboard with Silicon Labs EVK

6.2 Accessing Wandboard using SSH

Connect the 9116 EVK using the SDIO or USB connector. Then, power up the Wandboard using power adapter.

Procedure to Login the wand board console:

1. Connect a LAN cable to the Wandboard and the Linux PC.

2. Open the Terminal in Linux PC and give the IP of the Linux pc in the subnet of 192.168.50.X(Ex:ifconfig eth0 192.168.50.20).

3. Check the Ping to 192.168.50.10(Ex:ping 192.168.50.10).

4. If ping s successful, Login to the Wandboard console using ssh.(By default, IP address of the WandBoard is 192.168.50.10).

ssh -X [email protected]

password :temppwd

mailto:[email protected]



7 Steps to Connect RS9116 STA to Access Point 1. After booting up the platform, run the script as shown below

2. Check for available options using help "sudo rsi help"

3. Now start the script using "sudo rsi start". It will load our driver and create Wi-Fi interface.

4. Check for the different AP nearby using "sudo rsi scan"



5. Connect to the Desired AP using "sudo rsi connect". This will connect to the AP and will get the IP A)Open security

B)WPA2 Security



6. Ping to the AP or URL(default it will ping to AP IP address. If the AP is connected to internet You can give the URL) using "sudo rsi ping"

7. Run the TCP and UDP Throughput using "sudo rsi throughput"



A)TCP Traffic



B)UDP Traffic



8. Upgrading firmware. Enter the command "sudo rsi upgrade-firmware".



Quick Note : When user hits the command "sudo rsi upgrade-firmware", RS9116 EVK will try to connect to Access Point where "firmware" file is present. User needs to enter the IP of PC and part to the firmware file along with file name and hit "Enter". New firmware is copied to Wandboard and platform reboots automatically with new firmware. User needs to login again to the platform using ssh

9. Coex functionality Enter the command "sudo rsi coex" to observe the coex functionality. As soon as the user enter this command, RS9116 EVK will try to connect to Access point (will ask for AP credentials) once entered it will connect to Access



point and then start BLE scanning, two pop up windows will appear on the console (1. running BLE scan results 2. ping to AP) simultaneously. (Note : Hit enter to ping to AP IP or enter URL to ping)

10. For Connected standby power use the "sudo rsi standby-power".

11. The drivers will be loaded, and any nearby access points will be scanned. The scan results will be displayed, and will prompt to connect to AP (refer Step 5). Provide only "ssid" for Open Security, and both "ssid" and "password" for WPA2 security. Once connected successfully, the device will enter into power save mode.

12. Remove all the driver modules using "sudo rsi stop"

NOTE:

If you are running the commands in sequence, on issuing certain commands such as "rsi connect" or "rsi_coex", you will be asked if you want to continue access with the same AP, or if you want to connect to a new AP. To connect to a new AP, type "yes", else type "no".



8 RS9116 n-Link Reference Materials For Technical Reference Manuals, and other collaterals, please refer to our Technical Resource Search site.

Toolchains for Wandboard may be downloaded from Wandboard site: i.MX 6 Solo Tools & Software.

If you wish to use your own platform, please refer to the following documentation for evaluation of RS9116 EVK: UG452: RS9116N EVK Software User's Guide.

https://www.silabs.com/support/resources

https://www.wandboard.org/downloads/

https://www.silabs.com/documents/login/user-guides/ug452-rs9116n-evk-software-users-guide.pdf



9 RS9116 n-Link Troubleshooting Check whether RS9116 EVK is detected:

Please make sure RS9116 EVK is detected on Wandboard by typing "dmesg" logs. To verify detection, the user can check cat /sys/bus/sdio/devices/mmcxxx/vendor. If the command output is 0x041b, that means module is detected.

In driver logs (dmesg), user will notify a print "mmcX: new high speed SDIO card at address fffd" in console logs in case of SDIO interface and command output for USB interface will be "1618:9116" using "lsusb" command.



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an1283: using rs9116n with i.mx6 wandboard

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