Fast Prototyping Board for RA8E1 MCU Group

Overview

The FPB-RA8E1, a Fast Prototyping Board for the RA8E1 MCU Group, enables users to seamlessly evaluate the features of the RA8E1 MCU group and develop embedded systems applications using Flexible Software Package (FSP) and the e2 studio IDE. Users can use on-board features along with their choice of popular ecosystems add-ons to bring their big ideas to life.

The MCU in this series incorporates a high-performance Arm® Cortex®-M85 core with HeliumTMrunning up to 360 MHz with the following features:

1 MB code flash memory
544 KB SRAM (32 KB of TCM RAM, 512 KB of user SRAM)
Octal Serial Peripheral Interface (OSPI)
Ethernet MAC Controller (ETHERC), USBFS
Analog peripherals
Security and safety features

The following components are included in the FPB-RA8E1 box:

FPB-RA8E1 v1 board
FPB-RA8E1 v1 Quick Start Guide

The specifications of the CPU board are shown below:

MCU specifications

360 MHz Arm® Cortex®-M85 core based RA8E1 MCU 144 pins, LQFP package
ROM/SRAM size: 1MB/512KB
MCU input clock: 20MHz (Generate with external crystal oscillator)
Power supply: DC 5V, select one way automatically from the below:
- Power is supplied from the Debug USB connector (J10)
- Power is supplied from an external 5V input (J60 or via TP7/TP9)

Connector

Two Digilent Pmod™ (SPI, I2C and UART [Pmod 1] and SPI/UART [Pmod 2]) connectors
Arduino™ (UNO R3) connectors
JTAG/SWD Connector
Debug USB-C connector
External +5 V power source connector (J60)
Real Time Clock backup supply battery connector
20-pin Camera Interface connector

Onboard debugger

This product has the onboard debugger circuit, J-Link On-Board (hereinafter called “J-Link-OB”). When you write a program, connect the CPU board to PC with USB cable. J-Link-OB operates as debugger equivalent to J-Link. If connecting from flash programming tool (e.g. J-Flash Lite by SEGGER), set the type of debugger (tool) to “JLink”

Hardware

Detailed Hardware features for the RA8E1 MCU group can be found at:

The RA8E1 MCU group: RA8E1 Group User’s Manual Hardware
The FPB-RA8E1 board: FPB-RA8E1 - User’s Manual

Supported Features

The fpb_ra8e1 board supports the hardware features listed below.

on-chip / on-board: Feature integrated in the SoC / present on the board.
2 / 2: Number of instances that are enabled / disabled.
Click on the label to see the first instance of this feature in the board/SoC DTS files.
vnd,foo: Compatible string for the Devicetree binding matching the feature.
Click on the link to view the binding documentation.

Programming and Debugging

The fpb_ra8e1 board supports the runners and associated west commands listed below.

	flash	debug

Applications for the fpb_ra8e1 board can be built, flashed, and debugged in the usual way. See Building an Application and Run an Application for more details on building and running.

Configuring the Debug Probe

The FPB-RA8E1 board includes an on-board SEGGER J-Link debugger. SEGGER J-Link drivers are available at https://www.segger.com/downloads/jlink

To use the on-board J-Link debugger, ensure that:

The J-Link OB is connected to the host PC via the USB port (J10).
The J-Link OB jumper is in the default configuration as described in the FPB-RA8E1 - User’s Manual.

Configuring a Console

Connect a USB cable from your PC to the on-board virtual COM port (J10), and use a serial terminal of your choice (minicom, PuTTY, etc.) with the following settings:

Speed: 115200
Data: 8 bits
Parity: None
Stop bits: 1

Flashing

Here is an example for the Hello World application.

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b fpb_ra8e1 samples/hello_world
west flash

Open a serial terminal, reset the board (push the reset switch S2), and you should see the following message in the terminal:

***** Booting Zephyr OS v4.3.0-xxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx *****
Hello World! fpb_ra8e1

Debugging