RA8T2 Motor Control Kit

Overview

The MCK-RA8T2 is an Motor Control Kit for Renesas RA8T2 MCU Group which integrates multiple series of software-compatible Arm®-based 32-bit cores that share a common set of Renesas peripherals to facilitate design scalability and efficient platform-based product development.

The MCU in this series incorporates a high-performance Arm® Cortex®-M85 core running up to 1 GHz and Arm® Cortex®-M33 core running up to 250 MHz with the following features:

  • Up to 1 MB MRAM

  • 2 MB SRAM (256 KB of CM85 TCM RAM, 128 KB CM33 TCM RAM, 1664 KB of user SRAM)

  • Octal Serial Peripheral Interface (OSPI)

  • Layer 3 Ethernet Switch Module (ESWM), USBFS, SD/MMC Host Interface

  • Analog peripherals

  • Security and safety features

MCK-RA8T2 kit includes the items below:

  • RA8T2 CPU board (MCB-RA8T2)

  • Inverter board (MCI-LV-1)

  • Communication board (MC-COM)

  • Permanent magnet synchronous motors

  • Accessories (cables, standoffs, etc.)

The specifications of the CPU board are shown below:

MCU specifications

  • A high-performance RA8T2 MCU featuring an Arm® Cortex®-M85 core running up to 1 GHz and an Arm® Cortex®-M33 core running up to 250 MHz, offered in a 289-pin BGA package.

  • MRAM/SRAM size: 1MB/2MB

  • MCU input clock: 24MHz (Generate with external crystal oscillator)

  • Power supply: DC 5V, select one way automatically from the below:

    • Power is supplied from compatible inverter board

    • Power is supplied from USB connector

Connector

  • Inverter board connector (2 pair)

  • USB connector for J-Link On-Board

  • USB connector for RA8T2

  • SCI connector for Renesas Motor Workbench communication

  • Through hole for CAN communication

  • 20 pin through hole for Arm debugger

  • Pmod connectors (Type2A + Type3A/6A)

  • User-controllable LED x6, Power LED x1,Ether CAT LED x8

  • MCU reset switch

  • Ether CAT connector

  • MicroSD slot

  • DSMIF

Onboard debugger

This product has the onboard debugger circuit, J-Link On-Board (hereinafter called “J-Link-OB”). When you write a program, open the JP3 and connect the USB connector(CN13) on 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 “J-Link”

Hardware

Detailed Hardware features for the RA8T2 MCU group can be found at: - The RA8T2 MCU group: RA8T2 Group User’s Manual Hardware - The MCB-RA8T2 board: MCB-RA8T2 - User’s Manual

Supported Features

The mck_ra8t2 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.

Note

For using SDHC module on MCK-RA8T2, Connect microSD Card to microSD Socket (CN17)

Programming and Debugging

The mck_ra8t2 board supports the runners and associated west commands listed below.

flash debug

Applications for the mck_ra8t2 board configuration 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.

Here is an example for the Hello World application on CM85 core.

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b mck_ra8t2/r7ka8t2lflcac/cm85 samples/hello_world
west flash

Open a serial terminal, reset the board (push the reset switch S1), and you should see the following message in the terminal:

***** Booting Zephyr OS v4.2.0-xxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx *****
Hello World! mck_ra8t2/r7ka8t2lflcac/cm85

Flashing

Program can be flashed to MCB-RA8T2 via the on-board SEGGER J-Link debugger. SEGGER J-link’s drivers are available at https://www.segger.com/downloads/jlink/

To flash the program to board

  1. Connect to J-Link OB via USB port to host PC

  2. Make sure J-Link OB jumper is in default configuration as describe in MCB-RA8T2 - User’s Manual

  3. Execute west command

    west flash -r jlink

MCUboot bootloader

The sysbuild makes possible to build and flash all necessary images needed to bootstrap the board.

To build the sample application using sysbuild use the command:

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b mck_ra8t2/r7ka8t2lflcac/cm85 --sysbuild samples/hello_world -- -DSB_CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT=y
west flash

By default, Sysbuild creates MCUboot and user application images.

Build directory structure created by sysbuild is different from traditional Zephyr build. Output is structured by the domain subdirectories:

build/
├── hello_world
|    └── zephyr
│       ├── zephyr.elf
│       ├── zephyr.hex
│       ├── zephyr.bin
│       ├── zephyr.signed.bin
│       └── zephyr.signed.hex
├── mcuboot
│    └── zephyr
│       ├── zephyr.elf
│       ├── zephyr.hex
│       └── zephyr.bin
└── domains.yaml

Note

With --sysbuild option, MCUboot will be rebuilt and re-flashed every time the pristine build is used.

To only flash the user application in the subsequent builds, Use:

$ west flash --domain hello_world

For more information about the system build please read the Sysbuild (System build) documentation.

You should see the following message in the terminal:

*** Booting MCUboot v2.2.0-171-g8513be710e5e ***
*** Using Zephyr OS build v4.2.0-6156-ged85ac9ffda9 ***
I: Starting bootloader
I: Image index: 0, Swap type: none
I: Image index: 0, Swap type: none
I: Primary image: magic=unset, swap_type=0x1, copy_done=0x3, image_ok=0x3
I: Secondary image: magic=unset, swap_type=0x1, copy_done=0x3, image_ok=0x3
I: Boot source: none
I: Image index: 0, Swap type: none
I: Image index: 0, Swap type: none
I: Image index: 0, Swap type: none
I: Image index: 0, Swap type: none
I: Bootloader chainload address offset: 0x10000
I: Image version: v0.0.0
I: Jumping to the first image slot
*** Booting Zephyr OS build v4.2.0-6156-ged85ac9ffda9 ***
Hello World! mck_ra8t2/r7ka8t2lflcac/cm85

References