WeAct RA4M1 Core Board

Overview

The MCU integrates multiple series of software- and pin-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 provides an optimal combination of low-power, high-performance Arm Cortex®-M4 core running up to 48 MHz with the following features:

Renesas RA4M1 Microcontroller Group

  • R7FA4M1AB3CFM

  • 64-pin LQFP package

  • 48 MHz Arm® Cortex®-M4 core with Floating Point Unit (FPU)

  • 32 KB SRAM

  • 256 KB code flash memory

  • 8 KB data flash memory

Connectivity

  • A Device USB connector for the Main MCU

  • A SWD interface is also provided for connecting optional external debuggers and programmers.

  • 1 User button, 1 User LED

  • Pin headers for access to power and signals for the Main MCU

Multiple clock sources

  • Main MCU oscillator crystals, providing precision 16.000 MHz and 32,768 Hz external reference clocks

  • Additional low-precision clocks are available internal to the Main MCU

General purpose I/O ports

  • One jumper to allow measuring of Main MCU current

  • Copper jumpers on PCB bottom side for configuration and access to selected MCU signals

Operating voltage

  • External 5 V input through the USB-C connector supplies the on-board power regulator to power logic and interfaces on the board.

  • A red board status LED indicating availability of regulated power.

  • A blue User LED, controlled by the Main MCU firmware.

  • A user push-button switch, controlled by the Main MCU firmware.

  • MCU reset push-button switch.

  • MCU boot configuration button.

Hardware

Detailed hardware features can be found at:

Supported Features

The weact_ra4m1_core 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 weact_ra4m1_core board supports the runners and associated west commands listed below.

flash debug

Applications for the weact_ra4m1_core 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.

Flashing

Program can be flashed to WeAct RA4M1-Core via an external 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 connection is correct to the board’s SWD pins.

  3. Execute west command

west flash -r jlink

Debugging

You can use Segger Ozone (Segger Ozone Download) for a visual debug interface

Once downloaded and installed, open Segger Ozone and configure the debug project like so:

  • Target Device: R7FA4M1AB

  • Target Interface: SWD

  • Target Interface Speed: 4 MHz

  • Host Interface: USB

  • Program File: <path/to/your/build/zephyr.elf>

Note: It’s verified that we can debug OK on Segger Ozone v3.30d so please use this or later version of Segger Ozone

References