SolidRun HummingBoard Pulse i.MX8M SBC

HummingBoard Pulse is a feature-rich carrier for the powerful NXP i.MX 8 Arm Cortex A53 based family of SOMs, including the i.MX8M Mini SOMs, i.MX8M Plus SOMs and i.MX8M SOMs.

This SBC features up to 8GB LPDDR4 memory, with flexible storage options including eMMC and MicroSD slot. HummingBoard Pulse also offers a range of connectivity options, including 2 x USB 3.0 ports, Mini PCIe, M.2 and even a SIM card slot. All on a compact Arm based and energy efficient SBC measuring only 102mm X 69mm.

Here are several Hummingboard Pulse official documentation from SolidRun:

• Product page here
• Datasheet here
• Block diagram here

Download images

See Download Images section.

Download the redpesk OS image from command line

Create a directory to download the image:

mkdir ~/redpeskimage
cd ~/redpeskimage

Then download the latest redpesk OS image with this command:

wget -r -nd -nc --no-parent --accept-regex='redpesk.*smack.*\.(bmap|xz|sha256)' --reject-regex '(image\.raw|ova|index)' 'https://download.redpesk.bzh/redpesk-lts/corn-3.0-update/images/smack/minimal/aarch64/solidrun-hummingboard/'

Control the image integrity

Before doing anything, please control the integrity of the downloaded redpesk image. Example:

sha256sum -c redpesk*.tar.xz.sha256
redpesk*aarch64*.tar.xz: OK

Copying the image on your SD card

Plug your SD card and find it (be sure it is unmounted)

Copy the correct device path using the command below. It should be a hotplug device.

lsblk -dli -o PATH,VENDOR,TYPE,HOTPLUG,MODEL
DEVICE_TO_COPY='/dev/<hotplug_device>' #in the example it is /dev/sdc

Example:

$ lsblk -dli -o PATH,VENDOR,TYPE,HOTPLUG,MODEL
PATH         VENDOR   TYPE HOTPLUG MODEL
/dev/sda     ATA      disk       0 WDC_WD10SPZX-08Z10
/dev/sdc     TS-RDF5  disk       1 SD_Transcend #MYSDCARD
/dev/nvme0n1          disk       0 LITEON T11 512
DEVICE_TO_COPY=/dev/sdc

Or if only one device is hotpluggable on your computer:

# need jq
DEVICE_TO_COPY=$(lsblk -dlJ -o PATH,VENDOR,TYPE,HOTPLUG,MODEL | jq -r '.blockdevices[] | select(.hotplug == true).path')
echo $DEVICE_TO_COPY

Umount if needed

lsblk $DEVICE_TO_COPY
# need to umount each partition
sudo umount <part*>

Example:

$ lsblk /dev/sdc
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdc      8:32   1 14.6G  0 disk
├─sdc1   8:33   1  501M  0 part /run/media/iotbzh/0409-3A02
├─sdc2   8:34   1    1G  0 part /run/media/iotbzh/cd3c87ec-1011-4832-aef3-6be0ed3d3748
└─sdc3   8:35   1  2.5G  0 part /run/media/iotbzh/4e508264-8ce2-447f-a829-e4c31ea20047
$ sudo umount /run/media/iotbzh/*

Flash the SD card

Prerequisites: device is plugged in, found, unmounted

• First, extract the image

  tar xJf redpesk*.tar.xz
  

• Then, flash it using dd (safer)

  sudo dd if="Redpesk-OS.img" of=$DEVICE_TO_COPY bs=4M status=progress
  

• Or using bmaptool (faster)

  bmaptool copy "Redpesk-OS.img" $DEVICE_TO_COPY
  

TIPS: Once your are used to flash your image, you could do it much faster in one single step using bmaptool like this:

bmaptool copy "https://download.redpesk.bzh/redpesk-lts/corn-3.0-update/images/smack/minimal/aarch64/solidrun-hummingboard/image.raw.tar.xz" $DEVICE_TO_COPY

This will download, control integrity and flash the latest redpesk OS image on your device.

Hardware DIP switch configuration

Integrated into the PCB, a DIP switch is present to allow you to choose between different boot mode.

For the SolidRun Hummingboard Pulse, here is the following configuration:

For more hardware information (like connections, button functions or led status), please refer to the SolidRun documentation.

Connect to the Hummingboard

• Plug the micro USB from the board to your PC for the serial connection.
• Plug the SD Card into the board.

• Power on the board by plug in the power (12V).

• Use picocom to connect to the serial

   sudo picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttyUSB1
  

NOTE: Default root password is root.

• Get the address of the board to be able to use an SSH connection

  Connect your board to your network with an Ethernet cable.

   #on board
   ip -c a
  

   # on computer
   ssh root@<ip_board>