QuickStart SAM E70 Xplained Ultra Evaluation Kit

This guide describes the basic steps to create a graphics-enabled application using the SAM E70 Xplained Ultra Evaluation Kit connected to a WQVGA display.

What you will build

You will build a simple application that displays an image, text, and touch button. It starts with the creation of a new MPLAB® project and finishes with a graphics application equivalent to legato_quickstart.

What you will see

The demonstration will render the following image on the display:

Contents

The following bullets detail the steps necessary to create a solution for your board.

• Get Materials
• Create a new project
• Configure Software with MHC
• Create UI Design with Legato Composer
• Save Project
• Generate, Build, and Run

Get Materials

Before you begin this quick start, make sure you have what you will need. The Microchip development documentation and hardware provides a basic foundation that we will use as a reference for your SAM E70 design.

Documentation	Description
SAM E70 Xplained Ultra User's Guide	User Guide with Schematics

Hardware	Description
SAM E70 Xplained Ultra Evaluation Kit	Development Board
WQVGA Display Module (AC320005-4).	High-Performance 4.3" WQVGA Display Module
Standard USB A to micro-B cable	PC debugging connector.

NOTE: The SAM E70 Xplained Ultra Evaluation Kit includes an on-board Embedded Debugger (EDBG), which requires no additional hardware to get started. For programming/debugging, the EDBG connects to the host PC through the USB micro-B connector on the SAM E70 Xplained Ultra Evaluation Kit.

Software	Description	Install
MPLAB® X Integrated Development Environment	v5.15 or newer	Install MPLAB® IDE
MPLAB® XC32/32++ C Compiler	v2.20 or newer	Install Compiler
MPLAB® Harmony 3	gfx v3.5 (and dependencies) or newer	Install Harmony v3

NOTE: This project has been verified to work with the following versions of software tools: MPLAB® X IDE v5.40, MPLAB® XC32 Compiler v2.41, Harmony Graphics v3.7.0

NOTE: Because we regularly update our tools, occasionally you may discover an issue while using the newer versions. If you suspect that to be the case, we recommend that you use the same versions that the project was tested with.

Hardware Setup

Configure the hardware as follows:

If your WQVGA display cable is connected to a interposer board, following these steps:

• Disconnect the ribbon cable that connects the display to the interposer board. The board is for the MEB 2 only, and not used with the SAM E70 Xplained Ultra Evaluation Kit.

• Release the ribbon cable from the interposer board.
• Release the black clamp on the J2 connector and turn the display over.
• Insert the ribbon cable into J2 and close the clamp.

The board and display are powered by a Micro B – USB A cable from PC to the “USB Debug” port on the SAM E70 Xplained Ultra Evaluation Kit.

SAM E70 Xplained Ultra Evaluation Kit is connected to the display using the display ribbon cable. Programming is a board to PC link using a standard USB A to micro-B cable. The connection, illustrated below, provides power and debug communication.

If your WQVGA display cable is connected to a interposer board, following these steps:

• Disconnect the ribbon cable that connects the display to the interposer board. The board is for the MEB 2 only, and not used with the SAM E70 Xplained Ultra Evaluation Kit.

• Release the ribbon cable from the interposer board.
• Release the black clamp on the J2 connector and turn the display over.
• Insert the ribbon cable into J2 and close the clamp.

The board and display are powered by a Micro B – USB A cable from PC to the “USB Debug” port on the SAM E70 Xplained Ultra Evaluation Kit.

Create a new project

1. Launch the New Project wizard. Select File > New Project from the main IDE menu.

2. In the Categories pane of the New Project dialog, select Microchip Embedded. In the Projects pane, select 32-bit MPLAB® Harmony 3 Project, then click Next.

NOTE: If 32-Bit MPLAB® Harmony 3 Project selection is not displayed, Download MPLAB® Harmony Framework.

3. In the Framework Path edit box, browse to the folder you downloaded the framework to. If you haven't done this, or want to download it to a different folder, click the Launch Framework Downloader button, then click Next.

NOTE: For more information on the framework downloader, see the, Download MPLAB® Harmony Framework section of the "MPLAB® Harmony Configurator Overview" page.

4. In the Project Settings window, apply the following settings:

   • Location: Indicates the path to the root folder of the new project. All project files will be placed inside this folder. The project location can be any valid path, for example: C:\microchip\harmony\v3.
   • Folder: Indicates the name of the MPLABX .X folder. Enter “same70” to create a same70.X folder.
   • Name: Enter the project’s logical name as “my_board”. This is the name that will be shown from within the MPLAB® X IDE.
   • Click Next to proceed to Configuration Settings.

NOTE: Folder must be a valid directory name for your operating system. The Path box is read-only. It will update as you make changes to the other entries.

5. Follow the steps below to set the project’s Configuration Settings.

   • Name: Enter the configuration name as “same70”.
   • Target Device: Select “ATSAME70Q21B” as the target device.
   • Click Finish to launch the MHC.

NOTE: You can select the Device Family or enter a partial device name to filter the list in Target Device in order to make it easier to locate the desired device.

NOTE: The New Project Wizard opens a Configuration Database Setup window to allow you to review the packages that will be used by the current project.

6. While the MHC tool launches, it will ask for the packages to be loaded. In the Load checkboxes list, select the gfx, core, and bsp packages and unselect all other packages.

Click Launch to launch the MHC Configurator tool with the selected packages.

• Launching MPLAB® Harmony Configurator. The following message will be displayed while the project is loaded into MPLAB® X.

7. The MHC plugin’s main window for the project will be displayed. This is the initial project graph.

8. Before proceeding, set up the compiler toolchain. Click on the Projects tab on the top left pane. Right click on the project name my_board and go to Properties.

Make sure that XC32 (v2.20) is selected as the Compiler Toolchain for XC32. Click on Apply and then click on OK.

Verify Clock Settings

1. Launch Clock Diagram by going to MHC tab in MPLABX IDE and then select Tools > Clock Configuration.

A new tab, Clock Diagram, is opened in the project’s main window.

2. Click on the Clock Diagram tab, scroll to the right and verify that the Processor Clock (HCLK) and Master Clock (MCK) is set to 300 MHz and 150 MHz, respectively.

Configure Software with MHC

• Configure pins
  • Connect to external graphics communication
• Create a UI design
• Save Project
• Generate, Build, and Run

Load Software Components

1. This is a Harmony based application, therefore, you will need to use the Harmony Core Service Component.

Under the bottom left tab, Available Components, expand Harmony. Double click or drag and drop Core to add the Harmony Core Service to the project graph. When prompted to activate FreeRTOS, click No.

2. You will also need the Time System Service.

NOTE: Harmony components lists Current Consumers and Available Consumers when a right click occurs on the circle icons.

• On the Harmony Core Service component, right click the Core Service icon on Harmony Core Service component, select Available Consumers, then select TIME.

• On the Time System Service component, right click the TMR icon, select CORE_TIMER(core_timer).

Because this is a GFX enabled application, you will need to select a graphics library. For this tutorial, we will use Legato.

3. Under the bottom left tab, Available Components, expand Graphics>Middleware. Double click or drag and drop Legato to add the MGS Harmony library to the project graph.

4. On the Legato component, right click the LE Display Driver, select Satisfiers, and select LE LCC.

5. On the Confirm Component Auto-Activation dialog, click Yes to activate the GFX Core LE component.

6. On the LE LCC component, right click SMC_CS diamond icon, select Satisfiers, and select SMC.

7. On the LE LCC component, right click Graphics Display diamond icon, select Satisfiers, and select PDA TM4301B (gfx_disp_pdatm4301b_480x272).

8. In the LE LCC component, configure Backlight Settings with Peripheral TC

9. On the LE LCC component, right click TMR diamond icon, select Satisfiers, and select TC1.

10. Configure settings in the TC1 component like this

11. On the PDA TM4301B component, right click Touch Panel diamond icon, select Consumers, and select MaXTouch Controller (gfx_maxtouch_controller).

12. On the MaXTouch Controller component, right click DRV_I2C diamond icon, select Satisfiers, and select I2C (drv_i2c).

13. On the MaXTouch Controller component, right click Input System Service circle icon, select Available Satisfiers, and select Input System Service (sys_input).

14. On the I2C Driver component, right click Input I2C diamond icon, select Satisfiers, and select TWIHS0.

On completion, your Project Graph window should look similar to the following image:

If the display needs to be configured, then you will need to launch Display Manager. For this tutorial, Display Managing is not required. See Getting started with Display Manager for more information.

Configure Hardware

In this step, you will need to configure the pins on the SAM E70 to support the external touch controller and display modules.

1. Open the Pin Configuration tabs by clicking MHC > Tools > Pin Configuration.

2. Select the MHC Pin Settings tab and sort the entries by Port names as shown below.

3. Use the table below to establish your Pin Settings

Required Pin Settings

Ball/Pin Number	Pin ID	Name	Function	Direction	Latch
4	PE0	EBI_D8	EBI_D8
6	PE1	EBI_D9	EBI_D9
7	PE2	EBI_D10	EBI_D10
10	PE3	EBI_D11	EBI_D11
11	PC0	EBI_D0	EBI_D0
15	PC30	GFX_DISP_INTF_PIN_HSYNC	GPIO	Out	High
19	PC13	GFX_DISP_INTF_PIN_RESET	GPIO	Out	High
27	PE4	EBI_D12	EBI_D12
28	PE5	EBI_D13	EBI_D13
38	PC1	EBI_D1	EBI_D1
39	PC2	EBI_D2	EBI_D2
40	PC3	EBI_D3	EBI_D3
41	PC4	EBI_D4	EBI_D4
45	PA16	EBI_D15	EBI_D15
48	PC7	EBI_D7	EBI_D7
49	PA15	EBI_D14	EBI_D14
54	PC6	EBI_D6	EBI_D6
58	PC5	EBI_D5	EBI_D5
67	PD19	GFX_DISP_INTF_PIN_VSYNC	GPIO	Out	High
71	PD28	BSP_MAXTOUCH_CHG	GPIO	In
77	PA4	TWIHS0_TWCK0	TWIHS0_TWCK0
82	PC8	EBI_NWR0/NWE	EBI_NWR0/NWE
86	PC9	GFX_DISP_INTF_PIN_BACKLIGHT	GPIO	Out	High
91	PA3	TWIHS0_TWD0	TWIHS0_TWD0
94	PC11	GFX_DISP_INTF_PIN_DE	GPIO	Out	High

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NOTE: the drv_maxtouch and drv_gfx_lcc drivers require specific names for its pins. If you do not have the correct pin names a compiler output will display an error along with the expected name.

If you are using the SAM E70 Xplained Ultra Evaluation Kit, you may refer to the SAM E70 Xplained Ultra Evaluation Kit schematic obtained from the SAM E70 Xplained Ultra User's Guide.

NOTE: If you are using a schematic for your custom board, map the required graphics pins to your board.

Create UI Design with MGS Harmony Composer

Next you will need to create a basic design using the MGS Harmony Composer

Launch MGS Harmony Composer from the MHC->Tools->MGS Harmony Composer Menu:

On the Welcome Dialog, select Create a new project using the new project wizard. Follow the step-by-step guided menus.

Create a template design by following the steps in the How to Create a Simple Design Using the Project Wizard guide. Make sure to set display resolution to Width: 480 and Height: 320, Color Mode: RGB565, Memory Profile: M7.

Click Start with a basic quickstart project template to automatically create a UI design.

Save and Generate Legato Composer Design

1. Save the Legato Composer UI Configuration. Click File -> Save.

2. When done, Generate Legato composer project files. Click File -> Generate Code as shown below. This will generate the UI design and the necessary MGS Harmony files. Harmony files such as peripheral libaries, system services, and drivers are generated via the MHC code generate in the steps to follow.

Save and Generate Harmony Project

1. When done, before generating code, click Save MHC State as shown below.

2. Save the configuration in its default location when prompted.

3. Generate the code as shown below.

Click on the Generate button in the Generate Project window, keeping the default settings as shown below. If prompted for saving the configuration, click Save.

4. As the code is generated, MHC displays the progress as shown below.

5. Examine the generated code.

MHC will include all the MPLAB® Harmony library files and generate the code based on the MHC selections. The generated code would add files and folders to your Harmony project

6. Navigate to the Projects tab to view the project tree structure.

Build, program and observe outputs

Power up the board by connecting the power adapter to power connector or a powered USB cable to the DEBUG USB port on the board.

1. Connect the Type-A male to mini-B USB cable to micro-B DEBUG USB port to power and debug the SAM E70 board.

2. Go to File > Project Properties and make sure that the EDBG is selected as the debugger under the Hardware Tools and XC32 (v2.20 or later) is selected as the Compiler Toolchain for XC32.

3. Clean and build your application by clicking on the Clean and Build button as shown below.

4. Program your application to the device, by clicking on the Make and Program button as shown below.

The application should build and program successfully.

Review

You have successfully created an application using MPLAB® Harmony v3 on SAM E70. Your application used all the fundamental elements that go in building a graphics application. Your application successfully rendered a UI to the High-Performance 4.3" WQVGA Display Module. The application also took user from the display module.

Specifically, you used MPLAB® Harmony Configurator (MHC) to configure SAM E70. You used MHC to add and connect components. You used Pin Configurator to set up the pins for display and maxTouch controller.

Summary

This guide provided you training of configuring and using all the fundamental components needed to build a graphics application on a SAM E70 Development Board with MPLAB® Harmony v3 Framework. As a next step, you may customize this application and reconfigure some of the components used in this tutorial. You could also add new components (PLIBs, etc.) to enhance this application to realize your end application.

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