Quick Start Guide

[中文]

This article demonstrates:

  • Armino code and toolchain download

  • Setup software development environment

  • How to configure Armino project

  • How to build the project and flash the bin to board

Introduction

BK7236 is a SoC that integrates the following features:

  • Wi-Fi 6 (2.4 GHz Band)

  • Bluetooth Low Energy 5.4

  • ARMv8-M Star (M33F) MCU

  • Multiple peripherals

  • Built-in TrustEngine security hardware

Powered by 22nm technology, BK7236 provides a robust, highly integrated platform, which helps meet the continuous demands for efficient power usage, compact design, security, high performance, reliability and high security.

Beken provides basic hardware and software resources to help application developers realize their ideas using BK7236 series hardware. The software development framework Armino is intended for development of Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, power management, security and other system features.

Preparation

Hardware：

  • BK7236 Demo board

  • BKFIL.exe

  • PC（Windows & Ubuntu）

Note

Armino supports compilation on the Linux platform and also supports compilation on the Linux virtual machine on the Windows platform; Armino supports firmware burning on Windows/Linux platforms (refer to the guidance document in the burning tool).

Software：

  • GCC ARM tool chain, used to compile BK7236

  • Build tools, including CMake

  • Armino source code

  • BKFIL.exe

Introduction to Development Board

Click the following link to learn more about the development boards supported by Armino:

Armino SDK Code download

We can download Armino from gitlab:

mkdir -p ~/armino
cd ~/armino
git clone https://gitlab.bekencorp.com/armino/bk_idk.git

We also can download Armino from github:

mkdir -p ~/armino
cd ~/armino
git clone https://github.com/bekencorp/bk_idk.git

Then switch to the stable branch Tag node, such as v2.0.1.12:

git checkout -B your_branch_name v2.0.1.12

Note

The gitlab always has the latest Armino code, only authorised account can download the code. Please contact the your BK7236 project owner to get relevant accounts.

Setup Build Environment

Note

The Armino compilation environment requires Ubuntu 20.04 LTS version and above. This chapter will take Ubuntu 20.04 LTS version as an example to introduce the construction of the entire compilation environment.

Tool Chain Installation

Click Donwload to download the BK7236 toolchain.

After downloading the tool kit, decompress it to ‘/opt/’:

$ sudo tar -xvjf gcc-arm-none-eabi-10.3-2021.10-x86_64-linux.tar.bz2 -C /opt/

Note

Tool chain the default path is configured in the middleware/soc/bk7236/bk7236.defconfig, you can modify CONFIG_TOOLCHAIN_PATH to set to your owner toolchain path:

CONFIG_TOOLCHAIN_PATH=”/opt/gcc-arm-none-eabi-10.3-2021.10/bin”

Depended libraries installation

Enter the following command in the terminal to install pythonCMakeNinja:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake python3 python3-pip doxygen ninja-build libc6:i386 libstdc++6:i386 libncurses5-dev lib32z1 -y
sudo pip3 install pycryptodome click

Document Compilation Dependent Library Installation

Click Doc you can get the latest Armino documents. So you don’t need to build the document youself.

If you really need to build the documents, following python3 packages are required:

sudo pip3 install sphinx_rtd_theme future breathe blockdiag sphinxcontrib-seqdiag sphinxcontrib-actdiag sphinxcontrib-nwdiag sphinxcontrib.blockdiag

If you default Python is Python2, please set it to Python3:

sudo ln -s /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python

Build The Project

Run following commands to build BK7236 app project:

cd ~/armino/bk_idk
make bk7236

The app project startup:

  • WiFi/BLE

  • Common pheripheral drivers

  • Armino default Cli

You can build other projects with PROJECT parameter, e.g. run “make bk7236 PROJECT=security/secureboot” can build projects/security/secureboot etc.

Configuration project

We can also use the project configuration file for differentiated configuration:

Project Profile Override Chip Profile Override Default Configuration
Example： bk7236/config >> bk7236.defconfig >> KConfig
+ Example of project configuration file：
    projects/app/config/bk7236/config
+ Sample chip configuration file：
    middleware/soc/bk7236/bk7236.defconfig
+ Sample KConfig configuration file：
    middleware/arch/cm33/Kconfig
    components/bk_cli/Kconfig

Click Kconfig Configuration to learn more about Armino Kconfig.

New project

The default project is projects/app. For new projects, please refer to projects/app project

Burn Code

On the Windows platform, Armino currently supports UART burning.

Burn through serial port

Note

Armino supports UART burning. It is recommended to use the CH340 serial port tool board to download.

Serial port burning tool is shown in the figure below:

Uart

UART

Download burning tools (BKFILL.exe)：

http://dl.bekencorp.com/tools/flash/ Get the latest version in this directory. Ex：BEKEN_BKFIL_V2.1.6.0_20231123.zip

The snapshot of BKFILL.exe downloading.

BKFIL GUI

BKFIL GUI

Burn the serial port DL_UART0, click Download to burn the image, and then power down and restart the device after burning.

Click BKFIL to learn more about BKFIL.

Serial port Log and Command Line

Currently the BK7236 use the DL_UART0 as the Log output and Cli input; You can get the supported command list through the help command.