I am Lao Wen, an embedded engineer who loves learning.
Follow me to become even better together!
Last week, after receiving the Embedded AI development board (ATK-DLRV1126) sent by ZDAtom, I wrote an unboxing article about this development board. Click the link below.
[Share] Fun Embedded AI, Machine Vision, and Audio-Video Processing
Whether learning about microcontroller development boards, embedded Linux development boards, or embedded AI development boards, the first step for developers is to set up the development environment for the development board on their computers before writing various applications and loading them onto the board.
Setting up the chip development environment is a necessary and important task for every engineer engaged in embedded software development. If the development environment cannot be successfully set up, a series of subsequent development tasks will not be able to proceed.
Manufacturers of development boards usually provide a series of operational guidance documents that guide developers step by step on how to set up the development environment for the development board on their computers. Similarly, the ATK-DLRV1126 development board is no exception.
In fact, regardless of the type of development board, its main goal is to successfully run the applications written by developers on the CPU (MCU or MPU) chip on the development board to meet the business logic needs of the company. CPU chip manufacturers will also provide relevant development documentation for that CPU chip.
Let me briefly share that after receiving the ATK-DLRV1126 development board, the first thing I did was to check the integrity of the development board and its accessories. Then, I referred to the supporting materials related to the hardware specifications of the development board to understand the hardware resources of the entire development board and what wiring ports are available.
Next, I powered on the development board to test the factory program that comes with it. Generally, the factory program will drive various hardware peripherals of the development board to check whether there are any issues with the hardware peripherals.
After completing all the hardware-related steps, I then referred to the software-related materials for the development board and began setting up the software development environment for the development board.
1- If you want to understand the hardware resources and principles of the development board, you can refer to the document “02 [ZDAtom] ATK-DLRV1126 Development Board Hardware Reference Manual V1.0.pdf”
2- If you want to quickly experience the hardware and software functions of the development board, you can refer to the document “01 [ZDAtom] ATK-DLRV1126 Quick Experience V1.2.pdf”
3- If you want to start from scratch to set up the development environment and compile various firmware programs, you can refer to the document “[ZDAtom] ATK-DLRV1126 System Development Manual V1.4.pdf”
4- If you want to learn about the embedded AI related content of the development board, you can refer to the document “[ZDAtom] ATK-DLRV1126 AI Example Testing Guide V1.1 (Introduction).pdf”
Here, I would like to share a phenomenon in embedded technology development. Some of the materials provided by the development board manufacturers, such as those related to the chip development environment, are actually written based on the chip manufacturers’ documentation. The engineers of the development board manufacturers have read a lot of the materials provided by the chip manufacturers, summarized them, and then provided them for developers to reference.
However, some chip manufacturers will treat development board manufacturers and individual developers differently. For some chips, individual developers cannot find documentation on the chip manufacturer’s official website. Only when business units sign NDA agreements with chip manufacturers can they access development materials for enterprise users. Individual developers who want to work with these types of chips can only go through development board manufacturers or sign confidentiality agreements with their companies.
This article mainly revolves around “[ZDAtom] ATK-DLRV1126 System Development Manual V1.4.pdf” and serves as a note for setting up the development environment for the ATK-DLRV1126 development board. Interested developers can use this article as a reference for guidance.
The first to fourth chapters of the system development manual comprehensively cover the installation of the virtual machine and configuration of Ubuntu from scratch, setting up the development environment from scratch, and compiling various components of the SDK. Referring to these four chapters, an engineer with some embedded Linux development experience can successfully drive the RV1126 chip.
Chapter One mainly discusses the installation of VMware virtual machine software. If developers are used to installing Ubuntu on physical computers, they can skip this chapter. It is recommended to install version 16 or higher of VMware, and the installation package for this software is also included in the development board’s CD.
Chapter Two mainly covers the installation of Ubuntu on the VMware virtual machine. It is recommended to follow the suggestions in the document and use Ubuntu 20.04 as the operating system. If you don’t want to set up the development environment yourself, you can also use the VMware image provided by ZDAtom, which already has the development environment set up.
I had been using Ubuntu 22.04 before, and initially wanted to set up the RV1126 development environment directly on 22.04. However, I later discovered that some software package versions were incompatible when using apt-get, leading to installation failures. To avoid unnecessary troubles later, I decisively switched to Ubuntu 20.04.
Chapter Three mainly discusses installing the necessary software packages on Ubuntu 20.04 because compiling the RV1126 SDK requires support from certain software packages. If the newly installed Ubuntu system does not have these software packages installed, the compilation of the RV1126 SDK will not be successful.
In addition to installing the necessary software packages for compiling the SDK on Ubuntu, Chapter Three also discusses installing some software tools in the Windows environment for file transfer and for flashing the firmware image to the RV1126 development board. Following the instructions in Chapter Three, you can set up the development environment for RV1126 on both Ubuntu and Windows.
Chapter Four mainly describes how to compile the RV1126 software SDK. Developers can compile the entire SDK at once or use different scripts to compile different software function modules, such as u-boot, kernel, root-fs, as well as third-party libraries and apps. It also provides some methods for packaging images.
The content of Chapter Four is very helpful for learning modifications to u-boot, kernel, and root-fs, and for developers to write their own applications later. The content of Chapter Four needs to be focused on and studied.
Chapter Five Since the RV1126 chip is positioned for machine vision and audio-video processing, Rockchip also provides a set of software API interfaces (RKMedia) specifically for audio-video processing. For those who want to learn audio-video processing on RV1126, this API interface is essential to understand and learn.
Chapter Six discusses how to use Buildroot on the RV1126 chip. Building the file system for RV1126 cannot be done without Buildroot. This chapter can be better learned in conjunction with the previously translated document “04 [ZDAtom] Buildroot User Manual Chinese Version (Translated by ZDAtom) _V1.0.pdf”.
Overall, the document “[ZDAtom] ATK-DLRV1126 System Development Manual V1.4.pdf” explains the use of the ATK-DLRV1126 development board from a relatively macro system perspective in an easy-to-understand manner. If you want to learn more in-depth content from each chapter, you can refer to ZDAtom’s documents or video tutorials for different learning directions.
Embedded Linux C Language Application Development Direction:
“[ZDAtom] ATK-DLRV1126 Embedded Linux C Application Programming Guide V1.0.pdf”
Embedded Linux Driver Development Direction:
“[ZDAtom] ATK-DLRV1126 Embedded Linux Driver Development Guide V1.1.pdf”
Embedded Linux Qt Development Direction:
“[ZDAtom] ATK-DLRV1126 Embedded Qt Development Guide V1.1.pdf”
-END-
Previous Recommendations: Click on the image to jump to read
[Share] Fun Embedded AI, Machine Vision, and Audio-Video Processing
Embedded software reconstruction, what should be noted?
As an embedded engineer, you must not miss this event closely related to embedded systems!
I am Lao Wen, an embedded engineer who loves learning.
Follow me to become even better together!
