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Silicon Laboratories Alcom EFR32xG24, User Manual

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UG525: EFR32xG24 2.4 GHz 10 dBm
Wireless Pro Kit User's Guide

A Wireless Pro Kit with the BRD4186C Radio Board is an excel-
lent starting point to get familiar with the EFR32™ Wireless Gecko
Wireless System-on-Chip. It also provides all necessary tools for
developing a Silicon Labs wireless application.

BRD4186C is a plug-in board for the Wireless Starter Kit Mainboard (BRD4001A) and
the Wireless Pro Kit Mainboard (BRD4002A). It is a complete reference design for the
EFR32xG24 Wireless SoC, with matching network and a PCB antenna for 10 dBm out-
put power in the 2.4 GHz band.

The mainboards contain an on-board J-Link debugger with a Packet Trace Interface and
a Virtual COM port, enabling application development and debugging of the attached ra-
dio board as well as external hardware. The mainboards also contain sensors and pe-
ripherals for easy demonstration of some of the EFR32's many capabilities.

This document describes how to use the BRD4186C Radio Board together with a Wire-
less Starter Kit Mainboard or a Wireless Pro Kit Mainboard.

BRD4186C RADIO BOARD FEATURES

• EFR32xG24 Wireless Gecko Wireless

SoC with 1536 kB Flash and 256 kB RAM
(EFR32MG24B210F1536IM48).

• Inverted-F PCB antenna (2.4 GHz band)
• 8 Mbit low-power serial flash for over-the-

air upgrades

MAINBOARD FEATURES

• Advanced Energy Monitor
• Packet Trace Interface
• Virtual COM port
• SEGGER J-Link on-board debugger
• External device debugging
• Ethernet and USB connectivity
• Silicon Labs Si7021 relative humidity and

temperature sensor

• Low-power 128x128 pixel Memory LCD-

TFT

• User LEDs / pushbuttons
• 20-pin 2.54 mm EXP header
• Breakout pads for Wireless SoC I/O
• CR2032 coin cell battery support

SOFTWARE SUPPORT

• Simplicity Studio™
• Energy Profiler
• Network Analyzer

ORDERING INFORMATION

• xG24-PK6009A
• xG24-RB4186C

silabs.com

 | Building a more connected world.

Copyright © 2022 by Silicon Laboratories

Rev. 1.0 

Rivium 1e straat 52 | 2909 LE Capelle aan den Ijssel | The Netherlands | Tel. +31 (0)10 288 25 00 | [email protected] | www.alcom.nl

Singel 3 | B-2550 Kontich | Belgium | Tel. +32 (0)3 458 30 33 | [email protected] | www.alcom.be

V. 08/22

Summary of Contents for Alcom EFR32xG24

Page 1: ... to use the BRD4186C Radio Board together with a Wire less Starter Kit Mainboard or a Wireless Pro Kit Mainboard BRD4186C RADIO BOARD FEATURES EFR32xG24 Wireless Gecko Wireless SoC with 1536 kB Flash and 256 kB RAM EFR32MG24B210F1536IM48 Inverted F PCB antenna 2 4 GHz band 8 Mbit low power serial flash for over the air upgrades MAINBOARD FEATURES Advanced Energy Monitor Packet Trace Interface Virt...

Page 2: ...Mini Simplicity Connector 15 3 8 Debug Adapter 16 4 Power Supply and Reset 17 4 1 Radio Board Power Selection 17 4 2 Kit Power 18 4 2 1 Board Controller Power 18 4 2 2 AEM Power 18 4 3 EFR32 Reset 18 5 Peripherals 19 5 1 Push Buttons and LEDs 19 5 2 Memory LCD TFT Display 20 5 3 Serial Flash 21 5 4 Si7021 Relative Humidity and Temperature Sensor 22 5 5 Virtual COM Port 23 5 5 1 Host Interfaces 24 ...

Page 3: ...s 30 8 On Board Debugger 31 8 1 Host Interfaces 31 8 1 1 USB Interface 31 8 1 2 Ethernet Interface 31 8 1 3 Serial Number Identification 31 8 2 Debug Modes 32 8 3 Debugging During Battery Operation 33 9 Kit Configuration and Upgrades 34 9 1 Firmware Upgrades 34 10 Schematics Assembly Drawings and BOM 35 11 Kit Revision History 36 11 1 xG24 RB4186C Revision History 36 11 2 xG24 PK6009A Revision His...

Page 4: ...s its own pin mapping to the Wireless Pro Kit features such as buttons LEDs the display the EXP header and the breakout pads Because this pin mapping is different for every radio board it is important to consult the correct docu ment which shows the kit features in context of the radio board plugged in 1 2 Mainboards The EFR32xG24 2 4 GHz 10 dBm Radio Board BRD4186C can be used with either a Wirel...

Page 5: ...ainboard 1x BRD4186C EFR32xG24 2 4 GHz 10 dBm Radio Board 1x 2xAA battery holder 1x 10 pin 1 27 mm IDC debug cable xG24 RB4186C EFR32xG24 2 4 GHz 10 dBm Radio Board 1x BRD4186C EFR32xG24 2 4 GHz 10 dBm Radio Board 1 4 Getting Started Detailed instructions for how to get started can be found on the Silicon Labs web pages http www silabs com dev tools UG525 EFR32xG24 2 4 GHz 10 dBm Wireless Pro Kit ...

Page 6: ...eature On board USB and Ethernet J Link Debugger Virtual COM Port Packet trace Advanced Energy Monitoring Simplicity Connector Figure 2 1 Hardware Layout With A Wireless Pro Kit Mainboard BRD4002A Radio Board Breakout Pads Plug in Radio Board Si7021 Humidity and Temperature Sensor EXP header for expansion boards ARM Coresight 19 pin trace debug header Ultra low power 128x128 pixel memory LCD butto...

Page 7: ...er Debug UART Packet Trace AEM Debug UART Packet Trace AEM Board Controller O U T I N MCU SMA Connector 2 4 GHz RF Inverted F PCB Antenna EFR32xG24 Wireless SoC 128 x 128 pixel Memory LCD I2C Si7021 Temperature Humidity Sensor SPI 8 Mbit MX25R Serial Flash GPIO EXP Header User Buttons LEDs GPIO ETM Trace Figure 2 3 Kit Block Diagram UG525 EFR32xG24 2 4 GHz 10 dBm Wireless Pro Kit User s Guide Hard...

Page 8: ...GND 5V 5V P25 P24 P27 P26 P29 P28 P31 P30 P33 P32 P35 P34 P37 P36 P39 P38 P41 P40 P43 P42 P45 P44 GND GND NC NC 3V3 3V3 Ethernet Connector J Link USB Connector Figure 3 2 Wireless STK Mainboard BRD4001A Connector Layout 3 1 J Link USB Connector The J Link USB connector is situated on the left side of the mainboard and provides access to the kit features described in Section 6 Board Controller thro...

Page 9: ...BG_TRACECLK F1 PA01 DBG_TCK_SWCLK VRF GND VMCU NC P22 DBG_TCK_SWCLK PA01 P20 DBG_TMS_SWDIO PA02 P18 DBG_TRACED0 DBG_TDO_SWO PA03 P16 GND DBG_TRACECLK DBG_TDI PA04 P14 UIF_BUTTON0 PB01 F12 UIF_LED0 PB02 F10 EXP3 VCOM_CTS PB05 F8 EXP12 VCOM_TX PA08 F6 DBG_RESET RESETn F4 DBG_TRACED0 DBG_TDO_SWO PA03 F2 DBG_TMS_SWDIO PA02 F0 VRF BOTTOM EDGE GND GND 5V 5V F20 PD04 PTI0_DATA PTI0_SYNC PD05 F19 P45 PA07...

Page 10: ...6 EXP7 PA05 P4 VCOM_RTS EXP5 PA00 P2 VCOM_CTS EXP3 PB05 P0 VRF BOTTOM EDGE GND GND 5V 5V NC NC P45 PA07 TRACED3 PA06 TRACED2 P44 P43 PA05 TRACED1 PA03 TRACED0 P42 P41 PA04 TRACECLK NC P40 3V3 3V3 P39 NC NC P38 P37 PD03 SENSOR_ENABLE JOYSTICK PD02 P36 P35 PC04 FLASH_SCS NC P34 P33 PC06 DISP_EXTCOMIN NC P32 P31 PC08 DISP_SCS NC P30 P29 DISP_ENABLE PC09 NC P28 P27 NC LED1 PB04 P26 P25 PD04 PTI_DATA P...

Page 11: ...rpose IO This allows the definition of expansion boards EXP boards that can plug into several different Silicon Labs Starter Kits The figure below shows the pin assignment of the EXP header Because of limitations in the number of available GPIO pins some of the EXP header pins are shared with kit features 1 2 4 8 6 10 3 5 9 7 12 13 14 11 15 16 17 18 20 19 VMCU SPI_MOSI PC01 SPI_MISO PC02 SPI_CLK P...

Page 12: ...RX USART0_RX 12 PA08 UART_TX VCOM_TX USART0_TX 10 PC00 SPI_CS USART1_CS 8 PC03 SPI_SCLK DISP_SCLK FLASH_SCLK USART1_CLK 6 PC02 SPI_MISO FLASH_MISO USART1_RX 4 PC01 SPI_MOSI DISP_MOSI FLASH_MOSI USART1_TX 2 VMCU EFR32 voltage domain included in AEM measurements 19 BOARD_ID_SDA Connected to board controller for identification of add on boards 17 BOARD_ID_SCL Connected to board controller for identif...

Page 13: ...3 14 11 15 16 17 18 20 19 TMS SWDIO C2D TCK SWCLK C2CK TDO SWO TDI C2Dps TRACECLK TRACED0 TRACED1 TRACED2 TRACED3 RESET C2CKps GND NC NC GND GND GND 7 GND VTARGET Cable Detect NC 3 Figure 3 6 Debug Connector Note The pinout matches the pinout of an ARM Cortex Debug ETM connector but these are not fully compatible because pin 7 is physically removed from the Cortex Debug ETM connector Some cables h...

Page 14: ...ion of an external target with the AEM unplug the radio board from the mainboard to avoid add ing the radio board s current consumption to the measurements Table 3 3 Simplicity Connector Pin Descriptions Pin Number s Function Description 1 VMCU 3 3 V power rail monitored by the AEM 3 3V3 3 3 V power rail 5 5V 5 V power rail 2 VCOM_TX Virtual COM Tx 4 VCOM_RX Virtual COM Rx 6 VCOM_CTS Virtual COM C...

Page 15: ...rget with the AEM unplug the radio board from the Wireless Pro Kit Mainboard to avoid adding the radio board s current consumption to the measurements Table 3 4 Mini Simplicity Connector Pin Descriptions Pin Number s Function Description 1 VMCU Target voltage on the debugged application Supplied and monitored by the AEM when power selection switch is in the AEM position 2 GND Ground 3 RST Target d...

Page 16: ...debug hardware designs that use this connector The ISA3 connector follows the same pinout as the Packet Trace connector found on the Silicon Labs Ember Debug Adapter ISA3 This enables using the Wireless Pro Kit to debug hardware designs that use this connector The Mini Simplicity Connector is designed to offer advanced debug features from the kit on a 10 pin connector The connector has the same pi...

Page 17: ...e AEM is now also connected in series allowing accurate high speed current measure ments and energy debugging profiling USB position With the switch in the USB position radio boards with USB support can be powered by a regulator on the radio board itself BRD4186C does not contain a USB regulator and setting the switch in the USB position will cause the EFR32 to be unpowered BAT position With the s...

Page 18: ... leakage from the target power domain when power to the board controller is removed The board controller power domain is not influenced by the position of the power switch The kit has been carefully designed to keep the board controller and the target power domains isolated from each other as one of them powers down This ensures that the target EFR32 device will continue to operate in the BAT mode...

Page 19: ...ctly to the EFR32 and are debounced by RC filters with a time constant of 1 ms The buttons are connected to pins PB01 and PB03 The kit also features two yellow LEDs marked LED0 and LED1 that are controlled by GPIO pins on the EFR32 The LEDs are connec ted to pins PB02 and PB04 in an active high configuration PB04 GPIO User Buttons LEDs PB01 GPIO PB03 GPIO PB02 GPIO EFR32 UIF_BUTTON0 UIF_BUTTON1 UI...

Page 20: ...tion is not using the display The user application always controls ownership of the display with the DISP_ENABLE signal DISP_ENABLE LOW The board controller has control of the display DISP_ENABLE HIGH The user application EFR32 has control of the display Power to the display is sourced from the target application power domain when the EFR32 controls the display and from the board controller s powe...

Page 21: ...rial Flash The MX25R series are ultra low power serial flash devices so there is no need for a separate enable switch to keep current consump tion down However it is important that the flash is always put in deep power down mode when not used This is done by issuing a command over the SPI interface In deep power down the MX25R typically adds approximately 100 nA to the radio board current con sump...

Page 22: ...tional factory installed cover offers a low profile convenient means of protecting the sensor during assembly e g reflow soldering and throughout the life of the product excluding liquids hydrophobic oleophobic and particulates The Si7021 offers an accurate low power factory calibrated digital solution ideal for measuring humidity dew point and temperature in applications ranging from HVAC R and a...

Page 23: ...R32 to the board controller VCOM_RX Receive data from the board controller to the EFR32 VCOM_CTS Clear to Send hardware flow control input asserted by the board controller when it is ready to receive more data VCOM_RTS Request to Send hardware flow control output asserted by the EFR32 when it is ready to receive more data VCOM_ENABLE Enables the VCOM interface allowing data to pass through to the ...

Page 24: ...e Wireless STK on port 4901 gives access to the same data over TCP IP Data written into the VCOM interface by the target device can be read from the socket and data written into the socket is transmitted to the target device Note Only one of these interfaces can be used at the same time with the TCP IP socket taking priority This means that if a socket is connected to port 4901 no data can be sent...

Page 25: ...nsmitted so the target firmware must be able to accept at least one more character after RTS is de asserted VCOM_RTS is connected to the CTS pin of the board controller It is enabled by setting handshake to either CTS or RTSCTS using the serial vcom config command in the admin console If CTS flow control is disabled the state of VCOM_RTS will be ignored and data will be transmitted to the target d...

Page 26: ...ovide detailed insight into an active radio network The Virtual COM Port and Virtual UART interfaces which provide ways to transfer application data between the host PC and the target processor The admin console which provides configuration of the various board features Silicon Labs publishes updates to the board controller firmware in the form of firmware upgrade packages These updates may enable...

Page 27: ...enable Enable packet trace info Packet trace state information This means that running pti enable will enable packet trace 6 2 3 Command Examples PTI Configuration pti config 0 efruart 1600000 Configures PTI to use the EFRUART mode at 1 6 Mb s Serial Port Configuration serial config vcom handshake enable Enables hardware handshake on the VCOM UART connection 6 3 Virtual UART The Virtual UART VUART...

Page 28: ...each transmission on the interface After initializing host to target communication over RTT by sending data on TCP IP port 4900 the target application will be unable to enter EM2 and EM3 This is because RTT utilizes the debug connection of the target VUART might not work reliably during an active debugging session This is because there is contention over the target s debug inter face The board con...

Page 29: ...ed and correlated with the running applica tion s memory map an accurate statistical profile can be built that shows the energy profile of the running application in real time 7 3 AEM Circuit The AEM circuit on the Wireless Pro Kit Mainboard BRD4002A and the Wireless STK Mainboard BRD4001A measures the current through a sense resistor inside the feedback loop of a low dropout regulator LDO The out...

Page 30: ...rent is above or below 150 µA The expected typical accuracy of the AEM on the Wireless Pro Kit Mainboard is within 1 except for currents in the low tens of micro amps where offset errors start to dominate In this low current region the expected typical accuracy is some hundred nanoamps At kit power up or on a power cycle an automatic AEM calibration is performed which compensates for offset errors...

Page 31: ...tools also support using the serial number when connecting over Ethernet however this typically requires the computer and the kit to be on the same subnet for the dis covery protocol using UDP broadcast packets to work 8 1 1 USB Interface The USB interface is available whenever the USB connector on the left hand side of the mainboard is connected to a computer 8 1 2 Ethernet Interface The Ethernet...

Page 32: ...Simplicity Connector from the Wireless Starter Kit Mainboard by using a BRD8010A STK WSTK Debug Adapter Debug MCU In this mode the on board debugger is connected to the EFR32 on the kit To use this mode set the debug mode to MCU RADIO BOARD Board Controller USB Host Computer DEBUG HEADER External Hardware Figure 8 1 Debug MCU Debug OUT In this mode the on board debugger can be used to debug a supp...

Page 33: ...Computer MINI SIMPLICITY CONNECTOR External Hardware RADIO BOARD Figure 8 4 Mini Out 8 3 Debugging During Battery Operation When the EFR32 is battery powered and the J Link USB is still connected the on board debug functionality is available If the USB power is disconnected the Debug IN mode will stop working If debug access is required when the target is running off another energy source such as ...

Page 34: ... of these settings to open the kit configuration dialog Figure 9 1 Simplicity Studio Kit Information Figure 9 2 Kit Configuration Dialog 9 1 Firmware Upgrades You can upgrade the kit firmware through Simplicity Studio Simplicity Studio will automatically check for new updates on startup You can also use the kit configuration dialog for manual upgrades Click the Browse button in the Update Adapter ...

Page 35: ...h Simplicity Studio when the kit documentation pack age has been installed They are also available from the kit page on the Silicon Labs website http www silabs com UG525 EFR32xG24 2 4 GHz 10 dBm Wireless Pro Kit User s Guide Schematics Assembly Drawings and BOM silabs com Building a more connected world Rev 1 0 35 ...

Page 36: ...42 02 02 22 A02 Figure 11 1 Kit Label 11 1 xG24 RB4186C Revision History Kit Revision Released Description A02 02 February 2022 Updated BRD4186C to Rev A01 A01 06 January 2022 Changed box Removed getting started card A00 20 September 2021 Initial release 11 2 xG24 PK6009A Revision History Kit Revision Released Description A00 18 January 2022 Initial kit release UG525 EFR32xG24 2 4 GHz 10 dBm Wirel...

Page 37: ...ent Revision History Revision 1 0 March 2022 Initial document version UG525 EFR32xG24 2 4 GHz 10 dBm Wireless Pro Kit User s Guide Document Revision History silabs com Building a more connected world Rev 1 0 37 ...

Page 38: ...of Silicon Labs A Life Support System is any product or system intended to support or sustain life and or health which if it fails can be reasonably expected to result in significant personal injury or death Silicon Labs products are not designed or authorized for military applications Silicon Labs products shall under no circumstances be used in weapons of mass destruction including but not limit...

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