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UG431: EFR32xG22 2.4 GHz 6 dBm QFN32
Wireless Starter Kit User's Guide

A Wireless Starter Kit with the BRD4183A Radio Board is an ex-
cellent 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.

BRD4183A is a plug-in board for the Wireless Starter Kit Mainboard. It is a complete ref-
erence design for the EFR32xG22 Wireless SoC, with matching network and a PCB an-
tenna for 6 dBm output power in the 2.4 GHz band.

The Wireless Starter Kit Mainboard contains an on-board J-Link debugger with a Packet
Trace Interface and a Virtual COM port, enabling application development and debug-
ging of the attached radio board as well as external hardware.

This document describes how to use the BRD4183A Radio Board together with a Wire-
less Starter Kit Mainboard.

BRD4183A RADIO BOARD FEATURES

• EFR32xG22 Wireless Gecko Wireless

SoC with 512 kB Flash and 32 kB RAM
(EFR32MG22C224F512IM32).

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

air upgrades

WIRELESS STK MAINBOARD FEATURES

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

• SLWSTK6021A
• SLWRB4183A

silabs.com

 | Building a more connected world.

Rev. 1.0 

Summary of Contents for EFR32xG22

Page 1: ... debug ging of the attached radio board as well as external hardware This document describes how to use the BRD4183A Radio Board together with a Wire less Starter Kit Mainboard BRD4183A RADIO BOARD FEATURES EFR32xG22 Wireless Gecko Wireless SoC with 512 kB Flash and 32 kB RAM EFR32MG22C224F512IM32 Inverted F PCB antenna 2 4 GHz band 8 Mbit low power serial flash for over the air upgrades WIRELESS ...

Page 2: ... 13 4 Power Supply and Reset 14 4 1 Radio Board Power Selection 14 4 2 Board Controller Power 15 4 3 EFR32 Reset 15 5 Peripherals 16 5 1 Push Buttons and LEDs 16 5 2 Serial Flash 16 5 3 Virtual COM Port 17 5 3 1 Host Interfaces 18 5 3 2 Serial Configuration 18 5 3 3 Hardware Handshake 19 6 Board Controller 20 6 1 Admin Console 20 6 1 1 Connecting 20 6 1 2 Built in Help 20 6 1 3 Command Examples 21...

Page 3: ...rnet Interface 25 8 1 3 Serial Number Identification 25 8 2 Debug Modes 26 8 3 Debugging During Battery Operation 27 9 Kit Configuration and Upgrades 28 9 1 Firmware Upgrades 28 10 Schematics Assembly Drawings and BOM 29 11 Kit Revision History 30 11 1 SLWRB4183A Revision History 30 11 2 SLWSTK6021A Revision History 30 12 Document Revision History 31 silabs com Building a more connected world Rev ...

Page 4: ...dio board This means that each radio board has its own pin mapping to the Wireless Starter 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 that the correct document be consulted which shows the kit features in context of the radio board plugged in This document explains how to use the Wir...

Page 5: ...race and Advanced Energy Monitoring header ARM Coresight 19 pin trace debug header Ultra low power 128x128 pixel memory LCD Not connected to BRD4183A Battery or USB power USB serial port Packet trace Advanced Energy Monitoring Buttons and LEDs Si7021 Humidity and Temperature Sensor Not connected to BRD4183A Figure 2 1 Kit Hardware Layout UG431 EFR32xG22 2 4 GHz 6 dBm QFN32 Wireless Starter Kit Use...

Page 6: ...ce AEM Debug UART Packet Trace AEM Simplicity Connector Debug Connector Board Controller O U T I N MCU SMA Connector 2 4 GHz RF Inverted F PCB Antenna EFR32xG22 Wireless SoC SPI 8 Mbit MX25R Serial Flash GPIO EXP Header User Button User LED GPIO ETM Trace Figure 2 2 Kit Block Diagram UG431 EFR32xG22 2 4 GHz 6 dBm QFN32 Wireless Starter Kit User s Guide Hardware Overview silabs com Building a more ...

Page 7: ...lopment features of the kit this USB connector is also the main power source for the kit USB 5V from this connector powers the board controller and the AEM It is recommended that the USB host be able to supply at least 500 mA to this connector although the actual current required will vary depending on the application 3 2 Ethernet Connector The Ethernet connector provides access to all of the Wire...

Page 8: ...C P13 NC P11 PA06 EXP14 VCOM_RX P9 PA05 EXP12 VCOM_TX P7 NC P5 NC P3 NC P1 NC VRF GND VMCU VCOM_ENABLE PA04 P22 DBG_TDO_SWO PA03 P20 DBG_TMS_SWDIO PA02 P18 DBG_TCK_SWCLK PA01 P16 GND VCOM_RTS PA00 P14 NC P12 NC P10 NC P8 UIF_LED0 EXP9 PB01 P6 UIF_BUTTON0 EXP7 PB00 P4 NC P2 NC P0 VRF J101 GND GND 5V 5V NC NC P45 NC NC P44 P43 NC NC P42 P41 NC NC P40 3V3 3V3 P39 NC NC P38 P37 NC NC P36 P35 NC NC P34...

Page 9: ...tion of expansion boards EXP boards that can plug into a number of different Silicon Labs Starter Kits However due to limitations in the number of available I O pins on the EFR32xG22 the connector on this kit has a reduced feature set 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 not connected...

Page 10: ... supply 18 5V Board USB voltage 16 NC I2C_SDA 14 PA06 UART_RX VCOM_RX USART1_RX 12 PA05 UART_TX VCOM_TX USART1_TX 10 NC SPI_CS 8 NC SPI_SCLK 6 NC SPI_MISO 4 NC SPI_MOSI 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 identification of add on boards 15 NC I2C_...

Page 11: ...WDIO 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 4 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 have a small plug that prevent t...

Page 12: ... external target with the AEM unplug the radio board from the Wireless STK Mainboard to avoid adding the radio board 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 ...

Page 13: ...esigns that use this connector The Mini Simplicity Connector is designed to offer advanced debug features from the Starter Kit on a 10 pin connector Serial Wire Debug SWD with SWO Packet Trace Interface PTI Virtual COM port VCOM AEM monitored voltage rail Note Packet Trace is only available on Wireless STK Mainboards MCU Starter Kits do not support Packet Trace VAEM 1 3 RST 5 VCOM_TX 9 PTI_FRAME 7...

Page 14: ...eries allowing accurate high speed current measurements and energy debugging profiling With the switch in the USB position radio boards with USB support can be powered by a regulator on the radio board itself BRD4183A does not contain a USB regulator and setting the switch in the USB position will cause the EFR32 to be unpowered Finally with the switch in the BAT position a 20 mm coin cell battery...

Page 15: ...d 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 USB and BAT modes 4 3 EFR32 Reset The EFR32 Wireless SoC can be reset by a few different sources A user pressing the RESET button The on board debugger pulling the RESET pin low An external debugger pulling the RESET pin low In addi...

Page 16: ..._PB0 UIF_PB1 PB00 GPIO NC PB01 GPIO EFR32 Figure 5 1 Buttons and LEDs 5 2 Serial Flash The BRD4183A Radio Board is equipped with an 8 Mbit Macronix MX25R SPI flash that is connected directly to the EFR32 The figure below shows how the serial flash is connected to the EFR32 PC02 US0_CLK PC00 US0_TX PC01 US0_RX PC03 US0_CS EFR32 MX25R8035F SCLK MOSI MISO SCS VMCU VDD 8 Mbit Figure 5 2 Radio Board Se...

Page 17: ...terface Pins Signal Description VCOM_TX Transmit data from the EFR32 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...

Page 18: ...eless 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 or r...

Page 19: ...ted 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 device...

Page 20: ...ust be connected to Ethernet using the Ethernet connector in the top left corner of the mainboard for the admin console to be available See Section 8 1 2 Ethernet Interface for details on the Ethernet connectivity Connect to the admin console by opening a telnet connection to the kit s IP address port number 4902 When successfully connected a WSTK prompt is displayed 6 1 2 Built in Help The admin ...

Page 21: ...or the RTT Control Block upon receiving data on TCP IP port 4900 If the board controller is unable to locate the RTT Control Block it will return an error message on the same connection For the board controller to be able to locate the RTT Control Block it has to be aligned on a 1024 byte boundary in RAM After initializing the RTT connection the target will only enter emulated EM2 and EM3 where th...

Page 22: ...the Wireless Start er Kit to reset the target application or make sure that the target application verifies that SWO is enabled and configured before sending any data No data received after flashing a new application Other issues Disconnect from TCP port 4900 press the RESET button on the kit then reconnect to 4900 If this does not fix the issue try to restart the kit by unplugging and replugging ...

Page 23: ...splay and or storage The current sense amplifier measures the voltage drop over a small series resistor and the gain stage further amplifies this voltage with two different gain settings to obtain two current ranges The transition between these two ranges occurs around 250 µA The current signal is combined with the target processor s Program Counter PC sampling by utilizing a feature of the ARM Co...

Page 24: ...00 nA The AEM current sampling rate is 10 kHz Note The AEM circuitry only works when the kit is powered and the power switch is in the AEM position 7 4 Usage The AEM data is collected by the board controller and can be displayed by the Energy Profiler available through Simplicity Studio By using the Energy Profiler current consumption and voltage can be measured and linked to the actual code runni...

Page 25: ...er 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 Mini B connector on the left hand side of the mainboard is connected to a computer 8 1 2 Ethernet Interface The Ethernet interface is available when the ...

Page 26: ...SB 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 supported Silicon Labs device mounted on a custom board Board Controller USB Host Computer DEBUG HEADER External Hardware RADIO BOARD Figure 8 2 Debug OUT Debug IN In this mode the on board debugger is disconnected and an external debugger can be connected to deb...

Page 27: ...mode will stop working If debug access is required when the target is running off another energy source such as a battery and the board controller is powered down make direct connections to the GPIO used for debugging This can be done by connecting to the appropriate pins of the breakout pads Some Silicon Labs kits provide a dedicated pin header for this purpose UG431 EFR32xG22 2 4 GHz 6 dBm QFN32...

Page 28: ... any of them to open the kit configuration dialog Figure 9 1 Simplicity Studio Kit Information Figure 9 2 Kit Configuration Dialog 9 1 Firmware Upgrades Upgrading the kit firmware is done 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 sect...

Page 29: ... through Simplicity Studio when the kit documentation pack age has been installed They are also available from the Silicon Labs website and kit page UG431 EFR32xG22 2 4 GHz 6 dBm QFN32 Wireless Starter Kit User s Guide Schematics Assembly Drawings and BOM silabs com Building a more connected world Rev 1 0 29 ...

Page 30: ...02 20 A00 Figure 11 1 Kit Label 11 1 SLWRB4183A Revision History Kit Revision Released Description A00 18 November 2019 Initial release 11 2 SLWSTK6021A Revision History Kit Revision Released Description A00 19 November 2019 Initial kit release UG431 EFR32xG22 2 4 GHz 6 dBm QFN32 Wireless Starter Kit User s Guide Kit Revision History silabs com Building a more connected world Rev 1 0 30 ...

Page 31: ...sion History Revision 1 0 21 February 2020 Initial document version UG431 EFR32xG22 2 4 GHz 6 dBm QFN32 Wireless Starter Kit User s Guide Document Revision History silabs com Building a more connected world Rev 1 0 31 ...

Page 32: ...ts The products are not designed or authorized to be used within any FDA Class III devices applications for which FDA premarket approval is required or Life Support Systems without the specific written consent 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 persona...

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