OLIMEX© 2015
A13-SOM user's manual
CHAPTER 2: SETTING UP THE A13-SOM BOARD
2. Introduction to the chapter
This section helps you set up the SOM development board for the first time. Please consider first
the electrostatic warning to avoid damaging the board, then discover the hardware and software
required to operate the board.
The procedure to power up the board is given, and a description of the default board behavior is
detailed.
2.1 Electrostatic and electrical polarity warning
A13-SOM boards are shipped in a protective anti-static package. The board must not be exposed to
high electrostatic potentials. A grounding strap or similar protective device should be worn when
handling the board. Avoid touching the component pins or any other metallic element.
If you connect other electrical devices to the SOM board make sure that they have equal electrical
polarity. This is also true for a serial cable connected between a PC and the board's DEBUG port. In
rare cases different polarity might cause hardware damage to the board.
2.2 Requirements
In order to set up the A13-SOM board optimally one or more additional items may be needed. They
might be generally placed in two categories:
Required
– items that are needed in order to achieve minimum functionality;
Recommended
– items that is good to have in order to be able to interact with the most important
of the features of the board;
Note that if A13-SOM-WIFI or A13-SOM-WIFI-4GB is mounted on A13-SOM – the requirements
would be different! The requirements below are for a stand-alone use of A13-SOM. Refer to A13-
SOM-WIFI's user's manual for adjusted requirements.
Required items:
- 5V-external power supply with proper connectors – A13-SOM has no power jack, only powering
pins (5VEXT, GND)
- Output device – USB-SERIAL-CABLE-F + personal computer (for Linux and/or Android
debugging) – A13-SOM lacks other options for debugging – you would need a serial cable with
level-shifter to interface the board
- SD card with compatible image – if you have the board version with NO additional NAND
memory you will need it to use one of the images available. If you decide to use Debian you would
also need a card. Official Android and Debian images are available at the wiki article for the board.
Page 9 of 36
