EFM32 Pearl Gecko (SLSTK3401A)
Overview
The EFM32 Pearl Gecko Starter Kit SLSTK3401A contains an MCU from the EFM32PG family built on an ARM® Cortex®-M4F processor with excellent low power capabilities.
EFM32PG-SLSTK3401A (image courtesy of Silicon Labs)
Hardware
Advanced Energy Monitoring provides real-time information about the energy consumption of an application or prototype design.
Ultra low power 128x128 pixel Memory-LCD
2 user buttons, 2 LEDs and 2 capacitive buttons
Humidity and temperature sensor
On-board Segger J-Link USB debugger
For more information about the EFM32PG SoC and SLSTK3401A board:
Supported Features
The slstk3401a board configuration supports the following hardware features:
Interface |
Controller |
Driver/Component |
|---|---|---|
MPU |
on-chip |
memory protection unit |
NVIC |
on-chip |
nested vector interrupt controller |
SYSTICK |
on-chip |
systick |
COUNTER |
on-chip |
rtcc |
FLASH |
on-chip |
flash memory |
GPIO |
on-chip |
gpio |
UART |
on-chip |
serial port-polling; serial port-interrupt |
I2C |
on-chip |
i2c port-polling |
WATCHDOG |
on-chip |
watchdog |
The default configuration can be found in boards/silabs/starter_kits/slstk3401a/slstk3401a_defconfig
Other hardware features are currently not supported by the port.
Connections and IOs
The EFM32PG1 SoC has five GPIO controllers (PORTA to PORTD and PORTF) and all are enabled for the SLSTK3401A board.
In the following table, the column Name contains pin names. For example, PF4 means pin number 4 on PORTF, as used in the board’s datasheets and manuals.
Name |
Function |
Usage |
|---|---|---|
PF4 |
GPIO |
LED0 |
PF5 |
GPIO |
LED1 |
PF6 |
GPIO |
Push Button PB0 |
PF7 |
GPIO |
Push Button PB1 |
PA5 |
GPIO |
Board Controller Enable EFM_BC_EN |
PA0 |
UART_TX |
UART TX Console VCOM_TX US0_TX #0 |
PA1 |
UART_RX |
UART RX Console VCOM_RX US0_RX #0 |
PD10 |
UART_TX |
EXP12_UART_TX LEU0_TX #18 |
PD11 |
UART_RX |
EXP14_UART_RX LEU0_RX #18 |
PC10 |
I2C_SDA |
ENV_I2C_SDA I2C0_SDA #15 |
PC11 |
I2C_SCL |
ENV_I2C_SCL I2C0_SCL #15 |
System Clock
The EFM32PG SoC is configured to use the 40 MHz external oscillator on the board.
Serial Port
The EFM32PG SoC has two USARTs and one Low Energy UART (LEUART).
Programming and Debugging
Note
Before using the kit the first time, you should update the J-Link firmware from J-Link-Downloads
Flashing
The SLSTK3401A includes an J-Link serial and debug adaptor built into the board. The adaptor provides:
A USB connection to the host computer, which exposes a mass storage device and a USB serial port.
A serial flash device, which implements the USB flash disk file storage.
A physical UART connection which is relayed over interface USB serial port.
Flashing an application to SLSTK3401A
The sample application Hello World is used for this example. Build the Zephyr kernel and application:
# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b slstk3401a samples/hello_world
Connect the SLSTK3401A to your host computer using the USB port and you should see a USB connection which exposes a mass storage device(SLSTK3401A). Copy the generated zephyr.bin to the SLSTK3401A drive.
Use a USB-to-UART converter such as an FT232/CP2102 to connect to the UART on the expansion header.
Open a serial terminal (minicom, putty, etc.) with the following settings:
Speed: 115200
Data: 8 bits
Parity: None
Stop bits: 1
Reset the board and you’ll see the following message on the corresponding serial port terminal session:
Hello World! slstk3401a