Hardware description¶
This section of the documentation specifies and describes the iMX RT1011 Nano Kit mainly from a hardware point of view.
Hardware diagram¶
The following figure illustrates the iMX RT1011 Nano Kit hardware diagram. The design is available with loose or pre-soldered pin headers.
Mechanical dimensions¶
iMX RT1011 Nano Kit is a single sided 55.88mm x 20.32mm (2.2" x 0.8") 1mm thick PCB with a USB Type-C port and dual castellated/through-hole pins.
Power supply¶
iMX RT1011 Nano Kit can be powered by either the USB-C port or alternatively VSYS pin with wide input voltage range (1.8-5.5V). An on-board buck-boost converter (TPS63802) provides 3V3 to the MIMXRT1011 MCU and all other peripherals.
The following figure illustrates the power supply circuitry:
VBUS is the 5V input from the USB-C port. There are two parallel Schottky diodes between VBUS and VSYS, which add flexibility by allowing power ORing of different supplies into VSYS.
Set 3V3_EN HIGH to enable 3V3 output and LOW to disable 3V3 output. This pin has a pull-up resistor (100KOhm) and can be tied to GND to place the board in Power-Down mode.
Set MODE LOW for power save mode and HIGH for forced PWM mode. This pin is tied to GPIO_SD_13 with a pull-down resistor (100KOhm).
How to power the board?
iMX RT1011 Nano Kit has simple and flexible power management with various options for easily powering the board from USB-C, external supplies or batteries.
This is the simplest way to power the board, which will power VSYS (and therefore the system) from the 5V USB VBUS voltage, through two internal Schottky diodes (so VSYS becomes VBUS minus the Schottky diode forward voltage).
If the USB-C port is NOT going to be used, it is safe to power the board by directly connecting VSYS to your preferred power source (in the range 1.8V to 5.5V).
To safely add a second power source to the board, simply feed VSYS through an external Schottky diode.
An improved way to power from a second source is using an external P-MOSFET to replace the Schottky diode as shown in the following figure.
iMX RT1011 Nano Kit can be also used with a battery charger with power path manager which will automatically and seamlessly switch between the input source and the battery power.
General purpose I/Os¶
iMX RT1011 Nano Kit has up to 33 multi-function General Purpose I/Os (A0~A14 can be used as ADC inputs) available on the header pins. These GPIOs are powered from the on-board 3.3V rail, and should be used for 3.3V logic level.
The following figure illustrates the GPIOs pinout:
Buttons and LEDs¶
iMX RT1011 Nano Kit has two buttons - RST button and USR/BT button:
- RST button: Used to reset the iMXRT1011 MCU.
- USR/BT button: Used for user input or Boot Mode trigger.
The Green LED is used for USB power indicating and the Red LED is controlled by GPIO_SD_4.
The following table shows the Buttons and LEDs connections:
| Part | GPIO | Description |
|---|---|---|
| RST Button | NC | Press to reset the MCU |
| USR/BT Button | GPIO_SD_3 | Hold while powering up to enter Serial Downloader on ROM. Pull GPIO_SD_3 LOW when pressed at normal mode |
| Green LED | NC | Indicate USB power |
| Red LED | GPIO_SD_4 | Set GPIO_SD_4 HIGH/LOW to turn on/off the LED |
External memory¶
iMX RT1011 Nano Kit has 128 Mbit QSPI Flash (W25Q128JV) with XIP support and on-the-fly decryption for firmware and disk storage. The memory is connected to the MIMXRT1011 MCU using FlexSPI:
| FlexSPI | W25Q128JV Pin |
|---|---|
GPIO_SD_6 | CS# |
GPIO_SD_10 | SCLK |
GPIO_SD_9 | SIO0/SI |
GPIO_SD_7 | SIO1/SO |
GPIO_SD_8 | SIO2/WP# |
GPIO_SD_11 | SIO3/HOLD# |
Boot mode configurations¶
iMX RT1011 Nano Kit has two boot modes. The boot mode is selected based on the binary value stored in the internal BOOT_MODE register. USR/BT button is used to select the boot mode on the iMX RT1011 Nano Kit.
The following table shows the Boot Mode Configurations:
| MODE | USR/BT Button | BOOT_MODE[1:0] |
|---|---|---|
| Internal Boot | Released | 0b10 |
| Serial Downloader | Pressed while powering up | 0b01 |
Debug interface¶
iMX RT1011 Nano Kit supports Arm Serial Wire Debug (SWD) port, which makes it possible to connect external debuggers for debugging and programming. The I/O voltage of SWD should be 3.3V.
The following figure demonstrates how to connect an external debugger (for example, Pitaya-Link debug probe) for debugging:
The connections are listed in the table below:
| Debugger | Wire | iMX RT1011 Nano Kit |
|---|---|---|
3V3 | VSYS | |
GND | GND | |
RESET | RESET | |
SWDCLK | SWDCLK | |
SWDIO | SWDIO |