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Need help with some basic questions on OMAP-L138

Other Parts Discussed in Thread: OMAP-L138

Hello:

 

I am looking to use OMAP-L138 for a system that does signal processing and analysis, in addition to interfacing with the outside world via LCD, TCP/IP, USB, SD and RS232. Since I am new to the field, I would like some basic input / direction regarding the following:

 

[a] Do I need any additional interfacing hardware to connect a standard LCD to an OMAP-L138? Does the software available from TI have the necessary drivers for controlling a simple 4x20 dot matrix display?

 

[b] What kind of PC stack does OMAP-L138 has? To make OMAP-L138 communicate with a PC (P2P) via TCP, do I need anything more than a PHY chip? Again, does TI software come with the necessary drivers?

 

Thanks for your help.

Joe

  • Joseph CJ said:
    [a] Do I need any additional interfacing hardware to connect a standard LCD to an OMAP-L138? Does the software available from TI have the necessary drivers for controlling a simple 4x20 dot matrix display?

     

    Typically, the LCD interface can be connected directly to a standard LCD display.  You can reference the EVM schematics to see how the signals are handled.  Drivers for both Linux and BIOS are available for LCD.  Do you know if the 4x20 display that you have in mind uses an intermediary embedded controller chip?

    Joseph CJ said:
    [b] What kind of PC stack does OMAP-L138 has? To make OMAP-L138 communicate with a PC (P2P) via TCP, do I need anything more than a PHY chip? Again, does TI software come with the necessary drivers?

     

    For a typical application, you would just need a PHY chip (and its associated hardware like crystal, line drivers, etc).  Again, you can reference the EVM schematics for the hardware hookup.  Drivers for both Linux and BIOS-NDK are available for TCP/IP.

  • Thank you tlee for your quick response. I have the eXperimenter kit and have the schematics for the same.

    To answer your question regarding the LCD that we plan to use: The LCD module has its own controller, similar to ST7066. The basic inputs to the LCD module are an 8bit word, Chip Enable and Read/Write. Now I think about it, I may have to bypass the OMAP LCD controller and use IO to interface with the LCD module we have. Am I correct?

    On the same topic, could you please tell (or direct to a document) which interfaces are mutiplexed in OMAP-L138? I tried to figure this out from the datasheet. Basically, we need RS232, TCP/IP, SD, LCD and USB interfaces.

    Thank you for your help,

    Joe

  • Joe,

    The LCDC has a LIDD mode to interface with common LCD controller chip interfaces.  I don't think ST7066 is explicitly supported, but if it is compatible with one of the supported LIDD modes, the LCDC will give you better performance than bit-banging with GPIO: http://www.ti.com/litv/pdf/sprufm0a

    There is a pinmux appnote from the main OMAP-L138 Product Folder that is useful for visualizing the pin multiplexing: http://focus.ti.com/general/docs/litabsmultiplefilelist.tsp?literatureNumber=sprab63b

    -Tommy

  • Thanks a lot Tommy.

    Joe