Sparklet on RA6M3G based EVK

Running Sparklet on Renesas RA6M3G based EVK board

This comprehensive guide outlines the essential steps for running Sparklet powered UI application on the Renesas RA6M3G based EVK board.

It’s crucial to follow these instructions meticulously and sequentially to guarantee a smooth setup on your target device.

If you’re new to Sparklet, it’s advisable to begin by familiarizing yourself with the basic concepts and completing the quick tour tutorial in the following order.

Also get to know about the board more via its Quick Start Guide.

These will help you grasp the fundamentals of Sparklet, and the workflow involved in GUI development.

Prerequisites

This section contains the pre-requisites for running Sparklet on any RA6M3G platform.

Hardware components

  • Renesas RA6M3G based Evaluation Kit.

  • Debugger cable to connect the board to PC.

Software components

  • e2 studio by Renesas

If any of these are not available, kindly install them as per the vendor instructions.

Sparklet Example Code Organization

Uncompress the example project, Sparklet_Coffee_Maker_Demo.zip in this case, on to your working directory. (e.g. E:RenesasRA6M3GSparklet_Coffee_Maker_Demo).

The provided project for RA6M3G EVK contains everything you need to create, compile, link and flash a Flint UI application for the Renesas RA6M3G target. This example is running on top of FreeRTOS with screen elements dynamically modified for demo.

The images of the Coffee Maker’s screen are presented below.

Coffee maker screens

Coffee maker screens

The Flint project for the same can be downloaded from Downloads Section.

After unpacking, you will find the following subdirectories:

Directory

Description

\src

This folder contains the files generated for each thread that are configured in the stack configuration. There you will find the initialization of the system and the FreeRTOS task to drive a Flint application. This folder also contains files that are needed for enabling touch support.

\ra

This folder contains the folders/files of the necessary components that are selected in the FSP.

\inc

This folder contains the header files for Sparklet library.

\libs

This folder contains Sparklet library file.

\ra_cfg

This folder contains the configuration files for the components that are selected in the FSP.

\script

This folder contains the linker file for the FSP.

\src\App

This folder contains the bin and header files of Flint project.

\src\touch_ft5x06

This folder contains the API’s related to touch.

Of these some files of interest are:

File

Description

sparklet_thread_entry.c

This file contains the API’s for initiating QSPI and sparklet.

touch_thread_entry.c

This file contains the API’s for initiating touch and obtaining touch events.

Building the Sparklet Example

The following steps capture the procedure to build and flash the application using the e2 studio.

Building the Project

  • Open the e2 studio and select the workspace directory for the project.

  • Click on file -> import.

    File menu

    File menu

  • From the import popup box select Existing Projects into Workspace and click on Next.

    Import Pop-up window

    Import Pop-up window

  • Select the project directory and click on Finish.

  • Open the configuration.xml file to open the FSP configuration window.

  • Click on Generate Project Content to generate the files related to the FSP configuration.

  • Build the project by clicking on the Build icon1 icon.

  • On successful build, the output files are generated in the Debug folder and are shown in the following image.

    Output Folder

    Output Folder

While this file contains the code, the assets are to be loaded separately on to the external flash.

Loading the external flash with Flint image

The bin file containing the image details are loaded onto the external flash by the following steps.

  • Click on the drop-down button near the debug icon icon2 and select debug configurations.

  • Select the project name (Sparklet_Coffee_Maker_Demo) under Renesas GDB Hardware Debugging.

    Debug configuration Pop-up window

    Debug configuration Pop-up window

  • Select the Startup tab and under the Load image and symbols, click on Add button and select the bin file from the file system. Enter the offset address as 60100000 to load the bin file to that external flash.

    Debug configuration Pop-up window

    Debug configuration Pop-up window

Loading the internal flash with e2 studio

  • The firmware by default is loaded onto the internal flash when debug icon icon2 is pressed.

Debugging the Project with e2 studio

While the above steps are suitable for deployment, generally to develop and debug, the e2 studio can be used as given in the below steps.

Click on the debug icon icon2 to start debugging the application.

Debug Window

Debug Window

RA6M3G EVK displaying Coffee Maker Demo

RA6M3G EVK displaying Coffee Maker Demo