iMX6 TinyRex EMC testing
Electromagnetic compatibility results for iMX6 TinyRex Development kit are shown on this page. Test setup and scripts are described in details.
These measurement were performed with boards using the actual hardware and software configuration of the web shop development kits.
Connected cables/devices
- Power jack: +5V power supply was used for input voltage
- SD card (Sandisk): preloaded with filesystem, used for booting and for read/write test
- Ethernet: 1 meter 1m CAT Ethernet loopback cable connected. Forced to 100Mb and used for ping test
- one of these two HDMI options was used:
- HDMI loopback: when HDMI input is tested using loopback connection, HDMI input is connected to its HDMI output via a shielded 1 meter long HDMI micro to HDMI cable
- HDMI input source and monitor used: a video source (played by another iMX6 TinyRex Development kit) is plugged into HDMI input using HDMI Micro cable. HDMI Output signal is connected to monitor through 1.8m HDMI cable, monitor is plugged into mains but not turned on. Both monitor and the second iMX6 TinyRex board lay flat on the floor to minimize its affect on results
- 2x USB flash drive: each connected through a 2m extension cable. Both used during read/write test
- SATA hard drive: used for read/write testing. The hard drive was placed alongside the tested board. SATA disk was not part of all the test setups (as per results below)
- Wifi PCIE mini card: inserted, but not actively used. No antennas connected
- Debug cable: FTDI TTL-3V3 UART to USB cable, used only to setup the board, not used and not plugged in during the measurements
Test description
The main purpose of testing was to measure Radiated emission of iMX6 TinyRex Development kit performing under heavy load. Following tests were running during the measurement:
- CPU stress test
- Memory stress test
- HDMI input (receiving a 720p 3Mbps video stream)
- HDMI output (received HDMI stream is forwarded to HDMI output)
- SD card test (read & write)
- SATA stress test (read & write) (if applicable)
- Ethernet ping (and Ethernet SSH session)
Results
All the results were measured in compliance with the emission limits for FCC Class B (EMC standard EN 55022B). Class B devices are suitable for both residential and industrial applications as the norm standards use more restrictive limits.
Graph description
Lower band 30kHz - 1 GHz
Radiated emission are measured and displayed as quasi-peak values. This relation is represented as a blue curve in the measurements. Class B limits are shown by red highlighted line 22F3M_B.
Higher band 1 GHz - 4GHz
Two plots displaying the power density are used to show results in higher bands. Similar to lower frequencies a blue curve represents quasi-peak values. Class B limits applied for quasi-peak measurements is plotted as the higher placed red line 22F_P_B.
Black curve depicts average-power values. Threshold for average-power measurement is shown with the lower placed limit line called 22F_AV_B.
iMX6 TinyRex Development kit Max with enclosure - PASS
Test description:
- stressapptest for CPU and memory
- Ethernet loopback
- running heavy testing script for USB and SD card read/write test
- HDMI input and output both tested with 720p video stream
- Ethernet SSH session
This setup used HDMI option with separate video input source and monitor. Both the board and monitor were placed on the floor to minimize its effects. The power source was hidden inside the chamber tunnel under the testing table.
800px
Vertical polarization | Horizontal polarization | |
370px |
370px | |
iMX6 TinyRex Development kit Max: 30kHZ - 1GHz |
Heavy testing - PASS
Vertical polarization | Horizontal polarization | |
370px |
370px |
Conducted emission
Heavy testing - PASS
The Development kit was powered by VER Series AC/DC Adaptor during the tests.
Vertical polarization | Horizontal polarization | |
370px | 370px |
Preparing the test
SD card setup
Linux 4.1 kernel was used for this test. Modified Xubuntu filesystem can be accessed from here. To create a new SD card, these instructions can be followed.
Set booting parameters
SD card inserted into the edge SD slot will be used as a filesystem device. Following U-Boot commands enable SD card booting and set up other parameters:
setenv bootargs_mmc 'setenv bootargs ${bootargs} ip=192.168.10.91:::255.255.255.0 root=/dev/mmcblk1p1 rootwait video=mxcfb0:dev=hdmi,1920x1080M@60,if=RGB666 vmalloc=400M fbmem=28M fbcon=28M' setenv bootcmd_mmc 'run bootargs_mmc ; mmc dev 1; ext2load mmc 1 0x10800000 imx6TinyRex-uImage-gpu-en-audio-fix-03-APR-2014 3915972; bootm 0x10800000' saveenv
Running tests
Test scripts are displayed in the section below or can be downloaded: Standard test or Heavy test.
Locations of mounted devices are used as script parameters (without /dev/ prefix). The command to start the test has this structure:
./name-of-the-test.sh SATA_DIR USB0_DIR USB1_DIR MMC0_DIR
Running the standard test:
./emc-test1.sh sda1 sdb1 sdc1 mmcblk0p1
Running the heavy test:
./emc-test-all.sh sda1 sdb1 sdc1 mmcblk0p1
To locate directories where the devices are mapped, "fdisk -l" command can be useful:
fdisk -l Disk /dev/sda: 7998 MB, 7998455808 bytes 108 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2296 cylinders, total 15621984 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x001c2022 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 2048 15621983 7809968 83 Linux Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 3904 MB, 3904897024 bytes 4 heads, 16 sectors/track, 119168 cylinders, total 7626752 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0xc44e7f69 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/mmcblk0p1 2048 7626751 3812352 83 Linux Disk /dev/mmcblk1: 1977 MB, 1977614336 bytes 61 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1021 cylinders, total 3862528 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/mmcblk1p1 62 3861421 1930680 83 Linux Disk /dev/sdb: 16.2 GB, 16219373568 bytes 256 heads, 48 sectors/track, 2578 cylinders, total 31678464 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0xc3072e18 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 48 7372799 3686376 6 FAT16 Disk /dev/sdc: 16.0 GB, 16008609792 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1946 cylinders, total 31266816 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 32 31266815 15633392 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
Note: In the example above the device /dev/mmcblk1p1 is a filesystem device. This SD card is tested by running the operating system.
Test scripts
Standard test script
#!/bin/sh mountDevice() { mount /dev/$1 /media/$2 cat /etc/mtab | grep -F "/dev/$1 /media/$2" if [ "$?" -eq "0" ]; then echo "$2 mounted" else echo "$2 not mounted"; exit 2 fi } # mount devices a test a status mountDevice $1 sata mountDevice $2 usb0 mountDevice $3 usb1 mountDevice $4 mmc0 # tell the X applications where they should run export DISPLAY=:0 # run X window - wait for the procces service lightdm start # connect ethernet loopback and force the ethernet to 100Mbit mii-tool -F 100baseTx-HD # play a video file in an infinite loop echo 0 > /sys/class/graphics/fb2/blank sudo -u "ubuntu" xfce4-terminal --geometry=70x20+100+10 -x mplayer -vo fbdev2:/dev/fb2 -vf scale -zoom -loop 0 -xy 1024 /home/ubuntu/Clou$ # ping sudo -u "ubuntu" xfce4-terminal --geometry=70x25+100+600 -x ping 192.168.10.1 & # top sudo -u "ubuntu" xfce4-terminal --geometry=90x50+900+10 -x top & proceed=1 file1="blackbird.wav" while [ $proceed -eq 1 ] do cp1_done=`ps cax | grep $cp1_pid | grep cp` if [ -z "$cp1_done" ]; then # run cp only if previous cp is done cp /media/usb0/$file1 /media/sata & cp1_pid=$! echo "started cp from usb0 to sata" fi cp2_done=`ps cax | grep $cp2_pid | grep cp` if [ -z "$cp2_done" ]; then # run cp only if previous cp is done cp /media/usb1/$file1 /media/mmc0 & cp2_pid=$! echo "started cp from usb1 to mmc0" fi aud_done=`ps cax | grep $aud_pid | grep aplay` if [ -z "$aud_done" ]; then aplay -D hw:0,0 /home/ubuntu/blackbird.wav & aud_pid=$! echo "started play audio" fi done # kill all procceses if Ctrl+C detected trap '$precced=0; kill $cp1_pid $cp2_pid &aud_pid;' 2 sleep 10000
Heavy test script
#!/bin/sh mountDevice() { mount /dev/$1 /media/$2 cat /etc/mtab | grep -F "/dev/$1 /media/$2" if [ "$?" -eq "0" ]; then echo "$2 mounted" else echo "$2 not mounted"; exit 2 fi } # mount devices a test a status mountDevice $1 sata mountDevice $2 usb0 mountDevice $3 usb1 mountDevice $4 mmc0 # tell the X applications where they should run export DISPLAY=:0 # run X windows - wait for the procces service lightdm start # connect Ethernet loopback and force the ethernet to 100Mbit mii-tool -F 100baseTx-HD # gpu test cd /root/gpu-viv-bin-mx6q-3.10.9-1.0.0-hfp/opt/viv_samples/vdk ./tutorial7 & gpu_pid=$! cd # play a video file on the lvds display echo 0 > /sys/class/graphics/fb2/blank mplayer -vo fbdev2:/dev/fb2 -vf scale -zoom -loop 0 -xy 1024 -really-quiet /home/ubuntu/Clouds.avi & vid_pid=$! # stressapptest - testing sata, 2x usb, sd card, 1 thread CPU, 1 thread memory stressapptest -f /media/sata/tmp-file1 -f /media/usb0/tmp-file1 -f /media/usb1/tmp-file1 -f /media/mmc0/tmp-file1 -s 600000 -M 50 -m 1 $ str_pid=$! echo "Stressapptest: " $str_pid # play a audio file mplayer -loop 0 -really-quiet /home/ubuntu/blackbird.wav & aud_pid=$! # ping ping 192.168.10.1 & ping_pid=$! # top top top_pid=$! # kill all procceses if Ctrl+C detected trap '$procced=0; kill $gpu_pid $vid_pid $aud_pid $str_pid $ping_pid;' 2 sleep 10000
Note: If the LVDS monitor is not included in the setup, these lines need to be comment out:
# echo 0 > /sys/class/graphics/fb2/blank # mplayer -vo fbdev2:/dev/fb2 -vf scale -zoom -loop 0 -xy 1024 -really-quiet /home/ubuntu/Clouds.avi &
To disable LVDS Interface, following command is required:
echo 1 > /sys/class/graphics/fb2/blank
The original article can be accessed on the iMX6TinyRex.com website.