RZ/V2L SMARC Board
General Information
Official RZ/V2L Device Website
Please review the Documentation & Downloads section
Evaluation Board Documentation
Since the RZ/V2L and RZ/G2L devices are pin compatible, the same evaluation board design is used for both.
Software Downloads
Check "Software & Tool Pages" section on on this page
RZ/V2L Linux Package
Mali Graphic Library
Video Codec Library
RZ/V2L DRP-AI Support Package
RZ/V2L ISP Support Package
DRP-AI Translator
RZ/V2L Cortex-M33 Multi-OS Package (optional)
RZ/V2L SMARC EVK gadget: simple Coral camera holder (3D model)
- 1 General Information
- 2 Sharing of RZ/G2L Board Documentation
- 3 RZ/V2L Boot Loaders Warning
- 4 Available Demos
- 5 Getting Started
- 6 SD Card Prepare and Booting
- 7 RZV2L Cortex-M33 Multi-OS Package
- 8 Supported MIPI Camera modules for RZ/V2L EVK
- 9 Enable eMMcC Flash
- 10 Program On-Board eMMC Flash
- 11 Fix CPUs 100% Busy at Startup
- 12 DRP-AI Driver Version 7.00
- 13 Audio Example Scripts
Sharing of RZ/G2L Board Documentation
Since the RZ/V2L and RZ/G2L devices are pin compatible, they share the exact same evaluation board design. Please refer to the RZ/G2L SMARC board page for reference.
Suggested LCD Monitors
RZ/V2L Boot Loaders Warning
⚠️ Warning.
The pre-loaded bootloaders (u-boot and ARM Trusted Firmware) on the RZ/V2L Evaluation Kit (SMARC board) are not up to date with the current BSP. It is strongly recommended that the bootloaders generated when building the BSP as described in the Startup Guide document that is distributed with the BSP Package, be programmed into SPI Flash on the board using Flash Writer.
Known issues with pre-loaded loaders.
DRP Demos will prematurely exit.
ISP Demos will prematurely exit.
RZV2L Multi-OS CM33 Debug fails connection
Available Demos
⭐ Prebuilt Demo Images ⭐
Renesas has prepared pre-built images available for download from renesas.com.
⭐⭐ RZ/V2L AI SDK Applications Demo SD Image
Choice between USB Camera or MIPI-CSI Coral Camera
Standalone demo requires HDMI LCD, USB keyboard and USB mouse.
Recommended because easy setup.
This is a complete SD Card image file that can be programmed using a Windows or Linux.
https://www.renesas.com/us/en/document/sws/rzv2l-ai-applications-demo-sd-image-version-200
RZ/V2L DRP-AI Object Detection and Pose Estimation DEMO
Uses MIPI-CSI Coral camera and external HDMI Display
Recommended because easy setup
This is a complete SD Card image file that can be programmed using a Windows or Linux.
https://www.renesas.com/us/en/document/sws/rzv2l-drp-ai-object-detection-and-pose-estimation-demo
RZ/V2L DRP-AI USB Camera HTTP Demo SD Image version
Images are captured using a USB Camera and then processed using DRP-AI. The results are then sent over Ethernet to be viewed in a web browser.
This is a complete SD Card image file that can be programmed using a Windows or Linux.
https://www.renesas.com/us/en/document/sws/rzv2l-drp-ai-usbcamera-http-demo-sd-image-version
RZ/V2L DRP-AI USB Camera HTTP Demo Pre-build version
Images are captured using a USB Camera and then processed using DRP-AI. The results are then sent over Ethernet to be viewed in a web browser.
This package contains individual binary files that can be used to create an bootable SD Card.
A Linux PC is required to format the SD Card, and then extract and copy the files to the correct location on the SD Card.
https://www.renesas.com/us/en/document/sws/rzv2l-drp-ai-usbcamera-http-demo-pre-build-version
DRP-AI Pretrained Applications
Please see the DRP-AI Pretrained Models page for details about pretrained applications.
DRP-AI Demos
The RZV2L DRP-AI Demos can be found here.
These demos include pre-build applications, source code and documentation about the DRP-AI.
Simple ISP Demos
Information about the RZV2L Simple ISP can be found here.
These demos include pre-build applications, source code and documentation about the DRP-AI and ISP.
Camera Data Receive Unit (CRU) Sample App
This sample application demonstrates using CRU functions for various image processing tasks like demosaicing raw camera data, color correction, and some simple camera functions.
GStreamer Application Note
RZ/G2L Group and RZ/V2L Group Linux Interface Specification GStreamer User's Manual
This User's Manual (Application Note) explains GStreamer and the custom plug-ins created by Renesas.
Usage examples are also included.
Getting Started
📄 Board User Manual
The User Manual for the boards can be found their website pages on renesas.com.
Check the 'General Information' section on this page for the links.
📦 What is included in the kit
A Micro USB cable for serial console.
🛒 What you will need to purchase
Power: (Required) USB Type-C power supply. 5V or 9V can be used. To use 9V, switch SW11-4 change is needed (please see the board manual).
HDMI LCD: An LCD monitor with an HMDI input. Here is a list of tested touchscreen monitors: RZ/G2L-LC-UL SMARC Board#CompatibleLCDDisplays
mini-HDMI Adapter: The connector on the board is type mini-HDMI.
USB Camera: A camera supporting USB Video Class (UVC) such as Logitec C270, C920, C922, BRIO Ultra HD Pro.
USB Mouse: In the case that you do not have a touchscreen LCD monitor.
The Renesas RZV AI SDK provides board bring up of the EVK and AI Demos.
RZV2L Getting Started using pre-build images Link
PreBuilt Images Link
RZV2L Yocto Getting Started Link
Source Link
SD Card Prepare and Booting
Factor Boot Loader Warning
Please read section V2L Boot Loaders Warning about the factory boot loaders programmed into the EVK boards.
Format and Load an SD Card
The evaluation boards can be booted from SD Cards. The SD card must be formatted and loaded using a Linux PC. A helpful script has been created (usb_sd_partition) that you can run on your Linux PC.
Insert your micro SD card into a USB-SD-Card reader and then plug into a Linux PC.
Use the commands below to download the formatting script and run. Please select your card and choose the default settings.
$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/renesas-rz/rzg2_bsp_scripts/master/usb_sd_partition/usb_sd_partition.sh $ chmod +x usb_sd_partition.sh $ ./usb_sd_partition.sh
Use the commands below to copy the files you build with the BSP to the SD card. Start in the base of your Yocto BSP.
# Change to the Yocto output directory that contains the files $ cd build/tmp/deploy/images/smarc-rzv2l # Copy the Linux kernel and Device Tree to partition 1 $ sudo cp -v Image /media/$USER/RZ_FAT $ sudo cp -v r9a07g054l2-smarc.dtb /media/$USER/RZ_FAT # Copy and expand the Root File System to partition 2 $ sudo tar -xvf core-image-weston-smarc-rzv2l.tar.gz -C /media/$USER/RZ_ext (or if NOT using graphics) $ sudo tar -xvf core-image-minimal-smarc-rzv2l.tar.gz -C /media/$USER/RZ_ext # Make sure all files are finished writing before removing the USB card reader from the PC $ sync
Safely remove your USB card reader by right clicking on the drive icon (either RZ_FAT or RZ_ext) in Ubuntu and selecting "Eject"
Power the Board and Connect to the Serial Port
Supply power the board using the USB-C connection on the carrier board labeled "Power Input"
On the carrier board, press the red button in order to turn on power to the board. The green LED labeled "Carrier PWR On" will be lit when power is on.
Now that the board is powered, plug a USB micro cable into the carrier board to the USB connector labeled "SER 3 UART". Use a serial terminal program to interact as you board. With a Linux PC, we recommend using "putty" (connects to /dev/USB0), and with a Windows PC we recommend "TeraTerm" that connects to COMx. The baud rate of the Serial connection is 115200 bps.
Press the blue reset button, and then "u-boot" will start. Within 3 seconds, press the space bar on your keyboard in order to stop the auto-boot sequence.
Switch settings for the CPU SOM board
The SOM board contains a eMMC Flash device and a Micro SD Card socket. On the SOM board, you can only use one or the other because they are both connected to the same peripheral channel on the RZ/V2L.
Set the switches on the SOM board to what you want to use.
⚠️ u-boot environment variables are always stored in eMMC Flash (not SPI flash). This means if you change switch SW1-2 to OFF on the SOM board, you cannot access saved u-boot environments variables and you will always get the message "*** Warning - MMC init failed, using default environment"
Note that the SD Card slot on the Carrier board will always work regardless of the setting of SW1-2 because it uses a separate peripheral channel on the RZ/V2L.
On the SOM (CPU) board, there is a little switch (SW1) near the SD card socket.
SOM board uses SD Card socket SOM board uses eMMC Flash (recommended) SW1-1 = ON/OFF(JTAG) SW1-1 = ON/OFF(JTAG) SW1-2 = ON SW1-2 = OFF +-----+ +-----+ | ON | | ON | | = = | | = | | | | = | | 1 2 | | 1 2 | +-----+ +-----+
Boot the Board
Caution on default factory boot loaders
Please see RZ/V2LBootLoadersWarning about the factory programmed evaluation boards
Boot Option 1 (Recommended)
SOM Board:
eMMC Flash onboard is connected to SDHI channel 0
SD Card slot is disabled
Carrier Board:
SD Card slot is connected to SDHI channel 1 (contains kernel and file system)
Insert the SD card into the socket on Carrier Board.
┌─────┬─────┬─────┐ │ │ SOM │ │ │ └─────┘ │ │ Carrier Board │ │ ┌─┐ │ └─────┴─┴─────────┘ ↑ SD Card Socket
Press the blue reset button, and then "u-boot" will start. Within 3 seconds, press the space bar on your keyboard in order to stop the auto-boot sequence.
At the u-boot prompt ( => ), enter the following commands to boot the board:
RZ/V2L EVK Booting Commands:
# Create command macros and save them: => setenv sd_boot1 'mmc dev 1 ; fatload mmc 1:1 0x48080000 Image ; fatload mmc 1:1 0x48000000 Image-r9a07g054l2-smarc.dtb' => setenv sd_boot2 'setenv bootargs 'root=/dev/mmcblk1p2 rootwait' ; booti 0x48080000 - 0x48000000' => setenv bootcmd 'run sd_boot1 sd_boot2' => saveenv # Reset the board and it will automatically boot
Boot Option 2 (Advanced)
SOM Board:
eMMC Flash onboard is connected to SDHI channel 0 (contains kernel and file system)
SD Card slot is disabled
Carrier Board:
SD Card is connected to SDHI channel 1
Set switch SW1-2 = OFF
The boot loader (u-boot) by default will try to boot from eMMC after 3 seconds.
Press the blue reset button and wait.
Boot Option 3 (Advanced)
SOM Board:
eMMC Flash onboard is disabled
SD Card slot is connected to SDHI channel 0 (contains kernel and file system)
Carrier Board:
SD Card is connected to SDHI channel 1
Set switch SW1-2 = ON
Insert the SD card into the socket on SMARC SOM CPU board (not the carrier board).
Press the blue reset button, and then "u-boot" will start. Within 3 seconds, press the space bar on your keyboard in order to stop the auto-boot sequence.
Note that you will get this message every time "*** Warning - MMC init failed, using default environment" because u-boot environment variables are stored in eMMC Flash (that you disabled)
At the u-boot prompt ( => ), enter the following commands to boot the board:
# Manually enter the following commands to boot => mmc dev 0 ; fatload mmc 0:1 0x48080000 Image ; fatload mmc 0:1 0x48000000 Image-r9a07g054l2-smarc.dtb => setenv bootargs 'root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootwait' ; booti 0x48080000 - 0x48000000
Linux Login
The login will be "root" (no password is needed)
RZV2L Cortex-M33 Multi-OS Package
Instructions for RZV Cortex-M33 Multi-OS Package is located below.
Cortex-M33 Multi-OS Package Support
Supported MIPI Camera modules for RZ/V2L EVK
Additional Supported Camera Modules are listed below:
e-CAM20_CURZ is an AR0234-based Full HD Color Global Shutter Camera. It supports the UYVY image format and is provided with an M12 lens holder – which together make it compatible with Renesas ® RZ/V2L. Its key features make e-CAM20_CURZ a perfect fit for applications like AMR, smart shopping, smart traffic, etc. (Order number: e-CAM20_CURZ_1H01R2)
e-CAM21_CURZ is a Full HD Ultra low light camera for Renesas ® RZ/V2L based on the Sony® STARVIS™ IMX462 sensor. It comes with superior NIR performance and is equipped with an inbuilt ISP and an M12 lens holder – making it ideal for applications like people counting, animal tracking, smart agriculture, etc. (Order Number: 2. e-CAM21_CURZ_1H01R2 )
Enable eMMcC Flash
The instructions to enable the RZV2L to boot from eMMC Flash at on the RZG2L Page here
Program On-Board eMMC Flash
The instructions to enable the RZV2L to load the Linux kernel, DTB, and Filesystem RZG2L Page here
Fix CPUs 100% Busy at Startup
Fix rngd bug that randomly keeps all CPUs busy after startup
RZ MPUs (at least non-secure versions) do not have a hardware random number generation module (/dev/hwrng), but that's the default setting for the systemd rngd service.
With that, rngd occupies the CPU resources to build up entropies during start-up.
Randomly, this process does not end properly and slows down the entire system significantly.
But if an available pseudorandom number generator is selected, rngd finishes properly always.
The following modification is sufficient:
Before you build the BSP, modify
poky/meta/recipes-support/rng-tools/rng-tools/default
from
EXTRA_ARGS="-r /dev/hwrng"
to
EXTRA_ARGS="-r /dev/urandom -x jitter"
However, normally you do not want to modify the original recipe but instead create a new one to override the old one.
Create a new folder:
mkdir - p meta-renesas/recipes-rzg2l/recipes-support/rng-toolsChange dir:
cd meta-renesas/recipes-rzg2l/recipes-support/rng-toolsCreate a new file in that folder:
vi rng-tools_%.bbappendEdit the file just created and add these lines:
FILESEXTRAPATHS:prepend := "${THISDIR}/${PN}:"SRC_URI += "file://default"(1)Create another folder:
mkdir -p rng-toolsAdd a file
vi defaultAdd the new content into it:
EXTRA_ARGS="-r /dev/urandom -x jitter"Rebuild the image with the new package:
bitbake core-image-weston
(1) Note that this is the new Yocto syntax. For older versions of Yocto you may need to replace : (colon) with _ (underscore): so FILESEXTRAPATHS_prepend.
Alternatively, you can modify the
/etc/default/rng-tools
file in the current target rootfs accordingly.
DRP-AI Driver Version 7.00
This version to the DRP-AI Reserve Area has changed from 0x70000000 to 0x80000000, because of this older versions of the DRP-AI Implementation Source code will fail with the following errors.
[ERROR] Failed to run DRPAI_ASSIGN : errno=22
[ERROR] Failed to run load_data_to_mem : resnet50_cam/drp_desc.bin
[ERROR] Failed to load DRPAI Data
This is due to the generated DRP Translator files map to the older address. Please use the DRP Translator version 1.70 when generating the DRP files and use the latest sample code included in the DRP-AI package version 7.0.
Audio Example Scripts
Configure WM8978 Codec
In the following script we specify the codex is device 0 “CARD=0”. See Pro Tip for how to find this on linux.
#!/bin/bash
# Select Card 0
CARD=0
# — PLAYBACK SETUP ---
# Unmute and set volume for Speakers/Headphones
amixer -c $CARD sset 'Speaker' 100% unmute
amixer -c $CARD sset 'Headphone' 100% unmute
# Route DAC to the outputs
amixer -c $CARD sset 'Left Output Mixer PCM' on
amixer -c $CARD sset 'Right Output Mixer PCM' on
# — RECORD SETUP ---
# Enable Microphone Bias (from your DT snippet)
amixer -c $CARD sset 'Mic Bias' on
# Route Input to ADC
amixer -c $CARD sset 'Left Input Mixer MicP' on
amixer -c $CARD sset 'Right Input Mixer MicP' on
# Boost gain if the recording is too quiet
amixer -c $CARD sset 'Input PGA' 20dBRecord Audio Wave File
arecord -D hw:0,0 -f S16_LE -r 44100 -c 2 -d 5 recording.wav
Play Audio Wave File
aplay -D hw:0,0 -f S16_LE -r 44100 -c 2 test_audio.wav
Enable Bypass
Pro-Tip: Finding the exact control names
The below commands assume that the Codex is properly configured in the Linux Device Tree.
If the amixer commands above throw an "Unable to find simple control" error, run this to see the exact strings the driver uses:
amixer -c 0 scontrols Here CARD => 0
Do you see any "Left Output Mixer" or "PCM" entries when you run that scontrols command?
In the scripts above I set Card 0 (hw:0,0). These values can be found with
List playback devices
aplay -l
List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: rzssidaiwm8978h [rz-ssi-dai-wm8978-hifi], device 0: rz-ssi-dai-wm8978-hifi wm8978-hifi-0 []
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: soundcard [sound_card], device 0: rz-ssi-dai-i2s-hifi i2s-hifi-0 []
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0This shows devices at Card 0 and Card 1. The WM8978 is at Card 0. This is what we used for Setup, Play, and Record.