PocketBeagle 2

Tags: chip:am62x arch:arm64 vendor:beagleboard

PocketBeagle 2 is a compact open-hardware board from BeagleBoard.org based on the TI AM6254 SoC.

Features

TI AM6254 quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 SoC
512 MiB DDR4
microSD boot with on-board QSPI boot firmware
USB-C debug/power connection with serial console access
Expansion headers for GPIO, I2C, SPI, UART, PWM, and ADC
User LEDs exposed by the board port

Current NuttX support includes early boot, the 16550 serial console, interactive NSH, procfs mount during board bring-up, AM62x TISCI initialization, main-domain GPIO, and I2C0/I2C2 controller support in the pocketbeagle2:i2c configuration. SPI, MMC/SD runtime support, Ethernet, and USB runtime support are not implemented yet.

Buttons and LEDs

The current NuttX board port defines three logical user LEDs:

LED	Colour	Notes
USR0	Green	`CONFIG_ARCH_LEDS` placeholder
USR1	Amber	`CONFIG_ARCH_LEDS` placeholder
USR2	Red	`CONFIG_ARCH_LEDS` placeholder

The AM62x GPIO controller is initialized by the board port. Automatic CONFIG_ARCH_LEDS LED hooks remain placeholders only.

Serial Console

AM62x UART6 is routed to the USB-C debug interface. In the current NuttX configuration it is exposed as the first 16550 console device. Connect the USB-C cable to your host and open the enumerated serial port at 115200 8N1.

Pin Mapping

The current bring-up primarily relies on the on-board debug path:

Interface	SoC signal	Notes
USB-C debug	UART6	Default NuttX serial console
microSD	MMC1	Validated boot media for `nuttx.bin`
USR0-2	Board user LEDs	Available through the main GPIO block
I2C0	I2C0	Available in `pocketbeagle2:i2c`
I2C2	Header I2C2	Available in `pocketbeagle2:i2c`

Power Supply

PocketBeagle 2 can be powered through its USB-C connector. Follow the vendor documentation for external peripherals and header power limits during bring-up.

Installation

Install an aarch64-none-elf bare-metal toolchain and make sure its bin directory is on your PATH.

One option is the Arm GNU Toolchain.

Building NuttX

$ ./tools/configure.sh pocketbeagle2:nsh
$ make -j$(nproc) CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-none-elf-

A successful build produces nuttx and nuttx.bin.

Flashing

PocketBeagle 2 boots NuttX from microSD using the U-Boot firmware already present in on-board flash.

Format a microSD card with a single FAT32 partition.
Copy nuttx.bin and boards/arm64/am62x/pocketbeagle2/scripts/uEnv.txt to the root of the card.
Insert the card and connect the USB-C debug cable.
Power on the board and let U-Boot load the image automatically.
Confirm the board reaches the NuttX prompt:
```
NuttShell (NSH) NuttX-12.x
nsh>
```

Configurations

Configure NuttX with pocketbeagle2:<config-name>.

$ ./tools/configure.sh pocketbeagle2:nsh

nsh

Interactive NSH configuration for serial bring-up and shell access.

i2c

NSH configuration with AM62x I2C0/I2C2 and the i2c tool enabled.

ostest

Hardware validation configuration that boots directly into ostest_main.