LandTiger Baseboard

Overview

The LandTiger v2.0 is not a baseboard in the sense that it can host an mbed module. The board is however rather compatible to mbed LPC1768 hardware and software and provides alot of onboard resources. The board is produced by PowerMCU and available from several vendors on ebay and other webstores. The average cost is about $70 for the board, a 3.2inch 320x240 TFT LCD, powersupply and some cabling.

/media/uploads/wim/_scaled_01.jpg

High res picture is here

Features

  • 2 RS232 serial interfaces (using straight-through serial cable), (RS232 Transceiver: SP3232). One serial port supports ISP download of programs.
  • 2 CAN bus communication interfaces (CAN Transceiver: SN65VHD230).
  • RS485 communication interface (485 Transceiver: SP3485).
  • RJ45-10/100M Ethernet network interface (Ethernet PHY: DP83848).
  • DAC output interface, on-board speaker and speaker output driver (LM386).
  • ADC input interface, on-board adjustable potentiometer input.
  • Color LCD display interface (supports 2.8-inch or 3.2-inch color TFT 320X240). Touchscreen supported through SPI interface.
  • USB2.0 Interface (USB host and USB Device interface).
  • SD/MMC card (SPI) interface.
  • I2C Interface, connected to onboard 2Kbit EEPROM (24LC02).
  • SPI serial interface connected to onboard 16Mbit Flash (AT45DB161D).
  • 2 user keys, 2 function keys (INT0 and Reset button).
  • 8 LEDs (Digital outputs).
  • Five-way joystick button (Digital Inputs).
  • Serial ISP download support.
  • Standard JTAG download, simulation debugging interface.
  • Integrated JLINK compatible emulator (USB): supports online simulation and debug capabilities (KEIL, IAR and other mainstream development environments).
  • External 5V power supply or USB input to provide 5V power supply.
  • Breakout available for all the IOs for external application development circuits.

/media/uploads/wim/_scaled_dsc09692.jpg

High res picture is here

Compatibility

The LandTiger features the LPC1768. The onboard hardware supports ISP to download mbed code (using bin2hex and Flashmagic). Alternatively, binaries can be downloaded using the onboard JLINK JTAG/SWD emulator or an external JTAG programming device.

Serial port COM1 (UART0) supports mbed messaging to/from the host PC as usual. USB host and device functions are supported with minimal changes needed to the regular mbed software. Ethernet PHY is identical and minimal change is needed to run the official mbed ethernet code.

DigitalIn, DigitalOut, BusIn, BusOut, CAN, PWMOut, AnalogIn and AnalogOut from the mbed lib work fine. You can optionally use the onboard amplifier and speaker for AnalogOut. The I2C, SPI and other interfaces are pretty standard and mbed library code should run with no or minimal change (currently still testing this).

A nice feature is that all of the LPC1768 pins are available on the breakout connectors. That allows use of pins that are not accessible on mbed. Note that the onboard hardware, drivers etc can be disabled as required by removing (soldering out) the appropriate 0-Ohm resistors. Checkout the schematic for details.

The main differences compared to mbed are:

  • board does not show up on your PC as mass storage device USB stick
  • No support for downloading the bin to the mass storage, must use ISP or JTAG
  • No support for serial port over the USB link, must use COM1 RS232 or USB device port
  • No support for the local filesystem
  • No support for the four mbed LEDs, you may use the other LEDs on the board

Warning

There is a potential hardware problem in the switched powersupply for USB Host function. P1.22 is used to detect that power is on. This pin should be configured as DigitalIn. However, when the pin is accidentally configured as DigitalOut and pulled low it will result in a short when USB Host power is on. I have removed the 0 Ohm resistor R78 to disconnect P1.22. You could also replace it by a higher value (e.g. 10K) to prevent this problem.

A second problem is that USB Host power can not be switched on and off by P1.19 when used as a DigitalOut. Power will switch on at logic level low, but is does not switch off again at high level. I have used P1.19 as DigitalInOut and switch between input() and output() set to low. The power LED LD15 may be used as indicator.

Warning

It seems that Ticker is no longer functional when J-Flash is still connected after flashing the LPC1768. The correct procedure for J-Flash is: load the new bin file, select target/connect, select target/auto, select target/start application. The code will then execute. If you just flash and then press the hardware reset button it seems that Jlink disables/corrupts Ticker. This will not even recover after a powercycle.

Display

The 320x240 pixels LCD color display HY32D is based on an SSD1289 controller. The display may be removed from the mainboard. It uses an 8 bit databus (P2_0..P2_7) and also needs several controllines from the LPC1768. A touchscreen controller is also provided on the displaymodule. Interfacing between touchscreen and LPC1768 is done using SPI. (Currently still testing the LCD). The code below is a simple graphics lib and demo code which was mashed up from Keil and internet sources. The lib supports primitives like draw lines, circles, rectangles and pixels. It also supports printf() style formatted strings with a 24x16 font. It is certainly not fully tested nor optimised. According to the copyright notice you are probably only allowed to play with it using the Keil offline compiler.

Import programTiger_LCD

Landtiger (LPC1768) graphics LCD demo.

Make sure that the reported controller ID is 8989 for the SSD1289. Any other ID indicates that your LCD board has a different controller. You will then have to change the GLCD_config.h file.

Some pics are below. /media/uploads/wim/img_3977.jpg

/media/uploads/wim/img_3980.jpg

References

Documentation CD provides schematics, datasheets and software examples. Board manual was minimal and unfortunately all in Chinese, I have prepared an English version, including hints regarding mbed compatibility (see link below).


22 comments on LandTiger Baseboard:

22 Sep 2012

Your link to the manufacturer is broken, but I guess direct link to the product should be: http://www.hotmcu.com/nxp-lpc1768-v20-devboard-32tft-color-lcd-jlink-on-board-p-7.html?cPath=1_21

Only 60 dollars is a really nice price for such a board.

22 Sep 2012

Hi Erik, fixed the link.

22 Sep 2012

I got myself one of these boards about a year ago, mostly because the specs (and cost) were so similar to the mbed. With all the added peripherals it will make a nice target for the more permanent projects. I haven't used it very much, but every bin (compiled at mbed.org) I've thrown at it has worked. So far I've ran test projects on the LCD/touch panel, ethernet an the mandatory LED blinking.

10 Dec 2012

See this page for another LPC1768 board by the same manufacturer:

https://mbed.org/users/frankvnk/notebook/lpc1768-mini-dk/?c=4582

10 Dec 2012

I have updated the board manual. Some bugs were fixed and figures added. A table now shows pin usage comparison between the LandTiger board and the mbed. The appendix also provides an overview of options for downloading code and some hints for mbed users.

24 Mar 2013

Is there existing mbed support for the LandTiger board. It seems like a nice product for the price. What exactly needs to be changed to run mbed code?

25 Mar 2013
10 May 2013

I was reading a review of this board on Amazon that pretty much said that it was a clone of the Keil MCB1760 and that the new version of uVision ( i assume 4.70a) recognizes this as a clone board and prevents it from downloading code to the board. Is this true or is there a way around this ?

12 May 2013

Mel Lau wrote:

I was reading a review of this board on Amazon that pretty much said that it was a clone of the Keil MCB1760 and that the new version of uVision ( i assume 4.70a) recognizes this as a clone board and prevents it from downloading code to the board. Is this true or is there a way around this ?

The boards are similar both certainly not identical. They are similar because they both more or less follow the standard application note for the lpc1768 wrt SPI, CAN, UART etc. Major differences are that the Landtiger uses an onboard J-Link interface for programming/debugging. In general it is highly unlikely that Keil uversion will reject the board as such, if only because that would also prevent you from using Keil with your own hardware. The only problem may be that it rejects the J-Link interface. Even that seems remote since that interface is recognized just fine by the original Segger application software. Anyway, you can always replace the onboard J-link adapter with an external JTAG programmer.

Obviously, the mbed compiler or the GCC compiler will also work.

11 Jun 2013

Hi. I'm using this board to generate PWM signal for servo motor. Can anyone help me on this? really appreciate your help. Thanks

http://mbed.org/questions/1193/Problem-using-PWM-on-LandTiger-LPC1768-f/

11 Jun 2013

@hrz rfn

The easiest way to get results is to use the mbed libs and compiler. The mbed supports PWM and there are even some libs available to drive standard servo's. You compile the mbed code using the online compiler and download the bin to you local disk. You then have two options: 1) use a bin2hex utility on the bin file and use flashmagic to download the resulting hex code to the landtiger over the serialport or 2) use the landtiger onboard JLINK programmer to download the code to the board. Both options are described in the landtiger manual that I posted on the landtiger notebook page. Both options work well, JLINK is faster. Just note that some lpc1768 pins have connections to onboard hardware on the landtiger.

I dont have experience with the IAR toolchain and would have to check on the details of your code to help you with any issues regarding PWM.

30 Jul 2013

I'm a little bit confused about how you can access the online compiler if you don't own a device with a correct license. I mean, those LandTiger Boards don't have this html file containing a valid serial number which is neccessary to add this device to the compiler...

31 Jul 2013

I think he means you compile your code with a mbed but then transfer the bin code to the landtiger using a jlink or the serial port. So the assumption is that you have a mbed. already.

31 Jul 2013

Thanks for making that clear ... do you know which exact product would be needed then? I would really like to try this out without buying an expensive new board ;-)

31 Jul 2013

http://www.adafruit.com/products/834

This is the mbed board you need. You can get it at various places including ebay. But if you have a land tiger board you don't really need the mbed, The land tiger has way more stuff than the mbed board and cheaper, currently about $59 on ebay. Unless you want to get it to play with the online complier. The online compiler doesn't have debugger , be prepared to do a lot of printfs or blinking the led.

26 Dec 2013

Hi! I begin work with ARM,I have a LandTiger board but I have a problem with it when I use JLINK in CD.Debugging code example in keil C

  • JLink Info: Core is locked-up!
  • JLink Info: Can not halt CPU
    • JLink Warning: CPU did not halt after bootloader.
      • JLink Error: Bad JTAG communication: Write to IR: Expected 0x1, got 0x0 (TAP Command : 11) @ Off 0x5.Failed to halt CPU Can not read register 20 (CFBP), CPU may not be halted.

How to fix it. Thanks.

26 Dec 2013
  1. Make sure you have the latest Jlink software
  2. In your target options -> debug , J-LINK / J-TRACE Cortex Settings, Misc, run JLink Cmd. What output do you get ?
  3. Your setup should be similar to the pictures below

/media/uploads/hammerli22/junk3.jpg /media/uploads/hammerli22/junk5.jpg /media/uploads/hammerli22/junk4.jpg

27 Dec 2013

Mel Lau wrote:

  1. Make sure you have the latest Jlink software
  2. In your target options -> debug , J-LINK / J-TRACE Cortex Settings, Misc, run JLink Cmd. What output do you get ?
  3. Your setup should be similar to the pictures below

/media/uploads/hammerli22/junk3.jpg /media/uploads/hammerli22/junk5.jpg /media/uploads/hammerli22/junk4.jpg

It works fine because Jlink in CD is old version . Thank you very much.

04 May 2015

hi good day everyone.. May i know if somehow, we can use the mbed libraries to run the tft lcd on the land tiger? I have been searching for this for weeks now. I have yet to find anyone implementing any library for the particular tft lcd on the land tiger.

If anyone has any success on this.. would mind sharing them? Btw.. I have successfully blinked all the LEDs and send some can messages on the land tiger by utilizing the mbed libraries.. but yet to display anything on the LCD. I guess.. I am a newbie still.

Please.. help... this newbie.

Thank you.

20 Jun 2015

Hi After succesfully update my Landtiger onboard j-link I can not connect to it and I face a Error that says No Device Found How can I solve it ? Thanks Keil v4.74 Segger J-flash v5.00c /media/uploads/mohammadyou/1.png /media/uploads/mohammadyou/2.png /media/uploads/mohammadyou/3.png

24 Nov 2015

kejelua apwt wrote:

hi good day everyone.. May i know if somehow, we can use the mbed libraries to run the tft lcd on the land tiger? I have been searching for this for weeks now. I have yet to find anyone implementing any library for the particular tft lcd on the land tiger.

If anyone has any success on this.. would mind sharing them? Btw.. I have successfully blinked all the LEDs and send some can messages on the land tiger by utilizing the mbed libraries.. but yet to display anything on the LCD. I guess.. I am a newbie still.

Please.. help... this newbie.

Thank you.

See above for a simple LCD demo.

09 Jun 2021

hi , Wim I have exported your code into Keil uvision 5 and I opened your code in keil version 5.34 but the IDE cant compile the code and many errors are shown as a result.

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