Update history

Date	Version	Author	Update content
2022-12-20	v0.3	wonder	Add contents about blai
2022-12-13	v0.1	wonder	Add content
2022-12-03	v0.1	wonder	Create file

The M1s Dock can be used for a variety of interesting things by its delicate design. Here we tell the usages of this device. Note that the default baudrate is 2000000.

There are two Converter devices in Windows device manager if you connect the computer with the UART port of M1s Dock.

Power On

Power the M1s Dock, screen displays what the camera captures, and the number on the screen which is the LED brightness changes when you press the keys on the side.

A virtual removable disk whose storage capacity is 3M will be shown on your computer if you connect this board with your computer by TypeC OTG port on this board. Because the driver is not compatible well with some computers, we can flash the firmware by UART.

And there is USB Mass Storge Device in Windows device manager, in Linux there is also a removable device.

If there is no USB Mass Storge Device in Windows device manager, try to use other USB TypeC cable or connect with other USB port of computer, and if this problem remains, visit Burn-with-UART to flash M1s Dock, we mainly burn partition table, boot2, firmware these three files. After finishing burnning, reconnect the board with computer.

Two serial devices will be shown in your computer if you connect this board with your computer by TypeC UART port on this board.

There are two Converter devices in Windows device manager.

If there is no serial device，try to use other USB TypeC cable or use other USB port of computer, and if this problem remains, visit Burn onboard bl702 to reflash the download debugger firmware.

If there is only one serial device, visit Burn onboard bl702 to reflash the download debugger firmware

Set baudrate to 2000000，open the two serial ports, you will see different information.

Open the small serial port and you can see that the messages are being printed:

Open the big serial port for command-line interaction:

Burn with u-disk

It's suggested using this way to burn firmware, by which we can burn the program for C906 core in the chip.

Connect this board by its TypeC OTG port with computer, hold the 2 sides keys (which have been marked on the following figure) of M1s Dock, then press RST button to make this board into u-disk burn mode.

Hold 2 side keys and press RST，make M1s Dock into u-disk burn mode

Besides, when 2 side keys are being pressed, power on this board can make this board into u-disk burn mode too.

A removable disk with tiny storage capacity will be shown on your computer if this board is in u-disk burn mode. Just drag the firmware Here are some demo bins into the removable disk to burn the firmware.

After succeed dragging the firmware bin into removable disk, the board will reboot and the u-disk is removed. Try to repower this board if its not working well after burnning firmware.

lvgl_demo

LVGL (Light and Versatile Graphics Library) is a free open source graphics library suitable for mcu graphical interfaces.

After burning into M1s Dock, the screen displays the lvgl test. And then sets the baudrate to 2000000, the serial port with the smaller serial port number prints the last touch screen position.

image_processing_demo

A simple image processing example.

Burning into M1s Dock, screen displays what the camera captured, press the side key to change image operator. Set the baudrate to 2000000, to see the image operator state by the small serial port.

Click the RST key to reset the bl808, and we can see the information about the camera from the small serial port when the board boots, to know if there is some error with the camera.

tinymaix_mnist_demo

TinyMaix is a tiny inference Neural Network library specifically for microcontrollers (TinyML), can run lightweight deep learning model on any Single Chip Microcomputer.

Burning into M1s Dock, recognizing number through the red box in the center of screen. Set the baudrate to 2000000, to see the process and result by the small serial port.

pikascript_demo

PikaScript is a cross-platform, ultra-lightweight embedded Python engine.

Burning into M1s Dock, the screen is white. Set the baudrate to 2000000, open the small serial port for command-line interaction:

Use these commands:

arc = lv.arc(lv.scr_act())
arc.set_end_angle(200)
arc.set_size(150, 150)
arc.center()

Then the screen displays as shown(Ignore the bad shoot):

Burn with UART

The u-disk burnning method above is used to burn firmware for C906 core, and if there are some trouble with firmware or when we need to upgrade the whole firmware, we need to burn this board by UART.

Burn M1s

Connect this board by its TypeC UART port with computer, 2 serial ports will be shown on your computer (If your mouse doesn't work after connecting board with computer, please disconnect board with computer and visit Burn onboard bl702 to solve this problem).

Burn with graphical application

To burn for M1s, we need bouffalolab official burning application, visit https://dev.bouffalolab.com/download and download the file named Bouffalo Lab Dev Cube. Decompress the downloaded file then we get the application to burn the board.

We mainly use BLDevCube, BLDevCube-macos and BLDevCube-ubuntu these three files, by which to burn our board with graphical interface on different OS.

Run the application, choose bl808, then we put this partition file in partition table (marked with ②) in IOT page.

After selecting the partition file, we have more choice in this page. We just need boot2, firmware and d0fw these options.

In the picture above, boot2 stays the same, and it's in this directory: BLDevCube\chips\bl808\builtin_imgs\boot2_isp_bl808_xxxx_xxx, under where the path if this burning application is, and make sure your choosing file named with debug. firmware is the firmware file for E907 core, and d0fw is C906 core file, the previous Burn with u-disk operation can also burn firmware for this core.

The firmware file for E907 or C906 can be gotten by compiling M1s_dock example.

First time burning, both firmware and boot2 are needed, after this you just need tick what you want to burn not all.

The default firmware can be downloaded here.

After choose the firmware, click the Refresh in the righr to refresh the serial port, then we can see 2 serial ports. If there are not 2 serial ports, visit Burn onboard bl702 to solve this. We choose the bigger number serial port, and set uartrate 2000000 .

Press BOOT key and RST key on the board, then release RST key first, then release BOOT key in order to make M1s Dock into UART burning mode.

Click Create & Download, then we can see the following message where the arrow points at, before this we should make M1s Dock into UART burning mode.

It will burn M1s Dock if it shows shake hand success

Reburn this if it SHAKEHAND FAIL. Try to release the keys in order (Release RST key first then release BOOT key, I mean when release RST key, the BOOT key is being pressed) to make the board into UART burning mode, otherwise the burning software will show error because of timeout burning.

Burn with command-line

We can burn M1s Dock by command-line through serial port on this board.

In BLDevCube folder, there is bflb_iot_tool application, bflb_iot_tool、 bflb_iot_tool-macos and bflb_iot_tool-ubuntu are used for different OS.

Here I take Windows as example, and for other OS you need to change the commands by yourself.

In this command, firmware is the bin file for E907 Core, the default bin file can be downloaded from here. pt is the partition file, it's in the M1s_BL808_example\partition folder, you can also Click me to get it.boot2 is in BLDevCube\chips\bl808\builtin_imgs\boot2_isp_bl808 folder, and is named with debug. Set baudrate 2000000 to burn this board fast. port is the bigger port number.

.\bflb_iot_tool.exe --chipname=bl808 --port=COM38 --baudrate=2000000 --firmware="firmware_20221212.bin" --pt="M1s_BL808_example\partition\partition_cfg_16M_m1sdock.toml" --boot2="BLDevCube\chips\bl808\builtin_imgs\boot2_isp_bl808\boot2_isp_debug.bin"

Of course, make sure you have make this board into UART burning mode: Press BOOT key and RST key, then release RST key first then release BOOT key.

After burning these, you can burn the bin file for C906 core according to Burn with u-disk. You can also burn this board based on the adderss, from partition_cfg_16M_m1sdock.toml file you can know the burn address and modify it.

Erase flash

We need advanced mode first.

Then in FLASH interface, we choose the bigger serial port, tick Whole Chip. Make this board into UART burning mode: Press BOOT key and RST key, then release RST key first then release BOOT key. Click Erase Flash to erase the chip

There is no progress bar when erasing, and there is SUCCESS when it finished erasing.

Burn onboard bl702

We do this only when there is some trouble with our board. Hold BOOT key and cold boot the board, the bl702 is into download mode, then we burn its firmware.

Hold BOOT key before power this device, then connect this board ti==with computer by the UART TypeC USB port, after this the onboard is in download mode. Run BLDevCube, choose BL702, then in MCU page, choose the firmware. Here we have provided the firmware, download the file whose name starts with usb2dualuart_bl702.

Click Refresh，choose the serial port (there is only one port, if you can't see this port, make sure you have hold BOOT key before powering this device), set UartRate 2000000, click Create & Diwnload.

After finishing burning, repower this board to use the new firmware.

SDK Compile

M1s can be compiled in Linux.

Preparation

We need git to get the SDK complie envorioument, and use make to compile SDK, tree is also need to be installed to check the directory structure.

The following command can be used in debian Linux distribution like Ubuntu to install the three softwares mentioned above.

sudo apt-get install git make tree

For the command of other Linux distribution to install the three softwares mentioned above can be searched on the Internet by yourself.

Get example

git clone https://github.com/Sipeed/M1s_BL808_example.git

Then the file tree should be like this:

sipeed@DESKTOP:~$ tree -L 1 M1s_BL808_example/
M1s_BL808_example/
├── LICENSE           # License file
├── assets            # folder for assets for readme.md
├── c906_app          # folder for C906 core example
├── e907_app          # folder for E907 core example
├── partition         # folder for partition file
└── readme.md         # guide

Get SDK

It's about 120MB memory storage.

git clone https://github.com/sipeed/M1s_BL808_SDK.git

Then the file tree should be like this:

sipeed@DESKTOP:~$ tree -L 1 
.
├── M1s_BL808_example   # Folder of example
└── M1s_BL808_SDK       # Folder of SDK

Get toolchain

According to the readme.md in example folder, we need to put the toolchain in M1s_BL808_SDK/toolchain

mkdir -p M1s_BL808_SDK/toolchain
cd M1s_BL808_SDK/toolchain
git clone https://github.com/wonderfullook/m1s_toolchain.git

Rename the toolchain folder name to Linux_x86_64, and return to the previous two levels of directories.

mv m1s_toolchain Linux_x86_64
cd ../../

Then the file tree should be like this(The main folder and files):

sipeed@DESKTOP:~$ tree -L 2
.
├── M1s_BL808_example     # Folder of example
│   ├── LICENSE           # License file
│   ├── assets            # folder for assets for readme.md
│   ├── c906_app          # folder for C906 core example
│   ├── e907_app          # folder for E907 core example
│   ├── partition         # folder for partition file
│   └── readme.md         # guide
└── M1s_BL808_SDK         # Folder of SDK
    ├── toolchain         # Folder of toolchain
    ...

Set toolcahin path

Everytime compling for M1s, we need to set toolcahin path once.

First we need to know the path of M1s_BL808_SDK:

sipeed@DESKTOP:~$ cd M1s_BL808_SDK
sipeed@DESKTOP:~/M1s_BL808_SDK$ pwd
/home/lee/bl808/M1s_BL808_SDK

We copy the result (the result of everyone is different) of pwd command, then run following commamd to set toolcahin path.

export BL_SDK_PATH=/home/lee/bl808/M1s_BL808_SDK

Note that this is M1s_BL808_SDK ，not M1s_BL808_SDK/，normally this error is made by automatic string completion.

Compile demo

Run build.sh which is in the folder of M1s_BL808_example/c906_app, add the demo in the end you want to try to compile.

Demos（Edited in 2022-12-13）：

c906_app
├── audio_recording
├── blai_mnist_demo
├── camera_bypass_lcd
├── camera_dump
├── camera_streaming_through_wifi
├── cli_demo
├── flash_demo
├── gpio_demo
├── hello_world
├── i2c_touch
├── image_processing_demo
├── lfs_demo
├── lvgl_demo
├── pikascript_demo
├── proj_config.mk
├── pwm_demo
├── spi_lcd
├── tinymaix_mnist_demo
└── uvc_demo

cd M1s_BL808_example/c906_app
./build.sh lvgl_demo

Then the compiled bin file is in M1s_BL808_example/c906_app/build_out folder, and its name is d0fw.bin, we can burn it by u-disk.

Compile firmware

Run build.sh which is in the folder of M1s_BL808_example/e907_app, add firmware in the end to compile.

cd M1s_BL808_example/e907_app
./build.sh firmware

Then the compiled bin file is in M1s_BL808_example/e907_app/build_out folder, and its name is firmware.bin, we can burn it with the burning application provided by Bouffalo.

Questions

1. Run command build.sh and get error Makefile:14: *** BL_SDK_PATH not found, please enter: export BL_SDK_PATH={sdk_path}. Stop., Visit Set toolcahin path to set BL_SDK_PATH correctly.

2. Failed compiling

When compiling your firmware, make sure your command is ./build.sh demo_name, like ./build.sh hello_world, not ./build.sh hello_world/ (pay atention to the end symbol /)

Linux Demo

This is a basic Linux Demo to run on M1s Dock.

Click me to download Linux demo, and following the steps.md in the compressed file to finish burning Linux image.

Login in with root

Visit CPU information

Using Jtag

The jtag debugger is sold in Sipeed aliexpress store, you can buy one if you need.

Connect to device

Insert the jtag convertor board into the TF card slot on M1s Dock, then the convertor board is connected and fixed on the board.

And it's look like as follows:

Both jtag and M1s Dock are need to be connected with computer, and we need to make sure the UART port on M1s Dock is connected with computer, by which we can enable the core jtag and ensure that the jtag will not be very hot because of heavy power supply to M1s Dock.

Install driver

Visit Download station to download the driver for your OS.

Windows

Unzip T-Head-DebugServer-windows, run Setup to install driver.

It's suggested not to change the default installation path, to avoid it remove all child directory when uninstalling it.

Install all compoents, which we may need in the future.

Finish installing this, and we can see there is CKlink-Lite in Windows device manager if we have connected the debugger.

There is an icon of the debug software.

Linux

Download driver：Click me

Unzip the downloaded file.

tar xvf T-Head-DebugServer*

Then there is a new script file.

Run this script, then its usages are shown, by which we can know that add with command -i to install driver or with -u to remove it in the end of command.

./T-Head-DebugServer-linux-x86_64-V5.16.5-20221021.sh

Install driver：

sudo ./T-Head-DebugServer-linux-x86_64-V5.16.5-20221021.sh -i

We need enter yes two times when installing it, and for as for Set full installing path we can just press Enter on the keyboard to use the default installation path or set your own installation path by yourself.

Finishing installing the driver, use command lsusb to see there is CKlink-Lite if we have connected the debugger.

Debug denive

Before debugging, we need to enable core debug. Connect computer with UART port on M1s Dock, and open the bigger serial port.

We can know there are two jtag choices, run command jtag_cpu0 to debug C906 Core or run command jtag_m0 to debug E907 Core.

Windows

Run T-HeadDebugServer software on the desktop, if it shows following message, try following steps:

• Make sure you have enabled core debug in serial connection
• There is CKlink-Lite in Windows device manager, if there is no CKlink-Lite, check the connection of debugger or reinstall the driver
• Debugger is occupied by other T-HeadDebugServer application

Click the triangle icon to connect device.

If there shows Failed about port, set another port and then rerun connecting device.

Click Socket Setting, set a port.

If succeed connecting, the triangle icon will change into circle icon.

Up to now we have connected device, and the picture above is we usr command jtag_m0 to debug E907 Core, you can also run jtag_cpu0 to debug C906 Core.

And we can use software like gdb to debug the chip.

Besides, in the directory where we install this software, we can run DebugServerConsole to connect debugger by command-line.

Run it by command-line to see its usages.

.\DebugServerConsole.exe -h

.\DebugServerConsole.exe -port 65535

Then we can debug it with port number 65535.

Linux

Run commandDebugServerConsole -h to see help.

Run following command to debug M1s Dock with port number 12345.

DebugServerConsole -port 12345

blai npu

Supported operators

Type	Operators	Applicable Subset Spec.	Processor
Convolution	Conv	Kernel: 1x1,3x3,5x5,7x7	:strong:NPU
		Stride: 1x1, 2x2
		Dilation: 1x1, 2x2
		Pad: same
	Depthwise Conv	Kernel: 1x1,3x3 (5x5, 7x7 TBD)	:strong:NPU
		Stride: 1x1, 2x2
		Dilation: 1x1 (2x2 TBD)
		Pad: same
	Transpose Conv	Kernel: 3x3	strong:NPU
		Stride: 2x2
Pooling	MaxPool (NPU TBD)	Kerenl: 2x2	DSP
		Stride: 2x2
	MaxPool	Kerenl: 3x3	:strong:NPU
		Stride: 1x1, 2x2
Activation	Relu		:strong:NPU
	Relu 6		:strong:NPU
Other processing	BatchNormalization	fused with conv	:strong:NPU
	Add (shortcut)		:strong:NPU
	Concat (route)	Channel wise (AXIS 3 in BHWC)	:strong:NPU
	Fully Connected		:strong:NPU
	Upsample	Nearest	:strong:NPU

blai_mnist_demo

Burning the compiled blai_mnist_demo firmware into M1s Dock, we have told that the each compiled demo bin is named d0fw.bin, and it's in M1s_BL808_example/c906_app/built_out folder.

#c906_app
./build.sh blai_mnist_demo

After burning this firmware (when the u-disk is automatically removed it means we have finished burning this firmware), press RST key to reset M1s Dock and reload firmware, then open the smaller serial port (with baudrate 2000000) we can see it shows failed loading model.

So we need upload model into M1s Dock, from source code we can know we need to save model in flash.

Connect computer with OTG port of M1s Dock we can see there is a u-disk with nearly 7M storage memory.

Follow the source code, in the u-disk (which is the flash of M1s Dock indeed), we create a folder named models, and save mnist.blai into the newly created folder.

models
└── mnist.blai

Press onboard RST key to restart the M1s Dock to load the model

Open the smaller serial port we can see we succeed loading model, and the recognition results are printed.

Screen displays camera contents, and show recognition result.

tom_and_jerry_classification_demo

This ai model file can be downloaded from MaixHub. We can upload dataset, label and train out model file in this website. Here we tell how to deploy the detection model downloaded from Maixhub on M1s Dock.

To start this, refer to the SDK compile chapter and compile out the tom_and_jerry_classification_demo firmware first.

#c906_app
./build.sh tom_and_jerry_classification_demo

Burn the compiled firmware into M1s Dock.

Form the source code of main.c in tom_and_jerry_classification_demo we can see that the ai model file is the the models folder in the Flash, and the ai model file name is tj.blai.

We download the example ai model from MaixHub, and rename the file whose extended name is .blai into tj.blai.

Connect computer with OTG port of M1s Dock we can see there is a u-disk with nearly 7M storage memory.

According to the source code, we copy the renamed tj.blai ai model file to the models folder in the u-disk: Create a folder named models in the u-disk, and copy the renamed tj.blai ai model file into the created models folder.

Finish there, we can use M1s Dock to distinguish Tom and Jerry.

Because this ai model is a big one, it's heavy for M1s Dock.

Introduction

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