On my EVK boards the JTAG is enabled, the two lock bits are not set:
u-boot=> fuse read 1 3
Reading bank 1:
Word 0x00000003: 88000000
1) The JTAG port on your EVK is disabled by the fuses.
2) The BOOT_MODE[3:0] pins need to have the value '0 0 0 1' to force the i.MX 8M Plus into serial downloader mode.
| Pin Name |
Ball |
Value for USB download |
| BOOT_MODE0 |
G10 |
1 |
| BOOT_MODE1 |
F8 |
0 |
| BOOT_MODE2 |
G8 |
0 |
| BOOT_MODE3 |
G12 |
0 |
On the 8M Plus EVK this is easy to make, there are DIP switches near to the PWR switch, marked with BOOT_MODE.

The USB connection on your custom PCB seems to be perfectly fine, if you succeed to set the BOOT_MODE pins correctly, you should see the i.MX 8M Plus going into SDP mode after power-on:
Download the Windows UUU tool from here: https://github.com/nxp-imx/mfgtools/releases/download/uuu_1.5.201/uuu.exe
- uuu.exe is a command line tool, open a cmd window to work with it
- Connect the EVK or your custom board with the PC and power it up
- Type $ uuu.exe -lsusb
D:\Image-Programming>uuu.exe -lsusb
uuu (Universal Update Utility) for nxp imx chips -- libuuu_1.5.201-0-g727fc2b
Connected Known USB Devices
Path Chip Pro Vid Pid BcdVersion Serial_no
====================================================================
2:6 MX865 SDPS: 0x1FC9 0x0146 0x0001 E5973000757D125C
- If you see that, then you can download u-boot or a full image using the uuu tool.
- Please download the demo image for the 8M Plus from here:
https://www.nxp.com/webapp/Download?colCode=L6.12.34-2.1.0_IMX8MP&appType=license
- Extract the file, copy uuu.exe into the folder and program the complete image:
# Flash to SD-Card (if it's there)
> uuu.exe -b sd_all imx-image-full-imx8mpevk.wic
# Flash to eMMC
> uuu.exe -b emmc_all imx-image-full-imx8mpevk.wic
- You can download a smaller boot image (u-boot only) from here:
https://www.nxp.com/webapp/Download?colCode=L6.12.34-2.1.0_BOOT_8M&appType=license
# Download to RAM
> uuu.exe imx-boot-imx8mpevk-sd.bin-flash_evk
# Flash to SD-Card (if it's there)
> uuu.exe -b sd imx-boot-imx8mpevk-sd.bin-flash_evk
# Flash to eMMC
> uuu.exe -b emmc imx-boot-imx8mpevk-sd.bin-flash_evk
Regards,
Bernhard.