IMX93-EVK SPI connection to 802.15.4 interface on IW610 Module

[kleavell]

I am currently attempting to bring up an 802.15.4 interface with my IMX93-EVK via SPI. I am connecting to the Azurewave AW-XM646-USB-EVK. 

After quite a bit of research, I still am not entirely sure how to even enable the SPI interface for usage with this controller. Does anyone have experience with this interface on the IMX93-EVK?

It seems to me that I need to use the SPI_3 interface. But I'm not even sure that that is brought out to a header on the EVK? I saw this in the EVK board design files and thought it might suggest that interface is the one to use?

I started down the device tree compilation outlined here: https://community.nxp.com/t5/i-MX-Processors-Knowledge-Base/How-to-use-Devshell-to-compile-device-tr.... But I am a little confused on what exact changes I need to make to my yocto environment before I go about recompiling. Which .dts file needs to be changed to enable this exact SPI bus.

Has anyone else gone down this road with success?

I have the information for the interface on the Azurewave EVB from the User Guide that was shared with us when we started working with the module. Unfortunately ,the additional instructions outline how to connect to an IMX8 mini, not an IMX93:

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!

[JosephAtNXP]

Hi,

Thank you for your interest in NXP Semiconductor products,

i.MX93EVK features a LBES5PL2EL which is a Wi-Fi 6, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac + Bluetooth
5.2 BR/EDR/LE, NXP IW612 chipset. Could you use it? It has been tested by all customers and the guides adjust perfectly to the Linux manuals.

For using IW610, it features SDIO, which is compliant with wifi firmware and you would need to enable USDHC interface and start the firmware in userspace.

For using SPI + steps before recompiling, NXP doesn't have drivers for wireless modules in SPI mode and I think that you would need to use spidev to communicate with the module.

SPIDEV in DTS and userspace.

Preferred steps for using devshell are: after building an image (bitbake imx-image-x), start the article steps, after make dtbs, find the DTB binary and burn it to the board with uuu in fastboot mode.

Regards

[kleavell]

@JosephAtNXP ,

Thank you for the response!

The reason for the query on the IW610 IC is,  we are developing a module that is based on this IW610 IC. We have the ability to use the WiFi and Bluetooth on the IC with the IMX93.

The next steps for us is proving out the 802.15.4 with the IMX93.

All that being said, the article you pointed me to on the SPIDEV usage is great. I think this will help me navigate the DTB situation better.

Do you have any recommendations on identifying the GPIO that I should be using for the SPI interface? I found the best information is in the board design documents, is there a better resource for the IMX93 out there?

I want to be sure the SPI bus I choose isn't going to be occupied by a different peripheral.

[JosephAtNXP]

Hi @kleavell,

Great to hear about the initiative,

You can quickly see the interfaces in the next diagram from FRDM-i.MX93, RPi connector shares the same GPIOs with EVK.

Nevertheless, for full gpio functions and gpio list I recommend to use config tools, you can load EVK config and see the available pins, in this case, you can use LPSPI3.