Introduction

PHYTEC's WLAN adapter, PEB-WLBT-05, is aimed to support your processor with WiFi and Bluetooth. However, the connection and the way of using it differs according to the target processor kit.

For each kit, there are  4 variants depending on the frequency of WiFi and antenna type

There are two WiFi variants:

• IEEE 802.11 b/g/n which supports 2.4 GHz
• IEEE 802.11 b/g/n/ac which supports 2.5 and  5Ghz

There are two antenna variants:

• Chip antenna
• U.FL connector instead of an antenna (enables external antenna)

The Bluetooth is delivered via a UART interface, and it requires all 4 lines of UART (CTS, RTS, TX, RX). The WiFi is delivered via SDIO Interface, and it requires (SDIO-CLK, CMD, D0, D1, D2, D3).

In this guide, we explain how to connect and install the PEB-WLBT-05 on the phyBOARD-Segin.

Specification

The PEB-WLBT-05 supports the Segin kit with WiFi and Bluetooth and has the following variants depending on the frequency and antenna configuration:

• PEB-WLBT-05-12C 
  • IEEE 802.11 b/g/n which supports 2.4 GHz, via Sterling-LWB chip
  • Mounted Chip Antenna
  • Bluetooth v4.2 BR /DR/LE
• PEB-WLBT-05-12E
  • IEEE 802.11 b/g/n which supports 2.4 GHz, via Sterling-LWB chip
  • Mounted U.FL connector instead of Antenna
  • Bluetooth v4.2 BR /DR/LE
• PEB-WLBT-05-15C
  • IEEE 802.11 b/g/n/ac which supports 2.5GHz and 5 GHz, via Sterling-LWB5 chip
  • Mounted Chip Antenna
  • Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, Bluetooth 3.0, Bluetooth 4.2 (Bluetooth Low Energy)
• PEB-WLBT-05-12E
  • IEEE 802.11 b/g/n/ac which supports 2.5GHz and 5 GHz, via Sterling-LWB5 chip
  • Mounted U.FL connector instead of Antenna
  • Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, Bluetooth 3.0, Bluetooth 4.2 (Bluetooth Low Energy)

WiFi: The WiFi is conveyed by SDIO2 interface to the i.MX6ULL Processor which is held internally from X1.

Bluetooth: The Bluetooth signal is conveyed to the processor internally using UART2 via X1. (UART Cable is NOT required!).

Hardware Installation

Step 1: Attach the PEB-WLBT-05 to the phyBOARD-Segin at the Expansion Connector (X17) as illustrated in the following picture. Note the position of Pin 1 on both the PEB-WLBT-05 and phyBOARD-Segin:

Connecting PEB-WLBT-05 to phyBOARD-Segin

phyBOARD-Segin with PEB-WLBT-05 (Outlined) (Top view)

phyBOARD-Segin with PEB-WLBT-05 (connection outlined) (Side view)

Step 2: Start the software installation.

• WiFi jumpers must be set as:

  Jumper	phyBOARD-Segin Configuration WiFi
  J11	2+3
  J12	2+3
  J13	1+2

• Reboot Problem - Be sure that the following parts are mounted:

  • R43→ R48 
  • R50, Q1,Q2,C22.

• For Bluetooth, the following jumpers must be mounted:

  Jumper	phyBOARD-Segin Configuration Bluetooth
  J7	2+3
  J8	2+3
  J9	1+2
  J10	1+2

• The following jumpers must be dismounted: J14, J15

Software Installation

Installing Module Drivers on BSP Version Prior to PD21.x

PEB-WLBT-05 (2.4GHz)

The PEB-WLBT-05 with 2.4GHz is provided with a newer chip-set that is not supported on older kernel versions. To add support on BSP releases prior to PD21, the Broadcom Wi-Fi drivers needs to be backported from a newer kernel version.

The back-port driver is offered as a selectable build-in option. To use the driver, the image has to be recompiled with the corresponding option enabled.

• Uncomment the following line:

STERLING_LWB_BACKPORT = "1"

For more details about the backported driver as well as the firmware used, please refer to Sterling-LWB (PEB-WLBT-05).

PEB-WLBT-05 (5GHz)

The 5GHz module is already supported in the kernel used in the BSP and thus needs no driver back-porting. As the 5GHz-chipset differs from the 2.4GHz variant, the firmware used for the modules is not the same. For PEB-WLBT-05 with 5GHz, the firmware is not provided by default and needs to be copied to the target firmware directory after login.

• Download and extract the following archive in your Linux host system:

  laird-lwb5-etsi-firmware-8.2.0.16.tar.bz2

host$ tar -xjf laird-lwb5-etsi-firmware-8.2.0.16.tar.bz2
host$ ls lib/firmware/
brcm regulatory.db regulatory_etsi.db

On Windows operating system, just extract the archive with an extraction tool (e.g. WinZip).

• Copy the extracted brcm - directory to the target system, either with a USB device or over Ethernet.
• Copy the brcm - directory to the right path in the target system and then reboot:

root@phyboard-segin-imx6ul-6:~# cp -r brcm/ /lib/firmware/
root@phyboard-segin-imx6ul-6:~# reboot

In case the interface is enabled, the driver should correctly load the firmware and initialize the WiFi module:

..
[ 7.955240] brcmfmac: brcmf_fw_map_chip_to_name: using brcm/brcmfmac4339-sdio.bin for chip 0x004339(17209) rev 0x000002
[ 8.342546] brcmfmac: brcmf_c_preinit_dcmds: Firmware version = wl0: Sep 9 2019 12:24:31 version 6.37.39.114 (r722401 CY)
..
root@phyboard-segin-imx6ul-6:~# ifconfig | grep wlan
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr C0:EE:40:36:45:5E

Further information on how to enable the needed interfaces is described in the next section.

Enable and Setup PEB-WLBT-05

The PEB-WLBT-05 module interfaces are deactivated from the device-tree by default but can be activated easily with a script that is provided in the BSP. For instructions on how to enable the PEB-WLBT-05 support, please refer to WLAN Modules

Wireless Network

For wireless configurations and connection management, the 'iw' utility is preinstalled.

For more information about 'iw': https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/users/documentation/iw

For a tutorial on how to set up wireless: Changing the Wireless Network Configuration

Bluetooth

Like the Wi-Fi chip, Bluetooth also needs firmware to work. The BT-driver will not load the firmware automatically, it has to be done manually.

For further Bluetooth setup and configuration, follow this Link: Bluetooth