sparkfun MicroMod SAMD51 Technical document
MicroMod SAMD51 Processor Board Hookup Guide
Introduction
With the MicroMod specification, we shrunk down the PCB size for the SAMD51 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4F MCU!
This tutorial covers the basic functionality of the MicroMod SAMD51 and highlights its features.
Required Materials
To follow along with this tutorial, you will need the following materials. You may not need everything though
depending on what you have. Add it to your cart, read through the guide, and adjust the cart as necessary.
SparkFun MicroMod SAMD51 Processor
DEV-16791
SparkFun Mini Screwdriver USB 3.1 Cable A to C - 3 Foot
Suggested Reading
If you aren't familiar with the MicroMod ecosystem, we recommend reading here for an overview.
MicroMod Ecosystem
If you aren’t familiar with the following concepts, we also recommend checking out these tutorials before
continuing.
Hardware Overview
M.2 Connector
TOL-09146
CAB-14743
SparkFun MicroMod SAMD51 Processor
DEV-16791
SparkFun MicroMod ATP Carrier Board
DEV-16885
Getting Started with MicroMod
Dive into the world of MicroMod - a compact interface
to connect a microcontroller to various peripherals via
the M.2 Connector!
New!
All of our MicroMod Processor Boards come equipped with the M.2 MicroMod Connector, which leverages the
M.2 standard and specification to allow you to install your MicroMod Processor Board on your choice of carrier
board. Most of the pins use a common pinout to ensure cross platform compatibility.
SAMD51 Processor
The brains of the processor board is the ATSAMD51J20 32-bit ARM Cortex M4 processor. An external 32.768kHz
crystal is used as the clock for the ATSAMD51. However, the MCU itself has a maximum CPU speed of 120MHz.
Flash Memory
On the back of the board is the W25Q128JVPIM, which adds 128Mb (16MB) of flash memory externally.
LED
A STAT LED is added to the top side of the board. This is useful debugging or as a status indicator. Additionally,
you can use this to determine if the board is in bootloader mode. Pressing the reset button twice will put the board
into bootloader mode causing the LED to fade in/out. This is connected to pin 13.
MicroMod SAMD51 Processor Pin Functionality
The complete pin map can be found in the table below or you can refer to the schematic.
Heads up! The pin table below and schematic both include the SAMD51 pin associated with each MicroMod
pin and this correlation can be used to identify alternate uses for pins on the SAMD51 Processor Board. For
many of the General Purpose I/O pins and other pins with multiple signal options, refer to your Carrier
Board's Hookup Guide for information on how those pins are configured what they are used for. Not all pins
are used on every Carrier Board.
SAMD51 PROCESSOR PINOUT TABLE
AUDIO UART GPIO/BUS I C SDIO SPI0 Dedicated
SAMD51
Pin
Alternate
Function
Primary
Function
Bottom
Pin
Top
Pin
Primary
Function
Alternate
Function
SAMD51
Pin
(Not
Connected)
75 GND
3.3V_IN 74 73 G5 D7
3.3V 72 71 G6 D8
-70 69 G7 D9
-68 67 G8 D10
-66 65 G9 D11
-64 63 -
-62 61 SPI_CIPO 47
-60 59 SPI_COPI 45
43 I2S_MCLK 58 57 SPI_SCK 46
40 I2S_SDO 56 55 SPI_CS 48
41 I2S_SDI 54 53 I2C_SCL1 TX2 36
44 I2S_FS 52 51 I2C_SDA1 RX2 37
42 I2S_CLK 50 49 A4 22
D6 G4 48 47 PWM1 A3 21
D5 G3 46 45 GND
D4 G2 44 43 CAN_TX 39
D3 G1 42 41 CAN_RX 38
D2 G0 40 39 GND
18 A1 38 37 -
MICROMOD GENERAL PINOUT TABLE
MICROMOD GENERAL PIN DESCRIPTIONS
2
GND 36 35 -
17 DAC A0 34 33 GND
19 A2 PWM0 32 31 Module Key
Module Key 30 29 Module Key
Module Key 28 27 Module Key
Module Key 26 25 Module Key
Module Key 24 23 SWDIO
36 I2C_SCL1 UART_TX2 22 21 SWDCK
37 I2C_SDA1 UART_RX2 20 19 UART_RX1 32
D1 D1 18 17 UART_TX1 33
D12 I2C_INT 16 15 -
34 I2C_SCL 14 13 -
35 I2C_SDA 12 11 -
D0 D0 10 9 -
29 HOST_ENABLE 8 7 GND
RESET# (Open
Drain)
6 5 USB_D- USBHOST_D- 30
3.3V_EN 4 3 USB_D+ USB_HOST_D+ 31
3.3V_IN 2 1 GND
Board Dimensions
The board takes advantage of the standard MicroMod form factor.
Hardware Assembly
If you have not already, make sure to check out the Getting Started with MicroMod: Hardware Hookup for
information on inserting your Processor Board into your Carrier Board.
For simplicity, we'll be using the MicroMod ATP Carrier Board to program the board. At a minimum, your setup
should look like the image below with the MicroMod SAMD51 inserted into the MicroMod ATP Carrier Board with a
USB-C cable.
Qwiic-Enabled Device
If you decide to use a Qwiic device (because why not?!), simply insert a Qwiic cable between the two connectors.
Getting Started with MicroMod
OCTOBER 21, 2020
Dive into the world of MicroMod - a compact interface to connect a
microcontroller to various peripherals via the M.2 Connector!
New!
UF2 Bootloader & Drivers
Heads up! Please be aware that the SAMD51 Thing Plus is NOT currently supported on Windows 8 due
to a lack of support drivers for those specific OS's.
The SAMD51 Processor Board is easy to program thanks the UF2 bootloader. With the UF2 bootloader, the
SAMD51 Thing Plus shows up on your computer as a USB storage device without having to install drivers for
Windows 10, Mac, and Linux!
What is UF2?
UF2 stands for USB Flashing Format, which was developed by Microsoft for PXT (now known as MakeCode) for
flashing microcontrollers over the Mass Storage Class (MSC), just like a removable flash drive. The file format is
unique, so unfortunately, you cannot simply drag and drop a compiled binary or hex file onto the Turbo. Instead,
the format of the file has extra information to tell the processor where the data goes, in addition to the data itself.
For Arduino users, the UF2 bootloader is BOSSA compatible, which the Arduino IDE expects on ATSAMD
boards. For more information about UF2, you can read more from the MakeCode blog, as well as the UF2 file
format specifiation.
Double-Tap to Launch the Bootloader
The bootloader is what allows us to load code over a simple USB interface. To upload code, you will need to
manually enter bootloader mode by rapidly double-tapping the reset button (after hitting the reset button once,
you have about half a second to hit it again). The board will remain in bootloader mode until power cycles
(happens automatically after uploading code) or the reset button is hit again (once).
Double-tapping the reset button to enter bootloader mode.
On the SAMD51, the there are a clues to if it is in bootloader mode:
The D13 LED indicator will be slowly fading (may appear to be blinking).
Board will show up under a different COM port.
The board will appear as a USB mass storage device under the name USB Serial Device.
Driver Verification
To verify that your driver is working, you should see the difference in the following pictures after plugging in your
SparkFun SAMD51 Thing Plus. Alternatively, once you have the Arduino IDE installed, you should also see a
change in the number of available Serial/COM Ports (you may need to restart the Arduino IDE for the board to
populate).
Windows
Check that the board shows up in your device manager. You can click the Start or ⊞ (Windows) button and type
"device" to quickly search for the application. (*On Windows 10, the quick search function is picky on the spelling
of the application you are searching for. For example, you may get results using "devi" and none for "device".)
Screenshot of Window 10 Device Manager with the SAMD51 Processor Board on COM25. Click to enlarge.
Mac OSX
Open the Terminal and run the following command ls /dev/cu.* in the Terminal and check for the following
changes (your board may show up under a different device name). To open the Terminal, open your Applications
folder, Utilities folder, then double-click on Terminal. Otherwise, press ⌘ (Command) + space bar (Space Bar)
to launch Spotlight and type "Terminal," then double-click the search result.
Screenshot of Mac OSX terminal with the SAMD51 Processor Board on cu.usbmodemFA121. Click to enlarge.
ls /dev/cu.*
Note: If you are still unsure of how to access the Terminal, watch this video or read this Apple support article.
Raspbian
Run the following command ls /dev/ttyACM* in the CLI/Terminal and check for the following changes (your
board may show up under a different device name).
Screenshot of Raspberry Pi CLI with the SAMD51 Processor Board on ttyACM0. Click to enlarge
ls /dev/ttyACM*
Setting Up the Arduino IDE
Note: If this is your first time using Arduino IDE or board add-on, please review the following tutorials.
Installing the Arduino IDE
Installing Board Definitions in the Arduino IDE
Install Arduino SAMD Board Add-Ons
Table of contents
Other sparkfun Computer Hardware manuals
sparkfun
sparkfun H3LIS331DL User manual
sparkfun
sparkfun AST-CAN485 Technical document
sparkfun
sparkfun MicroMod Artemis Processor User manual
sparkfun
sparkfun DEV-17272 Technical document
sparkfun
sparkfun Gator:soil Technical document
sparkfun
sparkfun RTK Express Technical document
sparkfun
sparkfun WIG-13660 User manual
sparkfun
sparkfun DEV-14034 Technical document
sparkfun
sparkfun NEO-M8P-2 Technical document
sparkfun
sparkfun FTDI SmartBasic Technical document
Popular Computer Hardware manuals by other brands
EMC2
EMC2 VNX Series Hardware Information Guide
Panasonic
Panasonic DV0PM20105 Operation manual
Mitsubishi Electric
Mitsubishi Electric Q81BD-J61BT11 user manual
Gigabyte
Gigabyte B660M DS3H AX DDR4 user manual
Raidon
Raidon iT2300 Quick installation guide
National Instruments
National Instruments PXI-8186 user manual
