Raspberry Pi 5

Introduction

The PAN9019A requires a fairly powerful host processor that executes the low-level Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® drivers as well as some high-level Wi-Fi application software and a Bluetooth stack.

As an evaluation platform you can use the Raspberry Pi 5.

It does not have an on-board M.2 Key E slot for the PAN9019A M.2 device, but an additional SDIO interface and other peripherals can be enabled on the 40-pin expansion header.

To bring the PAN9019A M.2 device and the Raspberry Pi 5 together, you can use the M.2 to Raspberry Pi Adapter.

This guide shows you how to evaluate a Panasonic PAN9019A M.2 device on a Raspberry Pi 5 with the help of the M.2 to Raspberry Pi Adapter. But you have to be aware that only the basic bring-up is explained, not any advanced usage.

Hardware Modifications

You have to do some hardware modification to the PAN9019A M.2 device before you can use it together with the Raspberry Pi 5.

The following requirements must be met:

• You have a PAN9019A M.2 device.

SDIO and IO Reference Voltages

The interfaces on the 40-pin expansion header of the Raspberry Pi 5 operate with 3.3 V signal level, while the PAN9019A M.2 device operates with 1.8 V instead.

Because of this you have to modify the PAN9019A M.2 device as explained in Hardware Modifications in order to change the SDIO and IO reference voltages to 3.3 V.

Note

A signal level of 3.3 V limits the SDIO clock speed to 50 MHz, which also limits the maximum achievable data rate severely.

For further information please refer to the module product specification at

• Panasonic Industry Europe
• Panasonic Industrial Devices Sales Company of America

I²C GPIO Expander Signal Voltages

The PAN9019A module contains an I²C GPIO Expander chipset whose signal levels on the clock and data lines are tied to 1.8 V using pull-up resistors. You have to remove these pull-up resistors so that the PAN9019A M.2 device can interface with 3.3 V signal levels instead.

You have to do the following steps to remove the pull-up resistors.

1. Unsolder the resistor R12.

   

2. Unsolder the resistor R13.

   

Signal Level Mismatch

You cannot easily change the input reference voltage of the I²C GPIO Expander chipset to 3.3 V as well. Because of this there is a mismatch regarding the input voltages.

The I²C GPIO Expander expects 1.8 V signal levels, while the I2C clock and data lines are operated with 3.3 V instead.

Nevertheless no communication problems were observed during the evaluation of this setup.

Host System Assembly

The following requirements must be met:

• You have a Raspberry Pi 5 (host system).

• You have a M.2 to Raspberry Pi Adapter.

• You have a modified PAN9019A M.2 device.

You have to do the following steps to assemble the system.

1. Mount the PAN9019A M.2 device 3 onto the M.2 to Raspberry Pi Adapter 2 as explained in First Steps.

2. Mount the M.2 to Raspberry Pi Adapter 2 onto the 40-pin expansion header of the Raspberry Pi 5 1.

3. Power the M.2 to Raspberry Pi Adapter through the USB-C connector 4, otherwise the adapter is non-functional.

Host System Setup

Initial Bring-Up

You have to follow the Getting Started guide to bring up your Raspberry Pi 5.

The guide assumes that you use a recent version of Raspberry Pi OS based on Debian version 12 ("bookworm").

Network Connectivity

You have to make sure that the Raspberry Pi 5 is on the same network as your development system, because you need to interact with your host system and maybe transfer files to it in later steps.

You have to check and remember the IP address of your host system for later use.

1. On your host system, retrieve the current network configuration for the on-board Ethernet port in a Terminal window.

   ip addr show eth0
   

   The output should look something like this:

   2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
     link/ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
     inet 192.168.187.100/24 brd 192.168.187.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute eth0
       valid_lft 86089sec preferred_lft 86089sec
     inet6 fe80::xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx/64 scope link noprefixroute
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
   

   The IP address of your host system is 192.168.187.100

Host System IP Address

For this host system the IP address is 192.168.187.100, but it may be different for yours.

In any case you have to use this IP address to communicate with your host system for the remainder of this document.

To check if your Raspberry Pi 5 has Internet connectivity execute the following steps.

1. Use the ping command.

   ping -n -c 2 8.8.8.8
   

   The output should look something like this:

   Pinging 8.8.8.8 with 32 bytes of data:
   Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=19ms TTL=116
   Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=116
   [...]
   

   Your Raspberry Pi 5 has Internet connectivity.

Host System Remote Access

If you do not have any application for the SSH protocol yet, you can try the OpenSSH protocol suite.

It also includes tools for remote file operations like ssh and scp.

At the end of this process you should have a fully working system you can remotely log into.

Host System Configuration

The following requirements must be met:

• You have brought up your Raspberry Pi 5 as explained in Host System Setup.

• You can access your Raspberry Pi 5 remotely.

Install Additional Package

You have to install the cmake package that provides the cmake tool on your host system for later use.

1. Update the package index on the host system.

   sudo apt update
   

2. Install the additional package.

   sudo apt install cmake
   

Enable Peripheral Interfaces

You have to modify the boot configuration of your system in order to enable additional peripheral interfaces on the 40-pin expansion header.

1. Add the following entries to the end of the configuration file config.txt using the nano editor.

   sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt
   

   config.txt

   dtoverlay=disable-wifi-pi5
   dtoverlay=disable-bt-pi5
   dtoverlay=sdio-pi5,poll_once=off
   dtoverlay=uart0-pi5,ctsrts
   dtoverlay=i2c1-pi5
   dtoverlay=spi0-1cs,cs0_pin=8
   dtoverlay=pca953x,tca6408
   gpio=7=op,dh
   

   The on-board Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are disabled, a UART interface is enabled on the expansion header with flow-control enabled, additional SDIO, I2C and SPI interfaces on the expansion header and support for I²C GPIO expanders is enabled, a GPIO is configured for application control.

Disable System Services

The Raspberry Pi OS runs some system services that integrate the on-board Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity into the system and also automate certain tasks and behaviors.

During the evaluation of the PAN9019A module this is can create problems, so you have to change your system configuration to avoid this.

1. Mask certain system services to prevent them from running.

   sudo systemctl mask wpa_supplicant
   sudo systemctl mask hciuart
   sudo systemctl mask ModemManager
   

System Reboot

You have to reboot the host system for these changes to take effect.

sudo reboot

rgpower Files

Before you can fully operate the PAN9019A, a set of so-called rgpower files is required. These files contain channel tables and regulatory parameters of the PAN9019A for a specific region it operates in.

For further information on this topic refer to rgpower Files in the Software Guide for the PAN9019A.

Since these files are provided by Panasonic you need to transfer them to the system manually in a later step.

To gain access to the rgpower files you have to go through an uncomplicated approval process that you can find directly on the following pages.

• Panasonic Industry Europe
• Panasonic Industrial Devices Sales Company of America

Warning

The PAN9019A is a radio certified module. There are conditions on hardware and software which must be met for the modular approval to be valid.

For detailed information please refer to the PAN9019A Module Integration Guide at

• Panasonic Industry Europe
• Panasonic Industrial Devices Sales Company of America

However, if you want to continue right away you can also start with the single world-wide (WW) rgpower file, which is the fall-back regulatory file for all regions the module is certified for.

The world-wide rgpower file has a couple restrictions compared to the region-specific rgpower files:

• Support for channels 1 to 11 in 2.4 GHz band only
• No support for 5 GHz band
• Overall reduced output power

For the initial evaluation of the PAN9019A module the world-wide rgpower file is available from the Downloads section.

You can download it directly when you setup your host system as explained in Install rgpower Files in a later step.

Host System Software Installation

Compile the Device Driver

You have to retrieve and compile the driver for the PAN9019A module.

1. Clone the driver repository from NXP's GitHub space.

   cd ~
   git clone https://github.com/nxp-imx/mwifiex.git
   

2. Check out the specific branch that matches the running kernel most closely.

   cd ~/mwifiex/
   git checkout lf-6.6.23_2.0.0
   

3. Compile the driver.

   cd ~/mwifiex
   make CROSS_COMPILE= KERNELDIR=/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build -j4 build
   

4. Create a global driver directory and copy the driver.

   sudo mkdir -p /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra
   cd ~/mwifiex
   sudo cp mlan.ko moal.ko /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/extra 
   

Install the Firmware

You have to download and install the firmware for the PAN9019A module.

1. Create the destination directory for the firmware and configuration files.

   sudo mkdir -p /lib/firmware/nxp/
   

2. Clone the firmware repository from NXP's GitHub space.

   cd ~
   git clone https://github.com/nxp-imx/imx-firmware.git
   cd imx-firmware/
   git checkout lf-6.6.23_2.0.0
   

3. Copy the firmware to the global firmware directory.

   cd ~/imx-firmware
   sudo cp nxp/FwImage_IW612_SD/sduart_nw61x_v1.bin.se /lib/firmware/nxp/
   

4. Copy the configuration file wifi_mod_para.conf to the global firmware directory.

   cd ~/imx-firmware
   sudo cp nxp/wifi_mod_para.conf /lib/firmware/nxp/
   

5. Edit the SDIW612 section in the file wifi_mod_para.conf using the nano editor to contain the following settings.

   sudo nano /lib/firmware/nxp/wifi_mod_para.conf
   

   wifi_mod_para.conf

   SDIW612 = {
       cal_data_cfg=none
       fw_name=nxp/sduart_nw61x_v1.bin.se
       cntry_txpwr=2
   }
   

Install rgpower Files

As explained in rgpower Files the PAN9019A module needs proper rgpower files to operate.

If you already have your set of rgpower files, you have to copy them to the /lib/firmware/nxp/ directory on your host system.

If you do not have your set of rgpower files yet and want to use the single world-wide (WW) rgpower file instead, you can download it directly to the host system.

1. Download the rgpower file to the global firmware directory.

   sudo wget -O /lib/firmware/nxp/rgpower_WW.bin \
     https://pideu.panasonic.de/development-hub/pan9019/downloads/rgpower_WW.bin
   

Wi-Fi

Bring Up

The newly compiled device drivers are not loaded into the Linux kernel automatically, you have to manually load them into the kernel prior to operation.

1. Make sure that Linux kernel module dependency database is up-to-date.

   sudo depmod -a
   

2. Load the modules into the Linux kernel.

   sudo modprobe mlan
   sudo modprobe moal mod_para=nxp/wifi_mod_para.conf 
   

3. Check the Linux kernel log.

   sudo dmesg
   

   The output should look something like this:

   [  263.436351] Request firmware: nxp/sduart_nw61x_v1.bin.se
   [  263.852847] Wlan: FW download over, firmwarelen=1038668 downloaded 936668
   [  264.256233] WLAN FW is active
   [  264.300156] on_time is 264296058797
   [  264.374828] VDLL image: len=102000
   [  264.376130] fw_cap_info=0x487cff03, dev_cap_mask=0xffffffff
   [  264.376158] uuid: 068bfcc4ba1d528786ce818360ed4555
   [  264.376162] max_p2p_conn = 8, max_sta_conn = 16
   [  264.389119] Trying download country_power_tble: nxp/rgpower_WW.bin
   [  264.463300] Request firmware: nxp/rgpower_WW.bin
   [  264.629607] call regulatory_set_wiphy_regd WW
   [  264.663429] Register NXP 802.11 Adapter mlan0
   [  264.767939] wlan: uap%d set max_mtu 2000
   [  264.819529] Register NXP 802.11 Adapter uap0
   [  264.884398] call regulatory_set_wiphy_regd WW
   [  264.896841] Register NXP 802.11 Adapter wfd0
   [  265.000308] wlan: version = SDIW612---18.99.3.p10.1-MM6X18437.p21-GPL-(FP92) 
   [  265.125657] uap0: Skip change virtual intf type on uap: from 3 to 2
   

Note

If you can't see that the PAN9019A M.2 device was detected, press the reset button 6 button of the M.2 to Raspberry Pi Adapter briefly once.

This resets the PAN9019A module, but also triggers the detection in the Linux kernel again.

You can now check the functionality of the driver.

1. Use the ip command to verify that the mlan0 network interface for the PAN9019A is now available.

   ip addr show mlan0
   

   The output should look something like this:

   3: mlan0: <NO-CARRIER,BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state DOWN group default qlen 1000
     link/ether 34:32:e6:xx:xx:xx brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
   

Usage

You have to follow these steps to check if Wi-Fi is functional.

1. Bring up the Wi-Fi interface.

   sudo ip link set dev mlan0 up
   

2. Execute a Wi-Fi scan.

   sudo iw dev mlan0 scan
   

   You can see that nearby Wi-Fi networks are discovered successfully.

Bluetooth

The following requirements must be met:

• You have successfully brought up the Wi-Fi portion as explained in Wi-Fi.

Bring Up

You have to follow these steps to bring up the Bluetooth interface.

1. Initialize the Bluetooth interface.

   sudo hciattach /dev/ttyAMA0 any 115200 flow
   

   The output should look something like this:

   Device setup complete
   

2. Bring up the Bluetooth interface.

   sudo hciconfig hci0 up
   

Usage

You have to follow these steps to check if Bluetooth is functional.

1. Execute a Bluetooth scan.

   bluetoothctl scan on
   

   You can see that nearby Bluetooth devices that are advertising are discovered successfully.

802.15.4

The following requirements must be met:

• You have successfully brought up the Wi-Fi portion as explained in Wi-Fi.

Software Setup

In the Raspberry Pi OS there is no integrated support for OpenThread using the 802.15.4 radio portion of the PAN9019A, but you can compile the necessary software directly on the Raspberry Pi 5.

1. Navigate to the base of your working environment.

   cd ~
   

2. Clone the official OpenThread repository and checkout a version that matches the driver version.

   git clone https://github.com/openthread/openthread.git
   cd openthread
   git checkout 5beae143700db54c6e9bd4b15a568abe2f305723
   cd ..
   

3. Clone NXP's meta-matter repository and checkout a version that matches the driver version, too.

   git clone https://github.com/nxp-imx/meta-matter.git
   cd meta-matter
   git checkout imx_matter_2024_q1
   cd ..
   

4. The official OpenThread stack does not work out-of-the-box with the PAN9019A module yet.

   Apply an NXP-specific patch from the meta-matter repository to make the OpenThread stack fully work.

   cd openthread
   patch -p1 < ../meta-matter/recipes-openthread/openthread/files/0001-Apply-IW612-change-to-openthread.patch
   

5. Compile the OpenThread stack.

   ./script/cmake-build posix -GNinja -DCMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS=ON \
       -DOT_COMPILE_WARNING_AS_ERROR=OFF -DOT_PLATFORM=posix -DOT_SLAAC=ON \
       -DOT_BORDER_AGENT=ON -DOT_BORDER_ROUTER=ON -DOT_COAP=ON -DOT_COAP_BLOCK=ON \
       -DOT_COAP_OBSERVE=ON -DOT_COAPS=ON -DOT_COMMISSIONER=ON -DOT_CHANNEL_MANAGER=ON \
       -DOT_CHANNEL_MONITOR=ON -DOT_CHILD_SUPERVISION=ON -DOT_DATASET_UPDATER=ON \
       -DOT_DHCP6_CLIENT=ON -DOT_DHCP6_SERVER=ON -DOT_DIAGNOSTIC=ON -DOT_DNS_CLIENT=ON \
       -DOT_ECDSA=ON -DOT_IP6_FRAGM=ON -DOT_JAM_DETECTION=ON -DOT_JOINER=ON \
       -DOT_LEGACY=ON -DOT_MAC_FILTER=ON -DOT_NETDIAG_CLIENT=ON \
       -DOT_NEIGHBOR_DISCOVERY_AGENT=ON -DOT_PING_SENDER=ON -DOT_REFERENCE_DEVICE=ON \
       -DOT_SERVICE=ON -DOT_SNTP_CLIENT=ON -DOT_SRP_CLIENT=ON -DOT_COVERAGE=OFF \
       -DOT_LOG_LEVEL_DYNAMIC=ON -DOT_RCP_RESTORATION_MAX_COUNT=2 \
       -DOT_LOG_OUTPUT=PLATFORM_DEFINED -DOT_POSIX_MAX_POWER_TABLE=ON -DOT_DAEMON=ON \
       -DOT_THREAD_VERSION=1.3 -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DOT_POSIX_CONFIG_RCP_BUS=SPI
   

Bring Up

The reset function of the 802.15.4 subsystem of the PAN9019A module is controlled using the I²C GPIO Expander on the PAN9019A M.2 device.

It is important that the I²C GPIO Expander is correctly recognized by the Raspberry Pi 5 during boot, otherwise it cannot be used by the OpenThread stack later.

You have to follow these steps to verify that the I²C GPIO Expander is really available.

1. Reboot the host system.

   sudo reboot
   

2. Check if an additional I²C GPIO Expander with the signature [1-0020] is present.

   gpiodetect
   

   The output should look something like this:

   [...]
   gpiochip2 [1-0020] (8 lines)
   [...]
   

   The I²C GPIO Expander gpiochip2 is present in the host system.

You can verify that the OpenThread stack starts correctly as follows.

1. Start the OpenThread daemon ot-daemon with the following configuration to run in the background.

   cd ~/openthread/build/posix/src/posix/
   sudo ./ot-daemon -v "spinel+spi:///dev/spidev0.0?gpio-int-device=/dev/gpiochip4&gpio-int-line=7&gpio-reset-device=/dev/gpiochip5&gpio-reset-line=1&spi-mode=0&spi-speed=500000&spi-reset-delay=500" &
   

   The output should look something like this:

   ./ot-daemon[608]: Running OPENTHREAD/thread-reference-20230706-12-g5beae1437-dirty; POSIX; May 22 2024 13:50:08
   ./ot-daemon[608]: Thread version: 4
   ./ot-daemon[608]: Thread interface: wpan0
   ./ot-daemon[608]: RCP version: OPENTHREAD/thread-reference-20180926-4730-gad808304f; IWX12; Dec 15 2023 12:28:58
   

   The version information of the OpenThread stack is shown correctly.

Note

Due to whatever reasons, the first start after a fresh reboot sometimes fails. If you have this problem, simply try this step again.

Usage

You can verify that the OpenThread stack operates correctly as follows.

1. Perform a factory reset to verify the communication.

   sudo ./ot-ctl factoryreset
   

   The output should look something like this:

   ./ot-daemon[608]: Running OPENTHREAD/thread-reference-20230706-12-g5beae1437-dirty; POSIX; May 22 2024 13:50:08
   ./ot-daemon[608]: Thread version: 4
   ./ot-daemon[608]: Thread interface: wpan0
   ./ot-daemon[608]: RCP version: OPENTHREAD/thread-reference-20180926-4730-gad808304f; IWX12; Dec 15 2023 12:28:58
   

   The version information of the OpenThread stack is shown correctly.

Appendix

The PAN9019A module has a couple of special function pins that are routed to the 40-pin expansion header as follows.

Raspberry Pi	M.2 Specification	PAN9019A	Description
GPIO 5	W_DISABLE1#	PDn	Power Down
GPIO 6	W_DISABLE#2	IND_RST_BT	Bluetooth reset
GPIO 4	SDIO_RST#	IND_RST_WL	Wi-Fi reset

You can manually control the special function pins using the pinctrl tool. For example:

1. Apply GND to GPIO 5 to signal power down to the module.

   pinctrl set 5 op pu dl
   

2. Apply VCC to GPIO 5 to enable the module again.

   pinctrl set 5 op pu dh
   

Some more special function pins of the PAN9019A module are routed to the I²C GPIO Expander as follows.

I2C GPIO Expander	PAN9019A	Description
3	IND_RST_14.4	802.15.4 reset
7	RST_IND	Reset indicator