Getting ready

Before flashing and running the MR-VMU-Tropic, prepare the firmware images and the tools used to deploy them.

Firmware images

The firmware for the MR-VMU-Tropic is provided through the NXP Robotics SDK, which builds and downloads the images inside a Docker container. The SDK produces three artifacts for the board:

  • a bootloader image,

  • the PX4 application firmware (a raw binary), and

  • the PX4 firmware container that QGroundControl and the PX4 uploader accept.

In addition, the SDK publishes a set of Zephyr sample images for board bring-up and peripheral checks.

Obtaining or building the images with the SDK is covered in the Deploy and Run Quick Start.

Tools

  • A LinkServer-compatible debug probe (MCU-Link) for the initial bootloader programming over the Dronecode debug connector.

  • QGroundControl, or the PX4 command-line uploader, for routine PX4 application updates over USB.

  • A USB-C cable for the console and PX4 firmware uploads.

The debug connector and USB-C port locations are shown in the Hardware Overview.