The Dragonboard 410C from Arrow has been certified for Windows 10 IoT-Core. It comes though with the Android OS installed. Whilst a subsequent blog will cover the Windows 10 installation to it, this blog focuses upon getting a feel for the board’s capabilities and how to use it in the Android context. This will then will lead to expectations of the board’s functional capabilities in the IoT-Core context for the next blog. The previous blog covered the board’s features.

Setup Requirements

  • Dragonboard 410C
  • HDMI display (eg TV) and standard size HDMI cable.
  • USB Keyboard and USB Mouse
      - I used an All-in-One Media Keyboard (USB- Wireless)
  • 12V 1A (at least) Power Supply
      - The voltage range can be 6.5V to 10V. I tried 12.0, 12.5 and 13.5V successfully.
      - Requires a DC plug that has a 4.75 mm outer diameter with 1.7mm center pin (EIAJ-3 Compliant); also +V in centre:

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Getting Started

  • Plug in all components
  • Power up the display.
  • Power up the board.
  • There will be a momentary blue LED flash. After a while a yellow LED for a little while then turn off. Eventually the blue LED will display permanently and the screen will display the OS start screen.

First time boot may take several minutes during which time it will set up apps etc. I found subsequent boots take about 50 seconds.

The Start Screen will say “Swipe up” and you’re into the Home Screen. You can do that if you have a touch screen. With a mouse you can swipe up with the left button pressed; similarly with a touchpad. There is also a suggestion that the spacebar on the keypad suffices.

When the Home Screen times out a mouse button click or keyboard press returns it. If it has been too long you need to swipe up again.

Links

The Android OS UI

Home Screen

The Android OS supports the option of having multiple Start Screens. You swipe to left or right to move between them. Note for all Home Screens , the Favorites Bar and Action Bar are visible. This device comes with three such screens:

  • The default which allows you to turn various things such as WiFi and Bluetooth off and on.
  • A second one that show the time.
  • A third that shows the Gallery and Settings Icons

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Status Bar

At the very top, ever-present, is the status bar. The status bar is persistent in that it rarely leaves the display, except in some full-screen applications. The status bar displays important information including time, signal (Wi-Fi/mobile data), notifications such as texts and e-mails.

On my system (TV display) this was chopped off.

Notifications

This can be pulled down from the top and shows the Date & Time. You can also access the current and other user settings as well directly access The Quick Access Panel to turn WiFi, Bluetooth and other services off/on. There is also a brightness control with the latter functionality.

Favorites Tray

The Favorites Tray allows you to pin certain apps such as your contacts and phone dialer so that no matter what home screen you are on, you can always access them. By default, the five items you see in order from left to right are Phone, Contacts, Setup, Messaging and Chrome.

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Action Bar

At the bottom of your device is the “Action bar,” which like the status bar, never goes away, even when it seems as though it has.

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You should always see these three navigation elements wherever you are on your device. The first one means “Go Back”, the second brings up the Home Screen and the third brings up all of the recent app Windows in a rotating scrolling manner.

App Drawer

Finally, there’s the app drawer. This is the centre icon on the app tray that opens up the place where all your apps shortcuts are located.

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From here you can open them, uninstall, or pin shortcuts to the home screen.

 

Setting up WiFi

  • On the Home screen click the Apps drawer icon.
  • In the Apps drawer click the Settings app.
  • In the settings app click Wi-Fi:
  • Turn WiFi ON by clicking the switch on the right side:
  • After a few seconds you should see a list of available networks. Choose the network you would like to connect to and provide the network’s password. Then click Connect.
  • If the connection was successful, a WiFi-symbol should appear in Android’s status bar.

Bluetooth

  • On the Home screen click the Apps drawer icon.
  • In the Apps drawer click the Settings app.
  • In the settings app click Bluetooth.:
  • Turn Bluetooth ON by clicking the switch on the right side:
  • The screen will list and Bluetooth devices visible to the board
  • Pair any devices you wish paired.

 

I found that I could pair the following:

  • Microsoft BT Keyboard (Immediately usable)
  • Asus TravelMate BT Mouse (Immediately usable)
  • Lumia 930 Windows 10 Phone
  • HP Probook 450G1 Laptop.
  • Generic BT 1.1 USB Serial Adapter
  • EnerPlex BT Speaker (Immediately usable)
  • Jabra Halo BT Headphones (Immediately usable)

 

I found I could not pair the following:

  • Microsoft BT Mouse
  • Jabra Freeway Hands Free

 

Switches

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In the diagram above, from bottom left of the board, the right most push button is the power button. Pressing this will put the device into suspend.  It can also be used to resume. Also, pressing this button for more than x seconds (that’s what the documentation says) will turn the device off.

  Comment: I found that pressing this for several seconds caused a dialog to pop up offering to power off which it did if clicked upon. Once shutdown, pressing this button did restart the device. If though you held that button down for about 15-20 seconds the device did shutdown without the need for further user intervention.

 

The other two push buttons’ main function is volume up and down or zoom in/out depending upon the app context. The middle button has a secondary role:
A button press with duration of less than 10 second will be interpreted by software as a volume down or zoom out request. Duration of more than 10 seconds will cause a system reset. (

 Comment: I found that this reset didn't method work. (Volume up and down did work though for playing media).

 

Audio Playback

The board documentation says that HDMI Audio and BT Audio are available. I found that the both worked out-the-box. With a music file (.wav) placed on an SD card, it would play when access via the File Explorer. By default, the music played through the TV (HDMI audio). If a BT audio device was connected (BT Speaker or Headset) then the audio was automatically directed through that.

 

There is also a capability to implement analog audio for a speaker or headset through the Analog Bus.
See: Stereo Connector and Audio Routing Application Note

 

Video Playback

With a video file mounted on an SD card, video playback with audio worked extremely well. Was able to watch a full length movie.