Pin Multiplexing

A number of the available pins can be used for multiple purposes other than general purpose input/output when needed. Such pins are referred to as multiplexed pins. For example, the UART pins are designated as UART, but are multiplexed so that you can designate and use them as GPIO pins when you want. This is used to incorporate the largest number of protocol support in the smallest possible package.

omega2-pinout-diagram

You can use the omega2-ctrl tool to change the function of your pins.

To get the current mode of the Omega’s multiplexed pins, use the command:

omega2-ctrl gpiomux get

and you’ll be given a list as a result:

root@Omega-2757:/# omega2-ctrl gpiomux get
Group i2c - [i2c] gpio
Group uart0 - [uart] gpio
Group uart1 - [uart] gpio
Group uart2 - [uart] gpio pwm
Group pwm0 - [pwm] gpio
Group pwm1 - [pwm] gpio
Group refclk - refclk [gpio]
Group spi_s - spi_s [gpio]
Group spi_cs1 - [spi_cs1] gpio refclk
Group i2s - i2s [gpio] pcm
Group ephy - [ephy] gpio
Group wled - wled [gpio]

The current mode for each group is indicated with the [].

Let’s examine the UART1 line:

Group uart1 - [uart] gpio

Here we see the group is uart1, and the available modes are [uart] gpio, with the current mode being [uart].

Changing the Pin Function

To set a particular group of hardware pins to a specified mode, use the following command:

To illustrate the above, the following command will set UART1 pins to operate in GPIO mode:

omega2-ctrl gpiomux set uart1 gpio

and running the get command from above to confirm our changes:

root@Omega-2757:/# omega2-ctrl gpiomux get
Group i2c - [i2c] gpio
Group uart0 - [uart] gpio
Group uart1 - uart [gpio]
Group uart2 - [uart] gpio pwm
Group pwm0 - [pwm] gpio
Group pwm1 - [pwm] gpio
Group refclk - refclk [gpio]
Group spi_s - spi_s [gpio]
Group spi_cs1 - [spi_cs1] gpio refclk
Group i2s - i2s [gpio] pcm
Group ephy - [ephy] gpio
Group wled - wled [gpio]

We see:

Group uart1 - uart [gpio]

indicating that our change has indeed been applied.

Additional Resources

See these articles for more information on using the Omega’s pins: