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Frequently Asked Questions

Am I running the latest?​

Latest Versions:​

Arduino Board Package: loading...
Bootloader: 0.7.1
Firmware: 1.33.53

Board Package​

To see what version of the Arduino Board Package you are using, go the Boards Manager in Arduino IDE and find qNimble iMXRT Boards. This will show what version is installed and, if an update is available, provide an update button:

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Update Bootloader and Firmware​

To find out what version bootloader and firmware you have, boot into the bootloader (power cycle the Quarto and press the front panel button within the 3 seconds of boot). The connect via the primary serial port and type '*#' and the Firmware version (and other information) will be printed. For the bootloader, type 'V#' to get the bootloader version. Alternatively, you can run the example program DeviceInfo (available in the Arduino IDE under Examples for Quarto, Misc) and connect to it via the serial port.

The bootloader and firmware can be updated by loading the QuartoUpdater program. That program, like the DeviceInfo program, is available via the Examples for Quarto in the Arduino IDE, under misc:

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Compile and upload that project to your Quarto like any other program. Then open a terminal connection to the Quarto and follow the instructions to upgrade either the bootloader or the firmware.

I thought Arduino™ was slow​

Arduino™ has a reputation for being slow, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Fundamentally, Arduino compiles C/C++ code which can be written to be very efficient. Arduino code is often slow because:

  • Functions are written to have compatibility across diverse hardware at the expense of speed.
  • Many Arduinos use basic 8-bit micro-controllers running at low (~10MHz) speeds.
  • Interfaces to external components such as ADC and DAC often use slow protocols like I2C and/or waste processor time waiting and polling for communication operations to complete.

The Quarto avoids all of these limitations. We wrote our own functions, optimized for speed, for everything that is time-critical. The Quarto runs on an ARM M7 processor running at over 500 MHz. All the communication to the ADC and DAC has been off-loaded to the FPGA.