Microchip Technology PL360G55CF-EK, PL360G55Cx-EK Quick Start Manual

PL360G55CF-EK

PL360G55CF-EK Quick Start Guide

Overview

PL360G55CF-EK is an evaluation kit for the PL360 modem, a multi-protocol device to implement
standard and customized PLC solutions. PL360G55CF-EK includes a SAMG55 ARM® Cortex®-M4
microcontroller, which provides a full-featured platform to develop a complete communication system over
PLC technology.

Getting Started

Attention:  Before starting, please obtain PL360G55CF-EK online resources from Microchip

website. Please follow the instructions of the welcome letter included with this kit.

Important:  This guide assumes the use of 2 units of PL360G55CF-EK board running G3-PLC
PHY Tester.

Power-Up

The board can be supplied with the included USB cable or from an external DC Power Supply ranging
from 6V to 30V. When powered-up, LED 3V3 and LED 12V turn on. Please check the PL360G55CF-EK
User Guide to know more about the power supply requirements.

The kit comes already programmed with the G3-PLC PHY Tester for CENELEC-A application, allowing
the transmission and reception of PLC messages at PHY layer level. LED0 (green) blinks to indicate that
the application is running. LED1 (red) flashes when a PLC message is received and LED D104 (yellow)
will flash at each transmission.

Running PHY Tester Demo
Figure 1. PLC Test Setup

1. Download Microchip PLC PHY Tester from the online resources site and install it

© 2019 Microchip Technology Inc.

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2. Power-up PL360G55CF-EK board #1 connecting it to a PC using the included micro USB cable

3. Launch the PHY Tester PC Tool, select the serial COM port assigned to board #1 and 230400bps
for the baud rate

4. Follow on-screen instructions to configure a Tx test

5. Power-up PL360G55CF-EK board #2 connecting it to a PC using the included micro USB cable

6. Launch the PHY Tester PC Tool, select the serial COM port assigned to board #2 and 230400bps
for the baud rate

7. Follow on-screen instructions to configure an Rx test

8. Start Rx test in PL360G55CF-EK board #2

9. Start Tx test in PL360G55CF-EK board #1

10. Transmitted frames from board #1 are received in board #2

For more information about usage and configuration of the PLC PHY Tester Tool, please check the user
manual embedded in the tool: Help tab > User Manual.

Navigating the Kit

Important:  In order to explore all the features of this kit, please check the firmware user

guides provided with the online contents of the EK.

Online Resources

PL360G55CF-EK is complemented with a set of online resources. To access these resources, please
follow the procedure described in the welcome letter. These online resources include:

• Board schematics, PCB layout and Bill of Materials

• Last version of supported firmware stacks for Power Line Communications

• Set of PC tools to evaluate the performance of Microchip PLC solutions

Firmware Projects

PL360G55CF-EK currently supports G3-PLC and PRIME protocols. Each firmware stack includes several
projects and examples of use. For more information about the firmware projects and how to build and
debug the different examples, please read the corresponding documentation provided with the online
contents of the kit:

• G3-PLC Firmware Stack

• PRIME 1.3 FW Stack for Service Nodes and PRIME 1.3 FW Stack for Base Nodes

• PRIME 1.4 FW Stack for Service Nodes and PRIME 1.4 FW Stack for Base Nodes

Tools

Some of the projects included in the firmware releases require an external PC application:

• G3-PLC/PRIME Manager PC Tool: enables users to easily interface with the top layer of the provided

PLC stacks

• PHY Tester Tool: provides complete access to PHY layer configuration and utilization. Excellent tool

for point-to-point tests

• PHY Sniffer: captures, analyzes and displays PLC traffic. Excellent tool for network supervision and

debugging

© 2019 Microchip Technology Inc.

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For more information about the tools, please read the documentation of the firmware stack.

Revision History

Revision Date Description

Document 03/2019 Initial Release

© 2019 Microchip Technology Inc.

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