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RTM Bringup Adapter

Board Picture

Description

The MicroTCA RTM Bring-Up Adapter is a compact laboratory and development platform designed and developed in-house at DESY for powering, testing, debugging, and validating MicroTCA Rear Transition Modules (RTMs) outside of a full MicroTCA chassis environment. By eliminating the need for a complete MicroTCA chassis during early-stage development, the board significantly reduces setup complexity and accelerates hardware validation & firmware development.

The board can additionally be mounted to the Bring-Up Adapter Mechanics, providing mechanically stable and guided insertion of RTMs. This enables reliable handling during development and also allows the assembly of a mechanically robust post-production setup if desired.

The adapter features a Raspberry Pi Pico 2/2W socket for implementing a finite state machine (FSM) to drive the mandatory RTM I/O expander. RTM power is supplied either from dual 12 V / 3.3 V laboratory inputs or from a single 12 V supply, which is regulated on-board to 3.3 V using an LDO regulator. RTM 12 V power delivery is switched through an N-channel MOSFET under Pico control, depending on the handle state. This enables a very detailed power ramp-up and ramp-down analysis.

A RTM I2C I/O expander providing RTM management is fully controlled via Raspberry Pi Pico 2, enabling reset handling, Power Good monitoring, and RTM LED status indication: blue for standby, green for power good, and red for a power fault condition. The board provides full breakout of both ERNI Zone 3 J30 and J31 RTM connectors, exposing all pins, including JTAG and I²C signals via pin headers for probing and instrumentation. Additional features include dual 12V fan connector and an AMC hardware key for board alignment, making it a self-contained, professional-grade RTM bring-up and validation tool.

Features

  • Dual RTM Power Supply 12V/3V3 or single 12V supply and on-board LDO for 3.3V generation
  • Microcontroller: Raspberry Pi Pico 2 / 2W (RP2350) for control and I2C communication with the RTM
  • RTM LED status indication and 12V Power control via RTM handle
  • RTM Connectors: Zone 3 J30 & J31, full I/O breakout (30 channels each, ±P/N pairs) for signal probing
  • N-channel MOSFET, controlled by the Pico to switch 12V RTM Power
  • Power LED indicators for VCC_12V, MP_3V3, and RPI_3V3 rails
  • Two 12V fan connectors (3-pin)
  • Reset button for Raspberry Pi
  • AMC hardware key (5223986-1) for mechanical keying compliance
  • Example Firmware in MicroPython (provided below in attachments)
  • Compatible with our MicroTCA Bringup Adapter Mechanics

Files

License

The Files are released under the CC-by SA lisense, facilitating independent production. CC BY is a permissive license that allows others to use, modify, and redistribute work for any purpose, requiring only proper attribution.