12 replies to this topic

[Chris Walker]

Hot off the press! http://blogs.msdn.com/b/netmfteam/archive/2011/06/07/netmf-version-4-2-beta-now-available.aspx This new release includes Visual Basic support. A ton of folks, including members of the Visual Basic compiler and .NET MF teams and Jan Kucera have been working tirelessly to make this happen. Thank you _so much_ to everyone involved with this...Lorenzo, Zach, Spotty, Colin, Jan, and others. .NET MF 4.2 just got posted to CodePlex, and we've already posted early 4.2 beta firmware... [We will be posting a few updates, the first one to get it out--the rest to get the new AnalogInput/PWM features exposed, fix bugs, etc.] Firmware: Netduino v4.2 beta 1 firmware Netduino Plus v4.2 beta 1 firmware Instructions on how to install SDK Chris

[Chris Walker]

A few more notes:

.NET MF 4.2 SDK
* To use the .NET MF 4.2 SDK, you'll need to uninstall the .NET MF 4.1 SDK/PK and Netduino SDK first. [SDK upgrade instructions]
* After installing the .NET MF 4.2 beta 1 SDK, you can still build .NET MF 4.1 projects for boards with .NET MF 4.1 installed. To do so, select ".NET MF 4.1" as the framework version in your project properties. If you try to deploy a .NET MF 4.2 project to a .NET MF 4.1 board, you'll get a deployment-time error that the assembly versions conflict.

Visual Studio only for this beta release
The .NET MF 4.2 beta 1 is brand new...and during beta the official .NET MF 4.2 SDK only supports Visual Studio (not Express). If you're running Visual C# Express, you'll want to wait for a future beta/RC/RTM version before upgrading.

Visual Basic
* Visual Basic Express isn't supported yet. If you want to test the VB support, you'll need a non-Express version of Visual Studio. You'll also need a Netduino with v4.2 beta firmware...we'll get this ready in a few days.
* Visual Basic uses a small VB support runtime for .NET MF. This is deployed automatically as part of your program. It's about 13KB in size.

Here's a quick Visual Basic "blinky" code sample

Imports Microsoft.SPOT
Imports Microsoft.SPOT.Hardware
Imports SecretLabs.NETMF.Hardware
Imports SecretLabs.NETMF.Hardware.Netduino

Module Module1

    Sub Main()

        Dim led As New OutputPort(Pins.ONBOARD_LED, False)

        Do
            led.Write(True)
            Thread.Sleep(250)
            led.Write(False)
            Thread.Sleep(250)
        Loop

    End Sub

End Module

We're very excited about .NET MF 4.2. More to come...

Chris

[Stefan]

Visual Basic
Visual Basic Express isn't supported yet. If you want to test the VB support, you'll need a non-Express version of Visual Studio.

That's not fair!!!

Microsoft, if you read this: Visual Basic Express feels discriminated!

[João Mello]

COOL! Link: http://goo.gl/KRzkE Update firmware features, are now Build-in? Mello.

[elettrozero]

Other than VB support ? What new features come with that ?

[Chris Walker]

Other than VB support ? What new features come with that ?

Great question!

• New AnalogInput and PWM objects
• FTP support
• StringBuilder
• RegEx (coming soon)
• Updated cryptographic primitives
• Remote update infrastructure (may not be applicable)
• Lots and lots of bug fixes
• Etc.

[João Mello]

And the update firmware from sd card? Has some news in this firmware?

[Chris Walker]

Hi João,

And the update firmware from sd card? Has some news in this firmware?

Firmware updates are still done via MFDeploy. There is some potential for remote update...but we'll have to see how much flash/RAM that takes. That said, it's certainly possible to create a bootloader which reflashes the MCU from an SD card.

Chris

[João Mello]

Hi João,

Firmware updates are still done via MFDeploy. There is some potential for remote update...but we'll have to see how much flash/RAM that takes. That said, it's certainly possible to create a bootloader which reflashes the MCU from an SD card.

Chris

Yes the idea load from bootloader it's better!
Is very difficult to implement?

Mello

[JonnyBoats]

As per Microsoft blog: http://blogs.msdn.co...-available.aspx

[Chris Walker]

Yes the idea load from bootloader it's better!
Is very difficult to implement?

Maybe a few days of work for someone. You could either customize TinyBooter to support FAT and look for a file on the SD card during boot...or you could replace TinyBooter with a tight, optimized custom project. The first of those options is much simpler: all the pieces are there.

Chris

[Chris Walker]

Okay, the .NET MF 4.2 beta 1 firmware is now posted...I have included links and instructions in the first post. Chris

[Chris Walker]

Yes the idea load from bootloader it's better!
Is very difficult to implement?

Also, you might be able to adapt the new "remote update" functionality pretty quickly. You'd just need to read the new firmware from the SD card instead of from flash...