teachop

I don't have much success with deploy / debug using VirtualBox. I have several possible problems crop up, and then sometimes it does manage to work. The intermittent problems are: 1) The very first deploy after starting Visual C# cause it to crash and terminate. 2) "Preparing to deploy assemblies to the device" gets stuck. Have to jack the Netduino. 3) "The debugging target is not in an initialized state, rebooting..." gets stuck. Have to jack the Netduino. My setup is Netduino Plus 4.1.0.6, Visual C# 2010 Express, Windows XPsp3, VirtualBox 4.0.6, all on Ubuntu 11.04 host. I have tried two Netduino Plus boards, they do the same thing, I have tried different software versions on the Netduino also. Are these problems only VirtualBox? Does anybody have workable development in VirtualBox?

With kernel 2.6.37+, the SAM-BA tool can work smoothly again in Linux to re-flash Netduino, due to the inclusion of the sam-ba.ko driver. This driver can be built for earlier kernels - I am using it with Ubuntu 10.10 now.

An alternative to SAM-BA that is open source python code located here:
Sam_I_Am
This can work with the same sam-ba.ko driver.

In order to use it to burn the Netduino, add the following line to the device table in flash.py:

# AT91SAM7X512
  ('512K', '128K'): ("AT91SAM7X512", 64, 256),

To get the GPNVM boot bit re-set after erase/program, the flashif.py needs tweaked. Add something like this to flashif.c, rebuild it, and include the hex data in flashif.py. Call this in the Exit case (after programming).

static void doRemap(void)
{
  (void) waitForFRDY();
  *MC_FCR = 0x0b | (2 << 8) | 0x5A000000U;
  (void) waitForFRDY();
}

There is further to go, but that will get Netduino re-flash working. The python has a lot of other features that are set up for an at91sam7s, and I have not looked at them for at91sam7x at all.

My reason for using this is that for an interval, my linux machine is a powerpc Apple eMac, and the Atmel SAM-BA isn't available for powerpc or in source code form. I suppose there are not many experimenting on Netduino without a .NET, and even fewer on Linux. But, if you are tempted, it works and is fun.

For entertainment, I tried FreeRTOS on the Netduino Plus using SAM-BA. The networking has flakes, but it is working. With the SAM7X demo, it acts like a USB mouse OK, prints stats via the web server, and gives control of the LED to a web page. It is easy to get the real Netduino Plus software back into it when you are done. Anybody else playing about with this, or something similar?

Individual component identifiers are not in the Netduino Plus silkscreen, I am sure due to size, and I cannot open the .brd file. Could Secret Labs print the component locations to a PDF, looking like a typical silkscreen layer? Is that possible? It would be good to add to the downloads page, so we users can probe on the board. Thanks.

Sorry if this is a dumb question. In going through the documentation for the 4.1 .net micro framework, how should I determine which features are actually implemented in the Netduino Plus?