teachop's Content

#6084 What is the Netduino Mini?

Posted by teachop on 14 December 2010 - 04:51 PM in Netduino Mini

Just ordered one to gift myself on the 25th! Looking over the schematic... If you ever plan to tweak the PCB at all, would you consider using a lower drop regulator (300mV) instead of U5? That would help in a stand-alone project designed to operate off a single Li-Ion or LiPo cell.

#6120 What is the Netduino Mini?

Posted by teachop on 15 December 2010 - 12:59 PM in Netduino Mini

Any particular power regulators you'd like us to investigate?

Not that I know of in the price range of the MC33269. The LT1965 is great, but too expensive! LP3871 instead of U5 would work in both applications, might be < $1, and is very LDO. Merry Christmas to you and yours too.

#6546 Build error 0x80131700

Posted by teachop on 26 December 2010 - 10:29 PM in Visual Studio

Trying to build my first Netduino mini application (the LED blink example), I get one error Description = 0x80131700 File = MMP Anybody, can you point me in the right direction on how to get help on this? I don't know Visual Studio well, being mostly an embedded programmer.

#6557 Build error 0x80131700

Posted by teachop on 27 December 2010 - 12:47 AM in Visual Studio

Thank you, CW2 and Chris Walker, that nailed it. We have achieved blinky. Now for some fun...

#6568 Visual Studio dies after deploy

Posted by teachop on 27 December 2010 - 12:50 PM in Visual Studio

Often, right after a deploy, Visual Studio "has encountered a problem" and dies. The build/deploy work, the board starts up executing the new program. The crash box pops up at the moment of reset: Box comes up, normal boot delay for Netduino, program is running. Sometimes it doesn't crash. My environment is UbuntuLucid + VirtualBox + WindowsXPSP3 + VSC#2010Express + NetduinoMini on RS232. Is this seen by others? Any hints? Thanks. PS: Hope the Mono implementation is coming along...

#6574 Visual Studio dies after deploy

Posted by teachop on 27 December 2010 - 03:20 PM in Visual Studio

Are you up-to-date on your firmware?

MFDeploy SolutionReleaseInfo.SolutionVersion = 4.1.0.5 which I think is up to date. The program is tiny, a variation on the example LED blinker.

#6603 Visual Studio dies after deploy

Posted by teachop on 28 December 2010 - 10:49 AM in Visual Studio

I did experiments with restarting XP. In my case the bug is more random, and occurs at other times, not just the first deploy after booting. The message "not in an initialized state" timing predicts the impending crash. It hangs on for a while (seconds) in the cases where a crash will happen. When it is quick, it doesn't. Is that a hint to tracking it down or just an effect?

#6918 Any Netduino Plus Stock

Posted by teachop on 03 January 2011 - 05:29 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

I have been watching Maker Shed and a few other spots. Anybody know where|when these are in stock in the USA?

#6940 Any Netduino Plus Stock

Posted by teachop on 03 January 2011 - 10:58 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

you should see them in stock at some local resellers this week and next.

Thank you - will keep checking. For some, Netduino allows experience in C#, .NET, Visual Studio, to be put to work in embedded apps. But I am the other way around, and with this learning C#, .NET, VS, building off familiar embedded territory. Good stuff.

#7020 Any Netduino Plus Stock

Posted by teachop on 04 January 2011 - 11:20 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

Got one of those from Amazon. They have one left in stock

Nice. I don't see any listings for Netduino Plus on Amazon, only Netduino and Netduino Mini. Can you post a direct link?

#7071 Any Netduino Plus Stock

Posted by teachop on 05 January 2011 - 02:08 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

Got one of those from Amazon. They have one left in stock

I see them in stock now. Put an order on Amazon for one...

#7304 Problem with Analog Input

Posted by teachop on 09 January 2011 - 02:25 AM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

the schematics is for the latest Rev. B board

Where is the Rev. B schematic for Netduino Plus found, from the download page I get Rev.A. I can see a circuit for switching aref on the Netduino schematic, but not on the Netduino Plus one.

#7689 Netduino Plus Firmware v4.1.1 ALPHA 5

Posted by teachop on 15 January 2011 - 01:12 AM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

Some user experience using with VirtualBox on Ubuntu... Prior to installing this alpha version, I could deploy with varying reliability (Start Without Debugging == mostly works), but not debug (Start Debugging == never works). So I decided to try the Alpha. Since installing this version, I cannot deploy without messing around with the usb cable. The way I get it to work sometimes, is to click "Start Without Debugging", wait a few seconds, unplug the usb from the netduino plus, reconnect, and then wait. The program starts.

#7719 Netduino Plus Firmware v4.1.1 ALPHA 5

Posted by teachop on 15 January 2011 - 11:07 AM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

do you have the same experience while using the beta 1 release?

Yes pretty much. I also spent more time with the .5 version, and it isn't very reliable either, sometimes requiring usb cable pulling. Jacking the cable sometimes causes VS to terminate however. Here is a summary of the entire Plus experience (XP in VirtualBox on Ubuntu):

Initially installing the driver (first connect of Netduino to USB), the driver installed, but after the progress bar fully filled, it never concluded the driver wizard, and required a boot. The driver did install however, and the device enumerates every time.

Using MFDeploy to install software, often the Ping hangs, requiring usb jacking. Same things happens when checking version. Fool around enough and it works. This cable jacking sometimes causes MFDeploy to terminate, sometimes not. After Browse... and select, the Deploy often hangs. Same thing. I think the pattern that works is to connect the device after hitting deploy. Anyway it eventually works, but after it proceeds to executing Application it gets stuck until the device is unplugged.

In Visual Studio, debugging has never worked once, fooling with the cable here then terminates VS. Starting without debugging can normally be made to work, wait for it to finish building and get stuck, then jack the cable, and deploy completes (sometimes VS terminates).

Thats about it. None of them are reliable enough to allow a development work flow to proceed. The Netduino Mini seems to work a bit better, VS terminates sometimes, but most of the time it works (using the RS-232 port with a Prolific USB serial cable).

#7763 Netduino Plus Firmware v4.1.1 ALPHA 5

Posted by teachop on 16 January 2011 - 01:52 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

None of them are reliable enough

I put Vista back on an old PC and thing work, I will use that. If you need alpha/beta testing on Ubuntu/VirtualBox let me know, everything is still installed on my main machine (Linux).

#7911 Micro Framework

Posted by teachop on 19 January 2011 - 03:06 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

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?

#8100 Component locations

Posted by teachop on 22 January 2011 - 12:22 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

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.

#8111 Component locations

Posted by teachop on 22 January 2011 - 06:32 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

You shouldn't ever need to probe individual components

I generally find my reasons!

If ther are no easily readable numbers on the part, it's probably either the MUX in the corner, or an SMT cap/resistor/transistor.

The resistor designators would help the most when poking about...

#8169 FreeRTOS

Posted by teachop on 23 January 2011 - 02:35 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

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?

#8172 Component locations

Posted by teachop on 23 January 2011 - 02:45 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

I still think it would be nice for a hobby board to have a .pdf of the component locations on the downloads page...

#8198 FreeRTOS

Posted by teachop on 23 January 2011 - 07:14 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

Are you thinking of building anything else with FreeRTOS?

You asked, no laughing. Two current projects might fit: One is a midi solenoid-over-wind pipe organ (currently arduino), second is a physical email/gmail/snail notifier wall hanging. The second is what I bought the board for...

is FreeRTOS using lwIP or uIP?

The demo I built is uip. A few edits of the web server got it running, have not touched the stack.

#8282 FreeRTOS

Posted by teachop on 24 January 2011 - 10:51 AM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

What compiler are you using teacop? Codesourcery? Which version?

Yes, CodeSourcery lite. Used eclipse for the environment, but no debugging. Figured out a pattern so that SAM-BA works every time, at first it was a pain. I had to make some changes in the web server because it was crashing, other than that it was just stuff like LED defines, and it worked.

#8283 FreeRTOS

Posted by teachop on 24 January 2011 - 10:57 AM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

The demo you built on uIP...is the networking solid now or still flaky? We've been looking at ways to get uIP up and running on the Netduino Plus.

Chris

It is stable enough, in the short time I have had it running, once it is going, it doesn't hang up. There are dropped IP packets but I don't know if that is a problem or not yet. The flakes are in the connect/disconnect ethernet. I have to 1) power the Netduino Plus, 2) connect the ethernet. If the ethernet is connected already, then it sometimes isn't working, so I need to investigate that.

#8385 FreeRTOS

Posted by teachop on 25 January 2011 - 09:16 AM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

I got Netduino plus running with FreeRTOS 6.1.0+lwip 1.1.0, compiled with GCC-4.1 toolchain from www.gnuarm.com
with few changes.

I also tested with YAGARTO version 20100703, same code, not working. cpu hangs once network cable plugged.

Nice. Was very interested in your compiler experiences. I used CodeSourcery lite GCC, and have not tried the others. In the demo I built, there is a look-up function in the cgi code that crashes, and I had to rewrite it. I suspect that is a compiler issue as well. Other than that it was just, like you experienced, configuration details.

All in all, FreeRTOS+CodeSourcery+eclipse on Netduino Plus is looking pretty good, and I suppose I can live with SAM-BA! It seems my first Netduino Plus project will be without a .net. This will give performance and easy access to the irqs. You can't beat the hardware feature set for the price (wish there was a JTAG though).

I have not tried to get the SD card going with FAT file system yet on FreeRTOS, have you worked on that at all?

#8629 FreeRTOS

Posted by teachop on 28 January 2011 - 07:07 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

Quick aside...should we make a "FreeRTOS and C/C++ programming" forum?

Makes sense to me, I agree use a generic name for non .NET applications, and have the FreeRTOS and NUT/OS as sub-categories, I am sure more will follow. Can you move existing FreeRTOS and NUT/OS threads under them to seed the process?