teachop's Content

#13034 Netduino Plus 1 Firmware v4.1.1 BETA 1

Posted by teachop on 09 May 2011 - 10:44 PM in Beta Firmware and Drivers

If you reflash your device with the v4.1.0.6 production firmware do you see the same spotiness with USB connectivity?

V4.1.0.6 does work better, as does V4.1.1.0Beta1. VS terminated once on the first deploy with V4.1.0.6 and never saw that with V4.1.1.0Beta1, might have been coincidence. Jacking the USB is sometimes required to get deploy started, but with some fooling around it works.

The problems with VS locking tight seem specific to the 42KB_RAM version. Those crashes require sending the ol' CTL-ALT-DEL and killing VS. Didn't see that with the other versions. Does this make any sense?

For now I will use V4.1.1.0Beta1 for some .NET learning...

#12976 Netduino Plus 1 Firmware v4.1.1 BETA 1

Posted by teachop on 08 May 2011 - 10:42 PM in Beta Firmware and Drivers

Hi Chris. Virtual Machine feedback was requested: I am finding about the same reliability as with prior versions. I actually used the 42K RAM version, if that matters. The setup here is Virtualbox 4.04 with the USB extensions, running on Ubuntu 11.04, with the Windows OS being XP SP3 fully patched up. The USB operations are spotty, it would seem. Sometimes things just lock up, sometimes the Netduino gets programmed and then VS locks up. Sometimes things work. Is the USB operation rock solid on a "real" windows (non-virtualized)? I was hoping for a better go this time, because with this version of VirtualBox, USB has been operating fine with odd devices such as programmers. If you have any particular tests you would like to run let me know! For now I will put FreeRTOS back on this little guy... hope we can get things worked out though, it would be fun to join the rest of the users on .NET C# and learn some of that too now...

#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...

#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.

#9051 FreeRTOS

Posted by teachop on 06 February 2011 - 12:03 AM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

ok, lwip 1.2.0 is working, just dump it to your sample folder, copy contrib and ethernetif.c from 1.1.0 folder,
make proper makefile change, it will work, no need to make any change.

Good deal. I want to try lwip next to compare with uIP, which is working well.

#9052 FreeRTOS

Posted by teachop on 06 February 2011 - 12:15 AM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

Linux host update: SAM-BA for linux is working again with new kernels. There is a new driver called sam-ba.ko - it is in 2.6.38 kernels - I grabbed the alpha of Ubuntu Natty (which is SUPER FULL OF POTHOLES being an alpha). And guess what. Atmel SAM-BA works properly. I don't know what cross-kit they used for the GUI but it looks pretty funny in Ubuntu Gnome. Who cares, it works great. So that means good things ahead. A full toolchain in linux, except there is no debugging. What I used was eclipse + CodeSourcery lite + FreeRTOS + SAM-BA + Netduino Plus. On this thread, above I see other compilers work too. One thing I had to do to get the sam-ba driver to always load was to blacklist cdc-acm, because sometimes it would jump in there and interfere. You don't do any of the usbserial driver dance that is in the readme file any longer.

#9450 FreeRTOS

Posted by teachop on 13 February 2011 - 09:56 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

Let me know if you need more info.

Thanks for the offer, will try again next weekend. I am using CodeSourcery on Linux for the toolchain, so will write something to fill those gaps and add it to syscalls.

My Netduino Plus is on "temporary deployment" (FreeRTOS+uIP, which is solid) trying to impress my wife turning stuff off and on from the phone. She wasn't.

The best was when I built our alarm clock from an AVR. Her response - "Is that what you have been doing?" Sigh...

#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?

#9373 FreeRTOS

Posted by teachop on 12 February 2011 - 08:56 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

ok, lwip-1.3.0 is working.

Rats, I didn't pull this off after an afternoon of head banging. I have undefined references to _exit _kill and _getpid so must be library issues, or need to add stuff to syscalls.c to fill the gaps. Also something about ethernetif_init that I have not gotten to.

#8699 FreeRTOS

Posted by teachop on 30 January 2011 - 06:25 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

FreeRTOS builds fine for the Netduino Plus under Ubuntu Linux as well. The same toolchain, gcc CodeSourcery lite, with eclipse as the IDE (no jtag). Of course SAM-ba is a pain - it works best for me to run it in VirtualBox+XP. Under linux there are a couple case-sensitive edits, only two, to get the first time build to go. If interested, find attached the list of what tweaks got this setup to work on both Vista and Ubuntu.

Attached Files

FreeRTOSNetduinoPlusBuildNotes.txt 2.95KB 82 downloads

#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?

#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.

#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?

#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.

#12536 zigbee, zwave, X10 which one for what ?

Posted by teachop on 27 April 2011 - 04:18 PM in General Discussion

What component are you using to control XBEE ?

Can you tell why you do not use .NET stuff ? can you recommend resources on FreeRTOS ? (To learn how to program and install it)

I'm new in electronic, forgive me if my question seems obvious. Why do you use an Ardiuno FIO instead of a Netduino Mini ?
Given the technical specs they have same power consumption to me.

It can be configured to wake up and report an input, so for the simple case, XBee is all by itself with a battery pack that is just 2 AA cells (it sleeps almost all the time)! For the Arduino Fio case, the mega328p gives 100% control, and is designed to run right off a LiPo battery pack.

The Arduino Fio is very much lower power consumption than the Netduino. Plus a mega328p will sleep very well. The CPU on the Netduino is not designed for low power sleeping, and the board is not designed to be particularly low power either. The Fio is. Each has a place.

I don't use the .NET stuff after I found out what the interrupt routines were actually doing (s-l-o-w) and that the development tools were a bit flakey in VirtualBox (I use Linux). For me it was easier to experiment without a .net and that has been fun. Just c language, and direct control of everything. I *DONT* recommend this for just starting out, there is no roadmap or tutorial. The .NET will be much more friendly. Once again, each has a place.

For me it has been a lot of fun to get FreeRTOS running on the board, eventually I ended up building my own support utilities, building the compiler from source, making my own hacked programmer from a Python project called "SAM-I-AM" to replace the Atmel SAM-BA, etc. This is all fun to me but obviously not the way to go if you actually have a goal other than avoiding cutting the grass!

#12515 zigbee, zwave, X10 which one for what ?

Posted by teachop on 26 April 2011 - 11:52 PM in General Discussion

A little input on the radio side... In my case, I wanted remotes that were not on the AC power, but rather on batteries outside, a little ways from the house. So the powerline communication products are of no interest in that situation. It is pretty easy to get the Digi XBee zigbee models working on a serial port. I used RXD0/TXD0 ('duino D2 and D3) at 9600 baud. I hooked up the handshakes too but don't use them much. For the "master" coordinator, I used the Netduino Plus. For the remotes, I used XBee stand-alone (which is cool) and also the Arduino Fio, depending on the application. The Netduino is great for the coordinator because of the Ethernet - I can get at it all via a browser. Netduino isn't the right fit for the remotes due to power consumption. Each has its place. All in all, this setup works pretty nice and was fun to get going. I used the 3.3V from the Netduino header to run the coordinator XBee, and the fact that the Netduino is 3V I/O works out great. It is built on a shield protoboard - watch the module pin spacing however, it isn't 0.1" for unknown reasons, Sparkfun has a transition breakout board for fixing this. I don't use the .NET stuff on Netduino Plus! I put FreeRTOS on and just program in C mostly (out in left field as always). I hacked an open source program in Qt called cuteComm to make a custom programmer because I use Linux for my dev host. Digi has a configuration/programmer that runs on Windows.

#12681 Power Management

Posted by teachop on 30 April 2011 - 11:30 AM in General Discussion

I am searching a code sample of controlling the Netduino power. My project needs to run on battery and the typical ~40mA consumption of the board is not realistic to feed out of battery.

I saw some hack like code (that still did not compile) for the Arduino but I understand the Netduino is slightly different in this respect anyway.

I went through this as well. You can read about the CPU options in the at91sam7x data sheet Power Management Controller section, but the Netduino Plus board design isn't really targeting lowest power. What I found is the Netduino Plus works very well for parts of the system that are mains powered, and the portions of the system that are battery powered work better with Arduino Fio. I keep all the main application logic of the system on the Netduino, and the satellite systems for data collection / output operation only have "spinal reflex" logic. They are linked with XBee modules. What is your application?

#12711 Power Management

Posted by teachop on 30 April 2011 - 09:33 PM in General Discussion

I basically need to wake every 5-10 seconds (7 sounds good), collect some data and if nothing new, go back to sleep. I figured since this is the mode of operation, power can be saved dramatically. I expect the collection of data to take no more than 10ms so think of 10mSec* 50mA + 7Sec*1mA (it should be even less). So no reason for keeping the ARM at full active mode all this time.

Yes, that is a good plan. That is what I do too. IRQs wake things up as needed, or timed sleeps. Everything is programmed in C, even the Netduino Plus, which I put FreeRTOS on instead of the .net stock firmware. It is running a simple webserver, some USB, and a serial interface to the Zigbee.

wouldn't that be missing the purpose?

Depends on the purpose I guess. I thought getting native on the Netduino Plus with C and FreeRTOS, building the tools and even a custom programmer was fun, and that was my purpose. Netduino Plus is a great deal for me. Of course, 99.9% of people buy Netduino because of Visual Studio, so I understand your point!

#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.

#10001 Netduino Plus / AT91SAM7X-EK compatibility

Posted by teachop on 22 February 2011 - 05:26 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

I tried to compile and load the IAR "basic-emac-uip-helloworld-project" example and... it works!

The FreeRTOS uIP example for the at91sam7x-ek also works with only a few tweaks (am using the GNU compiler). Was able to bring in parts of other examples and get what I needed for USB, ethernet, web server, and I/O. Have not worked on SD card yet because my current project doesn't need it.

#9908 Enclosure Report and Pics

Posted by teachop on 20 February 2011 - 07:35 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

That looks nice. What are your plans for exit of the relay wiring? Maybe the battery door will come in handy as an access door for that, if they go to internal terminal blocks and exit thru a grommet.

#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.