Rasware2013

Description

This is a generic robotics library and demo project for the EK-LM4F120XL Stellaris Launchpad, built on top of Stellarisware. It is intended to be used for our 2013 Robotathon as well as general purpose robotics projects within our organization. Authored by the IEEE - Robotics and Automation Society Student Branch at the University of Texas at Austin. For documentation, see Rasware2013's Github wiki.

Robotathon Setup Instructions

Get started with Git

1. Create a free GitHub account on github.com
2. Follow GitHub's great instructions for installing Git on your computer.
3. If you want to learn more about Git, you can read the GitPro book online for free (and legally, too!) at http://git-scm.com/book

Fork Rasware (only one Robotathon team member should do this step)

1. Once logged into GitHub, go to ut-ras's Rasware2013.
2. Fork the project's code through the button on the top right. This will copy the project to your own account.
3. On the team's forked repository Github page, go to Settings->Collaborators and add each team member as a collaborator

The remainder of the instructions will depend on what type of system you're running.

Setup for Windows (WIP)

Install TortiseGIT

1. Go to Google Code
2. Download the correct architecture according to your machine (If you don't know, Right Click in My Computer, click Properties, and check wht System Type is)
3. Run the executable with default values

Install Stellarisware

1. Go to TI and create a new account.
2. Go to TI, and download SW-LM3S-LM4F.exe.
3. When complete, run the installer with the default installation paths.

Install Keil uVision

1. Go to TI and download EK-TM4C123GXL-KEIL.exe.
2. Extact the archive
3. Navigate to Tools/Keil/ and run the installer.

Install drivers for the Launchpad

Note: for windows 8, the drivers are unsigned, so installing them requires you to activate special permissions. Basically follow this process: http://www.tabletroms.com/forums/visual-land-tablets/5894-how-install-unsigned-drivers-windows-8-a.html. (Or else the Device Manager just won't let you install drivers.)

1. Plug in a Stellaris Launchpad to your computer with a usb cord.
2. Windows should fail at installing divers.
3. Go to the Device Manager on your computer. 4.For each listing with a yellow warning, right-click and select Update Driver.
4. Click Browse my Computer and navigate to the unzipped archive folder.
5. Once all of the drivers are installed, not the COM port number that appears in the Device manager. It should read Stellaris Virtual Serial Port (COM__).

Install PuTTY

1. Go to http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html.
2. Under "for Windows on Intel x86" click on putty.exe to save putty to your computer.

Download Code

1. Choose a directory to work in
2. Right click on directory, and select Git Clone
3. Enter your forked repo's url, and press enter

Compile and run RASDemo

1. Open Rasware2013/RASDemo/RASDemo.uvproj with Keil uVision. This is an example project we made to demostrate how to get a lot of useful peripherals working with the Launchpad, like motors and line sensors.
2. With the Launchpad plugged into your computer, in Keil do Project->Build Target and then Flash->Download. This compiles and loads the project onto the Launchpad.
3. Open PuTTY and connect to the board
   1. Click the "serial" radio button
   2. Under "serial line" type "COM#" where # was the COM port number shown in the Device Manager
   3. Under "speed" type "115200"
   4. Under "Saved Settings" type "Rasware2013" and then click "Save".
   5. Now the settings are saved in PuTTY. In the future, just open PuTTY and double click "Rasware2013" under "Saved Settings". [TODO: finish this section once RASDemo is done]

Starting your own project

[TODO: Make a starter project for RASLets to use?]

Committing code back to the repo

1. While in the directory, right click and select Git Commit
2. Write useful commit comments. See link. Your teammates will thank you.
3. You will be promted to do a Git Push. Do so. At this point, you've only made changes to the repo on your machine. The Git Push uploads the changes to GitHub.
4. If you need to log in, check with a mentor to resetup

Setup for Linux (WIP)

Just a quick warning: unlike Linux, Windows is actually supported by TI for the LM4F. The Linux support is entirely supplied by hobbiest who have put together various toolchains for others to use. This means that a Windows setup will be much easier to create. However, Linux has many benefits, especially for coders, so these instructions are here for those who are already experienced with Linux and willing to take the challenge. These instructions are written for use in a terminal (xterm, gterm, kterm, tty1, etc.) and assume that you have already installed, ard are farmiliar with, your favorite text editor. If you have not found a favorite text editor, I would reccoment you take a look at Vim, Emacs, and SublimeText2.

Setup a directory

Create a directory to work in. This is where we will place everything. mkdir ras && cd ras

Install things required to develop with RASLib

These instructions should work for any Linux distrobution, and have been tested on Arch and Debian. If you are using a different package manager than apt-get or pacman, things should still work if you substitute the correct command.

Git, Screen, libusb

• Archlinux : pacman -S git screen libusb
• Ubuntu/Debian : apt-get install git screen libusb libusb-dev

LM4Flash

1. Clone the git repo from lmftool git clone https://github.com/utzig/lm4tools
2. Run make cd lm4tools/lm4flash && make
3. Add the created executable to your PATH. For example, if your default shell is bash you might use the command: echo export PATH=${PWD}:$${PATH} >> ${HOME}/.bashrc && source ${HOME}/.bashrc

Cross Compiler, Debugger

1. Cross Compilers for the LM4F can be found here

2. Download and move to your ras directory. Be shure to get the compiler and debugger that has been compiled for your architecture.

3. Uncompress the file and install it your your /usr/local directory.

   tar vfxj gcc-arm-none-eabi*.bz2 
   sudo mv gcc-arm-none-eabi*/bin/* /usr/local/bin
   sudo mv gcc-arm-none-eabi*/lib/* /usr/local/lib 
   sudo mv gcc-arm-none-eabi*/share/* /usr/local/share 
   sudo mv gcc-arm-none-eabi*/arm-none-eabi /usr/local 
   rm -r gcc-arm-none-eabi*
   

4. You should now be able to run the compiler. It should complain about missing input files, but that means that just means the compiler is working. arm-none-eabi-gcc

Stellarisware

1. Go to TI and create a new account.
2. Go to TI, and download SW-LM3S-LM4F.exe.
3. When complete, extract the "executable" with unzip. for example by running : unzip -d StellarisWare SW-LM3S-LM4F.exe
4. Write down the path to StellarisWare. ```pwd`` will give you an absolute path.
5. Run Make: cd StellarisWare && make

RASLIB, Drivers for the Launchpad

1. Clone this repo. the location should be to your right neer the top of the page ->
2. Copy the RASLib/75-lm4f.rules file (from this repo) to /etc/udev/rules.d (requires sudo)
3. Force a re-read of the udev rules by the udev daemon : udevadm control --reload (again, sudo required)
4. Plug in the Launchpad. you should now see the file /dev/lm4f appear.

Compile and run RASDemo

Like most projects on Linux, Rasware can be compiled with make. We have created an example project to demonstrate how to use several useful peripherals with the Launchpad, like motors and line-sensors. From the RASDemo folder:

1. Modify the makefile variable 'STELLARIS' to point to the location of StellarisWare. For example, the Makefile currently assumes that your StellarisWare is in your home directory (~).
2. Build the code make
3. Flash the code to the board lm4flash bin/RASDemo.axf
4. Open the uart, using screen screen /dev/lm4f 115200
5. When you are done playing with the demo you can exit screen by typing C-a k y that is Ctrl and 'a' at the same time release 'k' release 'y'.
6. If you don't want to do all of the above steps by hand each time, you can make the code, flash the board, and start screen all by running the command make uart.

Committing code back to the repo

1. While in the directory, run git status.
2. Now add at least one of the files marked as modified with git add.
3. Run git commit to commit these changes.
4. Write useful commit comments. See this page for help with commit comments. Your teammates will thank you.
5. You should now run a git push to make your changes avalable through the GitHub.
6. If you need to log in, check with a mentor to resetup