The I/O side ARM MCU firmware for Granite Devices ARGON servo motor drive.
Granite Devices or any of it's personnel doesn't take any responsibility of damages or losses caused by customized or user compiled firmware files! It is well possible to compile a firmware a way that breaks the hardware or causes danger or damage to users or their property. If unsure about what you're doing, leave it to others.
NOTE This guide is partially work in progress. More information and actual FW modification examples shall follow later.
a) Sourcery CodeBench Lite Edition for ARM EABI.
This is the GCC compiler for ARM that actually compiles the source code
- Go to http://www.mentor.com/embedded-software/sourcery-tools/sourcery-codebench/editions/lite-edition/
- Follow the link "Download the EABI Release"
- Register to Mentor site to get download access
- Download and install the CodeSourcery Lite
b) GNU Make
Source code of firmware and makefirmware utily is easily compiled by make command. For that, the GNU make must be installed in system. http://www.gnu.org/software/make/
c) Makefirmware utily
This tool converts the generated binary file into .gdf file that may be loaded to Argon drive with Granity software.
The soucre code of this program is included in this repository at utils/makefirmware. Compile it with GCC by running command make on the same folder (GCC that compiles C code into target system must be installed to the system).
-
Open command prompt and go to project directory where Makefile lies.
-
Run make by entering command:
make(Compiler outputs lots of stuff) -
When comipation is succeed, something like following text should become as last output lines:
text data bss dec hex filename 38480 1340 2380 42200 a4d8 argon_bootload_rom.elf text+data = FLASH usage, text = code, data = init vars, bss = RAM usage (incl stack), dec & hex = total
If so, then just generated argon_bootload_rom.bin is the binary file going to Argon STM32 MCU. Before it can be loaded into drive, it needs to be converted as .gdf file so Granity can use it.
Convert .bin to .gdf with command: makefirmware argon.gdf agron_bootload_rom.bin. Makefirmware is available under utils/makefirmware folder.
A sucecssfull run of makefirmware will output something like:
Create file 'argon.gdf'
Input size=39824 bytes, output=39824 bytes
Before uploading the newly compiled FW, make sure that you already have the latest available official Argon FW release installed in the drive because the custom I/O side firmware will not affect or upgrade GraniteCore version in the drive. Once latest official FW is present in the drive, continue uploading your newly built argon.gdf by following the FW upgrade instructions.
Be informed that Granite Devices doesn't take any responsibility of damages or losses caused by customzed or user compiled firmware files! It is possible to compile firmware a way that breaks the hardware or causes danger or damage to users or their property.
Avoid the usage of following C/C++ functionality due to embedded system restrictions (memory footprint, performance reasons etc):
- new and delete operators - make only static instances of classes
- virtual methods
- free() function (however malloc() is ok for static buffer allocation)
- math functions (sin, cos, sqrt) due to slow execution, however basic single precision floating point arithmetics is pretty fast (+,-,/,*)
The source is released "as is" without a promise to provide support on any topic related to it. To inquire development support service or customization jobs, send a message through http://granitedevices.com/support. Granite Devices offers I/O side, as well GraniteCore, firmware customization work on hourly rated fee.