A repository for all EPS related firmware.
There are currently two main embedded frameworks/sdks supported, primarily Zephyr however in the past Mbed was used.
Current development uses the Zephyr RTOS.
For developing using Zephyr it is recommended you use either OSX or Linux (Ubuntu in particular) as your OS. If you are using Windows it is recommended you dual boot your system to run both Ubuntu and Windows.
If you choose to develop on linux, here is a guide to dual boot your system to run both windows and ubuntu: Windows/Ubuntu Dual Boot
Follow the guide here to setup Zephyr RTOS, ensure you are following the Ubuntu instructions selected.
Once you reach the section Get Zephyr and install Python dependencies, it is recommended you try and install within a virtual environment.
Note: If you run into issues with installing within a virtual environment, try installing globally.
After either installing within a virtual environment or globally, resume following the Zephyr Getting Started Guide from the Install Zephyr SDK section.
Notes:
- It is recommneded you install the Zephyr base at the root of your user (
~/zephyrproject)
See the Beyond Getting Started Guide for more information on the setup process.
Follow the guide here to setup Zephyr RTOS, ensure you are following the macOS instructions selected.
Once you reach the section Get Zephyr and install Python dependencies, it is recommended you try and install within a virtual environment.
Note: If you run into issues with installing within a virtual environment, try installing globally.
After either installing within a virtual environment or globally, resume following the Zephyr Getting Started Guide from the Install Zephyr SDK section.
Notes:
- It is recommneded you install the Zephyr base at the root of your user (
~/zephyrproject)
See the Beyond Getting Started Guide for more information on the setup process.
While running some of the steps you may encounter some errors, below are some different steps to try instead:
[1] When running the pip install, add the --user flag
pip3 install -r ~/zephyrproject/zephyr/scripts/requirements.txt --user
[2] When trying to build a application you may get the following error:
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'dfu-util'
Try installing dfu-util using homebrew:
brew install dfu-util
[3] When trying to brew install packages you may get an error as follows:
Linking /usr/local/Cellar/libmagic/5.43...
Error: Could not symlink share/misc/magic.mgc
Target /usr/local/share/misc/magic.mgc
Try running the following:
sudo chown -R `whoami`:admin /usr/local/share
brew link --overwrite libmagic
Additional steps if that does not work can be found here: Homebrew: Could not symlink
On linux you can utilize minicom for logging output, to setup:
sudo apt install minicom -y
On OSX:
brew install minicom
To view availible devices:
ls /dev
Often you'll find a device under /dev/ttyUSB0 or possibly /dev/ttyACM0 for example, then you can connect and log the serial output with:
sudo minicom -D /dev/ttyUSB0
Note: If you are using Ubuntu 22.04 you may be unable to see the USB device /dev/ttyUSB0 which is the device of the serial to USB converter.
In order to solve this, run the following command:
sudo apt remove brltty
When cloning the repository, clone using ssh. If you get a permission denied when cloning using SSH or when trying to push to the repository after being added, you may need to setup and add your SSH keys for your local machine, follow the guide below:
(Note: This is not required, only for reference)
Going to use the GNU arm embedded toolchain since it supports ARM based SoCs. Install gcc-arm-none-eabi-10-2020-q4-major from the GNU website.
Extract and copy the files:
tar -xf gcc-arm-none-eabi-10-2020-q4-major-x86_64-linux.tar.bz2
mkdir ~/toolchains
cp -r gcc-arm-none-eabi-10-2020-q4-major ~toolchains
Once you have the toolchain, you can add it to your PATH, by setting the following enviroment variables.
Add to ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc:
export ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT=gnuarmemb
export GNUARMEMB_TOOLCHAIN_PATH=~/toolchains/gcc-arm-none-eabi-10-2020-q4-major/
Create:
python3 -m venv ~/zephyrproject/.venv
Activate:
source ~/zephyrproject/.venv/bin/activate
Install virtualenv:
sudo apt install python3-venv
Create:
python3 -m venv ~/zephyrproject/.venv
Activate:
source ~/zephyrproject/.venv/bin/activate
(Note: This is not required, only for reference)
For the firmware, we are going to use mbed-os to provide drivers and APIs for a varierty of functions. To get started I would recommend installing Mbed Studio - however the online compiler and CLI are also viable options. This is primarily used to build the application for the target board, other ideas can be used.
Install Mbed Studio: https://os.mbed.com/studio/ Mbed-os: https://github.com/ARMmbed/mbed-os
Once installed, I would recommend opening this folder in Mbed Studio, then right-click on mppt-sample-app and click Add Library.
In the URL field enter: [email protected]:ARMmbed/mbed-os.git and click Next
Select latest as the branch to use.
This should import mbed-os into the directory. Alternatively, you can point to an existing mbed-os instance. More information on different setup can be found here: https://os.mbed.com/docs/mbed-studio/current/create-import/index.html
Once you see a .mbed file and mbed-os folder in the directory you know mbed is imported.
In mbed studio select a target board to build and build profile as debug. Plug in your board and know you
should be able to build and flash (Note: When your board is connected there is a green USB icon and output terminal).
To include custom libraries such as the zephyr rtos base, add the path to the includePath in the .vscode/c_cpp_properties.json file link.
{
"configurations": [
{
"name": "Linux",
"includePath": [
"${workspaceFolder}/**", "~/zephyrproject/zephyr/**"
],
"defines": [],
"compilerPath": "/usr/bin/gcc",
"cStandard": "gnu17",
"cppStandard": "gnu++14",
"intelliSenseMode": "linux-gcc-x64"
}
],
"version": 4
}
