Building firmware

Dependencies:

• MATLAB / Simulink R2021a
• Xilinx Vivado / System Generator 2021.2

First, open Simulink:

cd firmware
./startsg

Then, in the MATLAB prompt, run the build script:

build_top

On the first run, this will build various DSP IP cores. Subsequent runs may skip this step and should complete more quickly.

Installing Raspberry Pi software

A Raspberry Pi 4 OS image, which includes a CASPER katcp server is available here

The username / password (which can be used for SSH as well as local access) is pi/CasperSnapPi

The version of the tcpborphserver installed in this image is available in this repository at software/lib/katcp_devel

Recreating the Raspberry Pi image

1. Build a stock Raspbian image using the Raspberry Pi Imager. Be sure to enable the SSH client when creating the image.
2. Log into the Raspberry Pi with the username / password provided when creating the image, and enable SPI using the raspi-config utility (follow the Interface Options menu.
3. Disable WiFi and Bluetooth by adding the following to /boot/firmware/config.txt prior to the [cm4] entry:

   dtoverlay=disable-wifi
   dtoverlay=disable-bt
   

4. Clone this repository
5. Clone the latest software/lib/katcp_devel submodule with

   git submodule init software/lib/katcp_devel
   git submodule update
   

6. Build tcpborphserver3

   cd software/lib/katcp_devel
   make
   sudo make install
   

7. Configure tcpborphserver3 to start on boot. One way to do this is to save the following file as /etc/init.d/tcpborphserver3, then run sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/tcpborphserver && sudo update-rc.d tcpborphserver3 defaults

   #!/bin/sh
   ### BEGIN INIT INFO
   # Provides:          tcpborphserver
   # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $syslog $network
   # Required-Stop:     $remote_fs $syslog $network
   # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
   # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
   # Short-Description: Start daemon at boot time
   # Description:       Enable service provided by daemon.
   ### END INIT INFO
   
   bofdir="/boffiles"
   user="root"
   cmd="/usr/local/sbin/tcpborphserver3 -l /dev/null -b $bofdir"
   
   name=`basename $0`
   pid_file="/var/run/$name.pid"
   stdout_log="/var/log/$name.log"
   stderr_log="/var/log/$name.err"
   
   get_pid() {
       cat "$pid_file"
   }
   
   is_running() {
       [ -f "$pid_file" ] && ps `get_pid` > /dev/null 2>&1
   }
   
   case "$1" in
       start)
       if is_running; then
           echo "Already started"
       else
           echo "Starting $name"
           sudo -u "$user" $cmd >> "$stdout_log" 2>> "$stderr_log"
           PID=`pgrep tcpborphserver3`
           echo $PID > "$pid_file"
           if ! is_running; then
               echo "Unable to start, see $stdout_log and $stderr_log"
               exit 1
           fi
       fi
       ;;
       stop)
       if is_running; then
           echo -n "Stopping $name.."
           kill `get_pid`
           for i in {1..10}
           do
               if ! is_running; then
                   break
               fi
   
               echo -n "."
               sleep 1
           done
           echo
   
           if is_running; then
               echo "Not stopped; may still be shutting down or shutdown may have failed"
               exit 1
           else
               echo "Stopped"
               if [ -f "$pid_file" ]; then
                   rm "$pid_file"
               fi
           fi
       else
           echo "Not running"
       fi
       ;;
       restart)
       $0 stop
       if is_running; then
           echo "Unable to stop, will not attempt to start"
           exit 1
       fi
       $0 start
       ;;
       status)
       if is_running; then
           echo "Running"
       else
           echo "Stopped"
           exit 1
       fi
       ;;
       *)
       echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|status}"
       exit 1
       ;;
   esac
   
   exit 0
   

Installing control software

Dependencies:

• Python >=3.8

Installing casperfpga

An appropriate version of casperfpga is available as a git submodule within this repository. Install it as follows:

git submodule init software/lib/casperfpga
git submodule update software/lib/casperfpga
cd software/lib/casperfpga
pip install .