I am setting up a dedicated laptop for robotics. I have win98 installed on 500M partition and 10.04 LTS on a 5G partition.
So far I have SEQ setup on the win98 going to get lynxterm on once 10.04 finishes installing. AVR_GCC of course on the linux partition some sort of serial tty term on it as well… I am looking for suggestion on what I can and should install on either?? This is my second go at this I had it reading and writing to m an atmega128 with my AVRISP MKII yesterday but I wasn’t happy with the partitions etc. It is an old laptop with both usb and a 9 pin com port. Which terminal do you find most useful for robotics and micro controllers on linux?
Are you looking to just use a serial terminal, to program an AVR chip with new firmware, or to make a Linux program that controls the SSC-32 using a serial connection?
If it’s the first option – serial terminal – there are many options. If you already have the Arduino IDE installed, I’ve found that the Serial Monitor tool works well on Ubuntu for most of my needs. Another option is to use a command-line tool, such as one of these.
If it’s the second option – program an AVR chip – we would need more information. Are you programming an Arduino board, a blank ATmega128, or something else?
If it’s the third option – make a serial program – then there are again many options available. Do you have a preferred language? Chances are it already supports serial ports, or has an easy library that gives you support. If this is the case, can you give us more details about the objectives of your program?
Jeffery thanks I meant what ever you find to work best I Had been using gtk-term but maybe thee is something better. I use AVR Dude to flash the m128 (Mavric IIB) which is a “standard” programmer and works with all atmel and nearly every programmer… I did notice Atmel has a linux tool chain on there site! I haven’t tried it yet though … My 10.04 re-install is still updating three hundred something updates LOL … I used Eclipse in the past on windows and noticed they also have a linux IDE… Might give that a go also…
I have a 7"tablet coming with a 1.5 G A9 Cortex so I am also looking into the future to maybe load a suitable linux distro on it and either use it on board or just as a toy to see what it will do LOL … I see it as a RPI or Beagle Bone Black with a display and a battery…
So I just wondered what programs worked well with linux for whatever you do… One thing I do know is bi-peds aren’t meant for heavy loads so probably something with more legs to lug around a 7" tab…
Well… I compiled a driver for a ralink usb WiFi dongle and now gcc doesn’t want anything to do with AVRs LOL …currently reinstalling 10.04 ubuntu hoping for better luck with fresh install and sticking with Zydas dongle which 10.04 recognises…Playing around with live usb and cd iso’s of android to get familiar before the tab arrives…I never got to check much out sisnce the GCC-AVR issue except Jeffery’s links which I enjoyed…I have an LPT port on my newer laptop I may try running an adapter to 9 pin db
If it were me, I would update to a more recent version of unbutu, either the long term release 12.04 or one of the more recent ones like 13.04 or 13.10. Note: on the machines that I do a little linux on, I currently am using Linux Mint (based on Ubuntu). Most of them still have Mint 15(based on 13.04), and I am moving over to try out Mint 16 (13.10). Hopefully these come with drivers for most wireless adapters. Not sure yet how well ROS is supported on 13.10, but hopefully get back to it soon
Thanks Kurte I have 12.04 on desktop… Laptop is 500 Mhz pentium 512 MEG of ram I just watched a Spatry cup of Linux youtube review on 16 he liked it !!! I have tried 9 and 12 They are OK XFCE desktops didn’t thrill me… not a KDE fan either… Untiy is the way things are going so I am trying to get use to it by putting it on my desktop machine…Tablet got here and it is very nice looking feels good too charging now so I don’t know much more yet…
I got everything back to working on the laptop. I can compile and flash and gtkterm is doing a good job of serial port monitoring as well… It has Win98 on to other partition for SEQ and Lynxterm working well. I tested the reinstallation on an ir range finder avr-gcc good avrdude flashed it good and gtkterm read the serial output good… next task will be trying to get the PING))) to do something… I can’t seem to find a good base program to start off with… maybe over on playground they will have something…
I generally use the Arduino IDE’s Serial Monitor for quick/simple stuff, but will use the cu command when I’m using a computer that doesn’t (yet) have Arduino installed or want to more advanced tasks, something such as:
cu -l /dev/ttyUSB0 -s 115200
To exit cu, you need to do ~. (that’s tilde + dot), but I often forget and just kill the process…
Glad to see you got your AVR working again!
If you’re looking for a hexapod to carry a 7" tablet, I would recommend the MH-2 hexapod or the AH-2 hexapod: since they’ve got only two degrees of freedom per leg, they’re lighter overall and less servos are impacted (consume additional power) by the additional weight…
I don’t have any experience with LPT to serial converters, just USB to serial converters or other FTDI devices that usually work out-of-the-box with Ubuntu/Linux…
If you are looking to get your Ping working, here’s an Arduino tutorial that should work with any Arduino-compatible board.
Thanks!! I am glad it is all working now also I wish I knew if a kernel update broke it or if the config.mk in the Ralink code did it… only one hour until my tablet is charged and ready for it’s first power up ====>>>>> Not much luck with setting up my Debian 7 newer laptop for using with the tablet beyond digging out a media reader from my junk box… ( PCCARD) … I noticed that Arduino has a RPI BBB type board for sale that has pin compatible headers for the shields…
Thanks for more links to help me in my quest to get the PING))) project going… My weakest area by far is programming…
I put arduino on my desktop ubuntu 12.04 and loaded up the ping sketch… it compiled but since I don’t have an arduino it didn’t do much for my ping))) LOL I wonder if I can use whatever it compiled and use avrdude to flash it with…Probablt not huh? probably a bootloader in their chips…
I see the tablet worked
-Allen
Not sure, But it looks like you have an AVRISP, so you should be able to flash it on, regardless of bootloader. Been a long long time since I used my old Maveric board! If you did an install of Arduino on Ubuntu, it actually works differently then downloading the IDE from the Arduino site. In particular it install the standard GCC toolkit and uses it. There were some issues I remember someone having with libraries not found when using the installed version versus using one downloaded from Arduino site. You might find more information about doing programming the board up on their website: bdmicro.com/
Not sure if it would help you much but I have included a zip file of the stuff I was playing with, when I last played with the BDMicro board…
Thanks Kurte! I am curious to see what is in the zip… I have the examples from him on all my computers… the example for ultra sonic range is for i2c which did turn on the led and it di compile fine. the i1c scan worked also but of course didn’t find anything. I am trying to read up on makefiles for arv-gcc now… hopefully between the ir and ultra sonic examples I can get something cobbled together… I feel pretty good about getting the uart stuff going but this ping))) needs one pin to switch between input and output and wait for the response before doing so ( I think ) … Once or if I get something that makes it past the make file and reading in the includes I’ll post it up and beg for help … It is an avrisp mk II good eye!!! back to my makefile studies and experiments…
-Allen
I read a few things about conversion and it sounded like way to much trouble… I think just staying with gcc is best…
If it were me, I would update to a more recent version of unbutu, either the long term release 12.04 or one of the more recent ones like 13.04 or 13.10. Note: on the machines that I do a little linux on, I currently am using Linux Mint (based on Ubuntu).
I haven’t tried it yet though … My 10.04 re-install is still updating three hundred something updates LOL … I used Eclipse in the past on windows and noticed they also have a linux IDE… Might give that a go also…
maybe over on playground they will have something…