As mentioned in my previous blog the kit arrived this week. I couldn't resist to start playing.

In this post I briefly mention my experience. Intel has a sound startup guide: https://software.intel.com/en-us/iot/hardware/edison. Also mcb1 wrote a very thorough introductory guide for the Edison (First Steps - Intel Edison ).

It is not my intention to repeat what others already wrote, instead I focus on the aspects which differ in my case. I don't know for all challengers, but up till now it looks like I'm the only one using macOS as host system. In my case it is macOS Sierra version 10.12. Luckily the mac is well covered by Intel, although the latest version, which I am using is not mentioned ( https://software.intel.com/en-us/get-started-edison-osx).

I'm planning to use the Intel Edison Breakout Board Kit in my nixie display, but I decided to start with the Intel Edison Kit for Arduino since it looks like very convenient to experiment with and also gives the possibility to explore the Grove starter kit.

Setting up the Edison

First I installed the compute board and spacers. After connecting the power the green power led lit up.

Then I connected the usb cables and downloaded and started the setup tool.

To my surprise I got an error, stating that my macOS version wasn't supported. I ignored the message and could install everything almost without any problem. As jasonwier92 already mentioned (The Kit and Exploring Edison OS's [Upcycle It #2]) you can monitor what's happening by connecting a terminal to the bottom micro usb port. On macOS the terminal command is the same as on Linux:

     screen /dev/tty.usbserial-A903OQHG 115200

First I Flashed the Firmware:

After pressing the button the firmware was downloaded an flashed into the system:

It took some time to download 285Mb.

On the console monitor you can follow the progress:

Finally I got the message that the firmware was properly installed.

Unfortunately for some reason the sign is still yellow, indicating that there might be an even newer version.

I still have to investigate this.

After setting a pasword the next sign went green.

And the same for the WiFi connection.

Arduino

For the SDK I decided to start with Arduino.  The Arduino SDK was already on my PC, I'v lot of Arduino compatible boards around. I didn't install a new instance and rename it to ArduinoEdison as proposed by Intel, but just added the Edison using Arduino's board manager.

The ultimate Arduino 'Hello World' program is of course the blinking LED.

I opened it from the menu, compiled and loaded it to the Edison, where the LED immediately started blinking.

So first test passed

There is one thing that needs further investigation.

In contrast with a real Arduino the sketch doesn't startup automatically when I power the Edison.

It appeared to start when I run the Setup app, but for normal use I found this solution.

https://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2015/08/01/procedure-to-autostart-the-arduino-sketch-on-edison, where startup script is added to different startup levels in the /etc/rc*.d folders.

As mentioned in this link there are other ways as well, so I'm curious which procedure you are using. Please leave a comment to this post.

Anyway I just followed the instructions above, rebooted the edison and voila, the LED just started blinking after the reboot.

Unfortunately after about 5 minutes it stopped blinking, so this looks like not the proper solution.

konstantinoskonstas also mentions a link (Interesting Site for Edison Challengers ), first solution  there is the same as mentioned above.

Maybe martinkronberg or huzefa_nk can give some ideas and reflection.

So next I tried the service method, also mentioned here (https://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-111103).

First I removed the init.d startup script from the run level system:

     update-rc.d -f automateSketch.sh remove
     rm -r /etc/init.d/

Then I wrote a service file to start sketch and copied it to /lib/systemd/system, enabled it and rebooted the Edison:

root@edison_arduino:~# cat startsketch.service 
#!/bin/sh  
[Unit]  
Description=Edison Arduino board start sketch
[Service]  
ExecStart=/sketch/sketch.elf /dev/ttyGS0 /dev/ttyGS0
[Install]  
WantedBy=basic.target
root@edison_arduino:~# cp startsketch.service /lib/systemd/system
root@edison_arduino:~# 
root@edison_arduino:~# systemctl daemon-reload
root@edison_arduino:~# systemctl enable startsketch.service 
ln -s '/lib/systemd/system/startsketch.service' '/etc/systemd/system/basic.target.wants/startsketch.service'
root@edison_arduino:~# 
root@edison_arduino:~# 
root@edison_arduino:~# reboot

Again the LED just started blinking after the reboot indicating that sketch was started on startup.

Hopefully it will last longer than with the init.d method.