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  • Author Author: dwinhold
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Enchanted Objects - Enchanted Clock #2

dwinhold

Today was the arrival of the Arduino Yun, thank you very much to all our sponsors.

 

So Chrystal and I have been busy cutting out a clock and programming the Arduino and LED cape. In order for the clock to keep time we are going to have a sensor detect the minute hand gear for correct 1 hour per revolution. If the hands are out more then 2 minutes it will be corrected by the arduino connected to the servo. We also connected 3 ultrasound sensors to check for movement in the room. If the distance to the couch without anyone on it (say 12 ft) is sensing a distance of 10 ft 8 in, the arduino will consider that it is occupied. if that distance doesn't change more then 1" in 10 minutes it will figure the occupant is sleeping and turn down the lights. We also are using one to check the height of the person standing in front of the clock and call them by name. Chrystal thought this would be an enchantin idea to add. There is a lot more to update with photos which will come tomorrow.

 

A quick question to everyone, is the SAMA5D4 xplained not very well explained? I can't find anything that isn't a demo. I have been going crazy to come up with a useable OS for it, I am even trying to create my own, but time is the problem. Is there any non-demo OS available? Hacking the files got nowhere, I do require direction with this. I am not new to development boards, but this is got me baffelled. I have created a Beowulf cluster from RPi's, changed the RPi to run the gpio's from Scratch language for my kids. Any advice on non-demo software?

 

Thank you all,

Chrystal and Dale Winhold

  • in reply to noglitch

    Yeah, I know image

     

    More seriously, it would be great to have reproducible steps to work with the board. I think you've seen the Enchanted Objects: Let's work together to tame the ATMEL SMART SAMA5D4 Xplained Ultra kit thread before. We're documenting the success stories there.

    We have that for loading images, for loading demos with pre-defined touch screens, and I've seen one example of someone who installed Java and ran a program of his own on the board.


    I didn't manage to find the right documents yet that resulted into a successful build and load of C.

  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    Jan Cumps wrote:

     

    Please post once you have success.

    Funny.

  • in reply to noglitch

    Please post once you have success. We've all succeededin logging on to linux on the board, loading an image, and setting up cross-compilation toolchains.

    but I've yet to see the first example of someone who created a C program, compiled it, loaded to the board and executed it. Not on bare metal, not on linux.

    I've searched in the logs of everyone that participated in the original roadtest, and in the logs of the participants of the enchanted_objects

  • I don't understand the comments here: SAMA5D4 Xplained is an embedded Linux board, you can load whatever embedded Linux you want on it!

    Buildroot is supported, Yocto project is supported you can easily find and load Debian images, Android is available and OpenWRT should be piece of cake to use as well... What do you need? a R-Pi? then use a R-Pi then... sama5d4 xplained is different: you are building the community around it, not arriving with a whole world using it yet so please, do not expect the same level of documentation you won't have it.

    I recall it's an embedded Linux platform, not a mini-desktop: here again don't expect the same user experience!

     

    I'd recommended you to start with http://linux4sam.org or https://github.com/linux4sam (with a fresh linux-3.18-at91 kernel). The forum on http://www.at91.com is handy as well.

    For the most adventurous, you can even test the latest linux-next kernel: the device tree file has just been included there.

     

    Yes, a Yocto project distribution takes hours to compile, but it worth it. If you want to start quickly, go the buildroot path: it's damn so easy to use and you have your own rootfs in an hour, you can add your own application easily and your cross-compilation environment is available...

     

    If you don't want to re-compile anything, well use the Linux4SAM demos and once your whole filesystem is re-flashed, you can use the cross-compilation SDK that are released here: SoftwareTools < Linux4SAM < TWiki

     

    Good hacking sessions.

  • in reply to dwinhold

    Yes, I am considering the same options. Even the Yun should work but is planed for a surpise (if I have time left).

    I have an additional issue of not beeing able to use the debug USB port for serial console. Fortunately I have UART to USB converter which works fine.