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  • Author Author: Jan Cumps
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ImageCraft JumpStart Microbox Education Kit - Part 2: Stepping Through an Example - what do I learn?

Jan Cumps

The ImageCraft JumpStart Microbox Education Kit is a set of hardware and software tools to teach C and Cortex-M embedded programming.

In essence, it's an Arduino compatible shield, an STMicro Nucleo dev board, a C book, an IDE, a compiler and libraries.

 

In this blog series I'm trying to find out if it's more then just an existing 3rd party dev board paired with a shield. And if (and how) this kit can turn you into an embedded programmer.

 

In part 1, I checked the out-of-box experience.

This time I'm going to review one of the example projects, and check if I learn something about embedded development.

I'll use the real time clock example, because the source for the RTC driver is available, and it uses I2C.

 

I'm going to use 2 methods to check the learning path: Can I step through the example in the debugger to see what's happening, and I'll use the Hardware Guide to step through a tutorial.

 

The Hardware Guide

 

The tutorial for the MicroBox Education Kit projects is called the Hardware Overview.

 

It's a rich document with info on basics of the ARM microcontroller like clocks, memory and GIO. It also has a section for all the hardware available on the educational shield.

I would like to see a better index though. I had a hard time navigating to the chapter for the real time clock, and had to use the scroll wheel to go to the correct chapter.

 

image

 

If you do not know up front where the chapter is in the pdf, you'll have to scroll page by page through a 100 page document untill you are at the desired location. There's no overview at the beginning of the document either that explains what's in the manual or on what page/section to find it.

So I spent time browsing through the full PDF first to find out what's covered and where it is. Search works - but then you have to know up front what you're looking for, and it takes a fair bit of pushing next before you reach the RTC chapter.

 

The hardware guide asks you to review info in a document called <Examples and Tutorials>. I couldn't find that document so I put this on hold and tried method 2: stepping through an example

 

 

Stepping through an Example Project

 

The second way to learn something is by taking an existing example, and step through it. I'll do this with the RTC example.

I ran into an issue with the newest IDE install that I received earlier this week. When I set a breakpoint, things go wrong.

 

 

image

 

I get messages like Line Number not found, and removing breakpoints doesn't work. They reappear randomly while debugging or after restarting the IDE.

Line number not found: break-insert C:\iccv8cortex\examples.JumpStartMicroBox\STM32F030\RTC\main.c:14

Cannot open file: C:\Work\V8\examples.JumpStartMicroBox\STM32F030\RTC\main.c

I don't have a c:\work folder on my pc. Needs to be looked at

 

Debugging works after that, but there's not much to learn. The example uses an abstraction layer, and you can't step into that code.

You see that the program calls a function clock.SystemInit() , but there's nothing more that you can learn than that the proprietary library has a function with that declaration.

You don't see what's happening with the controller. You don't learn something generic about embedded.

 

image

 

It's a difficult call for me. All works out of the box, IDE and compiler are fast. The examples work.

But I haven't found a compelling educational path yet. And the experience with the latest IDE/tool chain download is rough.

I'm in two minds on this kit at the moment. I'll put it to rest for a day and review it with a clear and fresh mind soon...

 

Related posts
ImageCraft JumpStart Microbox Education Kit - Part 1: Preview
ImageCraft JumpStart Microbox Education Kit - Part 2: Stepping Through an Example - what do I learn?
ImageCraft JumpStart Microbox Education Kit - Part 3a: The Education Shield - LED matrix and I/O expander
  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    Sounds good. Different reviewers have different backgrounds and different interest, as do we of course. Thank you for your time in doing this.

  • in reply to richardman

    Richard,

     

    This is what I'm reviewing:

    "what does this MicroBox thing offer that cannot be duplicated with X, Y, and Z, - for less!"?

    in the perspective of the kit's position from the website.


    I'm not planning to compare it too much to other offerings. I'd like to review how this kit performs as an educational starter kit by itself.

    I may refer to other kits or tutorials when I think that either the JumpStart Kit or the other solution does it better.

    But I don't intend to do a comparative review, just a review of the kit itself - by its own merits.



  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    It just occurs to me where there may be a disconnect between Shabaz and yourself and our positioning. You folks are probably look at from the point of view of "what does this MicroBox thing offer that cannot be duplicated with X, Y, and Z, - for less!"? Whereas our positioning is that we offer a great alternative compiler to the existing solutions and by the way, to get started, you can purchase this low cost kit that has everything you need. Perhaps this observation may help to clarify the points.

  • in reply to Jan Cumps

    Our primary business is the compilers, between "GCC - even if it's not free!" and "IAR/Keil even at $7000+ is quite OK", there is a market niche there. The JumpStart API, and the MicroBox kit, are here to give further values to the compilers. Our goals have already been stated: capture the professional engineers in the niche we said, and to provide values for educational institutions.

     

    As for teaching embedded programming, the MicroBox provides all the tools and information, in a single package. With the ST-Nucleo and the ACE Shield, all sorts of programs can be written for learning embedded programming. For example, we have an example project that walks the 8x8 LED one by one. A class exercise can be written to say, "now make a starburst pattern with the LED matrix". If a hobbyist/student were to do that, they will learn about bit-masking, and loops. You mentioned about the I2C API source code is not provided, fine - a student can write bit-bang I2C routines. They can use the JumpStart GPIO API to make life a bit easier, or they can do it all with the StdPeriphLib. The point is that they know for sure that the hardware does work which makes their job easier. The OLED, the RTC, the Crypto-chip etc. are all there for experimentation purpose. If you want to do the most basic type of embedded programming, then yes, indeed the Arduino may be the best, as demonstrated by legions of artists that make blinky wearables and the like. However, our kit allows you to go further. Even the C ebook, we learn a lot about what trips people up by us doing our own customer supports for 20+ years, and the book is written to emphasize some of the "gotchas".

  • in reply to shabaz

    shabaz wrote:

     

    ...

     

    But I take your point, this is only examining the jumpstart API specifically which may not be the core part of the offering.

    That is one of the hardest things for me to get:"What is the core part of this offering?

    What in this kit is the thing that'll teach you embedded programming?

     

    If I would know the answer to that, it would make my review easier and more focused.