Argo Control Software

Table of Contents

• 1. Requirements
• 2. Building Arduino Firmware
  • 2.1. Target Names
• 3. Uploading and Communications
  • 3.1. Getting access to TTY device
  • 3.2. (Alternative) Using screen
  • 3.2. Exiting picocom
• 4. Running Unit Tests

Requirements

The following dependencies are required:

• arduino
• cmake
• git
• picocom

The following are required but installed by the Arduino SDK

• gcc-avr
• binutils-avr
• avr-libc
• avrdude

These can be installed with the following command

sudo apt-get install arduino cmake gcc-avr binutils-avr avr-libc avrdude picocom git

Building Arduino Firmware

1. Clone the repository - for example into argo_src
2. Create a build folder - for example argo_build
3. cd into the build folder
4. Run cmake ../<your src folder name>
5. Run make to build the firmware

For example:

git clone https://github.com/DavidFair/argo_arduino argo_src
mkdir argo_build
cd argo_build
cmake ../argo_src
make -j 4

Arduino Target Names

The following target builds firmware for the Arduino:

• argo_rc

Uploading and Communications

From the build folder targets to upload and open serial communications the following make targets need to be built:

• <target_name>-upload - To upload firmware
• <target_name>-serial - To communicate over serial

For example to upload the argo_rc firmware the following would be used

make argo_rc-upload

To communicate with the Arduino the following opens a serial console

make argo_rc-serial

Getting access to TTY device

On Linux the user will needed to be added to the dialout group to access the TTY device without sudo to upload and use the serial console.

This is strongly recommended to do rather than running make with root permissions and only needs to be completed once.

Add the current user to the dialout group:

sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER

The user may have to log out and in to join the new group.

(Alternative) Using Screen

Alternatively users can use screen to have read-only communications with the Arduino.

To use screen the format is as follows:

screen </dev/ttyPath> <baudRate>

Where /dev/ttyPath and baudRate are replaced with appropriate values. For example:

sudo apt-get install screen

screen /dev/ttyACM0 115200

To exit screen the command is Ctrl+A -> Shift+K

Exiting Picocom

To exit picocom the following keys are used

• CTRL-A
• CTRL-X

Note: CTRL-C will be sent to the device and appear to do nothing

Running Unit Tests

A separate build folder is required to build unit tests. Folders cannot switch between the AVR and X86 compilers without first deleting the CMake cache.

1. Clone the repository - for example into argo_src
2. Create a build folder - for example argo_tests
3. cd into the build folder
4. Run cmake ../<your src folder name> -DUNIT_TESTING=ON
5. Run make to compile the unit tests
6. Run ctest in to run the unit tests OR
7. Run ctest -V the see individual tests completed

For example:

git clone https://github.com/DavidFair/argo_arduino argo_src
mkdir argo_tests
cd argo_tests
cmake ../argo_src -DUNIT_TESTING=ON
make -j4
ctest -V

A single set of tests can be run instead using the -R flag. For example

ctest -R SerialComms_test