px4-firmware/nuttx/configs/vsn/README.txt

README
^^^^^^

This README discusses issues unique to NuttX configurations for the
ISOTEL NetClamps VSN V1.2 ready2go sensor network platform.
More information can be found at http://www.netclamps.com

Contents
^^^^^^^^

  - Development Environment
  - GNU Toolchain Options
  - IDEs
  - NuttX EABI "buildroot" Toolchain
  - NuttX OABI "buildroot" Toolchain
  - NXFLAT Toolchain
  - DFU
  - LEDs
  - VSN-specific Configuration Options
  - Configurations

Development Environment
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

  Either Linux or Cygwin on Windows can be used for the development environment.
  The source has been built only using the GNU toolchain (see below).  Other
  toolchains will likely cause problems. Testing was performed using the Cygwin
  environment because the Raisonance R-Link emulatator and some RIDE7 development tools
  were used and those tools works only under Windows.

GNU Toolchain Options
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

  The NuttX make system has been modified to support the following different
  toolchain options.

  1. The CodeSourcery GNU toolchain,
  2. The devkitARM GNU toolchain,
  3. Raisonance GNU toolchain, or
  4. The NuttX buildroot Toolchain (see below).

  All testing has been conducted using the NuttX buildroot toolchain.  However,
  the make system is setup to default to use the devkitARM toolchain.  To use
  the CodeSourcery, devkitARM or Raisonance GNU toolchain, you simply need to
  add one of the following configuration options to your .config (or defconfig)
  file:

    CONFIG_STM32_CODESOURCERYW=y  : CodeSourcery under Windows
    CONFIG_STM32_CODESOURCERYL=y  : CodeSourcery under Linux
    CONFIG_STM32_DEVKITARM=y      : devkitARM under Windows
    CONFIG_STM32_RAISONANCE=y     : Raisonance RIDE7 under Windows
    CONFIG_STM32_BUILDROOT=y      : NuttX buildroot under Linux or Cygwin (default)

  If you are not using CONFIG_STM32_BUILDROOT, then you may also have to modify
  the PATH in the setenv.h file if your make cannot find the tools.

  NOTE: the CodeSourcery (for Windows), devkitARM, and Raisonance toolchains are
  Windows native toolchains.  The CodeSourcey (for Linux) and NuttX buildroot
  toolchains are Cygwin and/or Linux native toolchains. There are several limitations
  to using a Windows based toolchain in a Cygwin environment.  The three biggest are:

  1. The Windows toolchain cannot follow Cygwin paths.  Path conversions are
     performed automatically in the Cygwin makefiles using the 'cygpath' utility
     but you might easily find some new path problems.  If so, check out 'cygpath -w'

  2. Windows toolchains cannot follow Cygwin symbolic links.  Many symbolic links
     are used in Nuttx (e.g., include/arch).  The make system works around these
     problems for the Windows tools by copying directories instead of linking them.
     But this can also cause some confusion for you:  For example, you may edit
     a file in a "linked" directory and find that your changes had no effect.
     That is because you are building the copy of the file in the "fake" symbolic
     directory.  If you use a Windows toolchain, you should get in the habit of
     making like this:

       make clean_context all

     An alias in your .bashrc file might make that less painful.

  3. Dependencies are not made when using Windows versions of the GCC.  This is
     because the dependencies are generated using Windows pathes which do not
     work with the Cygwin make.

       MKDEP                = $(TOPDIR)/tools/mknulldeps.sh

  NOTE 1: The CodeSourcery toolchain (2009q1) does not work with default optimization
  level of -Os (See Make.defs).  It will work with -O0, -O1, or -O2, but not with
  -Os.

  NOTE 2: The devkitARM toolchain includes a version of MSYS make.  Make sure that
  the paths to Cygwin's /bin and /usr/bin directories appear BEFORE the devkitARM
  path or will get the wrong version of make.

IDEs
^^^^

  NuttX is built using command-line make.  It can be used with an IDE, but some
  effort will be required to create the project (There is a simple RIDE project
  in the RIDE subdirectory).
  
  Makefile Build
  --------------
  Under Eclipse, it is pretty easy to set up an "empty makefile project" and
  simply use the NuttX makefile to build the system.  That is almost for free
  under Linux.  Under Windows, you will need to set up the "Cygwin GCC" empty
  makefile project in order to work with Windows (Google for "Eclipse Cygwin" -
  there is a lot of help on the internet).

  Native Build
  ------------
  Here are a few tips before you start that effort:

  1) Select the toolchain that you will be using in your .config file
  2) Start the NuttX build at least one time from the Cygwin command line
     before trying to create your project.  This is necessary to create
     certain auto-generated files and directories that will be needed.
  3) Set up include pathes:  You will need include/, arch/arm/src/stm32,
     arch/arm/src/common, arch/arm/src/armv7-m, and sched/.
  4) All assembly files need to have the definition option -D __ASSEMBLY__
     on the command line.

  Startup files will probably cause you some headaches.  The NuttX startup file
  is arch/arm/src/stm32/stm32_vectors.S.  With RIDE, I have to build NuttX
  one time from the Cygwin command line in order to obtain the pre-built
  startup object needed by RIDE.

NuttX EABI "buildroot" Toolchain
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

  A GNU GCC-based toolchain is assumed.  The files */setenv.sh should
  be modified to point to the correct path to the Cortex-M3 GCC toolchain (if
  different from the default in your PATH variable).

  If you have no Cortex-M3 toolchain, one can be downloaded from the NuttX
  SourceForge download site (https://sourceforge.net/projects/nuttx/files/buildroot/).
  This GNU toolchain builds and executes in the Linux or Cygwin environment.

  1. You must have already configured Nuttx in <some-dir>/nuttx.

     cd tools
     ./configure.sh vsn/<sub-dir>

  2. Download the latest buildroot package into <some-dir>

  3. unpack the buildroot tarball.  The resulting directory may
     have versioning information on it like buildroot-x.y.z.  If so,
     rename <some-dir>/buildroot-x.y.z to <some-dir>/buildroot.

  4. cd <some-dir>/buildroot

  5. cp configs/cortexm3-eabi-defconfig-4.6.3 .config

  6. make oldconfig

  7. make

  8. Edit setenv.h, if necessary, so that the PATH variable includes
     the path to the newly built binaries.

  See the file configs/README.txt in the buildroot source tree.  That has more
  details PLUS some special instructions that you will need to follow if you are
  building a Cortex-M3 toolchain for Cygwin under Windows.

  NOTE:  Unfortunately, the 4.6.3 EABI toolchain is not compatible with the
  the NXFLAT tools.  See the top-level TODO file (under "Binary loaders") for
  more information about this problem. If you plan to use NXFLAT, please do not
  use the GCC 4.6.3 EABI toochain; instead use the GCC 4.3.3 OABI toolchain.
  See instructions below.

NuttX OABI "buildroot" Toolchain
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

  The older, OABI buildroot toolchain is also available.  To use the OABI
  toolchain:

  1. When building the buildroot toolchain, either (1) modify the cortexm3-eabi-defconfig-4.6.3
     configuration to use EABI (using 'make menuconfig'), or (2) use an exising OABI
     configuration such as cortexm3-defconfig-4.3.3

  2. Modify the Make.defs file to use the OABI conventions:

    +CROSSDEV = arm-nuttx-elf-
    +ARCHCPUFLAGS = -mtune=cortex-m3 -march=armv7-m -mfloat-abi=soft
    +NXFLATLDFLAGS2 = $(NXFLATLDFLAGS1) -T$(TOPDIR)/binfmt/libnxflat/gnu-nxflat-gotoff.ld -no-check-sections
    -CROSSDEV = arm-nuttx-eabi-
    -ARCHCPUFLAGS = -mcpu=cortex-m3 -mthumb -mfloat-abi=soft
    -NXFLATLDFLAGS2 = $(NXFLATLDFLAGS1) -T$(TOPDIR)/binfmt/libnxflat/gnu-nxflat-pcrel.ld -no-check-sections

NXFLAT Toolchain
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

  If you are *not* using the NuttX buildroot toolchain and you want to use
  the NXFLAT tools, then you will still have to build a portion of the buildroot
  tools -- just the NXFLAT tools.  The buildroot with the NXFLAT tools can
  be downloaded from the NuttX SourceForge download site
  (https://sourceforge.net/projects/nuttx/files/).
 
  This GNU toolchain builds and executes in the Linux or Cygwin environment.

  1. You must have already configured Nuttx in <some-dir>/nuttx.

     cd tools
     ./configure.sh lpcxpresso-lpc1768/<sub-dir>

  2. Download the latest buildroot package into <some-dir>

  3. unpack the buildroot tarball.  The resulting directory may
     have versioning information on it like buildroot-x.y.z.  If so,
     rename <some-dir>/buildroot-x.y.z to <some-dir>/buildroot.

  4. cd <some-dir>/buildroot

  5. cp configs/cortexm3-defconfig-nxflat .config

  6. make oldconfig

  7. make

  8. Edit setenv.h, if necessary, so that the PATH variable includes
     the path to the newly builtNXFLAT binaries.

VSN-specific Configuration Options
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    CONFIG_ARCH - Identifies the arch/ subdirectory.  This should
       be set to:

       CONFIG_ARCH=arm

    CONFIG_ARCH_family - For use in C code:

       CONFIG_ARCH_ARM=y

    CONFIG_ARCH_architecture - For use in C code:

       CONFIG_ARCH_CORTEXM3=y

    CONFIG_ARCH_CHIP - Identifies the arch/*/chip subdirectory

       CONFIG_ARCH_CHIP=stm32

    CONFIG_ARCH_CHIP_name - For use in C code to identify the exact
       chip:

       CONFIG_ARCH_CHIP_STM32F103RET6

    CONFIG_ARCH_BOARD - Identifies the configs subdirectory and
       hence, the board that supports the particular chip or SoC.

       CONFIG_ARCH_BOARD=vsn (for the VSN development board)

    CONFIG_ARCH_BOARD_name - For use in C code
    
       CONFIG_ARCH_BOARD_VSN=y

    CONFIG_ARCH_LOOPSPERMSEC - Must be calibrated for correct operation
       of delay loops

    CONFIG_ENDIAN_BIG - define if big endian (default is little
       endian)

    CONFIG_DRAM_SIZE - Describes the installed DRAM (SRAM in this case):

       CONFIG_DRAM_SIZE=0x00010000 (64Kb)

    CONFIG_DRAM_START - The start address of installed DRAM

       CONFIG_DRAM_START=0x20000000

    CONFIG_ARCH_IRQPRIO - The STM32F103Z supports interrupt prioritization

       CONFIG_ARCH_IRQPRIO=y

    CONFIG_ARCH_INTERRUPTSTACK - This architecture supports an interrupt
       stack. If defined, this symbol is the size of the interrupt
        stack in bytes.  If not defined, the user task stacks will be
      used during interrupt handling.

    CONFIG_ARCH_STACKDUMP - Do stack dumps after assertions

    CONFIG_ARCH_LEDS -  Use LEDs to show state. Unique to board architecture.

    CONFIG_ARCH_CALIBRATION - Enables some build in instrumentation that
       cause a 100 second delay during boot-up.  This 100 second delay
       serves no purpose other than it allows you to calibratre
       CONFIG_ARCH_LOOPSPERMSEC.  You simply use a stop watch to measure
       the 100 second delay then adjust CONFIG_ARCH_LOOPSPERMSEC until
       the delay actually is 100 seconds.


Configurations
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Each VSN configuration is maintained in a sudirectory and
can be selected as follow:

    cd tools
    ./configure.sh vsn/<subdir>
    cd -
    . ./setenv.sh

Where <subdir> is one of the following:

  nsh:
    Configures the NuttShell (nsh) located at examples/nsh.  The
    Configuration enables both the serial and telnetd NSH interfaces.

The default configuration sets up a console on front-panel RS-232 
interface, sets up device driver of all supported equipment and 
links in VSN default applications.