Flora ISP on LINUX

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BillFann
 
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Flora ISP on LINUX

Post by BillFann »

I'm using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 64-bit, on an HP Pavilion dv7-6135dx.
This machine has 7.7 GIB of memory, a Intel® Core™ i5-2410M CPU @ 2.30GHz × 4 processor, with AMD Radeon HD 7400M Series video, and 374.2 GB on the HD.
Here's the problem.
I've downloaded trinket-arduino-1.0.5-linux64.tgz and unpacked it into /home/myusername/trinket-arduino-1.0.5.
I have to launch the program by launching the terminal, going to /home/myusername/trinket-arduino-1.0.5. and then issuing the command ./arduino.
When the program launches (and it seems to do so just fine). The icon that comes up in my “Launch Bar” is not the crisp clean icon that I get when I was using arduino 1.0.1. The icon is very pixilated. I could live with that but for this....
I can lock the icon to the launch bar. But when I click it to launch arduino 1.0.5 (With the trinket, gemma, and flora support) the program will not launch.
This leads me to suspect that there is something wrong with this method of installing and running the program.
Further, when I attempt to load the code for “Steam-Punk Goggles” by Bill Earl I don't seem to be able to load the program to the Flora. All I get from the Flora is a green power LED and a flashing red LED (which, I believe, is the default test program on the Flora).
The code compiles and when I tell the ISP to download the code to the Flora the ISP tells me that it has done so.
This leads me to think that the program for the “Steam-Punk Goggles” is not actually being downloaded to the Flora.
It occurred to me that I might be using the wrong serial port and/or programmer. I checked.
The Serial Port is
/dev/ttyACM0.
This is the only serial port option listed.
The Programmer is
USBtinyISP

Can any of you help me find my way through this?
Thank you,
Bill

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tdicola
 
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Re: Flora ISP on LINUX

Post by tdicola »

Just to check, if you download the latest 1.0.6 version of Arduino for Linux from its homepage http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software do you see the same icon and launcher locking behavior? For the linux version of the trinket / gemma /flora IDE we take this download from Arduino's site and add the necessary board configurations, so it should behave just like the official IDE.

I tried it out on my Ubuntu 14.04 machine and also see a similar blurry icon and odd launcher behavior. My suspicion is the official IDE doesn't give you a nice icon or launcher support out of the box either. Were you using a version of Arduino installed through Ubuntu's package manager? If so I bet the package maintainer adds a better icon and launcher support themselves. Something to try is what's mentioned on this page: http://www.skiews.com/add-arduino-ide-t ... on-ubuntu/ Create a file called arduino.desktop and copy in what they show. Change the path of the exec and icon config in the file so it points to your Arduino IDE download. Also make the file executable (not sure this is necessary but another page mentions it so it can't hurt to do). Then try dragging the file to the launcher to see if it picks it up as a better launcher.

For programming Flora can you try uploading a modified blink sketch? Let's try to get code on the board that we know will make it change its behavior in some way so we can confirm it is or isn't being programmed. Try the blink example here https://learn.adafruit.com/getting-star ... nboard-led but change the timing to something that will be very noticeable, like change both delay(1000) calls to delay(5000) so it blinks the LED on and off for 5 seconds at a time.

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BillFann
 
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Re: Flora ISP on LINUX

Post by BillFann »

tdicola,
Thank you for your reply.
I haven't yet worked on the launcher issue, but my son figured out the sketch loading problem.
LINUX 14.04 has too many issues to work through to use it with the adafruit project. I have a different machine that is still using LINUX 12.04. The arduino software works just fine on this machine.
I downloaded trinket-arduino-1.0.5 from the instructions pages for the "Steam Punk Goggles" and I can launch that frome one of the extracted icons.
The code compiles just fine, and it loaded to my adafruit flora board just fine.
There is an issue between the code and the wiring insructions though.
The wiring picture shows the neo pixel ring connected to D12 on the flora.
The code calls out D10 as the signal out.
Changing the code to read D12 worked just fine.
I've got the project laid out on a proto board, and it's working.
I did find one interesting thing about working with the flora board and with the accelerometer board. In neither case do the holes on the board line up with the holes on a standard proto board. I soldered some solid core wire to each board connection and used the wire as "stand off mounting" to mate to the proto board.
Things are working and progress goes on apace.
Thank you again for your help.
Bill

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tdicola
 
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Re: Flora ISP on LINUX

Post by tdicola »

Oh nice, glad to hear it's working for you with the different version of Ubuntu. Thanks for the tip on guide vs. code digital output too--yep sometimes the code is updated later and the guide needs to be updated to match. Sounds like a fun project, good luck!

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