This is the firmware repository for the DB2.X (development board) of the Plastic Scanner project. More technical information is in the docs and general information about project on our website.
Firmware runs on DB2.x (tested on DB2.1), powered by Arduino. Requires PlatformIO, a cross-platform embedded development toolset. See installation instructions here it can be as easy as one-click-plugin-installation (PlatformIO IDE).
In order to build and upload the firmware to DB2.x, connect the board to computer and find the Build and Upload buttons in the PlatformIO IDE OR use the following commands:
$ pio run -t upload # build and upload fw image
The compiled firmware image is placed in .pio/build/<board>/firmware.hex.
Compilation options can be tweaked in platformio.ini file (see build options).
Connect your DB2.x to your laptop, build and flash the firmware and open the serial console with $ pio device monitor or your favourite app (e.g Putty, screen, minicom, picocom...). Enable local echo in order to see commands you're typing by adding --echo to command above, or pressing CTRL+T followed by CTRL+E while running it.
User can send commands like this:
> scan
which outputs a full scan, 8 values, one for each LED.
See app/main.cpp at setup() function which commands are defined or type help to list all commands.
Feedback on architecture and implementation is welcome. Firmware currently controls an Arduino, which "talks" to an ADC chip and a LED driver, communicating via the serial interface. In directory app are the main sources, test is for unit tests (which needs much more love and actual tests), drivers contains custom drivers for componments on board.
NOTE about drivers: at the moment we're using a third party library for the ADC, listed in platformio.ini at
[lib_deps], with sources located in.pio/libdeps/uno/. However, we hope to soon implement a custom, simpler driver for it which will be located indrivers/ads1256.