Surveyor Robotics Journal
Surveyor Corporation home page
Subscribe to a syndicated RSS feed.
Archives
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
Februray 2006
January 2006
Sun, 16 Dec 2007
SRV-1 firmware update - test version
A test version of the latest SRV-1 Blackfin firmware is now available from http://www.surveyor.com/blackfin/ - look for srv-blackfin-121607.zip. Release notes are found here. Basic image processing functions have been added, and the code has been substantially restructured for easier maintenance and extension, thanks mainly to the Transterpreter development group - http://www.transterpreter.org - who are in process of porting the Transterpreter Virtual Machine and OccamPi programming language to the SRV-1 Blackfin.
Also worth noting is a new version of ldr-utils for Linux, also available from the SRV-1 Blackfin download page, which now support the Blackfin UART boot mode via the Matchport WLAN connection. This is significant for users without JTAG who might clobber the boot loader image of the SRV-1 firmware and need a way to recover. We don't yet have a corresponding version of ldr.exe for Windows, but will be happy to post a working version if anyone out there can do the port.
Speaking of JTAG, we strongly encourage users who are planning any significant code development on the Blackfin to consider getting a JTAG cable if they don't already have one - JTAG is a huge timesaver in loading and debugging new code, and is well worth the investment. Our recommendation is the ICEbear from www.section5.ch, which works with GNU gdb and interfaces via USB. There are also some low-cost JTAG cables with parallel printer port interfaces, but none of our computers have parallel ports anymore, so we haven't tested these.
Posted Sun, 16 Dec 2007 14:50 | HTML Link | see additional stories ...