Create Custom User App#

Guidelines for generating custom user app code for the AMDC

Background#

This document gives an overview of generating custom user app code for use with the AMDC.

AMDC utilizes an RTOS to coordinate system resources for the various tasks that need to be performed. It’s important to understand these concepts and can be reviewed here.

In short our application has some task (where the work actually gets done) and we, the end user manage the task via serial commands. This structure requires 3 files to be constructed in a manner that the AMDC RTOS will recognize. In order to do that we will be basing our custom application off of the Blink application that is included on a clean clone of the AMDC repo.

Procedure#

  1. Define the application in the compiler symbols list

    1. In the Project Explorer pane right click on app_cpu1 and select Properties

    2. Expand C/C++ Build and select Settings

    3. Under ARM v7 gcc compiler select Symbols

    4. Click the + icon in the upper right portion of the Defined Symbols (-D) pane

    5. Enter APP_APPNAME where APPNAME relates to our application purpose or function

    6. Click OK, then click OK in the lower right of the Build Properties window

  2. Add the application in user_apps.c

    1. In the Project Explorer pane locate user_apps.c under app_cpu1 -> usr -> user_apps.c

    2. Using APP_BLINK as an example copy the #ifdef APP_BLINK section and paste it below, replacing BLINK with APPNAME. Don’t worry the folders and files don’t exist yet, we’ll be adding them shortly.

      #ifdef APP_APPNAME
#include "usr/appName/app_appName.h"
#endif

    3. Similiarly add a section within the user_apps_init() function.

      #ifdef APP_APPNAME
app_appName_init();
#endif

  3. Create the directory referenced in the user_apps.c file

    1. In the Project Explorer pane right click the usr folder and select new -> folder

    2. Name the folder appName

  4. Create the application source and header files

    1. Using the Blink application as an example copy and paste the app_blink.c and the app_blink.h files into the appName folder

    2. Within app_appName.c replace all references to blink with appName

    3. Delete the task_vsi_init() function call

    4. Comment out the task_appName_init() function call

    5. In the corresponding header file replace all references to blink with appName

  5. Create the task files, where the work gets done

    1. Using the Blink application as an example copy and paste the task_blink.c and the task_blink.h files into the appName folder

    2. Starting with the header file, replace all references to blink with appName

      1. Note the define TASK_APPNAME_UPDATES_PER_SEC (#) is a very useful feature that lets us define our repition rate of our task in Hz. It is not required.

      2. The define TASK_APPNAME_INTERNAL_USEC (#) is required. This is used by the system counters to know when to trigger our task callback function

      3. Either utilize the *PER_SEC define or the *INTERNAL_USEC define to trigger your task at the desired rate

    3. Turning to the source file, unless you are using REV_C AMDC hardware remove all sections of code that refer to USER_CONFIG_HARDWARE_TARGET in the top of the source file, within task_appname_deinit() and within task_appname_callback(). Also remove the #include ...\hardware_targets.h reference.

    4. task_appname_init() is where you will place any initialization code for your task. This function will run once when we start the task.

    5. task_appname_callback() will occur at the rate defined by TASK_APPNAME_INTERNAL_USEC (#) This is where we will place any code that needs to be run based on the task frequency.

  6. Create the command files for control via serial interface

    1. Create the folder cmd under the appName folder. See blink example file structure

    2. Copy and paste the cmd_blink.c and cmd_blink.h files into the newly created cmd folder and rename the files cmd_appname.c and *.h respectively.

    3. Replace all instances of blink with appName

    4. See the hello text parse sections of code for examples of multi level command parsing.

      1. Remove hello parse section from cmd_appName() and from the cmd_help[] struct.

  7. Build the project. There should be no build errors, work through them if there are.

Summary#

We now have a template file structure for adding custom user applications and task, and the framework to control these applications with the serial interface!