xeebot 5 Posted July 2, 2017 Share Posted July 2, 2017 Good morning (or good evening)! First of all, if these questions are stupid, don't spare my feelings. I know better than anyone that I'm still new at this and I have thick skin. I've had a great deal of success writing my own sketches with Energia. It's fun, simple-to-use, and easy to explain to others, but I have a few questions: 1) is Energia suitable for firmware in a small commercial product or is it intended more as a rapid prototyping framework, with "permanent" firmware written in CC7? 2) When working with a PCB using the CC3200MOD, how would I flash my Energia sketch onto the modules flash? 3) If I were to have a few hundred PCBs produced for a task at my day job, would each PCB (using the CC3200MOD) have to be individually flashed by hand or is there a way to have this done during the assembly process? For a small project like this, I don't feel that having a PCB designer work out a PCB trace antenna would be cost effective - plus my boss would want to avoid FCC issues at all costs - so the MOD version would clearly be better. I just don't know enough (yet) to know if the MOD version can be used in mass production, even on a small scale. Again, as I said, I've had SO much fun with Energia! I would like to thank Robert Wessels for making this experience possible. I feel like I could make every device and every toy that I've ever thought would be cool, by using Energia with the TI CC3200 platform. This is so cool! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fmilburn 445 Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 I will give you my relatively uneducated opinion for what it is worth... Quote 1) is Energia suitable for firmware in a small commercial product or is it intended more as a rapid prototyping framework, with "permanent" firmware written in CC7? I don't think many professional C/C++ programmers (which I am not) would choose to use Energia in a commercial product and most commercial products do not use it. The same applies to Arduino. The reasons are many but there are exceptions of course. The most obvious exceptions are where the product is intended for Energia/Arduino users or it is a relatively simple application that fits Energia and the programmers skills well. I worked on a small project that used Energia and sold in very small quantity. Quote 2) When working with a PCB using the CC3200MOD, how would I flash my Energia sketch onto the modules flash? See for example: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/CC3100_%26_CC3200_UniFlash_Quick_Start_Guide Quote 3) If I were to have a few hundred PCBs produced for a task at my day job, would each PCB (using the CC3200MOD) have to be individually flashed by hand or is there a way to have this done during the assembly process? You can discuss this with the PCB board assembler as some have this capability. In any event, if you can do it, you can find someone else who will do it for the right price. If you are going to build several hundred of these you might discuss your questions with a TI sales representative. energia 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
xeebot 5 Posted July 3, 2017 Author Share Posted July 3, 2017 Thank you! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rei Vilo 695 Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 We can consider Energia as a disruptive technology, in a way it allows a whole new group of users to develop on micro-controllers. Another strong trend is frugal innovation popular among companies, where a prototype developed with Energia may be good enough to be launched on the market. The major difference between Energia and other Arduino-like frameworks is, Energia relies on professional-grade SDKs. Energia is based on TI-DriverLib and Energia MT on TI-RTOS now SimpleLink. energia and xeebot 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
xeebot 5 Posted July 3, 2017 Author Share Posted July 3, 2017 35 minutes ago, Rei Vilo said: We can consider Energia as a disruptive technology, in a way it allows a whole new group to develop on micro-controllers. Another strong trend is frugal innovation popular among companies, where a prototype developed with Energia may be good enough to be launched on the market. The major difference between Energia and other Arduino-like frameworks is, Energia relies on professional-grade SDKs. Energia is based on TI-DriverLib and Energia MT on TI-RTOS now SimpleLink. Rei - thank you for your insight. I think that giving Energia a try for at least the first iteration is worth my time. I'm very comfortable using it. I think the next step is to find out if I can successfully upload data to AWS IoT and go on from there. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
xeebot 5 Posted July 16, 2017 Author Share Posted July 16, 2017 @Rei Vilo My my CC3200MOD based PCB prototypes should be in my hand next week or the week after. Hooray! I know how to use a Launchpad's emulator to flash the PCB - though I haven't done it yet and can't be 100% certain I have the hang of it - and that should also allow me to trick Energia into treating the board normally. However, when I have the PCBs produced in larger quantities, is there a way to get a bin file of my Energia sketch for the assembler to flash the board? I know how to use the debugger, but can't find anything further (still looking). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rei Vilo 695 Posted July 16, 2017 Share Posted July 16, 2017 Set Show verbose output during compilation on the Energia preferences. Launch a compilation. On the pane on the bottom of Energia, search for the .bin file. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
xeebot 5 Posted July 16, 2017 Author Share Posted July 16, 2017 You're a wizard and a scholar, sir. I thank you! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
xeebot 5 Posted July 16, 2017 Author Share Posted July 16, 2017 I just had a Keanu moment after that - realizing that Energia, not CCS7 - whoa! You weren't kidding last week. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
xeebot 5 Posted July 16, 2017 Author Share Posted July 16, 2017 (edited) Gave that a try and was unable to find the BIN file - it didn't give me a folder location ("/sys/mcuimg.bin" - don't have a sys folder, so assume it's on the launchpad as I often see it in Uniflash logs) On the other hand, I stumbled across a menu option: Go to the Sketch menu. Select Export Completed Binary Check the Sketch's folder, grab your bin upload to Uniflash Is there any other step involved? I gave it a try but the sketch just locks up my launchpad and I have to disconnect/reconnect, format, program, flash SP, then flash it to something else - even flashing the same sketch I'd exported works. Edited July 16, 2017 by xeebot Incomplete description Quote Link to post Share on other sites
xeebot 5 Posted July 17, 2017 Author Share Posted July 17, 2017 So, in case anybody else is curious, I've got the answer to my own question. Rename your bin to "mcuimg.bin" In Uniflash, go to the System Files, find /sys/mcuimg.bin Click the BROWSE button for URL and navigate to your file. Mark Erase, Update, and Verify. Go back to Flash Setup and Control, click Program. Enjoy. I really have to say that this is fantastic.I'm going to see what functions I can duplicate from CCS this way. zeke 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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