About

This project provides scripts and files to setup and run trampoline-based applications for LEGO® Mindstorms® bricks under Unix systems.

• trampoline.build is used to download and build the trampoline real-time operating system, and the goil application for application oil description files parsing. Files are installed under the trampoline/ folder by default.

• gcc.build is used to download and build the gcc compiler and its dependencies for the nxt arm-elf architecture. Files are installed under the gcc-arm-elf/ folder by default.

  Credits go to Uwe Hermann [email protected] and Piotr Esden-Tempski [email protected] for the original script.

• scripts holds helper scripts for application creation, compilation and upload to nxt bricks.

  nxt_create creates a new application, c source file and oil description, from predefined templates (see the app_template/ folder).

  nxt_goil generates a Makefile for an application given its description in the oil format and the goil application.

  nxt_reenv alters an oil description file to befit compilation under the current environment, trampoline and gcc. A _-prefixed copy of the original is saved.

  nxt_send uploads files to a nxt brick through connected through USB, relying on the nexttool application for operations.

• env_setup is a sh script sourced to setup the environment variables used by nxt_* scripts:

  • trampoline installation path (defaults to trampoline/),
  • gcc arm-elf installation path (defaults to gcc-arm-elf/),
  • nxt_create template files (defaults to app_template/),
  • and adds the nexttool, goil, nxt_* and gcc binaries to the path.

• nexttool holds a precompiled version of the nexttool application used to communicate with nxt bricks under Linux systems. Mac OSX users can use the graphical NeXT Tools interface.

These scripts have been tested under Mac OSX 10.6 and a Linux 2.6.35 Gentoo. Note that, under Linux, users require the write access on a nxt brick device to upload files. Write access to nxt bricks can be automatically assigned to all users using the following udev rule, e.g. under /etc/udef/rules.d/99-nxt.rules:

BUS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0694", MODE="0666"

TODO

• nexttool.build is missing. Finding an elegant way to assert the presence of a Pascal compiler, or to automate the installation of one, is the main issue.

• nxt_send, when uploading a file, should check for the presence of a file with the same name and account for its size as free space when ensuring that there is enough room on the brick for the uploaded file. As of now, files with the same name than the uploaded one are first erased from the brick, before checking the free space.

• env_setup relies on bash BASH_SOURCE to guess the environment root directory. A more posix-compliant method is desirable.