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Maple Native vs Leaf Maple

(5 posts) (3 voices)

Started 5 years ago by davo
Latest reply from davo

davo
Member

Hiya, I'm planning the next stage of my project which is Kalman filters. I've gor a vehicle robot doing basic navigation and making it aware of it's surroundings.

Next stage is kalman filters etc, I think with my loose programming etc I'd rather add another mcu and keep the original as the integration controller for sensors and drive. then use a more powerful mcu dedicated for navigation and awareness.

I'm new to MCU's but quite impressed with the ease of arduino, rapid dev or what? However I've played with STM demo board and did not find that too daunting. My big issue is that the tool chains are crippled and I had no overview apart from demo's of how to make things work, ie mandatory libraries drivers etc. Frankly i was not overly impressed with the tools chains/ starter doco....which I think is the biggest issue I had.

So question is wait for a naitve or go the Maple.

What tool chain for the native will be provided or supported.....( Free helps alot as I'm living on a pension)

Thanks

Dave

So

Posted 5 years ago #
bnewbold
Ex-Leaflabs

Hi davo!

If the Maple has enough pins to do what you need i'd say just go for that. We're not going to rush the native out the door and wouldn't want to keep you waiting. Unless you really need the DAC (real analog output), SDIO controller, or lots of RAM, the maple should be just as good, a little cheaper, and also smaller. We'll also be offering the mini (later this fall?) which has most of the power of the Maple in a smaller size.

All "Maple" products will work with the Maple IDE and libmaple, and we will continue to push out docs on using other free IDE/toolchain combinations. You should also be able to use any ARM toolchain your heart desires (Keil etc) though we can't afford those licenses so we probably won't be releasing HOWTOs any time soon.

For what it's worth, you may actually find it easier to integrate everything on a single MCU if it's powerful enough. The Maple should be able to run several Kalman filter loops, maintain communications, sample sensors, and run control logic at the same time. It's a trade off between having to develop a communications protocol between two MCUs or polishing up a single multipurpose program. I'll admit that some of the Maple communications libraries are resource intensive (particularly SerialUSB, which can be disabled with SerialUSB.end()), but we'd be happy to help you squeeze more functionality into a single board!

Posted 5 years ago #
poslathian
LeafLabs

For the record, and hopefully this was obvious, all of our software/libs/toolchain is free and open source. Various pieces are under various licenses - were still sorting stuff out and rewriting pieces that use unfavorable licenses (such as the usb stack, which came from ST). Browse our github repository and take a look, license headers are at the top of each file. github.com/leaflabs

Posted 5 years ago #
davo
Member

Hiya,

thanks for the reply!
============================
any time scale on the native! and the mini?
============================
Three months is ok by me, I'm at the planning stage and I plan and save ahead.LOL

but the mini would also be interesting for the intended navigation and probably save some room. either uart to iart or i2c to i2c.

=============================

I know what you mean about the price of the tool chains......that's not to be under estimated and there is no easy intro for them....makes you appreciate the work and the community effort that has gone into the arduino. I'm not ready to look at he Maple IDE yet. I need to rebuild a PC for that as I have too many things hanging off various USB virtual ports. That has been another issue with the various ARM ide's USB conflicts.
================
One thing I should ask anyone running the Maple IDE and downloding the code from a VirtualBox virtual machine?
================
the native is really appealing.....and the mini second as I do n't need a full form factor MCU arduino for what I am doing.
===============

I am currently using a seed mega and integrated rangefinder odometer a compass and servo etc....usual stuff.

Because i am new to this work I've written some stuff for the PC which does wavefronts navigation calcs and constructs maps from the telemetry from the wobot.

I just finished getting a asynclabs yellowjacket working for the telemetry which I enjoyed heaps....but the lesson was do n't under gun the mcu's.....I think thae way to go would be a upgunned mcu with wireless / bluetooth (class 1) as a comms hub and navigation processor.

Looking forward to the new products....

Dave

I have yellowtail and it would have been heaps better to have a full bore processor on that for what I am doing rather than the 328..... It was a bit of a shock as I had only used to seeed mega prior....how much sram is left?

Posted 5 years ago #
davo
Member

Hiya,

thanks for the reply!
============================
any time scale on the native! and the mini?
============================
Three months is ok by me, I'm at the planning stage and I plan and save ahead.LOL

but the mini would also be interesting for the intended navigation and probably save some room. either uart to iart or i2c to i2c.

=============================

I know what you mean about the price of the tool chains......that's not to be under estimated and there is no easy intro for them....makes you appreciate the work and the community effort that has gone into the arduino. I'm not ready to look at he Maple IDE yet. I need to rebuild a PC for that as I have too many things hanging off various USB virtual ports. That has been another issue with the various ARM ide's USB conflicts.
================
One thing I should ask anyone running the Maple IDE and downloding the code from a VirtualBox virtual machine?
================
the native is really appealing.....and the mini second as I do n't need a full form factor MCU arduino for what I am doing.
===============

I am currently using a seed mega and integrated rangefinder odometer a compass and servo etc....usual stuff.

Because i am new to this work I've written some stuff for the PC which does wavefronts navigation calcs and constructs maps from the telemetry from the wobot.

I just finished getting a asynclabs yellowjacket working for the telemetry which I enjoyed heaps....but the lesson was do n't under gun the mcu's.....I think thae way to go would be a upgunned mcu with wireless / bluetooth (class 1) as a comms hub and navigation processor.

Looking forward to the new products....

Dave

I have yellowtail and it would have been heaps better to have a full bore processor on that for what I am doing rather than the 328..... It was a bit of a shock as I had only used to seeed mega prior....how much sram is left?

Posted 5 years ago #

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