New independent libmaple fork/project: http://rambutan.cc

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New independent libmaple fork/project: http://rambutan.cc

(13 posts) (4 voices)

Started 1 year ago by bnewbold
Latest reply from bobc

bnewbold
Ex-Leaflabs

Hello folks!

I've started sketching out an independent fork/continuation of libmaple and supporting tools, which i'm calling "rambutan". The premise is to drop all-in-one IDE support and focus on the core C library for peripheral and family completeness within the STM32 M3/M4 line. Being hardware-neutral and making development on custom boards easy is also a priority.

This isn't an official leaflabs project. I'm also now not a leaflabs employee, just a friend and fellow traveler. But it does have their blessing and may get some patches and support from individual developers in the future.

The current plan is to do a "v0.1" of librambutan that would largely backwards compatible with libmaple (master branch), including the build system, to make it easier to accept outstanding libmaple ports and patches. "v1.0" development could include refactoring of symbols and filenames, breaking compatibility.

The project website (http://rambutan.cc) links to forums, code, and documentation. There are probably some rough edges. I will be in transit (moving to Seattle! Wo!) for the next two weeks, but will try to keep up with discussion. Tooling, policy, and documentation will probably take priority over development or merging code until early October.

Comments, advice, cynicism, and patches are all welcomed! If this was to become the collective continuation of the leaflabs forum community as well i'd be really happy, though that may be presumptuous to propose.

Posted 1 year ago #
gbulmer
Moderator

@bnewbold - Very best of luck with your efforts.

I don't see any benefit in diluting this forum before there is significant non-compatible progress.

So I would ask you to post progress reports here, at least until then.

IMHO the mbed-compatible, super-cheap, ST-Nucleo's, ST's 'cube' software, and ARM's CMSIS have reduced the importance of a Yet-another-API.

Posted 1 year ago #
bobricius
Member

@bnewbold - Hi, great job.
What you think about newest stm32f072? this chip integrating all usb resistor, usb dfu bootloader and can work without crystal.
I have created ultra small board with this IC but I do not know how to integrate to arduino. https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/7YeHJutX
Board have RGB led, reset and bootloader button.
Is realy very nice and small but without IDE is unussable :(

Posted 1 year ago #
bobc
Member

Hi everyone! :)

Recently I have been creating new ARM hardware targets for the Arduino 1.5.x IDE. This is easier than it used to be, partly because there is now an ARM compiler in the IDE, and also there is a framework to easily add new boards.

I would really like to make use of the cheap hardware platforms and excellent open source support libraries people have written for them, and wrap them in an Arduino framework. I realise that the Arduino IDE is not for everyone, but it is still a great tool for newbies and those who are not embedded experts.

So far I have got LPC810, I'm working on LPC1114 and other NXP targets. I am planning to add support for STM32 boards, and libmaple seems like an ideal choice. I'm not sure what the future of Maple is, but perhaps a plugin for the Arduino IDE provides a way forward for the "plug'n'play" end of the spectrum. I see this as a complement to any future Maple IDE rather than a replacement.

If anyone is interested in this idea, please let me know. For reference, the NXP support is at https://github.com/bobc/OpenLasp, I will create a similar repo for STM32 based boards. Initially I am looking to support Maple mini and some of the Nucleo boards.

Posted 1 year ago #
bnewbold
Ex-Leaflabs

@gbulmer: Thanks, i'll post an update here when I think there has been interesting progress.

@bobricius: Looks like a nice chip! Does the board work? Do you have any extra PCBs already fabricated? It would be great to support to the STM32F0 series, but it could be a lot of work to port to that family. Have you looked in to that? Why do you feel it is useless without an IDE? Maybe you could look at bobc's work any try to adapt the ST-supplied Arduino-compatible libraries into the Arduino IDE?

@bobc: Cool! What would you need from libmaple to make it possible for you to integrate it into the Arduino IDE? I think this would be a great path forward for IDEs using the libmaple libraries. Certainly Leaflabs is not going to release a future version of Maple IDE, and I am also not interested in orienting rambutan towards any one single IDE (would like to make it easier to interoperate with any IDE).
You might also want to consider integrating the ST Nucleo Arduino-compatible work that gbulmer mentions above. This would probably support more chip families faster? Adding board support for existing hardware "should" be pretty easy, compared to porting for more chip families.

Posted 1 year ago #
bobc
Member

The Arduino IDE is quite limited when it comes to building third-party source. Basically there is a "core" folder which implements the Wiring Api (or maybe Wirish in this case), and a "variants" folder which contains code for specific variants. All this code is built for each sketch.

It is possible to build a core-variant lib using a makefile, but this has to be done manually outside the IDE, but can use a makefile to build, so in theory is more flexible, but it proved quite problematic for me (eg weak symbols).

I am currently setting up a hardware tree for maple, ideally I will be able to take most of Wirish and libmaple and plug them in, it will require some changes to accommodate different chip types.

The repo will be at https://github.com/bobc/maple-asp, nothing to see yet :)

Posted 1 year ago #
bobricius
Member

Hi, I have some extra PCB, but is better to order directly from OSH park , 2,5usd for 3pcs with free shipping is much better like shipping from slovakia. Finally I am decided to forgot about stm32, I am waiting for new arduino zero, It will officially supported in arduino ide, AtsamD21 come in TQFP32 which is much better for soldering, twice memory, crystal less operation with same price is much better option. Ihave in progress same sized board with sdcard and atmega328 in TQFP32, I have tested that is possible use this package on 12mm size board.

Posted 1 year ago #
bobc
Member

Success! :) I have now compiled and uploaded to an Iteadmaple using Arduino IDE 1.5.7 and the maple-asp package containing libmaple.

There is still a bit to do, I hacked some things to get a build. The upload is not automatic, and I have only one build target working so far.

Getting hold of Maple hardware is a bit difficult, all I have been able to find are clones: Iteadmaple, and various maple-mini clones on ebay. I intend to provide support for non-Maple boards using STM32 in future.

@bobricius: I don't know when the Zero is going to be launched, hopefully soon. As an alternative, you could consider the NXP LPC chips, e.g. LPC8xx, LPC1114. They are widely available and easy to use, to make it even easier I am working on a package to allow build/download with Arduino IDE https://github.com/bobc/OpenLasp

Posted 1 year ago #
bnewbold
Ex-Leaflabs

@bobricius: Use what works best for you! Curious to hear how it goes.

@bobc: Nice! I think Leaflabs sells stuff almost exclusively through Sparkfun now, it is hard to ship that to the UK or just too expensive? In your maple-asp git repository, the way you've committed everything all at once makes it hard to see what changes you had to make, and also might make it hard to take advantage of any future patches to libmaple. It's always possible to use simple diff and patch tools I guess though.

Posted 1 year ago #
bobricius
Member

I want newer see lqfp in my life.

Posted 1 year ago #
bnewbold
Ex-Leaflabs

bobricius: it's there, whether you see it or not ;)

Posted 1 year ago #
gbulmer
Moderator

@bnewbold - Is that your teaching for the day?

Similar to "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" ;-)

Posted 1 year ago #
bobc
Member

Nice! I think Leaflabs sells stuff almost exclusively through Sparkfun now, it is hard to ship that to the UK or just too expensive? In your maple-asp git repository, the way you've committed everything all at once makes it hard to see what changes you had to make, and also might make it hard to take advantage of any future patches to libmaple.

The Sparkfun boards are a little pricey for me after shipping, taxes, duty, I found a local supplier but they price all that in plus add a little margin :( However, I have a number of Maple clones from ebay: Iteadmaple, Olimexino-STM32, Maple-mini which are remarkably cheap and seem to work.

I have not made any code changes, but I did have to move files around. I'm not sure if git can track that. Maybe I could start with a clean repo when I have a better idea. Unfortunately I can't see how to reproduce the nifty makefiles in the Arduino 1.5.x port.

I think I am nearly ready to declare a working version but I'm struggling with a start up issue. I can build and auto-download but the sketch does not run until power is cycled.

Posted 1 year ago #

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