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Buildbotics CNC Controller Development Guide

This document describes how to setup your environment for Buildbotics CNC controller development on Debian Linux. Development on systems other than Debian Linux are not supported.

Installing the Development Prerequisites

On a Debian Linux (9.6.0 stable) system install the required packages:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential git wget binfmt-support qemu \
  parted gcc-avr avr-libc avrdude pylint3 python3 python3-tornado curl \
  unzip python3-setuptools gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf bc sudo
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_13.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Getting the Source Code

git clone https://github.com/buildbotics/bbctrl-firmware

Build the Firmware

cd bbctrl-firmware
make

Build CAMotics Module

CAMotics is a Python module written in C++. It must be compiled for ARM so that it can be used on the Raspberry Pi. This is accomplished using a chroot, qemu and binfmt to create an emulated ARM build environment. This is faster and more convenient than building on the RPi itself. All of this is automated.

make camotics

The first time this is run it will take quite awhile as it setups up the build environment. You can run the above command again later to build the latest version.

Build the Firmware Package

make pkg

The resulting package will be a .tar.bz2 file in dist.

Upload the Firmware Package to a Buildbotics CNC Controller

If you have a Buildbotics CNC controller at bbctrl.local, the default address, you can upgrade it with the new package like this:

make update HOST=bbctrl.local PASSWORD=<pass>

Where <pass> is the controller's admin password.

Updating the Pwr Firmware

The Pwr firmware must be uploaded manually using an ISP programmer. With the programmer attached to the pwr chip ISP port on the Builbotics controller's main board run the following:

make -C src/pwr program

Initializing the main AVR firmware

The main AVR must also be programmed manually the first time. Later it will be automatically programmed by the RPi as part of the firmware install. To perform the initial AVR programming connec the ISP programmer to the main AVR's ISP port on the Buildbotics controller's main board and run the following:

make -C src/avr init

This will set the fuses, install the bootloader and program the firmware.

Installing the RaspberryPi base system

Download the latest Buildbotics CNC controller base image and decompress it:

wget \
  https://buildbotics.com/upload/2018-05-15-raspbian-stretch-bbctrl.img.xz
xz -d 2018-05-15-raspbian-stretch-bbctrl.img.xz

Now copy the base system to an SD card. You need a card with at least 8GiB. After installing the RPi system all data on the SD card will be lost. So make sure you back up the SD card if there's anything important on it.

In the command below, make sure you have the correct device or you can destroy your Linux system by overwriting the disk. One way to do this is to run sudo tail -f /var/log/syslog before inserting the SD card. After inserting the card look for log messages containing /dev/sdx where x is a letter. This should be the device name of the SD card. Hit CTRL-C to stop following the system log.

sudo dd bs=4M if=2015-05-05-raspbian-wheezy.img of=/dev/sde
sudo sync

The first command takes awhile and does not produce any output until it's done.

Insert the SD card into your RPi and power it on. Plug in the network connection, wired or wireless.

Logging into the Buildbotics Controller

You can ssh in to the Buildbotics Controller like so:

ssh [email protected]

The default password is buildbotics. It's best if you change this.