Build Instructions

Dependencies

Cortex-M4 Toolchain

Download and unpack the gcc-arm-embedded toolchain.

FreeRTOS

Download the latest FreeRTOS release. We're using version 7.3.0.

Unpack the ZIP file in a directory near the smaccmpilot-stm32f4 tree: the same parent directory is best. We will refer to the path of the unzipped source tree during build configuration.

ArduPilot

Many of the libraries in the SMACCMPilot software are from the ArduPilot project.

Clone the Galois fork of the ArduPilot repo, using the master branch. Keep this clone in a directory near the smaccmpilot-stm32f4 tree, as you did with the FreeRTOS sources.

Configuration File

1. Copy Config.mk.example to Config.mk. Open this file in a text editor.
2. Set CONFIG_CORTEX_M4_PREFIX to the location of the Cortex-M4 toolchain.
3. Set CONFIG_FREERTOS_PREFIX to the location of the FreeRTOS source.
4. Set CONFIG_ARDUPILOT_PREFIX to the location of the Ardupilot source.
5. Set CONFIG_BOARD to px4 for the PX4FMU, or stm32f4-discovery.

Compiling

1. Simply run make from the top-level directory. You can also specify a specific target such as libhwf4.a.
2. Build output is placed in the build directory. The test program images are in the build/$(CONFIG_ARCH)/$(CONFIG_BOARD)/img directory.

Flashing the PX4FMU Board

We use the Black Sphere Technologies Black Magic Probe as a JTAG/SWD debugger to flash and debug on the PX4FMU hardware.

1. Follow the instructions on the PX4 wiki for setting up your Black Magic Probe.
2. Start GDB: arm-none-eabi-gdb
3. Connect to the Black Magic Probe: target extended-remote /dev/ttyACM0
4. Scan the single-wire debug adapters: mon swdp_scan
5. This should display a single result, such as: 1 STM32F4xx.
6. Attach to this target: attach 1
7. Load the image to flash: file build/cortex-m4/px4/img/ledtest
8. Flash the image to the device: load
9. Execute the firmware: run
10. Interrupt the debugger with Control-C to reflash by running load and run again.

Installing OpenOCD (required for STM32F4-Discovery board)

On the STM32F4-Discovery board, we find it easier to use the builtin STLink debugger with OpenOCD. (If you're only using the Black Magic Probe with the PX4FMU, you can skip this section.)

1. Download a recent release of OpenOCD We have tested with version 0.6.1.

2. Configure and install OpenOCD with:

$ tar -zxvf openocd-0.6.1.tar.gz
$ cd openocd-0.6.1
# NOTE: you may not need all of these flags
$ ./configure --enable-ftdi --enable-ft2232_libftdi --enable-stlink \
  --enable-amtjtagaccel --enable-buspirate
$ make
$ sudo make install