Census of Pandaboards

[Dave Curtis]

Just wondering how many people we can expect to have "going live" soon with Pandaboard RRP's.

I know of three in HBRC hands: Ralph, James, and myself.

How many others out there have boards in hand or on order?

-dave

[James Ronald]

Dave.

I currently have a BeagleBoard XM and will pick up a Pandaboard
if/when it becomes necessary.

- Jim

[David Murphy]

I got notice from Digikey yesterday that mine has shipped...so I
should have it soon!

David

[Ralph Gnauck]

Hi all,

 

We have developed a first version of a set of scripts that will build an image for a Pandaboard.

 

I would like a couple of volunteers to test them to see if they reliably build on different systems.

 

We also need to test that the build is actually stable and supports the functions of the Pandaboard properly.

 

This is very much a first pass, once we have a stable method of creating a base image we can look at what additional changes are needed  to include additional packages, change the kernel etc, etc to come up with the actual RRP Image V1.0.

 

This initial version builds Ubuntu 10.10 armel.

It uses the TI 2.6.35-980-omap4 kernel and installs the Ubuntu-omap4-extras package to support the SGX and WiFi functions of the board.

 

These scripts use Ubuntu rootstock to build an initial SD Card image.

Once that is create it is used to boot the system, then two more scripts are run on the Pandabord to install the full kernel package and install the TI-Extras etc.

 

The whole process runs to  about 3-5 hours!!

 

Eventually when we have a stable image created we can look at creating pre-built images that can simply be downloaded and un-tared in one step, but for now these scripts give us a repeatable method of creating the images from scratch.

 

If you would be interested in trying these scripts and providing Beta test feedback please let me know and I will send you the links to the downloads.

 

 

Thanks,

Ralph

 

 

[Dave Hylands]

Hi Ralph,

I'd be interested. My PandaBoard isn't doing anything right now.

I have a 64-bit quad-core linux machine running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

--
Dave Hylands
Shuswap, BC, Canada
http://www.davehylands.com

[Ralph Gnauck]

Great thanks Dave, Ill send you the links off list.

 

Ralph

 

---

From: Dave Hylands <dhyl...@gmail.com>
To: robotrefere...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Fri, April 15, 2011 11:46:28 AM
Subject: Re: [RobotRefPlatform] RRP Build Script Beta Testers wanted

[Dave Curtis]

In theory, it shouldn't be hard to make a BeagleBoard XM run pretty much the same software. I have an old Beagle B5 that I was planning to use for cross-platform testing. One of the reasons we decided to call it the 'reference platform' is that it more-or-less says 'this is one way the works, there may be others.' So I see Beagle and Beagle XM as natural porting targets for the reference, and it would be great if we could keep up some port-to-beagle HowTo's as we go along.

-dave

[Dave Curtis]

So my current count is:

Panda's in hand or very soon:
Dave Murphy, Ralph Gnauck, Dave Hylands, James Nugen, Tim Craig, Dave Curtis

Beagle in hand:
Ralph Gnauck, Dave Curtis

Beagle XM in hand:
James Ronald

All in all, a most excellent start -- feels like critical mass. I expect we all will need to recover from RoboGames (I certainly will) but a flurry of Panda activity can't be far off. I'll be posting a proposed reference power supply some time next week build around the board Ted Larson recommended:
http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/2110

-dave

[James Ronald]

Ralph,

I'd be interested. I have a BeagleBoard XM running a few difference
images. I really like Ubuntu 10.10 on the BeagleBoard XM, it seems to
be the most stable. I currently running headless, WiFi, SSH, modified
(externally powered) logic C200 webcam and a 2.6.37 kernel. You not
did mention anything that was Panaboard specific.

I also have a 64-bit quad-core linux machine running Ubuntu 10.04 x686
(32bit) LTS .

Best regards.
- Jim

[David Murphy]

I'm in...

I have a dual core athalon running suse linux.

My pandaboard showed up yesterday.

Cheers
David

On Apr 15, 10:12 am, Ralph Gnauck <ralph...@pacbell.net> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> We have developed a first version of a set of scripts that will build an image
> for a Pandaboard.
>
> I would like a couple of volunteers to test them to see if they reliably build
> on different systems.
>
> We also need to test that the build is actually stable and supports the
> functions of the Pandaboard properly.
>
> This is very much a first pass, once we have a stable method of creating a base
> image we can look at what additional changes are needed  to include additional
> packages, change the kernel etc, etc to come up with the actual RRP Image V1.0.
>
> This initial version builds Ubuntu 10.10 armel.

> It uses the TI2.6.35-980-omap4 kernel and installs the Ubuntu-omap4-extras

[Ralph Gnauck]

David, I have sent you the links.

 

Thanks,

 

Ralph

---

From: David Murphy <dfm...@gmail.com>
To: RobotReferencePlatform <robotrefere...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sat, April 16, 2011 9:12:52 AM
Subject: [RobotRefPlatform] Re: RRP Build Script Beta Testers wanted

[Ralph Gnauck]

Hi James,

 

I am not sure if the scripts right now would build correctly for a Beagle, the initial build may be ok, it is just armel distribution for maverick. However the main difference would be the final step in the scripts that installs the omap4 specific drivers from TI. This could easily be skipped for a beagleboard.

 

 

The kernel that is installed by the scripts right now is omap4 specific but  in the next version of the scripts I want to parametrize the kernel version so it would be easy to select a kernel specifically for the beagle, we could look at having the scripts automatically detect the platform they are running on and choose the correct components as they run.

 

 

Lots more to do, this is just Beta 0.1 right now!

 

Ill send you the links when I make the kernel  parametrization changes in a day or so, then we can bring in some more beagle tester as well.

 

Thanks

 

Ralph,

 

---

From: James Ronald <james....@gmail.com>
To: robotrefere...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Fri, April 15, 2011 6:44:38 PM

Subject: Re: [RobotRefPlatform] RRP Build Script Beta Testers wanted

[Wayne C. Gramlich]

Ralph:

Could I sign up to be the next person on the script test cycle?
I've got a PandaBoard, 8GB Flash Card, Pololu power supply (thanks
Dave C.!) I've also got the usual assortment of USB to RS232 cables
and such. It looks like Dave Hylands got through the script with
minor problems, so it may be time to put it up on wiki.

Please let me know,

-Wayne

[Ralph Gnauck]

Hi Wayne,

 

Here are the links to the scripts to build a panda image.

http://hbrobotics.org/wiki/images/3/37/HBRC_RRP_SD_Build.tar.gz.doc
http://hbrobotics.org/wiki/images/7/71/README.pdf

NOTE: The HBRC_RRP_SD_Build.tar.gz.doc file has a .doc extension, this was to get around the file type limits on the WiKi, rename the file to remove the .doc after downloading it, it is really a compressed tar ball.

Instructions are in the README.pdf.

They WILL TAKE a LONG Time, the complete build will take 3-5 hours!! 

 

There are three steps:

Run a script on the host to build the initial image
Put card in panda and boot, run a script on panda to install proper kernel files.
Reboot, run another script on panda to install  TI extensions for graphics and WiFi

It is the last step that take the longest, the rest should run in about 1 hour.
You can play with the board after step 2 but it wont have the WiFi  or graphics running.

Full details are in the README.pdf

 

Let me know how you go.

Ralph

---

From: Wayne C. Gramlich <wayne.gra...@gmail.com>
To: robotrefere...@googlegroups.com
Cc: Wayne C. Gramlich <wayne.gra...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wed, May 18, 2011 9:03:56 PM

Subject: Re: [RobotRefPlatform] RRP Build Script Beta Testers wanted

[Wayne C. Gramlich]

Ralph:

Excellent. I'll get working on it.

Thanks,

-Wayne

On 05/22/2011 03:07 PM, Ralph Gnauck wrote:
> Hi Wayne,
> Here are the links to the scripts to build a panda image.

[snippage]

[Wayne C. Gramlich]

All:

It looks like I got a bad power converter from Pololu. It looks
like it has a solder bridge across two pins. I could get in there
with my soldering iron to fix it, so it looks like I will have to
return it to Pololu. For now, I'm using a 5V bench supply.

-------

I followed Ralph's directions and succeeded in bringing up the
Pandaboard.

As David Hylands sleuthed out, it is necessary to make sure that
you are running rootstock-0.1.99.4 rather than rootstock-0.1.99.3.
This can be downloaded from the rootstock development site and
installed over the one in /usr/bin/rootstock. The rootstock web
site is at:

https://launchpad.net/project-rootstock

and the 0.1.99.4 trunk is at:

https://launchpad.net/project-rootstock/trunk/0.1.99.4

The commands:

cd {someplace}
wget
http://launchpad.net/project-rootstock/trunk/0.1.99.4/+download/rootstock-0.1.99.4.tar.gz
gunzip -c rootstock-0.1.99.4.tar.gz | tar xvf -
cd rootstock-0.1.99.4
sudo cp rootstock /usr/bin/rootstock

should do the trick.

I did not need to do any further editing of the mk_panda_rs_rfs_tar.sh
script other than what is already described the README.pdf file.

-Wayne

On 05/22/2011 03:07 PM, Ralph Gnauck wrote:

[Albert B. Margolis]

Hi All,

I just received an email from Digikey saying my Pandaboard is in the
mail, so I will be out of lurker mode soon .

My first mission will be to mount the Pandaboard on my Stingray and
establish a communications link with the Parallax Propeller control
board. My plan is to use the Pandaboard for high level functions and
let the Propeller handle the details of sensor i/o and motor control.
I'm planning to fiddle with my own code base until one of you shows me
a demo that shames me into learning ROS. Does the recent build script
include Python?

I probably won't be able to get down to Googleville tonight. I'll do
my best to bring something that moves to the June meeting.

-- Al Margolis
founder, www.HobbyEngineering.com

[Rodney Gomez]

HI all,

I am trying to get a pandaboard. Which is the best way you recommend to get in a queue for one?

Thanks,

Rodney

--
Rodney A. Gómez
rod...@ieee.org

[Albert B. Margolis]

Just place an order at at Digikey.
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?lang=en&site=US&KeyWords=pandaboard&x=0&y=0

Mine was shipped after about a week and a half.

-- Al Margolis
founder, www.HobbyEngineering.com