Tutorial: installation
From RFID Guardian
This describes the complete installation procedure, including how to obtain and/or build prerequisites for the Guardian Software.
Contents |
[edit] Configurations
The RFID Guardian software distribution can build a number of different configurations:
- programs to run on the embedded system; the obvious example is the Guardian Main program;
- program on a PC that controls an RFID Reader; we include the software for the Philips Pegoda reader;
- simulator, that uses sockets in stead of RFID communication; this allows to run a Guardian Main and a Reader (etc) and have them communicate in a very controlled setup;
- Java program to interact with the Guardian over BlueTooth, to run on a cell phone.
[edit] Software requirements
These different configurations have different software requirements, see below for documentation of the various components:
- for a Windows PC, CoLinux or the Linux emulator Cygwin is required;
- for the embedded system, a checkout of the RTOS eCos is required, and a cross-compiler toolchain; we provide a port of eCos for our Guardian hardware;
- for a commercial Reader connected to a PC, the DLLs and device drivers for this piece of hardware are necessary;
- for the simulator, nothing special is required;
- for the Java modules, Java J2ME and Ant are required.
The software consists of several components, some of them provided by us, some to be obtained over the internet.
[edit] Software Components
[edit] GNU make
The build tool used everywhere in our software.
[edit] Subversion
We use [Subversion] repositories for storing and distributing all software that is managed by the RFID Guardian team
[edit] Cygwin
preferred for native Windows systems that use the Pegoda Reader
MS Windows users may install [Cygwin], a Linux emulation layer. For building BlackFin software, Windows users are advised to use CoLinux.
[edit] Philips Pegoda Reader Software
The RFID Guardian software can interface with the Philips Pegoda Reader
[edit] CoLinux
preferred for Windows systems to do cross-compiler builds for the RFID Guardian device
An installation of Linux that lives side-by-side with MS Windows. This actually runs the Linux kernel and Linux software in parallel with MS Windows, without emulation (or rebooting).
[edit] Toolchain
A toolchain is required for building the software. For eCos and u-boot, a gcc cross-compiler is mandatory.
[edit] eCos
We have our own copy of the eCos repository tree, with added packages for BlackFin and RFID Guardian peripherals.
[edit] User interface in Java J2ME
A graphical user interface to control the RFID Guardian, either from a cell phone using a BlueTooth connection, or natively
[edit] MRG, the RFID Guardian Software
This repository contains the device drivers, library and high-level Guardian software.
[edit] u-boot
We mirror a version of u-boot used for the RFID Guardian. Modifying the bootloader is not for the faint of heart. Doing it wrong can render your RFID Guardian (temporarily) unusable.


