Sun SPOT Platform and Tools

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Sun SPOT Platform and Tools
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What I have planned

• Go over installation
• Discuss available resources
• SPOT Manager demonstration
• Introduce the emulator
• Debugging suggestions
• Break up into groups
• Do Lab 1b
• Play with emulator (as time allows)
• In the last 20 minutes of class, groups of two or
  three will be able to check out SPOTs to take
  home (have to fill out form)
• The homework described at the end of Lab 1b will
  be due Wednesday, January 21st (in one week from
  next class)

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Installing the SPOT Software

• Everything you need to work with the Sun SPOTs
  can be easily obtained through the SPOT Manager
• SPOT software is java-based and runs on all
  common platforms (windows, mac, linux)
• Necessary software includes
• SPOT SDK
• JDK (Java Development Kit) 1.5 or later
• Apache Ant
• Environment variables JAVA_HOME and ANT_HOME must
  be set (now done by the SPOT Manager)
• NetBeans is optional, but with the SPOT modules
  can make working the SPOTs much easier

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Installing on Windows Vista

• For detailed installation instructions (all
  platforms), go here http//www.sunspotworld.com/G
  ettingStarted/
• The installation is generally very
  straightforward and simple, however if you are on
  WINDOWS VISTA, you should be aware that you need
  to either disable User Account Control (Control
  Panel (Classic View) ?User Accounts?Turn User
  Account Control on or off), or run the SPOT
  Manager as administrator with extended
  privileges, covered here http//www.sunspotworld.
  com/GettingStarted/Vista.html
• For more help, see this forum post
  https//www.sunspotworld.com/forums/viewtopic.php?
  f35t729p8628hilitspotmanagervistap8628

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Setting Environment Variables

• This should be done for you, however, on Vista it
  seems you need to do it yourself (I had too)
• To set environment variables, right-click on My
  Computer, select Advanced System Settings, and
  then select Environment Variables from the
  Advanced tab
• Make sure ANT_HOME and JAVA_HOME are defined
  and their bin folders are in your path.

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Vista Environment Variables
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Vista Environment Variables
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Vista Environment Variables
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Available Resources

• First place to go http//www.sunspotworld.com/doc
  s/
• Contains
• Developers Guide (may be helpful for the
  lab1b homework)
• Theory of Operation
• Owners Manual
• Release Notes
• Quick Start Tutorial
• Emulator Tutorial
• SPOT library APIs and SPOT host library APIs
  (javadoc)

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Suns Sun SPOT course

• Available at http//www.sunstudentcourses.com/
• Requires registration -\ but PLEASE REGISTER!
• This is a good additional reference. In
  particular, after today if you want to learn more
  about the SPOT World emulator, try this course
  and the introduction guide on the SPOT
  documentation page.
• We will reference this course throughout the
  coming labs as a place to go for background
  material and additional information.

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The Forums

• The forums are a great place to go when you can
  not find what you are looking for in the other
  documentation, especially if you are having
  problems.
• Try to do a search before posting a question in
  case it has already been answered
• www.sunspotworld.com/forums

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Using the SPOT Manager

• The SPOT Manager is helpful for
• Starting a shared basestation
• Upgrading the SPOT software to the current SDK
• Starting the emulator
• Managing SDK installations
• Examining connected SPOTs
• And more
• Now I will demonstrate.

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Deploying Applications

• You will (hopefully) all be doing this later, but
  I will demonstrate it, as well, to make sure we
  are all on the same page.
• If you have trouble deploying, try updating your
  SPOTs (basestations, especially, may not be
  up-to-date)
• If you get a Java Exception when trying to start
  a shared basestation, try opening a command line,
  navigating to any SPOT project directory (e.g.
  C\Program Files\Sun\SunSPOT\sdk-blue\Demos\AirTex
  t), and typing ant startbasestation run

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The SPOT World Emulator

• To learn about, read the emulator guide at
  www.sunspotworld.com/docs and the section on
  using the emulator from Suns student course.
• If you finish Lab1b in class today, start reading
  these and experimenting with the emulator. Try
  deploying various Demo applications and playing
  with them on the emulator (and compare the
  behavior to when you deploy the application on a
  real SPOT)

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Debugging Applications

• The emulator (new to version Purple) should be
  very helpful for testing and debugging throughout
  the course.
• With the emulator, you can also attach an
  external debugger. I have not tried this yet.
• With real SPOTs, LEDs are useful for debugging
  and feedback
• With a SPOT plugged in, you running the SPOT
  application from NetBeans will result in all
  println() calls to print in NetBeans.

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Debugging with LEDs

• A couple helpful methods
• private void displayNumber(int val, LEDColor
  col)
• for (int i 0, mask 1 i lt 7 i,
  mask ltlt 1)
• leds7-i.setColor(col)
• leds7-i.setOn((val mask) ! 0)
• protected void flashLights(LEDColor color)
• for(int i 0 i lt 8 i)
• ledsi.setColor(color)
• ledsi.setOn()
• Utils.sleep(2500)
• for(int i 0 i lt 8 i)
• ledsi.setOff()
• leds7.setColor(LEDColor.WHITE)
• leds7.setOn()

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The Homework

• Will be due Wednesday, January 21st
• Concentrate on the desktop application
• Send all modified source files and a brief
  description of what you did and how your solution
  works to damont_at_pdx.edu

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For next time

• Before next class, please read the background
  material listed for Lab 3 Radio Communication
• SPOT Developers Guide 25-37
• If you arent familiar with TCP/UDP socket
  programming in Java http//www.javaworld.com/java
  world/jw-12-1996/jw-12-sockets.html and
  http//www.cs.rpi.edu/courses/fall02/netprog/notes
  /javaudp/javaudp.pdf
• Register for the sun student courses and read the
  section called Using the SPOT emulator