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Instant Contiki is a complete development environment in a single-file download: a virtual machine with all Contiki software development tools installed. All that is needed to start using and developing Contiki software is the free VMWare Player software, 4 Gb free hard drive space, and the Instant Contiki development environment.
Compiler and toolset installation has, until now, been the major hurdle for using and developing software for Contiki. To make software development easy, the Instant Contiki development environment is a single-file download that contains all the necessary tools for Contiki software development: the MSP430 gcc compiler toolset, the Cooja Contiki network simulator, the netsim network simulator, and programs for uploading a compiled Contiki system to connected Tmote Sky boards. Instant Contiki is an Ubuntu Linux installation that is run in the VMWare Player software (Windows download, Linux RPM download) which is available for download without cost.
This video shows Instant Contiki booting, the Contiki build process, and netsim and Cooja running Contiki software.
To use the Instant Contiki envorinment, do the following:
- Download and install the free VMWare Player
- Download the Instant Contiki image .zip. Beware: the file is large, ~1 Gb.
- Uncompress the .zip file.
- Start the Instant Contiki image by double-clicking on the instant-contiki.vmx file
- Wait until Ubuntu Linux has booted.
- Login to the system: username user and password user.
As shown in this video, Instant Contiki can also be used to program Tmote Sky boards: install the FTDI driver, connect the board to your PC, configure VMWare Player to use the FTDI device (called “Future Technology Device International device” in VMWare), and run the normal Contiki Tmote Sky build procedure:
Go to the Tmote Sky examples directory:
cd contiki-2.x
cd examples
cd sky
See the connected Tmote Sky boards:
make sky-motelist
Compile and upload an example program that blinks the on-board LEDs:
make blink.u
Feel free to explore other programs too, such as the "sky-collect" program that automatically forms a sensor collection tree (press the button on the Tmote Sky connected to the PC to make it the root of the tree) and the examples in the "examples/sky-shell" directory.
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