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HLP Developer Board Installation Instructions

These instructions are addressed to Astrobee users who are interested in Guest Science development using similar High-Level Processor (HLP) hardware as the one used in the robot.

This procedure is a sequence of steps to set up an Inforce 6640 developer board as a replication of the HLP in Astrobee.

Note this process requires some specific requirements. Make sure you meet them before starting. See all Prerequisites sections in this same file.

In this context, HLP refers to a developer board (Inforce 6640) similar enough to the actual High-Level Processor in Astrobee.

This procedure requires to install the Inforce 6601 version of the Android Operating System (OS) on an Inforce 6640 board. NASA users can get the OS files from the NASA network. If you are a Non-NASA user please refer to the Inforce Techweb where you will be able to find -after registration- the needed software. Although the board model is 6640, please make sure you download the 6601 packages since those are the ones approved for the Astrobee team.

Developer Board Setup

In this section, you will set up a developer board in preparation for its flashing procedure.

Hardware prerequisites

  • Developer board INFORCE 6640 SBC. This procedure has only been tested on this specific hardware.
  • Inforce 6640 12V Power Adapter. Usually comes with the board.
  • Micro-USB to USB cable.
  • Mini-HDMI to HDMI cable.
  • Ethernet cable (RJ-45).
  • USB Mouse.
  • External monitor HDMI compatible (it will be the screen for the board).

Unpacking the hardware

Open the box containing the Inforce board and remove it from the plastic bag. Be careful when you handle this hardware since it is electrostatic sensitive.

If your board comes with a power adapter, remove it from its covering and plug the two pieces together.

Preparing board interfaces

On one edge of the board, you will notice a sequence of port interfaces: Ethernet (RJ-45), USB, Micro-USB, Audio, Mini-HDMI, Power Supply.

  • Plug your Ethernet cable in the RJ-45 port.
  • Plug your USB mouse into the USB port.
  • Plug your Micro-USB cable in the Micro-USB port.
  • Plug your HDMI cable in the corresponding Mini-HDMI port.
  • Take the other extreme of the HDMI cable and plug it in the HDMI port in your external monitor.
  • Plug the power supply cable in its corresponding port.
  • Although you won't see anything yet, power on your external monitor.

DO NOT power the board on.

Host Computer Setup

In this section, you will set up your computer (VM or native) in order to flash and test the board.

Software prerequisites

  • Since Astrobee current development is using the 64-bit version of Ubuntu 16.04, we strongly suggest you install this OS on a host machine or a VMWare Virtual Machine. This sequence of steps has only been tested with this Linux distribution.
  • Ensure to have at least 4 GB free on disk before starting.
  • Ensure you are allowed to edit your network configuration (e.g. be able to change IP address, etc. from your host computer). See the next section for more details.

Hardware prerequisites

  • Make sure you have a USB port available in your computer.
  • Make sure you have an Ethernet port available in your computer.
  • If you are not allowed to edit the configuration for the Ethernet port on your computer, you will need a USB - Ethernet adapter so you can modify its settings (if you are not allowed to add new hardware, you still can bridge this adapter to a Virtual Machine and work from there).

Preparing machine interfaces

Take the other side of the Ethernet cable already plugged in the board, and plug it in the Ethernet port in your computer (or in the adapter and then in another USB port).

Take the other side of the Micro-USB to USB cable (the USB side) and plug it in the USB port in your computer.

Note you probably won't see any response yet since the board is shut down.

Preparation of the disk image for HLP

In this section, you will download the files for the OS installation and prepare them for flashing the INFORCE 6640 board from your computer.

If you don't have access to the NASA network, please refer to the third note at the beginning. Once you have the needed file, please continue with the last step of Prepare files

Prerequisites

  • NASA Network access.
  • The needed files for this procedure are currently stored in the "volar" server. So you need to have credentials on 'volar' to download them.
  • Ensure you have both scp and unzip commands installed in your computer.

Prepare files

Create a new directory to store the download files. Then go to it using the following commands:

mkdir $YOUR_PATH/inforce && cd $YOUR_PATH/inforce

Note $YOUR_PATH is the path to the directory where you want to download the files.

Create an environment variable to store the remote path in the 'volar' server:

SRCDIR=/home/p-free-flyer/free-flyer/InForce/6601

Download the zip file using scp:

scp <your_ndc_username>@volar:$SRCDIR/Inforce-IFC6601-AndroidBSP-880457-Rel-v2.1.zip .

Don't miss the little dot at the end

Unzip the file and change to the 'binaries' directory:

unzip Inforce-IFC6601-AndroidBSP-880457-Rel-v2.1.zip
cd Inforce-IFC6601-AndroidBSP-880457-Rel-v2.1/binaries

Installing Android OS Image

In this section, you will install an image OS in the Inforce board.

Install android control packages

Ensure you have the fastboot and adb packages installed in your computer. If not, proceed to install them using the following commands:

sudo apt-get install adb fastboot

You will need network connection to run this command unless you have a local repo with these packages in it.

Go into fastboot mode

Ensure the board is off and power connected.

Then press the power button (it has "PWR" written underneath it) and the VOL- button next to it at the same time and hold them at least 5 seconds.

Look at the monitor connected to the board. You should see the Linux Logo appear and stay on the screen.

If the Android system starts, shut the board down and repeat.

Flashing the HLP

You must ensure the HLP is detected in your Ubuntu machine (either native or VMWare). From your Ubuntu machine execute:

sudo fastboot devices

If you are running a VM, ensure the HLP is being detected in the VM not in the host machine.

Ensure you see only one device. If you don't see any, repeat 'Go into fastboot mode'.

Execute the flashing script inside the 'binaries' directory.

sudo /bin/sh -e ./flashall.sh

This will take some time. Be patient. The Inforce board will restart at the end.

Setting up HLP network

From your Ubuntu machine, change to your home directory

cd ~

Create a text file <text_file.sh> and write the following inside:

#!/bin/sh

set -e

sleep 10

ip addr add <hlp_ip> dev eth0
ip link set dev eth0 up

ip rule flush
ip rule add pref 32766 from all lookup main
ip rule add pref 32767 from all lookup default

In this context <hlp_ip> represents the desired IP address and mask for the HLP. For example: 10.42.0.33/24. Change <hlp_ip> to a valid IP and mask

Push the previous file to the HLP board using the following:

First make sure the adb is not running:

adb kill-server

Then start the server with root privileges:

sudo adb start-server

Finally, push the file by typing the following command:

adb push <text_file.sh> /sdcard/eth0.sh

Note <text_file> represents the name (path if needed) to the file you created before.

Open an adb shell (a connection between your computer and the HLP board), and move the file to the 'persist' partition. To do this, type the following commands from your computer:

adb shell
su 0 mv /sdcard/eth0.sh /persist/

Set permissions for the file using:

su 0 chmod 755 /persist/eth0.sh

Configure ADB to work over Ethernet instead of USB and exit the shell by typing:

su 0 setprop persist.adb.tcp.port 5555
exit

Reboot the board using ADB:

adb reboot

Setting up machine network

Go to your network manager and edit the configuration related to the Ethernet interface connected to the HLP. Set an IP in the same range as the one in the HLP. For example: 10.42.0.1/24 (or 10.42.0.1 255.255.255.0 in some systems).

At this point, you should be able to do ping to the HLP and execute apps in it.