Setup

Learn how to setup your development environment for FVF.

Installing Arduino

Installing the Arduino IDE is straight forward. From the Arduino Website download the Arduino IDE for your platform and open firmware/fvf/fvf.ino to start your firmware development.

Arduino Drivers

Some systems require a manual driver installation for the Arduino board. Please refer to the Getting Started Guide from the Arduino website if this is required for you and how to get this done.

CoolTerm

CoolTerm is a simple serial port terminal application. CoolTerm can be used to send commands to the Arduino Board and test your firmware.

Install Git

Git is used as VCS and GitHub as repository master.

Windows

Luckily GitHub provides an application with GUI to access git repositories. Download GitHub for Windows and install it; Clone the repo from GitHub and you are ready to go.

Mac

Also Mac got a GitHub app with GUI to access git repositories. Download GitHub for Mac and install it; Clone the repo from GitHub and you are ready to go.

Linux

You are on Linux, you know how to use your personal package manager to install yourself a git package and of course you can handle it from your favorite shell.

Installing Eclipse

Eclipse is the main development environment. A good start is to download the Eclipse for RCP and RAP Developers package.

Install PDE Tools

To help and assist you with programming (Javadoc + proper code completion), install the following plugins from “The Eclipse Project and Updates” update site (Help > Install New Software ... Update Site: http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/updates/4.4 - replace “4.4” with the current version number):

  • Eclipse Plug-In Development Environment
  • Eclipse Platform SDK
  • Eclipse Java Development Tools

Note: Some of them might already be installed.

Install Deployment Tools

To deploy the FVF application bundle to multiple platforms the eclipse “DeltaPack” is required for this. Read here for installation: https://stackoverflow.com/a/12737382/483492

Install Optional Tools

There are more useful plug-ins to support your development. They are available via the current releases update site (Help > Install New Software ... Update Site: http://download.eclipse.org/releases/luna - replace “luna” with the current release):

  • SWT Designer
  • Eclipse GIT Team provider