startKIT Tutorial

Introduction

startKIT is a low-cost development board for the configurable xCORE multicore microcontroller products from XMOS. It’s easy to use and provides lots of advanced features on a small, extremely low cost platform.

This short tutorial shows you how to :

  • import an application from the GitHub Community using xTIMEcomposer Studio
  • build the application
  • run the application on your startKIT

Import a Community project from GitHub

The fastest way to start developing with startKIT is to import an application from the xCORE Community repository on GitHub using xTIMEcomposer Studio.

Import an application from GitHub

  1. Select the Community window in the bottom left corner of xTIMEcomposer window next to the xSOFTip browser and How To windows.

    The window displays examples that you can import into xTIMEcomposer, including the content of the startKIT Examples repository.

    Click here to automate this step.

    NOTE: You need an internet connection to browser the Community software.

  2. Open the Examples folder and drag the Spinning Bar example into the xTIMEcomposer Project Explorer window.

    The Import window is displayed.

  3. Click Finish to import the app_spinning_bar project.

    Click here to import the spinning bar project.

Examine the code

  1. Open the project tree in the Project Explorer and go to the src folder.
  2. Double-click main.xc to open the source in the Editor window.

The code is exactly the same as standard C code except for some instructions which provide multicore extensions to C, making it easy to handle timing, concurrency and I/O.

Note that the file extension is ”.xc” instead ”.c” which tells xTIMEcomposer which compiler to use during the build process.

Click here to open main.xc.

Build and run the project

Once you’ve imported the project, you can build and run it on your startKIT to test the behavior.

Make sure that your startKIT is connected to your host PC using a micro-USB cable.

Build and run the project

  1. In the Project Explorer, click the app_spinning_bar project to select it, and then choose the menu option ProjectBuild Project (button build).

    xTIMEcomposer displays its progress in the Console. When the build is complete, the compiled binary file is added to the bin folder.

    images/bin.png

    Click here to build the project.

  2. Choose RunRun Configurations.
  3. In the Run Configurations dialog, in the left panel, double-click XCore Application.
  4. In the right panel, in Name, enter the name Spinning Bar.
  5. In Project, ensure that your project is displayed. If not, click Browse to open the Project Selection dialog, select your project, and then click OK.
  6. In C/C++ Application, click Search Project to open the Program Selection dialog, select the spinning bar binary, and then click OK.
  7. In Device options, in Run on, select the option hardware, and in Target, ensure that the option “XMOS startKIT” is selected.

    If your hardware is not displayed, ensure that your startKIT is connected to your PC, and then click Refresh list.

  8. Click Run to save your configuration and run it.
  9. If prompted, select XMOS startKIT in the Select Devices window.

    xTIMEcomposer loads the binary onto your startKIT, displaying its progress in the Console.

  10. On your startKIT, verify that a spinning bar is displayed on the 3x3 LED matrix.

    Click here to run the project on your startKIT..

  11. In the Console, click the Terminate button (button terminate) to stop your application running.

What to do next

This tutorial provides a basic introduction to using startKIT.

We recommend that you import some of the other Community examples, examine the code, and run them on your startKIT.

We also recommend that you follow the xTIMEcomposer Studio Tutorial which shows how to use other features of the tools and how to start writing your own projects.

If you have any questions regards startKIT and XMOS technology, please join our community of xCORE developers at www.xcore.com.