Brick Viewer (brickv)

The Brick Viewer provides a graphical interface for testing Bricks and Bricklets. Each device has its own view that shows the main features and allows to control them.

Additionally brickv can be used to calibrate the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) of the Bricks to improve measurement quality and to flash Brick firmwares and Bricklet plugins.

Installation

• Windows
• Linux
• Mac OS X

Usage

To use the Brick Viewer you have to first connect it to a Brick Daemon or a WIFI Extension, for example. The Brick Daemon can be running on the same PC or on a PC in the same network. Enter the IP address (localhost if you started the Brick Daemon on the same PC) of the PC running the Brick Daemon, or enter the IP address of a WIFI Extension. Click “Connect”. Now you can go through the tabs at the top and test your Bricks and Bricklets.

The “Updates / Flashing” button opens a dialogue which shows available updates and let you flash firmwares and plugins onto Bricks and Bricklets. If you click on “Advanced Functions” you can calibrate the analog-to-digital converts (ADC) of Bricks (see below).

Determine Software Versions / Search for Updates

If you have started the Brick Viewer and connected it to a Brick Daemon or a Master Extension you can determine the current software versions and search for updates for all the connected hardware.

To do this you have to press the “Updates / Flashing” button. A dialogue should open which shows you the current software versions. An orange entry tells you that a new version for this entry exist. A red entry tells you that the software for this entry has to be updated to work properly.

If you want, you can update all Bricklets with the click on “Auto-Update All Bricklets”. Bricks can’t be updated automatically, you have to update them one by one (see Brick Firmware Flashing).

Brick Firmware Flashing

Flashing of Brick firmwares can be done with Brick Viewer since version 1.1.0. The latest firmwares will be downloaded automatically and can be found here too.

Flashing a Brick requires that it is connected via USB to the PC that runs the Brick Viewer.

Before you flash a new firmware on a IMU Brick you might want to backup its calibration data, because it is lost during the flashing process. This is only important if you did your own calibration, because the factory calibration can be restored automatically during the flashing process since Brick Viewer version 1.1.13.

First bring the Brick into the bootloader modus. Hold the Erase button, then press the Reset button 1x. The blue LED should be off. Now the Brick should be in the bootloader (based on your operating system some sort of Atmel device could be detected).

Start the Brick Viewer and click “Flashing”:

A Brick in bootloader mode should show up as serial port. The “Serial Port” drop-down box shows all detected serial ports. If no port is listed try clicking “Refresh”. If still no serial port shows up ensure that your Brick is in bootloader mode and that it is correctly recognized by your operating system.

Note

On Windows you might need to install Atmel driver atm6124_cdc.inf from the drivers subfolder in the Brick Viewer installation folder to make Windows detect a Brick in bootloader mode correctly.

Windows 7 might autodetect a Brick as “GPS Camera Detect” serial device but flashing should still work. If it doesn’t you need to install the Atmel driver atm6124_cdc.inf for it.

Note

If you have an old Linux kernel you might need to install this SAM-BA Linux USB kernel driver.

Select the correct serial port, select the firmware for your Brick and click “Save”. Now the latest firmware will be downloaded and written to the Brick, then read back again and verified to be correctly written. A message box will pop up to inform you about the result. If the flash process failed, check if you have selected the correct serial port.

Instead of letting the Brick Viewer download the latest firmware you can also select “Custom...” from the drop-down box and specify a local file via the “Browse...” button.

Bricklet Plugin Flashing

Flashing of Bricklet plugins into the EEPROM of the Bricklet is possible in two different ways. One possibility is to use the “Auto-Update All Bricklets” feature (see Determine Software Versions).

If you want to flash one distinct Bricklet you can use the flashing window. The latest plugins will be downloaded automatically and can be found here too.

Flashing a Bricklet requires that it is connected to a Brick which is listed in your Brick Viewer. A click on the “Flashing” button opens the required dialog:

Now select the Brick and port to which the Bricklet is connected. Select the type of your Bricklet from the drop-down box. If you press “Save” now, the latest plugin will be downloaded and written to the EEPROM, then read back again from the EEPROM and verified to be correctly written. A message box will pop up to inform you about the result. If the flash process failed, check if you selected the correct port and if the Bricklet is connected properly.

Instead of letting the Brick Viewer download the latest plugin you can also select “Custom...” from the drop-down box and specify a local file via the “Browse...” button.

You can also read the UID currently written on the Bricklet and set a new one. Note that the UID has to be in Base58 encoding, valid characters are 0-9, a-z and A-Z without 0 (zero), I (big i), O (big o) and l (small L). The only other restriction is that all Bricklet UIDs you use at the same time need to be unique, you can use recognizable names or patterns.

Brick ADC Calibration

If you have problems with inaccurate measurements (e.g. Linear Poti Bricklet does not reach the maximum or the voltage measurements in a stack is slightly off) it is possible that the calibration of the ADC is to blame.

To measure analog values, the microcontrollers on the Bricks have analog-to-digital converter (ADC). It is never guaranteed that an ADC on a microcontroller is perfectly calibrated. To overcome this problem, we make it possible to calibrate the ADC in your Bricks.

For the calibration you need one of the potentiometer Bricklets (Rotary Poti or Linear Poti). Connect it to a Brick and click on “Advanced Functions” in the Setup tab of Brick Viewer:

Choose the port your Poti Bricklet is connected to (A-D). Turn your Poti Bricklet completely to the left and press “Calibrate”, then turn your Poti Bricklet completely to right and press “Calibrate” again. If your ADC wasn’t calibrated well the gain and offset values should be different then the default values (4095 and 0).

You can test if the calibration works in principle by pressing “Calibrate” when the Poti Bricklet is in the middle position, then one of the values has to change (after that you have to recalibrate, of course).