Dema-rc on SC2¶

Here you will find information on how to get dema-rc installed and configured on SkyController2. After ensuring you are connected through adb, you have 2 options: use pre-built binaries or install from source. See details below.

Connect to SkyController2 via adb¶

Turn on the controller and connect it to your computer via usb-ethernet device. Connect to it via adb:

$ adb connect 192.168.53.1:9050

Install prebuilt binaries¶

Currently there is no released version, so just use latest master branch. Binaries are available directly from CI:

$ curl -JOL https://gitlab.com/lucas.de.marchi/dema-rc/-/jobs/artifacts/master/raw/build/dema-rc-bundle.tar.gz?job=bundle-sc2
$ curl -JOL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lucasdemarchi/dema-rc/master/tools/install-sc2.sh
$ chmod +x install-sc2.sh
$ export ANDROID_SERIAL=192.168.53.1:9050
$ ./install-sc2.sh bundle.tar.gz

Note

Setting ANDROID_SERIAL environment var is not strictly necessary if adb is connected to only one device. If you have more devices connected like, e.g. Disco/Bebop, you need to set it though.

Now you should we an output like this:

Space requirements on SkyController 2:
/data:  Free:        4344 KB
        Required:    172 KB
/:      Free:        7736 KB
        Required:    8 KB


Installing these files on SkyController 2:
./data/ftp/internal_000/dema-rc/usr/bin/dema-rc-cm
./data/ftp/internal_000/dema-rc/usr/bin/dema-rc
./data/ftp/internal_000/dema-rc/usr/bin/dema-rc-btn
./etc/boxinit.d/99-demarc.rc
./etc/dema-rc/dema-rc.conf

################
SkyController 2
################

Mounting / as rw...
Removing previous installation under /data/ftp/internal_000/dema-rc/usr
/tmp/demarc-install.iKTnE9PN/./: 5 files pushed. 2.2 MB/s (170483 bytes in 0.073s)

Fixing up file permissions...

Installation finished successfully, please reboot SkyController 2

Build and install dema-rc from source¶

You can also build dema-rc. For that you will need an armv7 toolchain with some specific tunables. Since we build dema-rc on CI, we already have a recommended toolchain based on buildroot. You can download the latest one: toolchain.

Extract it to /opt and add to PATH:

$ export PATH=/opt/arm-buildroot-linux-gnueabihf_sdk-buildroot/bin/:$PATH

Configure dema-rc:

$ meson setup \
    -Dboard=sc2 \
    --cross-file /opt/arm-buildroot-linux-gnueabihf_sdk-buildroot/etc/meson/cross-compilation.conf \
    build

Build:

$ ninja -C build

Create bundle to install on SkyControler2:

$ ninja -C build bundle

Install on SkyController2:

$ export ANDROID_SERIAL=192.168.53.1:9050
$ ./tools/install-sc2.sh build/dema-rc-bundle.tar.gz

When developing on dema-rc and only modifying the main program, you can skip the bundle creation and push only that binary:

$ adb push build/src/dema-rc /data/ftp/internal_000/dema-rc/usr/bin/dema-rc

Note that the command above installs only the main binary. Check in the install log above the other files that need to be sent if you modified it.

Change SSID dema-rc will connect to¶

As part of the installed files above, we install a script to start, stop and monitor the WiFi connections. Since SkyController2 will connect to Disco, you need to configure its SSID. The file is in /data/ftp/internal_000/ssid.txt.

Automatically start dema-rc¶

dema-rc already installs the integration files to start dema-rc on boot. However it leaves the original SW stack as the default. To switch to dema-rc to use with ArduPilot, simply press the "settings" button on SkyController2.

The LED that was red/green will now behave as following:

Blinking blue when dema-rc is started and until it connects to WiFi
Solid blue while it remains connected to a WiFi network.