CSEP567 Lab 8: “Introduction to TinyOS”

Objectives

The goal of this lab is to use tutorials to introduce the structure of TinyOS. In this lab you will learn the following:

• The major concepts used in TinyOS programming
• Basic mote communication
• How to use motes to obtain sensor readings
• Become familar with the the TinyOS tools

Important Warnings

1. DO NOT power the mote from the AC adapter and batteries at the same time. ALWAYS turn off the motes battery power before placing it in the programming board. Only one mote should be plugged into the MIB510 programmer. 
2. Be careful when placing your mica2dot into your MIB510 programmer and sound board- do NOT bend the pins.
3. Some other courses use software that changes your windows profile to point to a network copy of cygwin, not the local copy of cygwin. To complete these labs you will need to make sure to use the local copy of cygwin. If for some reason TinyOS is not working please inform a TA or lab staff member and we will attempt to undo the profile change. In a few extreme cases, students' profiles have had to be wiped clean by support staff.

Important Notes

• The type of motes you will be using in lab are the "mica2" and "mica2dot". Make sure to compile your program for the correct piece of hardware. (e.g. 'make mica2' NOT 'make mica') For mote programming you will be using the MIB510 serial programming board.
• Use the number on your sound board's colored sticker as your group number in hex. Please make sure to type in your group number as a hex number.
• A few of these tutorials may be out of date so please ask questions if you are confused.
• The mica2 and mica2dot are built around the ATmega128 microcontroller not the ATmega16.
• Use the default radio fequency and programming board. If you don't specify the radio frequency or programming board it will automatically choose a correct value.
• Make sure your MOTECOM variable is properly set when trying to communicate to the devices over serial. The mica2 communicate at 57600 baud while the mica2dots communicates at 19200.

Reading

• "A Network-Centric Approach to Embedded Software for Tiny Devices"
• "The Emergence of Networking Abstractions and Techniques in TinyOS"
• "The nesC Language: A Holistic Approach to Networked Embedded Systems"
• TinyOS Tutorials - especially the ones you will be completing

Resources

TinyOS Tutorials
ATmega128 data sheet
avr-gcc manual
Application notes section for the AVR 8-bit RISC family
nesC 1.1 Language Reference Manual

If you wish, you may, at home, install version 1.1.14 of Tinyos: http://www.tinyos.net/download.html
1.1.14 is the version we'll be using for the last two labs. However, we don't have programmers for use outside the lab, so a home installation will give you access to code and documentation only. You are on your own for the installation...

Suggested Steps

Tutorials

1. Unzip apps.zip (updated 11/30/05) to your Z drive, creating Z:\apps\.
2. If it's not already installed, CAREFULLY plug your mica2dot mote into your sound board. Then plug the sound board into the MIB510 programmer and connect the power and serial cables to the programmer. Battery power must be OFF!
3. Launch Cygwin and use the alias "cdapps" to navigate to the apps folder on your z: drive. Type 'alias' in cygwin to obtain a list of available aliases. The aliases are provided to make navigation around TinyOS easier.
4. Complete the tutorial called Lesson 1: Getting Started with TinyOS and nesC including the exercises. You will need to hand in your solution to the exercises for Lesson 1.
   
   (Questions have been moved to Assignment 3.)

5. Make sure BOTH members of your group attempt to compile and install an application onto a mote using his/her login to clear up any Windows profile issues. Make sure that you have set up your group number (in hex) as per the Important notes section above on BOTH member's profiles.
6. Using the photoresistor located on the sound board, complete the tutorial called Lesson 2: Event-Driven Sensor Acquisition. Refer to the sound board datasheet for the pin mapping. You do NOT need to complete the exercise from this lesson. NOTE: Lesson 2 states "Notice the use of the function rcombine() in the implementation of StdControl.init()." However the recently updated version of SenseM does NOT use rcombine( ). It is confusing that the Lesson refers to rcombine() even though the function is no longer demonstrated in SenseM. The function rcombine() is a special nesC combining function which returns the logical-and of two commands who result type is result_t.
   
   

7. Complete the tutorial called Lesson 3: Introducing Tasks for Application Data Processing including the exercises. You will need to hand in your solution to the exercises for Lesson 3.
8. Complete the tutorial called Lesson 4: Component Composition and Radio Communication including the exercises. You will need to hand in your solution to the exercises for Lesson 4.
9. Complete the tutorial called Lesson 6: Displaying Data on PC including the exercises. The "extra credit" section is optional and will not be worth any extra credit in this class. You will need to team up with another group to get a third mote to attempt the "extra credit".
10. Optional: You and your partner might want to complete the first part of Lesson 5: Simulating TinyOS Applications in TOSSIM  to learn how to debug with TOSSIM. TinyViz is not working as described in this tutorial and problems have been reported on the help list. Therefore we will not be using it in this class to avoid unnessary complications. Feel free to attempt to experiment with TinyViz but the course staff will NOT support TinyViz.

Deliverables

Turn in your solutions for exercises in Lessons 1, 3, and 4.  All your files should contain comments that include: both partners' full name, the lab number (e.g. “Lab 8, Lesson 1”), as well as important words about how your code works.