Raspberry Pi Release

Raspberry Pi users users can compile from the repository source code on GitHub. The download link below will take you to the SimpleIDE GitHub repository.

• SimpleIDE on GitHub (offsite)
• Follow the installation instructions in the Linux INSTALL.txt file to install to your device.

If you try it and find something you think might be a bug, please report it to the SimpleIDE Open Source Project site’s Issues page.

NOTE: THIS IS AN OPEN-SOURCE, COMMUNITY-INSPIRED PROJECT. INSTALLATION AND USAGE SUPPORT BEYOND THE STEPS LISTED HERE ARE PROVIDED BY OUR FORUM COMMUNITY AND NOT THE PARALLAX TECH SUPPORT TEAM.

In addition to other development platforms, the Propeller microcontroller is programmable in C/C++ using a low-cost Raspberry Pi Single Board Computer. This tutorial demonstrates how to set up the necessary hardware and software assuming you are starting from scratch without any Raspberry Pi experience. Watch the video and refer to the instructions below as necessary.
 

Complete Raspberry Pi + Propeller Activity Board System

A complete stand-alone Raspberry Pi system connected to a Propeller Activity Board looks like this:

 

Parts List

For a complete stand-alone configuration, you need these parts:

• Raspberry Pi Model B – Recommend Model B for its extra RAM, network connector, and extra USB connector. Be cautious about special “value-added” packages available from distributors; the Raspberry Pi Model B board by itself is recommended.
• Micro-USB Power Supply (5 VDC) – Wall-charger commonly used for mobile phones or tablets. Recommend a 12 Watt (2.4 A) supply; minimum 6 Watt (1.2 A). A lesser power supply may cause strange issues with storage and other I/O, that can be frustrating and hard to diagnose.
• SDHC Card – Recommend 4 GB class 10 (or better) SDHC card for space and speed. Check http://elinux.org/RPi_SD_cards for a list of known compatible and incompatible cards before you purchase one.
• HD Monitor + HDMI cable – Standard HDMI male to male cable, HDMI cable plus a DVI male adapter, or an HDMI male to DVI male cable.
• Powered USB Hub – Recommend USB 2.0 Hub with an included external power supply (3.5 A, or more). The hub’s external power prevents extra burden being placed on the Raspberry Pi.
• USB Mouse – Standard ball or optical mouse.
• USB Keyboard – Standard 104-key keyboard.
• Network cable – Cat5 or Cat5e recommended.
   

Connect the Hardware

• Place the Raspberry Pi Model B on a non-conductive surface.
• Plug the Micro-USB side of the power supply cable into the power connector on the Raspberry Pi board.

• Connect one side of the HDMI cable to the Raspberry Pi and the other side to your HD monitor.
• Connect the USB Hub to the Raspberry Pi.

Do not plug the USB Hub’s power supply into the wall yet. Leave the USB Hub’s power supply disconnected until you’re ready to power up the Raspberry Pi.

• Connect the USB Mouse and USB Keyboard to available ports on the external USB hub.
• Connect a standard Cat5 network cable between the Raspberry Pi and a port on your network. Connection to a DHCP-enabled network is recommended, like what is provided by most modern combo router and wireless access points.

• Find an available desktop or laptop computer with an SD card reader/writer.
• Insert the SD card for your Raspberry Pi into the computer’s SD card reader/writer.
• Point a web browser at the Raspberry Pi downloads site (http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads).
• Download, install, and run the SD Card Association’s formatting tool from the link provided at the Raspberry Pi downloads page.
• Use this software to format the SD card properly for use with the Raspberry Pi.  Make sure to click the Option button, select “Full (Erase)” from the Format Type: field and select “On” from the Format Size Adjustment field, then click the OK and Format buttons.

• Go back to the Raspberry Pi downloads site to get the OS image.

For the best experience, use the New Out Of Box Software (NOOBS) to install the operating system image. There are many Linux distributions for Raspberry Pi, but NOOBS makes it easy to try them all from a single SD image.

• Download the NOOBS image and extract its contents onto the SD card.
• Eject the SD card from your computer and insert it into the Raspberry Pi.
• Plug in the USB hub’s power supply.
• Plug in the Micro-USB power supply to power up the Raspberry Pi.
• After a few moments, NOOBS will boot and present you with a simple OS Installation menu.
• Select the “Raspbian” operating system and then click Install OS. NOOBS will install Raspbian onto your SD card and will then reboot.

Keep default settings but set GUI desktop to start automatically. At the end of the first reboot, the Raspberry Pi Software Configuration Tool will appear. All the defaults are fine, except we recommend setting the GUI desktop to automatically start up after boot.

• On the Raspberry Pi Software Configuration Tool, move the highlight down to the “Enable Boot to Desktop/Scratch” item and press Enter to select.
• On the “Choose boot option” prompt, move the highlight to “Desktop log in as user ’pi’ at the graphical desktop” and press Enter to select.
• Back on the Raspberry Pi Software Configuration Tool, press the right arrow key to highlight “Finish,” then press Enter twice to reboot.
• Upon rebooting, the Raspbian graphical desktop will appear.

• In the Raspbian desktop, open the Midori web browser and open this Propeller Raspberry Pi page.
• Download the SimpleIDE Raspberry Pi binary or (for newer versions) visit the SimpleIDE GitHub repo, clone it, and build it on your Raspberry Pi.  (The following instructions assume you’ve downloaded the old release binary)
• Open the LXTerminal application. It should start up in your home directory right where Midori just saved the download. Type “ls” to verify.
• Use bunzip2 to unzip the archive by typing “bunzip2 -vv SimpleIDE_0-9-45_armv6l-RaspberryPi-Linux.tar.bz2” into the LXTerminal. (The actual file name may very). NOTE: For a shortcut to excessive typing, after entering the first unique letters of the file name “Simp,” press the tab key to auto-complete. Be patient, it will take more than five minutes to unzip.
• Then extract the files from the resulting tar file by typing “tar -xvf SimpleIDE_0-9-45_armv6l-RaspberryPi-Linux.tar” into the LXTerminal. Once again the tab key shortcut can be used to save on typing. This extraction process will take about two minutes.
• Move into the resulting SimpleIDE… folder by typing “cd SimpleIDE-0-9-45” into the LXTerminal. (The actual folder name may very).
• Run the setup script by typing “sudo ./setup.sh install” into the LXTerminal. This installation process will take about two minutes.

 

Run SimpleIDE

• When installation is complete, run SimpleIDE by typing “simpleide” into the LXTerminal (from within the folder of the previous step).
• Verify and clear any first-time-run prompts.

• Connect your Propeller Activity Board to the external USB hub.
• Select the proper USB port in SimpleIDE’s port field.
• Now you can compile and download your code to the Propeller.

 

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Many thanks go to jazzed, Heater, Oldbitcollector, mindrobots, Roy Eltham, Bill Henning, and others for their contributions that made this happen!