In June/August Roman and I worked together on our Bachelor Thesis. During this time I started to search for a new job. I got connected to a few people who searched a iPhone/Mac developer in the area of Zurich. But nothing got really concrete. So I took the time and wrote an application to equinux. A well known german Mac software company based in Munich. I went to the job interview and somehow I made a good impression. Which means I finally got the job and I’m totally glad to start there on October 1st.

After we finished our Thesis we all went to the canary islands and celebrated the completion of our study. We made up the role that we don’t share photos from this week so no photos here, sorry. After we returned, we had to present and defend our Thesis. That went very well and we’ve got a very good mark. As far as we know the best in our branch of study.

In the last few weeks I finally moved to Munich which is definitely harder then to get a job there . Currently I just have a temporary solution to stay there but a definite solution is close. I’m already starting to really like this city and germany. And of course I visited the Oktoberfest!

Last weekend I went back to the place where I studied for the last three years for the graduation ceremony. We all enjoyed it and celebrated it condignly with a good party afterwards. Now I’m “Bachelor of Science FHNW in Computer Sciences with a Specialization in Distributed Software Systems”.

Do to the fact that I signed an employment contract with equinux, I will stop developing my own applications and completely focus on my work at equinux. So I think that’s pretty much what happens in the last 1/2 year. I enjoyed the time of changes but I’m also glad to finally start at equinux this week.

At the start it was very hard to get it work for me. I’m a total newbie on arm controllers. In school we always had intel processors and programmed them with windows. But now I wanted to program it with Mac OS X so I needed an extra USB/Serial/JTAG adapter. In the starer kit I got an OpenOCD-USB adapter which is totally free under the GPL terms and works perfectly with Mac OS X.

To get that setup to work under Mac OS X (10.5.6) you need the following software parts:

• OpenOCD
  • libusb-1.0.0
  • libftdi-0.15
  • openocd-0.1.0
• ARM-ELF-GCC (Download the compiler and follow the instructions under “Installation”)
• Of corse you need the apple developer tools installed for make and some other useful tools

Now how to get these things set up:

libusb and libftdi can you easy install with the following commands (execute them inside the corresponding directory):

./configure
make
sudo make install


For openocd you need to add some parameters for configure:

./configure --enable-ft2232_libftdi --enable-usbprog
make
sudo make install


Now we should be able to start openocd from the command with the following output:

oPostBookPro:~ tpost$ openocd
Open On-Chip Debugger 0.1.0 (2009-03-25-18:33) Release
BUGS? Read http://svn.berlios.de/svnroot/repos/openocd/trunk/BUGS
$URL: https://kc8apf@svn.berlios.de/svnroot/repos/openocd/tags/openocd-0.1.0/src/openocd.c $
Can't find openocd.cfg


So we need to configure openocd to work with the lpc-p2148 board. I use these two configs (openocd-usb.cfg and lpc2148.cfg) for the following openocd.cfg

source [find cfg/openocd-usb.cfg]
source [find cfg/lpc2148.cfg]


These two cfg’s are mostly copied from the configurations shipped with the oepnocd source. I only added a few lines.

#making gdb debugging work
gdb_breakpoint_override hard
gdb_memory_map enable

Now we are able to connect to the controller:

PostBookPro:openocd tpost$ openocd -f openocd.cfg
Open On-Chip Debugger 0.1.0 (2009-03-25-18:33) Release
BUGS? Read http://svn.berlios.de/svnroot/repos/openocd/trunk/BUGS
$URL: https://kc8apf@svn.berlios.de/svnroot/repos/openocd/tags/openocd-0.1.0/src/openocd.c $
jtag_speed: 5
force hard breakpoints
Info : JTAG tap: lpc2148.cpu tap/device found: 0x4f1f0f0f (Manufacturer: 0x787, Part: 0xf1f0, Version: 0x4)
Error: JTAG tap: lpc2148.cpu got: 0x4f1f0f0f (mfg: 0x787, part: 0xf1f0, ver: 0x4)
Error: JTAG tap: lpc2148.cpu expected 1 of 1: 0xffffffff (mfg: 0x7ff, part: 0xffff, ver: 0xf)
Error: trying to validate configured JTAG chain anyway...
Warn : no telnet port specified, using default port 4444
Warn : no gdb port specified, using default port 3333
Warn : no tcl port specified, using default port 6666


(Maybe someone can tell my why I get this error? I ignored it by now and I haven’t had any problems)

How we can see there is now running a telnet server on port 4444 (you can connect to it and take a look at the controller) and a gdb remote debugging daemon on 3333. I use the gdb with an init script. Which was very hard to make. The gdb init script:

#load the main.out for debugging symbols
file main.out
#connect to the remote debugging daemon
target remote localhost:3333
#reset and halt the controller
monitor reset
monitor halt
#set MEMMAP to User Flash Mode
monitor mww 0xE01FC040 0x0001

#finally upload your program image (.bin or .hex) and restart
monitor flash write_image erase /Path/To/Your/Compiled/Program/main.hex ihex
monitor soft_reset_halt
#break main
#continue

Finally we can start the gdb and play around with a program. Be aware that openocd must be started to connect gdb to your controller!

PostBookPro:BlinkAndBeep tpost$ arm-elf-gdb -command=arm-elf-gdb-init.sh
GNU gdb 6.4
Copyright 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
...

You can get my first try out project here. Press on B1 and you can see the LED1 and hear a beep on the BUZZER. By pressing B2 the LED2 flashes.

More resources:

• Schema
• Controller Manual

I’m very glad that I got through all and my controller is now working perfectly fine under Mac OS X. Once again no Windows needed! I hope I find the time to play a bit around with the controller and post some stuff here soon.

Download: Version 0.5 Beta

Whats new?

• Basic Spreadsheet Support
• Folder Support

These are the most requested features. I hope you like it and let me know what’s not so good and what should be done till version 1.0

At this point I announce that the 1.0 version of MiGhtyDocs will no longer be free. It will cost a small amount less then $5 USD. The exact amount is still to be defined. Tell me what you think is appropriated!

Lets start with the update of iPhoneNotes. I released version 0.8 of iPhoneNotes. This version works now with firmware 2.0 and some bugs with firmware 1.1.2 are fixed too. (I’ve got some bug-reports about that). Now when I was bugfixing iPhoneNotes I was thinking of the future of iPhoneNotes. The best way to keep iPhoneNotes alive would be a complete renew. Something with an alternative Notes application on the iPhone which makes it possible to us it without a jailbreak. And the ability to sync with the notes from Apple Mail. But currently I don’t have the time and the motivation to build such an environment. That means that iPhoneNotes will stay how it is now for the next future.

P.S. probably I can motivate my self to do some work for a future iPhoneNotes application when someone out there takes the initiative for it.

The New Releases

Marks: That is an application for students to manage their credits and marks. (for more see the product page) It will be available in the iPhone App Store for $0.99. Currently it’s “in review” by Apple. So it’s just a matter of time till it is finally available.

MiGhtyDocs: Let’s you view your Google Documents on your iPhone and have them available wherever you are. Even if you haven’t an internet connection. This app is avialable in the iPhone App Store when apple approved it too. It’s only version 0.5 so it has just some basic functions and a lot of possibilities to implement new features in the future. I’m very interested in your feedback for this application. So that I can implement your requirements in future versions! MiGhtyDocs will be available for free. (donations are always welcome)

iPhoneNotes 0.8
Marks
MiGhtyDocs

Yesterday I was at home by my parents (Eastern Switzerland). There I used Twinkle to look what’s up around me in the twitter network. And I found some strange twitter posts. It’s a curious bug because the town “Oberdorf” is actually near the other towns e.g. Dornbirn, but something went wrong with the country .
The 2nd curiosity was my location. It was 8 Km away from where I was. So it’s definitely time for the new iPhone 3G with built in GPS!
That’s not to be sneezed at. Most time twinkle does a good job and it’s a handsome application.

Twinkle Developers: Polar Bear Farm

Now I’m working on a new Project called Marks. It’s a small iPhone app for students to manage their modules, credits and marks.

I hope this application will be available at the App Store in mid june. If you have any ideas or wishes what should be included in this app – then let me know!

Now let’s start to search a vacation job. I’d like to get one where I can work on a software project. But there are just two weeks time so I think I try to get a vacation job at the company where I made my apprenticeship and administrate Windows NT domains

iPhoneNotes 0.6 is out now with a brandnew icon (thank you verry much Cola Sheep).
The bad appostrophe bug is fixed too. Check it out http://www.v1ru8.net/iphonenotes