6. First Steps on Hardware

This section gives a brief walk-through on setting up a debugger connection to a BMS-Master. Aim of this section is to check that all crucial parts of the toolchain work and to recap the process of setting up the toolchain.

Note

In order to be able to develop software for the BMS and deploy it to the embedded target, it is absolutely necessary to have these three components in place:

  • the embedded device itself,

  • a power supply,

  • a debugger.

6.1. Setup

It is assumed, that all required software has been installed. Details on the software installation can be found in Software Installation. Most notable parts of the toolchain are:

  • the Python venv environment,

  • the compiler toolchain,

  • and a debugger.

6.2. Compilation

Details on this step are described in Building the Application. The following steps should pass and result in the application being built.

Note

TI HALCoGen is not available on Linux, and therefore the code generator tool can not run on Linux. Therefore, in order to build on Linux, the build process needs to be run on Windows first, and then the entire directory build/app_embedded/src/app/hal needs to be copied to the Linux machine. These files should be converted to LF. After that Linux builds are possible. This procedure needs to be repeated everytime the HAL configuration files (conf/hcg/app.hcg, conf/hcg/app.dil) are changed.

.\fox.ps1 waf configure build_app_embedded

If any error messages occurs, they have to be investigated before continuing.

6.3. Hardware Setup

For this first setup, it is enough to connect a power supply and a debugger to the BMS-Master. Optionally, a CAN-interface can be connected to the CAN1 connector. To debug or flash the binary file into the hardware, a debugger must also be connected to the BMS-Master. The connection is shown in Fig. 6.1 and the accompanying Table 6.1. More details on the position and type of connectors can be found in Connectors.

|bms-master| connectors

Fig. 6.1 BMS-Master connectors

Table 6.1 BMS-Master connectors description

Connector ID

Functionality

Pinout

J3008

Debugger

Debug Connector

J2009

Supply

Supply

J2000

Smart Power Switch 0 (Contactor 0)

Smart Power Switches

J2002

Smart Power Switch 1 (Contactor 1)

Smart Power Switches

J2003

Smart Power Switch 2 (Contactor 2)

Smart Power Switches

J2004

Smart Power Switch 3 (Contactor 3)

Smart Power Switches

J2006

Smart Power Switch 4 (Contactor 4)

Smart Power Switches

J2007

Smart Power Switch 5 (Contactor 5)

Smart Power Switches

J2008

Smart Power Switch 6 (Contactor 6)

Smart Power Switches

J2010

Smart Power Switch 7 (Contactor 7)

Smart Power Switches

J2033

Interlock

Interlock

J2034

PWM (Insulation Monitoring)

Insulation Monitoring

J2001

Ethernet

Ethernet connector (J2001)

J2013

RS485

RS485

J2021

CAN 1

CAN1

J2024

CAN 2 (isolated)

CAN2 (isolated)

J9002

Extension board

Signal connector to an optional BMS-Extension (J9002)

J9002

Interface board

Signal connector to BMS-Interface (J9000)

6.4. Flash the Bootloader

In order to update the application on the fly, the bootloader needs to be compiled and flashed into the BMS-Master in advance, if it is not pre-installed on the BMS-Master. The following steps are needed to flash the bootloader:

  1. Build the bootloader

    .\fox.ps1 waf configure build_bootloader_embedded

  2. Flash the binary file of the bootloader into the BMS-Master using the debugger (e.g., Lauterbach Trace32 debugger):

    1. Connect the BMS-Master to a power supply and power it.

    2. Launch the Lauterbach Trace32 debugger using the shortcut at build/run_t32marm. If another debugger is used, ignore this and the next steps and follow the instructions provided for that debugger to flash the bootloader binary file into the BMS-Master.

    3. Use the “Up” button (A) to set the BMS-Master to its “Up” state and then the flash button (C) to flash the bootloader binary (see TRACE32 Power View).

      trace32_power_view

      Fig. 6.2 TRACE32 Power View

    4. The bootloader has been successfully flashed.

The bootloader now enables to flash an application binary on the BMS-Master without using a debugger.

6.5. Flash/Update the foxBMS 2 Application Using the Bootloader

Steps to flash/update the the foxBMS 2 application using the bootloader of the BMS-Master:

  1. Connect the host PC with the BMS-Master via CAN1 using an USB to CAN adapter.

  2. Check the connection between the host PC and the bootloader by running:

    .\fox.ps1 bootloader check

    If the bootloader is connected and waiting for further commands, the message Bootloader is running will be displayed:

    Checking if the bootloader is online...
Bootloader is running.

  3. Flash/update the foxBMS 2 binary into the BMS-Master:

    [Option 1]: If no foxBMS binary has ever been flashed into the target:

    Entering the following command in the terminal:

    .\fox.ps1 bootloader load-app

    The following message indicates that the foxBMS application has been successfully uploaded to the BMS-Master and should be started:

    Uploading foxBMS 2 [1/3]: [▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮] 100%
Successfully uploaded the application binary to the target, start the foxBMS application!

    [Option 2]: If any foxBMS binary has already been flashed into the target:

    Power off the BMS-Master and enter the following command in the terminal:

    .\fox.ps1 bootloader load-app

    Power on the BMS-Master after the following instruction is displayed in the terminal:

    Waiting for the bootloader to be powered on ...

More details about the bootloader can be found in Bootloader.

6.6. Flash/Debug the Application Using the Debugger

Start the TRACE32 software using the shortcut build/run_t32marm.lnk that is generated during project configuration (only generated if Lauterbach is available), and click the “Up” button (A) to set the BMS-Master to its Up state. After that, click the flash button (B) to flash the foxBMS 2 application.

Lauterbach TRACE32 UI to flash the embedded software

Fig. 6.3 Lauterbach TRACE32 UI to flash the embedded software

After the binary is successfully flashed, the user can start the application and debug it using the features of the debugger software. More details on setting up the debugger toolchain can be found in Debugging the Application.