ECRobotInstaller – Simplified installation of tools for Embedded Coder Robot

Simplifies the installation of ECRobot, a Simulink platform for LEGO Mindstorms NXT code generation

Description

"Embedded Coder Robot" (ECRobot) is a Simulink-based modeling and code-generation environment for the LEGO Mindstorms NXT. Generating code with ECRobot requires several products, such as Cygwin (TM), GNU ARM (TM) Compiler, and the LEGO Mindstorms (TM) NXT driver.

ECRobotInstaller simplifies the download and install of ECRobot and all the associated tools. It essentially consists of three MATLAB files:
* a script that downloads all the components (download_ecrobot_tools.m)
* a script that configures and installs the components (install_ecrobot_tools.m)
* A GUI that walks the user through updating the firmware on the LEGO NXT (update_nxt_firmware.m)
For more information, see README.pdf.

ECRobotInstaller (ver 1.38) has been tested with (and requires) ECRobot ver 4.00. Note:
* ECRobot requires Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
* ECRobot requires 32-bit MATLAB (it is possible to install 32-bit MATLAB on a 64-bit platform; see link below).

Related URLs:
* FileExchange entry for Embedded Coder Robot:
http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/13399
* MATLAB and Simulink solutions for LEGO Mindstorms NXT development:
http://www.mathworks.com/programs/mindstorms/
* Installing 32-bit MATLAB on a 64-bit Windows machine:
http://www.mathworks.com/support/solutions/en/data/1-579TVF/index.html

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge the following in the creation of this submission:
Embedded Coder Robot NXT Demo
This submission has inspired the following:
VU-LEGO Real Time Target

• MATLAB release: MATLAB 7.4 (R2007a)
• Other requirements: ECRobotInstaller works on Windows platforms. Running ECRobot requires additional products; see ECRobot FileExchange entry for details.

[alin]

 

[Elton]

Hi, thank you for your hard work and support but i receive :

Cygwin: Downloading base package ... (~ 18 MB)
  Unable to download Cygwin base package

why is this happening?

[Elton]

matlab 2010a

[Classroom Resources Team]

Elton, Try specifying a different cygwin url. (In README.pdf, see "Cygwin is not downloading/installing properly" in the "Common Questions" section).

[Elton]

Cygwin downloading setup is ok but no package is downloaded. I´ll try manual installation. Thanks

[Evgeni]

Thank You so much. It also works great on Windows 7, junst need to start MATLAB as 'admin'

[Sergio]

Hi ive been trying to use the installer, i have tried in different computers, different OS and i get the same error with the Gnu Arm when i run the instaler it says it downloaded correctly but when i try to run the ('TestMotor_app,'build')
inside the testmotorOSEK the folowing appears onscreen ### Executing GNU-ARM toolchain for building executable ...
Compiling /cygdrive/c/LegoMindstorms/ECRobot/ecrobotNXT/environment/nxtOSEK/toppers_osek/kernel/alarm.c to alarm.o
/cygdrive/c/LegoMindstorms/GNU_ARM_Compiler/bin/arm-elf-gcc.exe: error while loading shared libraries: cygintl-3.dll: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
make: *** [build/kernel/alarm.o] Error 127

any help would be aprreciated i have tried downlaod gnu arm manually but stills ame problem

[Gautam Vallabha]

Sergio: ECRobotInstaller ver 1.36 seems to point to an old version of GNU ARM compiler. I will update the FileExchange entry, but in the meantime, try the following:

1) Edit ecrobot_install_config.m

2) find the line that says:
config.GnuTools_URL = 'http://www.gnuarm.com/bu-2.16.1_gcc-4.0.2-c-c++_nl-1.14.0_gi-6.4.exe';

3) Change that line to:
config.GnuTools_URL = 'http://www.gnuarm.com/bu-2.17_gcc-4.1.1-c-c++_nl-1.14.0_gi-6.5.exe';

4) Uninstall GNU ARM, and also delete the GNU ARM installer (the .exe file) from the archive directory. You can find the install & archive directories by typing "ecrobot_install_config" at the MATLAB command prompt.

5) Re-run download_ecrobot_tools and install_ecrobot_tools

Thanks to Harald Kroll for identifying the problem.

[Gautam Vallabha]

The latest ECRobot Installer (v 1.37), submitted on Jan 5 2011, addresses the above GNUARM cygintl-3.dll error.
 
It also has an updated URL for nxtOSEK (there were some sourceforge changes that make the old url return an invalid file, which caused an error during installation).

Note: if you are using ECRobot 3.18 with 64-bit MATLAB, you will run into a problem since ECRobot 3.18 does not include 64-bit mex files for the blocks. There are two workarounds:
1) Run 32-bit MATLAB on your 64-bit machine, or
2) Get a free supported 64-bit compiler (like Visual Studio 2008 Express) and compile the s-functions. Here is the list of supported compilers:
http://www.mathworks.com/support/compilers/R2010b/index.html

[Bogdan]

I forgot to paste the error message. This is just the first line.

/bin/sh: -c: line 0: syntax error near unexpected token `('

[Bogdan]

I'm getting this error after I followed the advice you gave to Sergio and changed the line that initializes config.GnuTools_URL

[Didem]

Hi

I am getting GNU ARM compiler and Cywing base packets errors. I checked above suggestions but didn't work...

I run CHECK_ECROBOT_TOOLS and it shows this two problem. Can you please help!?

[Didem]

I still receive error messages:
================ 10-May-2011 20:02:52 Configuring ECRobot
ECRobot version 3.17 or later detected
### Start verifying Embedded Coder Robot NXT installations...
### Verifying cygwin make 3.81: OK
Problem with automatic configuration of ECRobot

Install cancelled
??? Error using ==> ecrobotnxtsetup>PromptBasedSetUp at 188
ERROR: GNUARM path or version (must be 4.0.2) might be wrong.

Error in ==> ecrobotnxtsetup>PromptBasedSetUp at 188
error('ERROR: GNUARM path or version (must be 4.0.2) might be
wrong.');

Error in ==> ecrobotnxtsetup at 60
[cygwin_bin_dir, gnuarm_root_dir, nexttool_root_dir] = ...

Error in ==> install_ecrobot_tools>configure_ecrobot at 420
ecrobotnxtsetup(cygwin_bin_dir, gnuarm_dir, nexttool_dir);

Error in ==> install_ecrobot_tools at 75
configure_ecrobot(config);

and when I try to run test is gives error:
Error executing callback 'ClickFcn'
Error using ==> nxtbuild at 121
ecrobotnxtsetupinfo.m does not exist in environment directory. Execute ecrobotnxtsetup.m to specify necessity information.

I executed ecrobotnxtsetup.m and then I receive message:
>> ecrobotnxtsetup
### Start verifying Embedded Coder Robot NXT installations...
### cygwin/bin path: C:/cygwin/bin
### Verifying cygwin make 3.81: OK
### GNUARM path: C:/LegoMindstorms/GNU_ARM_Compiler/bin
??? Error using ==> ecrobotnxtsetup>GuiBasedSetUp at 139
ERROR: GNUARM path or version (must be 4.0.2) might be wrong.

Error in ==> ecrobotnxtsetup at 52
[cygwin_bin_dir, gnuarm_root_dir, nexttool_root_dir] = ...

There was a warning, may be it has some connections:================ 10-May-2011 19:58:25 Starting NXT OSEK installation
zip file = C:\ecrobot_installer_v1_37\ECRobotDownloads\nxtOSEK.zip
install dir = c:\LegoMindstorms\ECRobot\\ecrobotNXT\environment\ Warning: Permission denied to create file "c:\LegoMindstorms\ECRobot\\ecrobotNXT\environment\nxtOSEK\samples_c++\cc\sprite_devl\sprite.suo".
> In iofun\private\extractArchive>extractArchiveEntry at 108
In iofun\private\extractArchive at 52
In unzip at 98
In install_ecrobot_tools>do_unzip at 448
In install_ecrobot_tools>install_nxtosek at 351
In install_ecrobot_tools at 69
Unzipped 1989 files