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Frequently Asked Questions

General​

How do I access and develop on the brain?

We have a dedicated webpage to help you connect your Amiga. Check out this tutorial

How do I update the Dashboard Firmware?

All latest updates are available online with detailed instructions that will take you step by step to a successful update.



Who do I get in touch with for errors with the Amiga?

To ensure we are continuous improving our software and hardware products, we have several channels to contact our support team:



All support cases are subject to our Amiga Support Agreement

What is the voltage level of the amiga pendant and brain?

24v power is the voltage for the Brain and the Pendant. The batteries supply 44v (nominal) to the main power circuit, and the PoE Switch uses a stabilized 48v source powered by 2 DC Converts (step down and step up schema). For details, see Base Amiga Electronics.

How do I access the MAC address on Brain?

On your Brain main screen, navigate to Seetings > About > Debug Terminal. Click Show Keyboard and type ifconfig. Scroll down the results of the command until you find the wlan0 section. Your MAC address will be int he line that starts with ether and will be of the form 28:d0:aa:b5:12:ef. Provide it for your network admin for whitelisting on your wi-fi network.

CAN bus​

What is the baud rate of the CAN bus the Amiga runs on?

The Amiga CAN bus runs at 250 kbps (250,000 bits per second).



Brain App Development​

How can I create a new app for the brain?

Custom applications can be created on the brain from anywhere. We have a detailed tutorial on creating your first custom app on your Amiga.



Why are other apps launching over the app I'm currently using?

deprecation warning
This is out-of-date for brains running v2.x Amiga OS software.
This video only applies to brains running Amiga OS v1.x versions.
end warning



If you launch an app with the command line using an entry.sh script, it is currently possible to have touch interactions with the launcher behind. This will cause other installed apps to unexpectedly launch over the app you are trying to use.



If this is causing you issues, a simple workaround is to launch a basic, empty app that will block touches from the launcher. The amiga-app-template is well suited for this.



In your terminal ssh'd in as the amiga user:



cd ~/apps/


git clone https://github.com/farm-ng/amiga-app-template.git



Then launch the app template by clicking the Amiga App Template AppButton on the launcher before running your custom app with the entry.sh script.



Apps launched by clicking the AppButton should not experience this issue.

Using the REPL​

What is the REPL?

The REPL is the "Read-Evaluate-Print-Loop", an interactive terminal for running CircuitPython commands directly on the microcontroller.



Some basics:


  • You can interrupt the running code with ctrl+C

  • You can enter CircuitPython commands (or paste them with a right click) following the >>> and run them with Enter

  • You can restart the previously running application with ctrl+D

How do I connect to the REPL?

There are multiple methods for connecting to the serial console of your microcontrollers (dashboard, pendant, MCU kit, etc.).



The Advanced serial console is recommended, but Mu is easier to get started with and has some useful added-on functionality (like a plotter for printed tuples).



The pendant, and other simple microcontrollers, will show up as a single serial port. The dashboard will show up as two ports, one for the console and one for data transfer. The first port should be the console you want to connect to for stopping the program, running commands in the REPL, etc.


Advanced serial console
Windows

See the adafruit docs for getting started with PuTTY: Windows serial console.

Linux

See the adafruit docs for getting started with 'screen' in your terminal: Linux serial console.

Mac

See the adafruit docs for getting started with 'screen' in your terminal: Mac serial console.



TIP: Use autocomplete to get the correct usb modem .../tty.usb[tab_for_autocomplete]

Mu

Mu is the recommended starter serial console program by adafruit on their CircuitPython serial console page. Mu has a built in plotter for tuples printed to the serial console (print statements in the python code on your microcontroller), which can be convenient for debugging.



However, we've found that Mu can be a little unstable, freezes occasionally, and lacks some useful advanced functionality. So we'd recommend checking out their links for the advanced serial consoles for most purposes.

Which port / console do I choose?

As described in the Adafruit advanced serial console links, you can query the devices on Linux & Mac with:
ls / dev/ttyACM* or find the Windows COM port in the Device Manager.



  • The pendant, and other simple microcontrollers, will show up as a single serial port.

  • The dashboard will show up as two ports, one for the console and one for data transfer. The first port should be the console you want to connect to for stopping the program, running commands in the REPL, etc.


Keep in mind that the ports will increment as you connect multiple devices.