Internet of Things: Setting Up Your DragonBoard™ Development Platform

The DragonBoard™ 410c is capable of running a variety of different operating systems, that being said you are free to chose the operating system that you find is best fit for you. Now, we understand that there is a diverse user base for this board and would like to cover as much as possible in this lesson so everyone can enjoy it! Whether you are a Windows user or a Mac user, or prefer Android over Ubuntu, there is a video or two here for you! In this lesson we will help you choose an operating system to best fit for your needs, we will then cover the download, flashing and installation process for all currently available operating systems. Because of the diverse nature of this board we will teach you multiple ways to flash your new operating system and provide a pro's and con's list for the different methods. By the end of this lesson switching between operating system will be easy and exciting for users of all skill levels.

No one expects to damage their new DragonBoard™ 410c, but sometimes accidents happen. This module is dedicated to helping you not only prevent these accidents from happening, but also to fixing any problems should your board become damaged in any way. Here we will go over the difference between a soft brick and a hard brick and why they are two things you want to avoid.

Welcome to Module 6! In this module we will be creating your first Android App to port to the DragonBoard™ 410c. This “Network Test” App will give you a teaser for the programmatic feats you will be able to accomplish with the DragonBoard™! You will learn about the different GPS and Location Services available on Android and how to access Bluetooth and Wi-fi Data. This module will briefly go over the importance of the Android Manifest and asking the Users for the proper permissions. Lastly, we’ll spice up our application by playing around with Intents and enabling the application to facilitate the above connectivity and network tests. This may sound like a lot, but don’t worry! We will help you get on your feet and by the end of this module, you’ll have coded a neat little application.

In Module 7, will give you a general introduction and brief overview of Android Studio’s Native Development Kit (NDK). The NDK allows us users to program Android applications using C/C++. The NDK utilizes the Java Native Interface (JNI) to facilitate code and interaction between Java and C/C++. This tool was created for users who either have existing C/C++ libraries or plan to use libraries only available in C/C++. Android Studio has a specific build and compilation process catered specifically for NDK Applications that we will explain and cover in this Module. Once we have a better understanding of the NDK, we will create a straightforward “Hello World!” application.

Who doesn’t love a good game to pass time? In this Module, we will create a more advanced and interactive Android Application / Game! We will be creating our version of FlappyBird--CalliBird or Calit2Bird, as we like to call it. We will cover the basics of the game by defining certain parameters. First, we have what we call our “Actors”. You can think of “Actors” as any part of the game that appears on the screen (the obstacles and the bird). In the game, we also define our own Location system and a Map class that will handle the different movements in the game. Next we define our game processor which is the backbone of the game. Game Processor ensures your score is constantly updated, delegates the movements to the Map class, and detects collisions, to name a few. Lastly, we will cover the importance of interfaces and its application to this Android App. Interfaces will enable us to 1. play CalliBird / Calit2Bird using any form of input we want (using touch, a sensor, a controller, etc.) and 2. render the game in any display we have (a screen, an led block, etc.). There is a lot of freedom with this game so you will be able to spice it up and make it your own!

Congratulations! You’ve made it to the last module of Course 2! In this Module we will cover a more advanced NDK Application. This application is a bit more challenging than prior applications because it is coded in both Java and C. Regardless of the rigour, we know you’ll be able to accomplish this feat! As for the application, we will be turning our DragonBoard™ 410c into a web server! This web server will detail information regarding the DragonBoard™ 410c’s connectivity, GPIOs, and any other statuses you may want to add. We will pull the information from the DragonBoard™ and encode it in a JSON format using Java, then use C to establish a server connection and send the data out. We will walk you through our code and thought processes so that you can gain a better understanding of how to use the NDK to run Android Applications as well as a taste of what the Internet of Things is all about.