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I have always used microcontrollers to build circuits , specially robot brainsrecently i got interested in SBCs as they provide too much processing power could be fairly enough to implement big algorithms with sufficient memorys to store large data and little execution time(500 mhz).googeling SBCs i found most of em is based on the ARM processors, are those microcontrollers or microprocessors?with no expierience in SBCs at all i would like to know how this stuff is programmed its stated that you can run an Operating system on it , Linux mostlyis it only a kernel? or with a distro?how would you use it when there is no monitor?thanks already for answers
I say that as many people I know who try to jump from M$ windoze to Linux usually struggle because they don't realize that Linux does things differently than M$ does.
I imagine like most Linux sistems without the monitor you could connect to it via telnet or ssh if you have a network connection.
One thing that will help you if you are thinking about using a Linux based SBC is to get a cheep computer (or just an old hand me down) and run Linux on it to get used to the environment, because it will be easier to use Linux to work on your project that it will be to use your Windows computer.
but generally if you aren't going to be using a laptop or extremely new hardware, installing Linux shouldn't be too hard for any one who has enough technical proficiency to build a robot
well lets put it this wayits a linux kernel that comes already in the board, like linux 2.6 (olimex boards)and you have to make a distro , well is this distro the thing goin to control the bot?in mcus the program would be written in c on pc,then compiled into hex file then downloaded into an mcu and runs therewhat is the sequence in sbcs?thanks
You don't 'program' it as you do with mcu's. Instead you compile executable files, just like the files you run on a PC but compatible with the SBC's processor (ARM for example). Then you just transfer it to the SBC's memory (could for example be an onboard flash memory, or a usb stick memory connected to one of it's USB ports, if it now has any USB port).
When you use Linux on an SBC you don't 'use' a distribution so much as make your own. With the right tools it's not so hard just more involved.
With Linux installed you just have to rewrite your C application that runs on Linux then transfer it to the SBC, overriding the previous one, you don't have to reinstall Linux.
Thanks for creating this thread. There is tons of useful information as im also in the beginning of learning about SBC's.
I also really appreciate this thread because one of my goals is to learn hardware/software at the level where I can make a ARM/Linux based robot
thats interesting, so what are the tools ? is it somthin like visual c++ (i use this when i program in c++) ?
For Linux you use gcc (GNU C Compiler) for ARM.
or you could ssh into that machine and edit your code in a Vim running on the robot. I think that's still valid with "your favourite editor" since Vim is my favourite editor
supposing i did write a program in c++ for the ARM micrprocessor then i save it on a flash usb memory,then ill plug it into the sbc, how do i make the sbc then read it?QuoteFor Linux you use gcc (GNU C Compiler) for ARM.does this compiler run over windows?
fdisk -l
mkdir /media/usbmemorymount /dev/sda1 /media/usbmemory
cd /media/usbmemoryhelloworld