Intel Edison

Edison Getting Started Guide

Created by OpenHardwareDays / @openhardwareday

Meet the Edison

The Edison is the powerful new computing module from Intel®. It’s tiny enough to embed into wearable projects, versatile enough to manage internet-of-things applications, and powerful enough to control robotics platforms.

Plugging In

Let’s start by plugging the Edison into your base board, whatever that may be. Keep in mind that the Edison’s Hirose connectors are very delicate. When plugging your Edison into a base board, take care to push straight down, applying even pressure to the connector and the left corner of the Edison.

Connecting and Powering via USB

Once the Edison is cleanly seated into your base board, wire up the USB port(s) to your computer. If your base board has two USB ports, it’s recommended that you connect both up to your computer – one port provides power and direct USB access, while the other connects to the Edison’s console. If you’re using Intel’s Arduino Expansion Board or the Mini Breakout, make sure you have at least connected USB to the Edison’s USB OTG port. That is the only port that can power the Edison.

USB Connections

It’s ready to use

Edison will show up as three different devices on your computer:1-USB Mass Storage device 2-Intel Edison Virtual Com Port3-Intel Edison USB RNDIS Device The removable storage device called “Edison” is the best indicator that it’s working.

Programming the Edison in Arduino

With a built-in C-compiler, Python, Node.js, and more, the Edison is capable of amazing things we really recommend exploring the Edison’s full capabilities by writing your applications inC - C++ - Python - Node.js anything that takes full advantage

using Arduino to program the Edison is a great way to start developing on the mini-computer

Now we’ll examine how to program the Edison in Arduino cover some common troubleshooting point out some useful examples to help get you started.

Handy Examples

We’ve loaded up the blink example, but on many boards the Edison doesn’t even have an LED to blink. Here are some other handy examples that prove the Edison is working, and provide some insight into how the Edison’s Arduino interface works.

Serial

As always, the Arduino serial monitor is a handy debugging tool. Give some of the examples in the File > Examples > 04.Communication folder a try, or load up something simple like this:

void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop()
{
  if (Serial.available())
  {
    Serial.print("Decimal value: ");
    Serial.print(Serial.read());
    Serial.println();
  }
}

WiFi

WiFi is one of the most important features embedded into the Edison, and it’s supported in the Arduino IDE by an updated WiFi library. Try loading up any of the examples in the File > Examples > WiFi folder – the “WiFiWebClient” example is a good one. You’ll probably have to update the SSID and passkey before uploading.

Connecting to the FTDI Port

The Arduino Expansion Board, Edison Mini Breakout, and the SparkFun Console Blocks all route the console UART out through an FTDI chip, which converts serial to USB. If you haven’t already, plug your Edison into the base board and power your base board (in most cases by hooking up the USB OTG port). Then connect the base board’s debug port to your computer via a USB cable. Each of these boards have two micro-B USB ports, make sure you plug into the correct one! Make sure you have the FTDI drivers installed. If you need any help, check out our How to Install FTDI Drivers tutorial.

Opening Up a Serial Terminal Emulator The next step is to open up your favorite terminal emulator software on your computer. If you don’t have a favorite, check out our Serial Terminal Basics tutorial. Make sure the new COM port for your base board is correctly set. You’ll also need to set the baud rate to 115200bps (8-N-1).

Updating the Firmware Image

Most Edison’s ship with an older version of the firmware. Updating to the latest version of the firmware equips the Edison with a whole host of new utilities, including a WiFi configuration tool and a fix to that annoying 5-second sleep in the terminal. This step requires access to both the Edison’s OTG USB port and the console. That means you’ll need two USB cables, connected to two ports on your computer (or a hub).

The OTG port will give us access to the Edison’s USB mass storage device. You can either update firmware with the Intel Installer or the manual way.

Using the Intel Installer

ntel is continuing to improve the Edison support. Now, there is an Installer to make updating your firmware a breeze. There is an option to install the Arduino IDE too. Head over to the Edison Getting Started Guide on the Intel Developer Zone site. If you already assembled your board, jump to “Step 2: Choose your Operating System”. Pick your operating system and download the Installer.

Open up the Installer. You will be asked to install as administrator. Follow through the rest of the steps and you are good to go! Next step will be to set up a serial terminal and connect to WiFi.

Manually Updating the Firmware We’ll begin by downloading the latest and greatest version of the Edison firmware, grab it from the Edison Software Downloads page.

Download the “Edison Yocto complete image” it’s about 100 MB. Then unzip the archive, and keep the extracted contents up somewhere handy.

Out With the Old

Before you load the new firmware onto the Edison, make sure all of the old stuff is out of the way. Use your terminal (Mac) or CMD (Windows), and navigate to the top level of your Edison’s mass storage drive. On Mac, type cd /Volumes/Edison. On Windows type E: – replacing “E” with the drive letter of your Edison. Once inside the folder, type

rm -rf *

rm -rf \.*

Next, open up the Edison mass storage drive in your file explorer. Then move everything from within the extracted ZIP folder into the drive. It should look a little something like this:

Issuing the Update Command

Finally, begin the update by opening your Edison’s console and entering this command: reboot ota. The Edison will shut down, then, as it begins to reboot, it will notice there’s a flash update in the mass storage device and begin to install the update. The update will take a minute-or-so to install, and the Edison will reboot one last time. When the Edison comes back up, log in as root and take comfort in knowing your Edison is running the latest and greatest version of the Edison Yocto image.

Connecting to WiFi

The latest version of the Edison firmware includes a handy utility to set up WiFi – configure_edison --setup. Type that into your Edison’s console, then follow the in-terminal directions as you can edit the Edison’s name and WiFi settings.

Finally we get to the reason we’re here. Type ‘Y’ to jump into the WiFi setup utility. The Edison will scan for nearby wireless networks, after a few seconds it will list the results.

Type a number to pick an SSID, then enter your passkey and wait for it to (try to) connect.

The last line of the configure utility will prompt you to open your browser and point to the Edison’s local IP.

You won’t glean a lot of information from this page, but it will provide some assurance that your Edison is on the WiFi network. Plus, just think of all the fun you can have with a tiny little credit card-sized computer that can serve up web pages like this! You can use the console for other network-related stuff now, too. Try pinging your favorite web site with a command like ping sparkfun.com -c 4. Or check your network status with a command like ifconfig or ifconfig wlan0. Now that your Edison’s on the WiFi network, you can do all sorts of cool stuff. How about SSH-ing into it, so you can remotely interact with little computer’s file structure?

If you’ve gotten this far, you may begin to realize that interacting with your Edison via the command line may get a bit tiresome. Luckily, now that you have WiFi set up, you can (figuratively literally) cut the cord and control your Edison through the network using SSH (Secure Shell). You can even download and upload files to the Edison overSFTP (SSH file transfer protocol). In order to SSH into your Edison, you’ll probably another piece of software installed on your computer. We likeWinSCP for Windows machines andCyberduck on the Mac.

Using WinSCP (Windows)

When you open WinSCP, it’ll ask you where and how you’d like to log in. Make sure “File Protocol” is set to “SFTP”. Then, in the “Host name” text box, type the IP address of your Edison. For the “User name” and “Password” boxes, type “root” and the password you set (or leave it blank if you skipped that part).

(Personal frustration note: if you’re having trouble SSH-ing into your Edison, you may need to turn off your Windows Firewall. Hopefully you don’t have to ram your head against that wall for too long. Active VPN’s may also get in the way!) Once you click “Login”, the program will attempt to remotely log in to your Edison. If it’s successful, you’ll be greeted with a file browser. These are the actual files living on your Edison! You can use this browser to upload or download files. This is a great utility if you’re developing programs to be run on the Edison, your only other option is monochrome vi in the terminal (which would be pretty hardcore). WinSCP also includes a utility for interacting with the remote host via a terminal. Go to “Commands” > “Open Terminal” and you’ll be right back to the console.

Using Cyberduck (Mac)

It’ll be the same idea in Cyberduck. Type your Edison’s IP address into the “Server” box. Then type “root” as the “Username” and your password if you set one. Then hit “Connect.”

Like WinSCP, Cyberduck will present you with a file explorer. This will allow for an easy, graphical interace for managing your Edison’s files. If you’d like to interact with the console remotely, open up your Mac’s terminal application. Then type ssh root@10.0.0.20, making sure to sub in your Edison’s IP address. When/if prompted for a password, type that in, then you’re back to the Edison console.

Buy

• Intel Edison Kit For Arduino
• Seeedstudio Grove Starter Kit Plus - Intel IoT Edition
• Intel Edison with Mini Breakout Board Kit EDI1BB
• Intel Edison

THE END