xTIMEcomposer Unboxing Series: Part 1 - Getting Started

Technical questions regarding the XTC tools and programming with XMOS.
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JasonWhiteman
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xTIMEcomposer Unboxing Series: Part 1 - Getting Started

Post by JasonWhiteman »

Community,

Minutes ago, I unpacked a sliceKIT (XK-SK-L2-ST) and started down the unconventional path of following vendor-supplied documentation and tutorials to navigate through the initial stages of an XMOS learning curve. I have previously installed the xTIMEcomposer (12.2.0, Build 7741) software which installed without issue. Given I am writing this article means I already have an issue queued up. Hopefully, the problems will get more "interesting" as this issue is a relatively minor documentation issue affecting product registration.

First, under the "Welcome" page (to navigate, it's the first selection under the Help menu), I clicked on "sliceKIT Development Board Tutorial" as I wanted to be sure I was following convention in assembling for programming with a PC. The first step, "Set up the sliceKIT hardware" setup a simple task of matching a photo and/or following the instructions on how to connect the xTAG-2 board and GPIO sliceCARD to the Core board. Simple enough, no snags and documentation is reasonable.

Issue 1 (Low Priority): The documentation for this step refers to the interface board with the USB connector as "xTAG-2". The silkscreen on the board shows XTAG2 (Rev 1V0). To be extremely picky, I would say it would be best to have documentation and silkscreen to match. Of course documentation is easier to revise, but then "XTAG2" does not follow the marketing team's naming conventions. I've already spent 3 sentences more than needed given the priority - moving on ...

The next step in the sliceKIT Development Board Tutorial has me running a PWM application on the hardware. There is an assumption in this task that I have run the "xTimeComposer Studio Tutorial - Simulator" which I have not yet completed. Therefore, time to rewind and follow the proper tutorial flow. If I were to be picky again, I would suggest the PWM tutorial point back to the previous tutorial step required with a link. However, it is easy enough for me to backtrack.

Taking a step back, I next navigated to the "Developer Column" pane, expanded "XTIMEcomposer" by pressing the upside-down triangle, and clicked on "Get started with xTIMEcomposer". Hang in there, I'm arriving to the original purpose for this article. After clicking on "Get started ...", there are some instructions on how to start xTIMEcomposer Studio. Fine (I'm sure), I've already gotten that far (chicken before the egg). Next is the heading "Register Your Tools". Doing so has its benefits, according to the documentation. I may have already registered when I initially setup the tools. However, the issue is with the specific directions.

Issue 2 (medium priority): The registration instructions read "To register later, choose Help -> Registration Information." My version of xTIMEcomposer does not show "Registration Information" under the "Help" menu.

Image

Although I searched for the registration within the menu system, I did not find it. There appears to be some issue with the documentation.

Under "Start the command-line tools" the instructions to start the command prompt do not match my version of installation (Windows). Instead of "Start -> Programs -> XMOS -> xTIMEcomposer_12 -> Command Prompt", my installation shows "Start -> Programs -> XMOS -> xTIMEComposer SDK -> 12.2.0 -> Command Prompt". Updating the help could turn into a full-time job, and the directions are "close enough".

In conclusion, as the general engineer can easily navigate around these problems - I do not see a huge benefit to the community. However, there is an inverse relationship between count of even low priority issues and perception. Therefore, the intended target audience for this article is primarily XMOS.

Happy designing and best wishes to success of your XMOS projects ...

Regards,
Jason Whiteman
http://www.xcore.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=2247


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