Companion Computers Setup

ODROID XU4 setup

_images/odroidxu4.jpg

Setup Ubuntu

ODROID XU 4 supports both Ubuntu and Android, see the details on official odroid webpage.

Here we will discuss how to setup Ubuntu 16.04

Flashing Ubuntu image

You can use either an SD card or eMMC. eMMC is recommended as it is much faster than SD card, 16GB or more is recommended.

For our applications we use minimal image (minimal, Bare OS) without GUI. Minimal image will have much smaller size and faster boot and less overhead in general. Extract the downloaded image from official odroid webpage and use Etcher to flash it to either SD or eMMC card.

User account setup

After downloading and flashing image to odroid, it is recommended to setup a user account for easier handling in the future. Plug eMMC to the odroid, and connect it to the monitor. Login using the root account (user: root, password: odroid).

adduser odroid # create new user with name odroid
adduser odroid sudo # add odroid user to admin group
adduser odroid dialout # give odroid user access to serial ports

Network Setup

It is recommended that you use static IP address if you plan to use ODROID via a WiFi network. This will reduce latency over wifi.

To set a static IP address on odroid, do the following.

Open /etc/network/interfaces file for editing by running following commmand

sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

Add or edit the following lines

auto wlan0
# the following will auto-start connection after boot
allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
address 192.168.0.xxx # choose a static IP, usually you change the last number only for different devices
netmask 255.255.255.0
broadcast 192.168.0.255
gateway 192.168.0.1 # your router IP
dns-nameservers 8.8.8.8
wpa-ssid "wifi_name"
wpa-psk "wifi_password"

Note

You will need modify wlan0 to match the wifi card number on your odroid once the wifi device is connected. Is possible that it changes when you change the wifi device.

To check your wifi card number,

ifconfig -a

After odroid is connected to WiFi network and internet run the following commands

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Reboot the odroid and now login with newly created user.

Installing packages

Install ROS

To install ROS on ODROID follow official instructions from ROS wiki page. We assume that ROS Kinetic is used.

Important

Install the ROS-Base: (Bare Bones) not the full desktop version

After installing ROS, you can install ROS packages that you need individually either by using apt-get or from source.

Install MAVROS

sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-mavros ros-kinetic-mavros-extras
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mavlink/mavros/master/mavros/scripts/install_geographiclib_datasets.sh
./install_geographiclib_datasets.sh # might require sudo

Install vrpn

sudo apt-get install ros-kinetic-vrpn-client-ros

Backup image

After you installed all the packages and software you might want to create an image of the entire eMMC. Plug it into the another Ubuntu running computer and execute the following comands:

lsbkl # Will lists the block devices
dd if=/dev/sdc of=/path_to_the_folder/backup.img # Match sdc to the eMMC from previous command
# It will take time to create an image, and will create a file with full capacity of the eMMC
# To reduce the size and shrink the unused space run the following
xz -c backup.img > backup.img.xz

Intel Up Board

  • Up board is used in the Intel Realsense development kit.
  • Follow this guide to setup the Up board

Using Edimax AC600 Wifi module

You will need to install drivers as follows:

sudo apt-get update
git clone https://github.com/gnab/rtl8812au.git
cd ~/rtl8812au
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe 8812au

Then, reboot

Note

To be able to use ssh from a remote computer, you will need, sudo apt-get install openssh-server && openssh-client

Raspberry Pi Setup

Note

To be done.

Intel NUC setup

Note

To be done.