Scilab/Scicos Code Generator for FLEX

This page contains the information related to the Scilab/Scicos code generator for the FLEX Board.

Main idea:

Develop a single-click digital control automatic code generation tool for FLEX!

Download and Installation

Click here to download the Scilab/Scicos Code Generator for FLEX. 

The Flow

The envisioned flow is depicted by the following picture:

Figure 1: Scilab/Scicos development flow for ERIKA Enterprise and FLEX 

The steps of the development flow are the following:

1. Design of a control system in Scicos
2. Simulation and tuning of the control system in Scicos
3. Single-click code generation for ERIKA Enterprise for FLEX
4. Automatic flashing of the FLEX board
5. Integration in the Scicos HIL support using the FLEX USB/wireless connection

Requirements

To play with the code generator you need at least:

• A FLEX Board;
• ERIKA Enterprise Basic GPL;
• The Microchip tools (available for free);
• A Microchip ICD2 (this dependency will be removed soon when it will be possible to program Flex through USB);
  

Project status

The project is still in beta, but it is usable to make simple and complex controllers. The current version status is the following:

Code generator for ERIKA Enterprise Basic;
Over 100 Scicos blocks ready for code generation!;
Automatic generation and compilation of the Scicos generated application
Manual flashing of the generated application on the dsPIC device on the FLEX board;
Working examples using the FLEX board;
Tutorial for the creation of a sample application included in the documentation;
USB and OpenZB connection blocks available;
Hardware in the loop working;

To be done: 

•  Automatic programming of a Scicos-generated application on the FLEX target;
  
•  Comprehensive documentation and examples;

IMPORTANT Note: 

  Please note that the code generator is currently a direct derivation from the Linux/RTAI Code Generator for Scilab and Scicos. That means two things:

• The code generated is correct and working, but...
• The quality and efficiency of the code generated is not "the best" for a microcontroller (in terms of usage of RAM, complexity of the data structures, optimization of the overhead, and other things).

 We are working for improving the efficiency of the code generator with INRIA Roquencourt, and for that reason you can expect changes in the quality of the code generated in the next months.

You are welcome to join us and to give feedback on the tool to help us improving it!