Get started

This step-by-step guide will show you how to install EV3RT, build a sample program and run it on your EV3 brick.

Step 0: Check your environment

Some packages are required to be installed before installing EV3RT:

• GCC (for host)
• GCC ARM Embedded (6-2017-q2 is best, 7.x may have some issues)
• make
• diffutils
• perl
• U-Boot mkimage utility

You can refer to following guides to install these dependencies:

• Ubuntu LTS

wget http://ev3rt-git.github.io/public/ev3rt-prepare-ubuntu.sh
sudo bash ev3rt-prepare-ubuntu.sh

• Windows (Cygwin) [Japanese only for now]
• Mac OS X (El Captain) [Japanese only for now]

Step 1: Get the source code

git clone https://github.com/ev3rt-git/ev3rt-hrp2
cd ev3rt-hrp2
git submodule init
git submodule update

Step 2: Prepare the configurator

Prepare the configurator binary by:

cd ev3rt-hrp2/cfg
make

Alternatively, Windows and Mac OS X users can also download pre-built binaries from:

• cfg 1.9.5 for Windows
• cfg 1.9.5 for Mac OS X

Extract the downloaded package and put the configurator binary (cfg or cfg.exe) under the folder ev3rt-hrp2/cfg/cfg.

Step 3: Install EV3RT to the SD card

Following command will generate a uImage file if build succeeded. uImage is the bootable system image of EV3RT which includes components such as RTOS kernel, device drivers and the application loader.

cd ev3rt-hrp2/base-workspace
make app=loader

Copy uImage to the root directory of your SD card, and the installation of EV3RT is finished!

Step 4: Build a sample program (HelloEV3)

Each folder in ev3rt-hrp2/sdk/workspace contains an application project. Application can be built by the command make app=<folder name>.

HelloEV3 in helloev3 is a sample program which can be used to test many functions (e.g. sensors and motors) of EV3RT. Let’s build it by:

cd ev3rt-hrp2/sdk/workspace
make app=helloev3

An app file will be generated if build succeeded. It is an ELF binary of your program, which can be executed by the application loader. Copy app to the ev3rt/apps folder (create it if not exists) on your SD card and, of course, you can rename the app file as you like.

Step 5: Try it out!

Launch HelloEV3:

1. Insert the SD card into your EV3 brick and power it on.
2. After a few seconds, you will see the EV3RT console.
3. Press buttons to select Load App->SD card, and files in ev3rt/apps will be listed.
4. Now choose the file of HelloEV3 to launch it.

After HelloEV3 is started, a menu will appear. At first, the device connection must be configured. For example, if a ultrasonic sensor is connected to port 1, you should select Connect device->Connect sensor->Sensor port 1->Ultrasonic from the menu. Then you can choose Test sensor->Sensor port 1 to test your sensor on EV3RT.

EV3RT console can be shown again by pressing and holding the BACK button. You can view system log, launch another application or shutdown the EV3 from the console.