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Documentation for the Ev3Wrap library

Better setup process

There is now a template available for github codespaces. Select Use this template -> Open in a codespace from this template repository

Please note that the rest of the documentation was written before Github Codespaces are released. Because of this, there is no mention of github codespaces anywhere else in the documentation. If you have a problem with the github codespaces setup, contact yuetlongfeng@gmail.com

Introduction

If you do not know what ev3dev is, go here. This library is a wrapper around ev3dev’s official cpp library. We do not guarantee that this wrapper will work. We currently only have support for compiling on windows. (MacOS support not coming soon)

Prerequisites

  • Basic Git Usage
  • Basic C++ Knowledge
  • An Idea of what CMake is

    Required installations

  • Docker
  • Git

    Note that CMake is not required to be installed on your machine, since it is actually installed within the Docker image

Quick start - Installation

OS: Windows

This installation guide assumes that you are using V2.5.0 of the library

  1. Clone the repository
    1. open up command prompt
    2. open up file explorer
    3. go to the folder where you would like to install the repository
    4. Click on the folder path and copy it to the clipboard, as demonstrated like this picture of file explorer
    5. Type cd <paste clipboard file path here> picture of command prompt
    6. Hit Enter and execute the command
    7. type git clone --recursive https://github.com/rshs-robotics-club/ev3dev-cpp-wrapper-example.git into the command prompt
    8. Hit Enter and execute the command
    9. The repository should now be cloned into that folder.
  2. Your first compilation
    1. You are now ready for compiling the library. Open the cloned repository folder with your favorite code editor. (e.g. Visual Studio Code)
    2. Turn on docker desktop. This will turn on the docker daemon (a background task) that we require for cross compiling.
    3. run dockersetup.sh by double clicking the file, or by running ./scripts/compile.sh in the repository directory It should be stored inside the scripts folder. This will install the Docker image for the ev3 robot.

      Warning: the Docker image is more than 1GB and is quite large, so make sure there is space on your computer

    4. run ./scripts/compile.sh within the repository directory. The library should now begin compiling
  3. Using the library regularly
    1. The src folder inside the repository is where your source code should be placed.
    2. Start your first project by creating projectName.cpp in that folder
    3. create a main() function just like a normal c++ program
    4. run ./scripts/compile.sh and the project should be compiled
    5. you can find the output .elf files in the bin folder. Note that linux (ev3dev) does not care about file extensions, but since we’re using windows we make it easier for ourselves by distinguishing executables with the .elf extension.
    6. If you want to create more executables/projects, you can do so by creating a new differentprojectName.cpp file and running ./scripts/compile.sh again. Now, you will find both projectName.elf and differentprojectName.elf in the bin folder. This is useful when you require quick prototyping in your project.

      Oh no! I ran into a problem

      See the troubleshooting section (Not implemented yet) for solutions to common problems. If you can’t find any, check issues. If you still can’t find a solution, open a new issue and we will try to help you.