Getting Started with APB

Decide what to build

Before you dive into APB, it is important to get an idea of what you would like to do – even if it’s an exploratory project.

If you need inspiration, please have a look at our Applications or our samples codes

Fundamentally, you need to have a comprehensive understanding of how much of what you need to do is hardware related and software related. If hardware is involved, you need to understand the power requirements and how you plan on connecting everything as you will see below, there are differences in the workflow you will use to develop your idea.

Choose your workflow

APB can be powered and used in different ways. As simply as plugging it directly through a USB cable to a host computer, to being powered by a bench power supply and connected to the network.

It is likely that you may want to use more than one workflow throughout your development cycle, but it is important to choose before diving into it.

The type of application you want to create will be the biggest indicator of which workflow to start with.

Direct USB to Host Workflow

This workflow allows for the maximum ease of use. You would connect APB this way:

In this context, the host is your development machine, APB is powered through the USB

Pros:

• Very simple and quick

Cons:

• Limited power budget (can’t power accessories behind APB)
• Requires Host

Recommendation:

This workflow is great for everyday development of pure software applications on APB or applications with light power budget for accessories behind APB. 

It may be used in continuous integration/testing environments, but is limited by the number of APBs per Host you can accommodate.

APB to Network Workflow

This workflow will have APB connected to a wired network through a USB adapter and powered by a separate power supply.

Pros:

• Very scalable
• Customizable

Cons:

• More complicated to setup and maintain

Recommendation:

This workflow is great for creating a detachment between the dev environment and the APB. For instance, you could have a farm of APBs available in different states for developers, test environments and others to hit and use on demand if you would like to. 

It also makes it possible to develop using other host OS that may not support RNDIS.

It also allows more complex accessories setup behind APB (cameras, sensors, radios, etc) as the power supply can deliver what the USB won’t necessarily.

We believe it is a great way for integrated testing to evolve even in the most simple APB development applications.

It is a great way to bring scalability and versatility in general.

Hardware Setup

To get you started into coding, you will need to have at least a development environment. Also referred to as a bench development setup.

Follow the instructions in the Hardware Setup page to get this part sorted.

Software Setup

Once you have a bench development setup ready, it will be time to dive into the software. Before coding your first app, or run one of our sample codes, you need to have your development environment setup correctly. To achieve that, follow the steps in our Software Setup page.

Testing

Coming Soon

Finalize integration plan

Coming Soon

Deploy

Coming Soon

Support

Coming Soon