# Maple Development Quickstart

You'll need a Maple board, a mini-b USB cable, a functional computer, and possibly root (or "administrator") access to that computer. If you have trouble along the way try the install page for more detailed download and installation instructions, and the troubleshooting page for help with some common problems. if all else fails try google, our forum, or contact us directly!

The major steps when starting fresh on a computer will be to:

- Download and install the IDE
- Plug in the Maple and resolve driver issues
- Load the IDE and upload a simple Blink program
- Test the USB serial connection with a HelloWorld

### 1. Download the IDE

The latest binary release of the Maple IDE for can be downloaded using the links below. The package bundles together a compiler, an upload utility, a software library, and a simple GUI text editor. All this software is free and open; we are grateful to the Arduino, CodeSourcery, GNU, and OpenMoko developers, as well as many others, who allow us to reuse their software.

Linux | Tested on Ubuntu 9.10 (64bit) and 10.04 (32bit) | maple-ide-LATEST-linux32.tgz (about 30mb) maple-ide-LATEST-linux64.tgz (about 30mb)
Mac OSX | Tested on Snow Leopard 10.6 (64bit and 32bit) | maple-ide-LATEST-macosx-10_6.dmg (about 40mb)
Windows | Tested on 32bit Windows XP | maple-ide-LATEST-windowsxp32.zip (about 75mb)

The IDE is written in Java and requires a compatible runtime (JRE). Our windows release includes runtime, Mac OSX has one installed already, and it's pretty easy to install one on Linux. If you don't have a JRE and don't know how to get one setup see the installation page.

### 2. Unzip it to a appropriate home

Once it's downloaded, you need to chose a place to unzip the IDE. Unless you've got a special place of honor in mind just plop it on your desktop or in your home folder. Make sure you actually extract the contents out of the archive instead of running it live out of the archive file.

On Linux only, you'll want to run the `install-udev-rules.sh` at this point; it will ask for root permissions, then you need to restart udev (`sudo /etc/init.d/udev restart`). This will grant members of 'plugdev' read/write access to Maple devices over USB.

On Windows only, you'll have to install drivers; see the installation page. Sorry!

On Mac OS X only, you can just drag and drop the Maple IDE folder to install it in your applications folder. An ACM modem setup dialog will pop up every time you plug in the Maple; if you go to Network Settings and accept the default ("unconfigured") settings the dialog won't pop up and everything will work fine.

### 3. Run maple-ide

Double click, run from command line, or smash into the stack as appropriate!

### 4. Compile a program!

Let's load up a simple example program that blinks the status LED. From the File menu select Examples, Digital, Blink. Go ahead and modify the file a little bit: if you change the '`delay(1000);`' numbers to a different value the speed of the blink will change. The value is a time in milliseconds to pause before continuing with the program, so by default the LED will be on for 1 second, then off for 1 second, etc.

Next select the Maple board from the Tools pull-down under Board. You have the option between RAM and FLASH programming: FLASH saves the program into permanent memory so the program will be run every time the Maple is reset, while RAM simply injects the compiled program into the processor's memory. Programming to RAM is faster to upload and a buggy program can be wiped away with a simple reset, while FLASH memory is larger and is the only option for permanently uploading a program.

Press the "verify" button (furthest to the left with a "play" arrow) to compile the code. Unless you've got a persnickety typo you should eventually get back a confirmation message in the bottom pane.

### 5. Upload that program!

### This is where our palms sweat...

This step was the hardest part for us to get working across several platforms and is where a number of users run in to difficulty (especially on the many flavors of Windows). We are working on a more robust software solution, but in the meanwhile if you have trouble you could try repeating steps a few times, power cycling the Maple, or restarting the IDE. Please let us know how everything goes in the forums, the more data points the better!
Now it's (finally!) time to plug in your Maple. Use a mini-b cable, making sure that the power source jumper is on the USB header first. The Maple should blink a short pattern on the blue status LED every time it is plugged in, reset, or reprogrammed, just to let you know it's there. If it ever starts throbbing in a slow, smooth pattern that means you've got a problem: see the troubleshooting page.

If all systems are go, select the Board type and Serial Port (something like `/dev/ttyACM0`, `/dev/cu.usbmodem5d21`, or `COM3` depending on your platform) from the Tools menu. Then press the "upload" button (right arrow to a bunch of dots) to upload your program to the Maple. You should see some text and a progress bar flash by in the status window of the IDE, then some blinky patterns on the Maple, and then a constant blink with whatever time period you programmed in above.

### 6. Use the serial port monitor!

As a last step to make sure everything has been configured correctly, let's upload a hello world program that will send text from the Maple back to the IDE over the USB connection. From File select Examples, Stubs, HelloWorld, and make sure the correct board and serial port targets are selected from the Tools pull-down. And of course you could change the text to be printed out; make sure you leave the double quotes around it though or you'll get a compile error.

Open the serial monitor window (button on the far right) and make sure the 9600 baud speed is selected. Then go back to the code editing window and upload your program (upload will recompile your code automatically if there's been any change since the last "verify"). You should get text spit at you over the serial monitor right after the program is uploaded. Shout back! We can hear you!

### 7. Go forth exuberantly!

We really hope you got this far and didn't frown or make a bitter lemon face too often getting here. Where you go now is up to you: perhaps you've got some crazy project cooking, or a longer tutorial to work through, or maybe now is a good time for a trip to the kitchen for a delicious sandwich.

If you blew through this guide and are the kind of person who drinks their coffee straight and has more than a 100 lines of vim or emacs customization and doesn't even have a mouse plugged into your computer you may want to look at the Unix Toolchain quickstart guide to getting working with your old friends make, jtag, and gcc.

Let us know what you come up with! Tag internet content with #leaflabs, post in the forums, track us down in the real world, whatever. We love projects!

### About this Document

A more recent version of this document may be available from the LeafLabs website. Our documentation is versioned on github; you can track changes to the master branch at this link.

This documentation is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license.

Translations are welcomed; give us a ping to make sure we aren't in the process of revising or editing first.