Rhapsody Tech Blog

The Blog for Rhapsody (Power) Users.

Month: July 2018

V7 – Released

July 26, 2018 / / 3 Comments

License to thrill

The number 7 is a famous number, not in the least by James Bond who was, of course, “007”. He had a “License to Kill”. Our V7 has a “License to Thrill”.
That is what we hope it will do to you! OK, It took a us while, admitted, but the first release of our V7 RXF for ‘C++’ is now on our Willert Download Portal.
We have worked hard for it, had many Beta Releases and lots of changes to make the best RXF yet. A big thanks to everybody who worked on it but a special “Thank You” to Johannes who has really done a lot for this release!

What is changed?

  • Completely made with Rhapsody. So the RXF is a model, with everything a model needs to be a good model, Requirements, traceability, Sequence Diagrams, explanations etc.
  • Smaller and faster. (YES! although modelled and generated, the code is smaller and faster!)
  • All adaptations integrated in one version. You select RTOS, compiler, CPU etc via tags.
  • New Deployer, this one remembers a lot more of your stuff. (Is not completely finished yet but I’ll give the new features)
    • Creates direct links to the Rhapsody code in your IDE so round-tripping just works!
    • Able to create you own template models that you can select, they are then copied
    • stores its settings in the project
  • Latest Target Debugger
    • faster, will not degrade performance when many events are processed
    • new design, improved stability and usage
    • break-point editor
    • editor for event injection
    • export to Rhapsody
  • Easier to configure Memory Management

For the time being only in ‘C++’, ‘C’ will take a while. But with a decent compiler we recommend ‘C++’ anyway. Bob Dylan already sang it a long time ago: “The times they are changing”. And that is what happens. From ‘C’ only in 32Bit on 8 and 16Bit Targets to ‘C++’ on 64Bit on 16- and 32Bit Targets.

That was it for now. It’s hot here… almost too hot to work. Luckily we are getting used to it.

Have fun with Rhapsody!

Migrate Rhapsody Developer to EUSIII

July 18, 2018 / / 7 Comments

What is the difference?

Rhapsody Developer is the “full” version of Rhapsody, EUSIII (Embedded UML Studio III) is the Willert version. The only difference is that EUSIII does not have Animation, all other features are there. Also EUSIII has the Willert RXF as additional Framework.

No Animation? Is that bad?

Not really. Animation will only work with Windows on a PC as target environment (Or Linux or another really powerful platform) otherwise it is not possible/practical to use it. EUSIII has an alternative built-in solution called “Embedded UML target Debugger” that does the same but without using additional resources.

RXF?

Yep. The Real-time eXecution Framework. The Willert Framework that allows you to generate Rhapsody code on even the smallest of targets without real-time violations or large use of resources. Comes with a built-in single-threaded RTOS or adapters for other RTOSes. Also included is the UML target Debugger that can write Sequence Diagrams and Timing Diagrams even from a small target environment.

Re-install?

Nope. Not necessary. You can keep using your existing installation. Since EUSIII is based on the Architect for Software you have to start that version.

  • Starting Rhapsody via a desktop icon. (Or via the start menu) Then you can open the properties of the shortcut and go to the tab “Shortcut” (Names are different in other languages) There you can add “-architect” to the “target” field. If it already says “-dev_ed” you have to remove that. You can add the -lang=C or -lang=C++ to start the correct language by default.
  • Starting Rhapsody by double-klick a Rhapsody Model. Now you have to look for the Rhapsody.ini file. This should be in the directory next to where your “Share” directory is. In that file there are 2 commands: 
    DefaultEdition=Architect
DefaultLanguage=c++

    You should change them that they say “Architect” and the correct language.

Install RXF

Not only does EUSIII come with the RXF, you really need it. Without an RXF the code generation will not work. So you must install one. It is not important which one but of course you should install one that you want to use. Installation is easy, just start the setup, answer the questions, check if there are no errors (When an error is given during installation it will NOT workl!!!)
When you have purchased EUSIII (Or just an RXF) you have access to the Willert Download Portal where you can download your RXF adapters for the Language (C or C++) the Compiler (Keil, IAR, GreenHills, Visual Studio and many more) and the RTOS (CMSIS, FreeRTOS, OORTX, µCOS, Linux and many more) that you want to use.

License

You either have received a dongle (with a license file) or just a license file (Floating License) You just install that as usual with Rhapsody,

So that’s it. Happy Modeling with Embedded UML Studio III

Walter van der Heiden (wvdheiden@willert.de)

Yes we CAN! (part 1)

July 16, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Introduction

What are we going to build? A CAN implementation. How? Well…. I’m nut sure myself. I will just start and write down my experiences along the way. For sure we will use our standard Board for that, the Keil LPC1768 board and we will, in parallel, implement on a PC using a USB-CAN connection. We will use Rhapsody in ‘C’ for that. C++ would be too easy…. (It’s not… but Johannes is already working on that and I don’t want to interfere with that. )

What are we exactly going to build? Years ago I did build two small apps, a master and a slave app that were exchanging info via CAN. On the Master Board you could operate the Potentiometer and the values were send to the slave board where an LED was regulated.

This is the first step we are going to build. I would like to build a different app, namely one that can log CAN messages to a PC. That would involve a PC program as well to interpret the CAN messages and display them. I’m not sure how to do that but I think we will get ideas when we start using CAN.

Preparations

First let us do some model preparation. For the first steps we need 4 Rhapsody models and, of course, the IDE projects as well.

The Rhapsody projects need to be prepared, a lot of things can be done by using profiles but unfortunately not everything. Global properties must be set in every model. (There are tricks around that, I will spend a future BLOG entry to that tricks, I promise! )

So we create the following projects:

  • lpc17xx
    The CAN driver for the Keil board, mostly already there in CMSIS packs.
  • PC_sim
    The CAN driver for the PC, not sure how (yet) but let’s prepare for it.
  • master
    Communicates via CAN to the slave tha twill receive commands and executes them.
  • slave
    Gets commands from the master and executes them.

The best way to work with these models is to load them all in Rhapsody. This can be done by creating a Project List with “File”, “Insert project”.

The following profiles must be loaded:

  • Rpy_C_CMSIS_Keil5_ARM_MCB1700_TD_Profile (only Master, Slave & lpc17xx)
  • Rpy_C_Win_VS13_PC_TD_Profile (only Master, Slave & PC_sim
  • WST_Types, this implies some global properties to be set:

    General::Model::CommonTypes must be set to: WST_Types
    General::Model::DefaultType must be set to WST_Types::uint32_t
    *EDIT* – Not necessary anymore! Although the properties are “Model-level”, you can still set them in a profile. The Code Generation is done from the Component/Configuration and will therefore use the properties. Very cool. Not sure why the selection box of attributes and variables show the types but, hey, let’s not look a given horse in its mouth….

  • WSTProfile
  • WST_CG_Profile

It is convenient to include all profiles in a separate project in the beginning, you will have to change stuff often, it is better to have everything within reach.

Here is the profile that you can load to have C99 types AUTOMATICALLY! WST_Types

Set the following global properties to make working with Rhapsody easier:

  • Browser::Settings::ShowOrder to YES
    Lets you re-order elements i teh Rhapsody browser.

  • Browser::Settings::ShowPredefinedPackage to NO
    Removes the Predefined Types Packages from the browser

  • Browser::Settings::ShowSourceArtifacts to YES
    Displays source-artifacts. Since we also set the Roundtripscheme to “advanced” there should be no source-artifacts.

Workflow

The idea is that we put all hardware dependant stuff in the lpc17xx and in the pc_sim models, we include these into the master and slave models to make the last ones completely hardware independent. When all is ready we start preparing the models for the implementation.

Structure:

  • CAN
    • Model
      • LPC17XX
      • Master
      • Slave
      • PCsim
      • profiles
    • Code
      • LPC17XX
      • Master
        • LPC17XX
        • PCsim
      • Slave
        • LPC17XX
        • PCsim
      • PCsim

This is a good working structure, maybe we do some fine-tuning later on.

LPC17xx Model

This will include the implementation of the hardware drivers for the MCB1700 Board. It needs some packages to store the work we do. We do reverse engineering to achieve most of that.

The next is the project where we store the generated code.

Keil Projects

In Keil we can also create a Project Space/Workspace to handle multiple projects. First create the projects themselves, Keil will not let you create an empty workspace…

First we create the empty project for the LPC17XX, select the correct CPU (NXP lpc1768) If this does not show up, you first have to install the pack from NXP. After you have done that, select the packs we need, RTOS and CAN. Don’t Worry! We can always select other packs when we need them!  You do not have to click all ticks right away…

We can copy these projects to the Master and Slave directory once we are happy with them. Or we wait until we are done, that’s probably better.

 

PCsim Model

This is the model that contains the same as the lpc17xx model but then runnable on a PC as simulation. It is important to have something that can run on a PC to make testing much easier.

The next is the project where the generated source code is stored and compiled.

Visual Studio 2013 Project

A Microsoft Visual Studio Project. I still use 2013, that is also supported “out-of-the-box” by Rhapsody, we also have a 2015 Adapter.

 

Master Model

The model that contains the Master Model, the model that serves as a master in the CAN network.

Slave Model

The Rhapsody model that acts as slave. There are also projects for the source code for both ARM and PC.

 

CAN we?

I’m not going to write a lot about CAN itself. There are enough pages on the web that explain what it is, that it was invented by Bosch, how the priority works etc. Try Wikipedia and you will as smart as you need to be for this in minutes.

How can we model a CAN communication? Well that is not too difficult (I think) but we should ask ourselves: What do we really want to model?
I think we should use as much driver technology that is already there. On the Keil Boards that is easy: the CMSIS Packs give us a lot. We need to include it in our model somehow and then build intelligence above it.

 

Prepare the LPC17xx model

We will use Rhapsody Reverse Engineering to prepare it. Since we only use the outcome of this we can do reverse engineering without any other preparation (RE changes a lot to your model and your Component/Configuration, since we do not build anything here we just leave it)
We first prepare the LPC17xx Keil Project to have the sources there for RE.

  • Open your Keil project
  • Open the Pack Installer
  • First install all packs needed ( Left Window, Boards, MCB1700 )
  • Then install Examples (Select MCB1700 in left window, then right window will show you CAN Example (amongst others)
  • You can find the Sources (or actually the includes) to use for Reverse Engineering in:
    • <Keil Install Dir>\ARM\PACK\ARM\CMSIS\<latest version>\CMSIS\Driver\Include\
  • Open the LPC17xx Rhapsody Model (In Rhapsody in ‘C’ please, will not work the same in ‘C++’.
  • Rename the Component to “reverseEngineering” and the Configuration to “keilMCB1700”
  • Start “Tools”, “Reverse Engineering”
    • In the first screen select “model driven”, “logical modeling”
    • In the second screen enter the path for the include files, then select all files. (We only need CAN but why not create a complete model right away, costs nothing and might be convenient later on)
    • In the third screen, leave the top 2 fields (“ordinary model elements” and “replace existing packages” but change the 3rd to “single top leve; package”and name it “HAL”
    • The fourth screen is OK, press “Finish” to perform RE. The result wil look like the picture on the right.
      • Screen Shot 2018-07-16 at 14.21.32

Now we can use this model in the other models to have a CAN driver included.

Just do an “Add to Model” in both hte Master and the Slave Model and include the “HAL.sbs” file there (As a (REF) of course )

When you have don that you can select all HAL functions with the INtellivisor ( Use “select” )

In the next part we are going to implement a simple CAN send and receive function that just sends and receives generated messages.

from there on we are ging to implement things like:

  • publisher subscriber, so you can subscribe to a certain kind of  CAN Messages with a callback function and that will program the CAN Acceptance Filter (if there is one)
  • define messages for sending a value and receiving the value.

 

That’s it, the rest follows soon in part 2!

Happy modeling with Rhapsody if you CAN!

Walter van der Heiden ( wvdheiden@willert.de)

 

PS

I just used a picture of Obama because he used the “Yes we Can” slogan in the 2008 elections and I found that a nice wordplay. Please do not assume i meant anything political with it, I never want to discuss anything even remotely political in this BLOG,
I do not want anything else than just technical discussions here.
I use other platforms to express my personal opinions.

W.

Florida 5: Bahama’s

July 4, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Introduction

Preparation is everything. That is valid for everything. For modeling but also for vacation…..
Both Robert and I have never been to the Bahama’s and it seemed like a great idea to visit it. The flight was pretty cheap so we decided to just go there on an early flight and leave again in the evening. (Yes, we are the “Been there, Bought the t-shirt type tourists…)
But we did not do any other preparation…. we just went to the airport early. That was not difficult, the time zone works in our advantage.
The flight was very nice and shorter than planned. But then the first “small” issue crossed our path.
We both assumed that the Bahama’s were part of the USA. They are not… as it turned out… It is a country. With customs and borders and so… On the airport we had to fill in a Visa application form. Luckily there was nothing to do upfront.
Now the good part was that nobody gave us a hard time, everybody was extremely friendly but at first we were worried. But we got in quite quickly.
Then we wanted to check on the web where we had to go just to find out that even my super-duper cell phone plan did not cover the Bahama’s… Being online was extremely expensive so we had to stay in the airport WiFi to figure out where to go.
The speed of the WiFi was, well, very low. So I just saw that Uber would not work and that Nassau was on the opposite part of the island from the airport.
So we decided to rent a car. Hertz (my normal rental company) was out of cars but I managed to rent a car.
It was a VW Polo, Automatic and Aircon but not in a good shape. There we were confronted with preparation again.. There was a big sticker on the windshield that said “Keep Left”. But confusingly he car had a left-hand side steering wheel…
Then I realized that the Bahama’s have been English. These guys leave their marks thorough… So the road signs were exactly as in the UK and people drove left.
Not very cool with a “normal” car but I managed.
We were also not able to tell what kind of units they were using. The first sign after the airport was “45” but it took a while to figure out that they used miles or kilometers. With the state of the cars there, kilometers would not have been unlogical. So miles and not metric like the speedometer of the car. It didn’t even had the small inner “mile” indicator.

Conclusion

The Bahamas are very much worth a visit, one day is enough unless you are the sunbath type. The day was very relaxing and in the evning an hour before flying back we returned the car. At the check-in the lady told us that we were just in time. It turned out that you had to check-in an hour before when flying to the US, we had 2 minutes left… This proved again that preparation is everything. For traveling but certainly also for things like modeling. Gather all information you can get and model your application based on that.

 

Walter’s Rules #10: “Assumption is the mother of all f***-ups.”

Happy modeling with Rhapsody

Walter van der Heiden ( wvdheiden@willert.de )

 

 

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