Please use the installation quide or the Deutsche Kurzanleitung (installation guide in german) for a quick start. More infos can be found on the web site
The Fischertechnik TXT controller is a Linux driven computerized brick for the Fischertechnik construction toy.
The Fischertechnik TXT comes pre-installed with a Linux based firmware. This firmware is slightly outdated (the base system consist of parts which are all at least two years old) and doesn't make full use of the hardware capabilities of the TXT. At the time of writing the original TXT firmware doesn't even allow to use the built-in WLAN capabilities to connect to your home WiFi.
The community firmware aims to change this. It replaces the entire system with much newer components including an updated Linux kernel and updates for all system components. Furthermore it provides a fresh user interface and focusses on connectivity in general. It can connect to your home WiFi as well as e.g. via USB to your Lego WeDo bricks, other Fischertechnik Components and much more.
The community firmware doesn't replace the built-in original firmware. Instead it's installed on a regular micro-SD card and provides a means to leave the original untouched which being used. Simply pull out the SD card containing the community firmware to bring your TXT back into factory state.
There are still limitations which are due to the fact that some vendor specific closed source core components have not yet been replaced by open components. Especially compatibility to the original RoboPro software used to program and control the TXT from a PC is limited. The firmware community aims to restore full compatibility as well as moving beyond the RoboPro capabilities by providing support for additional programming environments like e.g. Snap! or Scratch
Most discussions around the community firmware take place in the FTCommunity forum). This is a german forum but english contributions are welcome.
Two simple steps are needed to run the community firmware on your TXT:
- A correctly prepared micro SD card
- Configure the TXT to boot from SD card
Both steps are simple and risk-free as removing the SD card will always give you the original firmware back.
You'll need a micro SD card. A size of 2 or 4 GB is recommended.
Pre-built images for a hassle free quick start have been released.
For beginners it's recommended to use the pre-built releases.
For the latest bleading-edge versions you might want to build the firmware yourself as explained below.
Load the configuration for the TXT by typing:
make fischertechnik_TXT_defconfig
Afterwards a single
make
will build the entire root file system and the kernel and place the resulting files in the output/images directory.
You need an empty micro SD card for the ftcommunity firmware.
The ftcommunity firmware supports two different SD card layouts:
- simple layout: Everything is stored on a single FAT partition, the linux root file system is read-only and resides in an image file on the FAT partition. This is the recommended setup for most users.
- advanced layout: The linux root file system is read-write and stored on a separate partition. This is the recommended layout for developers.
In both layouts, user installed apps and persistent settings are stored on the FAT partition.
Make sure that the first partition on the SD card is formatted as FAT (most fresh SD cards should already have this layout). Then copy the files output/images/uImage, output/images/am335x-kno_txt.dtb and output/images/rootfs.img to the SD card.
Create two partitions on the SD card. Both partitions should have a size of at least 100 MB, the recommended setup is to reserve ca. 200-500 MB for the second partition and allocate most space to the first partition. Format the first partition as FAT and the second partition as ext4.
The following commands will do this on a linux system where the SD card slot is named /dev/mmcblk0. Make sure this is really the empty SD card, the following commands will destroy all data on /dev/mmcblk0:
parted /dev/mmcblk0 mklabel msdos
parted -a optimal /dev/mmcblk0 -- mkpart primary fat32 1MB -300MB
parted -a optimal /dev/mmcblk0 -- mkpart primary ext2 -300MB 100%
parted /dev/mmcblk0 set 1 boot on
mkfs.vfat -n BOOT /dev/mmcblk0p1
mkfs.ext4 -L ROOT /dev/mmcblk0p2
Now, copy the files output/images/uImage and output/images/am335x-kno_txt.dtb to the first partition of the SD card:
mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt
cp output/images/uImage output/images/am335x-kno_txt.dtb /mnt/
umount /mnt
Finally, unpack output/images/rootfs.tar to the second partition on the SD card:
mount /dev/mmcblk0p2 /mnt
tar xvf output/images/rootfs.tar -C /mnt/
umount /mnt
Note: On most linux systems, you will need to run all of these commands as root.
Make sure you are running at least version 4.2.4 of the official firmware. You then only need to follow the instructions provided by Fischertechnik.
More details and a brief set of english instructions can be found in our Wiki.
Switch off the TXT, insert the SD card with the ftcommunity firmware in the SD card slot and restart the TXT. If you see the note "community edition" on the bootup splash screen, the ftcommunity firmware is running.
The ftcommunity firmware enables ssh login via USB by default, network settings for USB are the same as with the original firmware: The TXT has address 192.168.7.2, the host computer has address 192.168.7.1. On most systems, the host computer address should be set up automatically when you connect the USB cable.
You can log in to the TXT either via serial console or using ssh.
In both cases, the user name is "ftc". By default, the ftc user can log in without a password. It is strongly recommended to set a password for the ftc user when you first log in.
After setting a password, the ftc user may use sudo to execute commands as root.
Shut down the TXT and remove the SD card with the ftcommunity firmware. On the next start, the TXT will boot the original Fischertechnik firmware.