We offer many ready-to-use apps, among them a serial-over-IP (SoI) app and Modbus Gateway app.
Ubuntu is one of the most popular Linux distributions in the world. It runs on a wide array of platforms and architectures, boasts a vast user base, and offers a wide variety of community resources for all manner of projects, big and small.
Realizing this, we have created an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution aimed at our users employing the LTPP3(G2) — and the Tibbo Project System (TPS) — in IoT and automation systems.
Tibbo's Ubuntu-derived distribution is ideal for system integration, one-off projects, low-volume applications, educational props, and rapid prototyping of products, as well as experimentation and exploration. It provides a user experience similar to that of single-board computers such as Raspberry Pi, but on an extendable hardware foundation that was purpose-built for IoT and automation projects.
Tibbo provides a Personal Package Archive (PPA) that is accessible directly through the apt-get utility. Our PPA contains several tools to help you get started with the LTPP3(G2) as quickly and effortlessly as possible. It is constantly updated independently of the image for our distribution. To get the latest version, type:
Included in the PPA, the OOBE script simplifies the device's configuration with a series of interactive prompts that guide you through the process of setting up Wi-Fi/Bluetooth connectivity, and the Ethernet ports for pass-through or dual-port operation.
Another crucial component of the PPA is a driver that enables Pin Multiplexing (PinMux). PinMux is one of the crown jewels of our Plus1 chip and the LTPP3(G2). It allows enabling/disabling and remapping of the Plus1's peripherals on the fly — no rebuild or reboot required!
For example, you can enable a UART and map it onto a group of the Plus1's I/O pins. This can be done at any time via console commands or from code!
With PinMux, far more complex scenarios are easily achievable. Continuing with the above example, once the UART functionality is no longer needed, the pins that the UART was mapped onto can be switched back into the GPIO mode. Again, no reboot is required for this. Such functionality is common on lightweight microcontrollers but unheard of in the Linux world.
The PPA also includes the libraries that facilitate the use of Tibbits. Tibbits are blocks of prepackaged I/O functionality housed in brightly colored rectangular shells. They are an integral part of our TPS platform, which counts the LTPP3(G2) among its members.
The availability of these I/O modules sets the LTPP3(G2) and the TPS platform apart from conventional boards such as Raspberry Pi. Need an RS232 port? Plug in the right Tibbit! The same goes for relays, digital outputs, optoisolated inputs, PWMs, and other building blocks commonly required for building IoT and automation systems.
Not only that, but the TPS platform also features durable and attractive enclosures!
Ubuntu users will be right at home on the LTPP3(G2) running Tibbo's Ubuntu-derived distribution. Many operations, such as installing packages through a package manager, will be instantly familiar to the Ubuntu community. More than that, our Ubuntu-based OS enables the use of many tried and tested community-created packages!
For example, let's say that you want to manipulate GPIO lines in the Ubuntu-standard way. As an Ubuntu user, you know what to do:
Once this is done, you can start incorporating GPIO manipulation into your code! Thus, you've just applied your Ubuntu knowledge to the LTPP3(G2) platform.
True to our philosophy, we have taken a modular approach to the inner workings of the distribution and its associated toolchain. The latest working build is provided via a Github repository, which also includes automation scripts for customizing your builds through Docker.
We've assembled a quick guide to help you install our Ubuntu-based distribution on your LTPP3(G2), update and configure it, and prepare it for developing, debugging, and deploying via Visual Studio Code.