ARM Beginner - Friendly ARM Mini2440 - Help - PLEASE

Hi ,


I have been trying to learn ARM on the "Friendly ARM Mini2440" Kit that my company has given me.

I was told to learn ARM coding :

UART CODE, ADC CODE, GPS interfacing , LCD interfacing and such sort.

I was given 20 days limit.


I already wasted 5 days, with nothing.


I know that GOOGLE is good friend and teacher, but for an idiot like me, its no good use.


I have NOT-So-Bad idea on AVR coding. Also worked on GPS and GSM modules in AVR.

But ARM is totally new for me. Google throws so many links and i have no idea what to do.

Please urgently suggest me a single tutorial for a complete Noob like me,

I have less time to get along.



Problems iam facing:

I got FRIENDLY ARM Mini2440 :

I was told to work on LINUX RED HAT (version 2.x) - I am new to LINUX too.
And am supposed to work on ECLIPSE and i cant even create a new Project in LINUX ECLIPSE.


Basically all-in-all i am an idiot.

I need a DUMMY tutorial.

I need a teacher, motivator, Guide or what ever . . PLEASE HELP ME

Alright, so first things first, I suppose you've got some knowledge about the ARM architecture series. If so may be you'll need some refreshment concerning certain topics, and so here's my best reference about the ARM family:

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 2 edition | ISBN : 0201737191 | January 6, 2001 | 811 pages | PDF | 12.7MB
-Download here:http://ebookbrowse.com/arm-architecture-reference-manual-2ed-pdf-d98405524

I also suppose that you've got a start up manual or a tutorial or something like that which comes along with your kit. IT"S ABSOLUTELY USEFUL, MAKE USE OF IT! =] I'm sure you'll find it so handy especially when comes to setting up your kit and getting it started with Linux.

Now the Linux part, I think your best option will be to get your hands dirty with Redhat right on. Because you've got like two weeks or so, may be you can look for some introductory videos on youtube or something. You'll find it similar to windows, like it's got a friendly GUI and so on PLUS a couple of command-line driven issues. Again, the accompanying manual will come in handy at this point.

I hope that's useful to you somehow. And maybe, you can post about your progress and keep us informed of anything interesting that comes up. Cheers mate

Thank You very Much for the reply.

And thanks a lot for the Reference book.

I suppose you've got some knowledge about the ARM architecture

Well i dont. I just didnt knew where to start.

I also suppose that you've got a start up manual or a tutorial or something like that which comes along with your kit

Wel again i dont have the HARD COPY of these but in the FRIENDLYARM.NET i found dome PDFs.

Basically I find a lot of videos or tutorials on how to port the LINUX on to the MINI2440 kit.


When i was new to AVR, it was easy to get along with, as i found many tutorials in this FORUM and other forums like extremeElectronics.

even the Datasheet itself was informative.

But With this thing, I am totally confused.


Thank you for the PDF. I'll go through it.

Thanks once agan

I cant find the THANKS Button here.

No worries mate. Okay maybe you want to check out the official website of your kit at: http://www.friendlyarm.net/products/mini2440?lang=en
Have a look around they've got a couple of manuals and even a forum. Good luck.

I think its alreay more than a moth and am still going nowhere.

Yes am still struggling to understand / write the simplest codes.


I have BLINDLY ported the LINUX on to the kit. Compiled some of the example codes and got them dumped and worked on the kit too.

But I didnt even undertand the simplest code.


I really want to write the basic codes to like LED and UART and ADC.


Please help me.


Please give me an example code

I really want to write the basic codes to like LED and UART and ADC.

firoz3321

I know exactly how you feel

to do or write such codes.. first you have to know how linux works. I mean how driver layer work etc etc..

you might have heard many times that... devices on linux are like files.. right? so if you want to use UART.. just write a C program.. open file /dev/ttyS0 (if you want to open COM 0).. now simply write and read as normal file access.

for more help.. open your linux machine (PC) on command line.. type open manuals for open, close, read and write these are not fread and fwrite

use following commands

man open #for reading manual for open system call
man 2 read
man 2 write
#.. and others

You have to first understand linux as i said.. start reading "Linux device drivers" search in google for LDD3 (linux device driver 3rd edition). its available free as single book or chapters in tarball. hope this helps

Ajay , Realy thank you.

I will surely follow what you have said

You can learn linux once you go though it. friendly arm must be having linux source code they are using for their boards. Download it.. see what is configured for your board. for every board there is a default configuration e.g. boardname_defconfig

just open menu config and see what is configured. I am sure you are having toolchain and all.. so it wont be difficult for you to start with.

i cant find the Source code in this site : http://www.friendlyarm.net/downloads

may this is th link: http://www.friendlyarm.net/dl.php?file=2440test_20100925.zip

Not sure

and that book i downloaded it. but looks very complicated.

AVR was much easy to learn