How to set up display output
When you develop real-time capable applications (RTApps), as a first step, you will have to install a cross-compiler. The compiler will compile the source code on the host machine and will generate a binary for your embedded processor. Along with that, you will need to set up hardware to receive output from the app that could be displayed to the user.
You'll use a USB-to-serial adapter to connect the UART on the real-time core to a USB port on your machine.
The components used in this unit are:
Putty: is a free and open-source terminal emulator, serial console and network file transfer application. Windows users will install it to display output messages from the app.
Minicom: is a text-based modem control and terminal emulator program for Unix-like operating systems. Linux users will install it to display output messages from the app.
USB-to-serial adapter: is used to connect the UART. It provides communication with the UART and your application.
UART: A universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter is a computer hardware device for asynchronous serial communication in which the data format and transmission speeds are configurable.
Jumper wires: is used to connect the USB-to-serial adapter to the Azure Sphere kit.
The steps you will follow:
- Install the terminal emulator for your development environment
- Connect the USB-to-serial adapter to Azure Sphere
- Connect the USB-to-serial adapter to your computer
- Start your terminal emulator
When you deploy your image classification app to Azure Sphere, the app transmits the output message over a UART. These messages can be read in a terminal application on a computer using a USB-to-serial adapter.
Note
By default, this unit uses the real-time core's dedicated UART. If your hardware doesn't expose this UART's TX pin, then the sample can be altered to use a different UART.