Do you want to take advantage of the hottest computing platform to take measurements? Is the thought of tethering your expensive laptop to a measurement device concerning to you?
This tutorial will show how easy and inexpensive it is to collect data with your MCC USB DAQ device using a Raspberry Pi. We will provide all the steps necessary to make you successful. We will cover:
• What equipment do I need?
• What do I need to buy?
• How do I configure the Raspberry Pi out of the box?
• Where do I download the MCC drivers for the Raspberry Pi?
• How do I install the drivers?
• And finally, how do I take measurements with MCC DAQ and the Raspberry Pi?
Our promise to you:
From “out of the box” to “first measurement” will be less than 90 minutes. Most of this time is simply waiting for files to be downloaded, extracted and installed. The only hard work in front of you is typing 25 simple command line statements.
What equipment do I need?
You will need a PC or MAC with an SD Card Reader. You will also need a MCC USB DAQ device. There are over 150 to choose from. We will be using the USB-1608G product for this tutorial.
How do I configure the Raspberry Pi?
The Raspberry Pi has a wonderful out of the box experience. The 5 minute video at https://www.raspberrypi.org/help/noobs-setup/ is a great starting point.
We will break down the steps described in this video:
Format your SD card
Go to www.sdcard.org and download the utility for your MAC or PC. Save the download to your PC or MAC. Install the SD card into your PC/MAC. Run the executable that just downloaded to format your SD card.
Download the Operating System for your Raspberry Pi
Go to www.raspberrypi.org. Click on the downloads menu item and select NOOBS- download zip. Save this file to your PC. It is a fairly large download; it could take 20 minutes of more (pour yourself a fresh coffee). Double click on the Zip file to expand the files, and then copy these files to your SD Card. Again there are a lot of files, it could take another 20 minutes or more.
Install the Operating System for your Raspberry Pi:
Remove the SD card from your PC/MAC and install it into the Raspberry Pi. Attach your usb hub, keyboard, mouse and USB wifi dongle to your Raspberry Pi. Apply power to Raspberry Pi which will boot Raspberry Pi.
You will be prompted by a screen asking which OS you wish to install. Select Raspbian and follow the prompts. This process will take about 30 minutes. The system will reboot and you will be prompted to set the date and time for your Raspberry Pi. Once finished you will be given the following prompt:
pi@raspberrypi~$
Simply type: startx
Congratulations! You have now installed the Raspberry Pi operating system.
The default username is: pi
The default password is: raspberry
Where do I download the MCC drivers for the Raspberry Pi?
Before we download the MCC drivers to the Raspberry Pi, let’s first ensure that you have internet access with your Raspberry Pi via the wifi dongle.
Double click the “WiFi Config” icon on the desktop to start the wireless configuration program. The “Adapter:” field will show your USB dongle (i.e. wlan0) and the “Network:” field will be empty. Click the “Scan” button. A list of the available wireless networks will be shown. To connect to one of the listed networks, double click on the SSID.
On the connection window, verify the “Authentication” and “Encryption” fields and enter the password in the “PSK” field. Now Click “Add”. The configuration program will automatically connect to the newly configured network.
Reboot the Raspberry Pi and remain at pi@raspberrypi~$ prompt.
The next step is to install ftp on the Raspberry Pi. At the pi@raspberrypi~$ prompt, type:
sudo apt-get install ftp
Go to the ftp site hosting the Raspberry Pi drivers:
ftp lx10.tx.ncsu.edu
{Lima-Xray}
Your username is: anonymous
Your password is: {your email address}
At the ftp prompt, type the following:
cd pub/Linux/drivers
get 61-mcc.rules
cd USB
get libhid-0.2.16.tar.gz
get MCCLIBHID.1.57.tgz
exit
How do I install the MCC drivers for the Raspberry Pi?
To install the MCC DAQ drivers:
sudo apt-get install libusb-dev
sudo cp 61-mcc.rules /etc/udev/rules.d
Reboot your Raspberry Pi by cycling the power on the device.
Go to directory with the following file libhid-0.2.16.tar.gz. More than likely this file is located within your pi/home default directory.
tar zxvf libhid-0.2.16.tar.gz
cd libhid-0.2.16
./configure
sudo make
sudo make install
sudo depmod -a
Go to directory with the following file MCCLIBHID.1.57.tgz. And type the following:
tar zxvf MCCLIBHID.1.57.tgz
cd libhid
sudo make
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig
Congratulations! You have know downloaded all the drivers and compiled all the example programs.
How do I take measurements with MCC DAQ and the Raspberry Pi?
You can run the USB-1608G test application by typing the following command within the libhid directory:
sudo –i
cd ~pi
cd libhid
./test-usb1608G
Acknowledgement
A special thank to Warren Jasper, PhD, PE, Professor and Textile Engineering Program Director at North Carolina State University. Dr. Jasper remains instrumental to the development and support of Linux drivers for Measurement Computing’s USB and PCI DAQ devices. We applaud his tireless efforts and dedication to the Linux community. Without his work and continued support, this article and application would not have been possible.