Power up and connect

1. Power the machine on

1. Turn on the mains inlet switch.
2. Press the momentary ON button.
3. Release the emergency stop.

Why it is staged is in the theory of operation.

2. Open the app and choose a data folder

In Chrome or Edge, open https://rileymccarthy.github.io/MaD/app/.

The first time, the app asks where to keep your data. Click Choose data folder and pick (or create) a folder. Profiles, test runs and settings are saved there as plain files. You only do this once.

3. Connect on the control port

Open Connect. Leave the baud rate at 2,000,000 and click Connect device (it reads Add device… once the browser remembers a port). The browser shows its serial port chooser: pick the control port adapter.

Ports you have used before are listed under Previously granted devices: click Connect beside the control port. The port the Firmware page programs through is labelled the Firmware page's programming port so you don't pick it by mistake.

When the link is up the status bar turns green, and Responding appears once the firmware is answering:

Status bar	Meaning
Connected + Responding	The port is open and the firmware is answering. You're done.
Connected + Not responding	The port is open but nothing is answering. On a new board this is expected: it has no firmware yet, so flash it. Otherwise see Connection problems.
A banner under the status bar	The firmware and the app don't match. See Flash the firmware.

The two ports

The controller has two serial ports with separate jobs.

	Control port	Programming port
Where	Secondary serial, P30/P32: J4 on the Edge carrier	J1 (Prop Plug), or the P2-EVAL's own USB
Used by	The Connect screen	The Firmware screen only
Opening it	Never restarts the machine	Restarts the machine: the adapter's DTR line drives reset
Carries	The MaD protocol	The boot loader, and the firmware's debug log

Because opening the control port never resets the controller, connecting, refreshing the page and reconnecting are all safe while a test is running.

The firmware does not answer the app on J1. If you connect there, the machine restarts and the app shows Not responding.

Disconnecting and reconnecting

• Disconnect closes the port. The machine carries on with whatever it was doing.

• If the link drops (cable pulled, machine power-cycled), the status bar shows Disconnected with a Reconnect button, and the app reconnects by itself when the adapter comes back.

  

• If the control adapter and the Prop Plug have the same USB id, the app won't guess between them (one of them restarts the machine): pick the control port on the Connect screen.

Next: Flash the firmware.