Pyxis OS, an operating system for Arduino

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By Matt Mets
Posted 2010/02/01 @ 10:23 am
Category Computers & Mobile, Electronics

Thom wrote in to share his impressive open source operating system*, Pyxis OS. Based around the Arduino hardware platform, it adds some pretty impressive features, such as the ability to run programs from an SD card, read/write to a FAT filesystem, and easily display graphics and GUI elements on a color LCD. It looks like it could be lots of fun to play with, and if you want to peer under the hood, a great way to learn how to build complex systems on tiny microcontrollers.

*To be clear, the operating system itself is open source, however the C-language compiler for it is proprietary. An assembler is provided for free.

In the Maker Shed

5 Responses to Pyxis OS, an operating system for Arduino

Maha on February 1st, 2010 at 12:36 pm said:

I’m amazed. I did some research on executing programs in data memory and everything says you can’t.. program memory only. This is very exciting. There isn’t much documentation on the site, there must be more included with the files? Did a quick look and can’t find documentation there either. Does anyone know of a wiki or forum? Google is just turning up blogs and chatter.

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- Thom Holtquist on February 1st, 2010 at 12:48 pm said:
  
  Sorry about the current lack of documentation. It was a whirlwind getting Pyxis released on time. I’ll upload detailed docs and examples as soon as I can.
  
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Maha on February 2nd, 2010 at 11:26 am said:

Came back a day later and this already fell off the first page : /

Don’t apologize to the internet masses for not giving more details of something so amazing. But i’ll hold you to the “as soon as i can” part, hah. I’ll send you an email in a bit. I plan on buying Pyxis Studio as soon as i can get a demo up and running.

My best guess is you are using an interpreter of sorts on the arduino that executes the PXEs? I’m very curious of how much memory the interpreter takes up and if it can do proto-thread type execution? Probably the easiest way for me to figure this stuff out is explore the source, but i’d still like to ask. Just the basics is fine: Pyxis OS footprint. Hardware requirements? Small turorial on how to get something initially setup (i have plenty of arduinos & screens but not that touch slide thing you have), are there DEFINEs or configs that need to be edited to fit the hardware setup? I am very excited, as you can tell.

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- Thom Holtquist on February 4th, 2010 at 8:48 am said:
  
  Sorry Maha but today was as soon as I could. Anyway the guide is up now; here’s a direct link: http://www.skewworks.com/downloads/PyxisQuickStart.pdf
  
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ThomWill on February 4th, 2010 at 9:01 am said:

Maha,

I apologize for the delay; a quick start guide detailing the setup process is now available on the Pyxis OS page.

The interpreter can be found in RunPXE in the Pyxis library.

Pyxis as it is in the ZIP file is aimed at an Arduino Mega with a TouchShield Slide and ButtonPad. You’ll also need to build or buy an adapter board for the uSD card. The board is easy to build and you can find the few details you’ll need under Buy > Device.

Do feel free to email me. Sorry again about the delay.

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