Windows IoT with Intel Galileo

The Intel Galileo board runs on the Linux operating System by default but we can also make it run on a more powerful version of Linux or Windows using a micro SD card. Windows is free for screen sizes less than 9” so licensing will not be a problem. You can use it for free as Linux on your Galileo board. Also the question arises here of why to use Windows OS for the IoT. The reasons can be the following:

1. Familiar Operating System.
2. Easy to use tools and powerful developing environment using Visual Studio that will allow you to debug your code.
3. Access to many libraries that runs on Windows.
4. Usually all Arduino shields are compatible, including Grove base shield.
5. You are a Windows Fan.

For this article I am using Intel Galileo gen2 board. If you have a Gen1 board then the entire procedure is the same. There are many supported boards, the other Windows OS supported boards are the following:

• Raspberry Pi 2
• MinnowBoard MAX
• Intel Galileo

Let’s see how to start with Windows on our little board.

Prerequisites

Hardware:

• Intel Galileo board.
• Power Supply for Galileo.
• Ethernet Cable
• Ethernet to USB adapter
• Micro SD Card (16 GB or more)
• Micro SD card reader
• An LED 

Figure: Intel Galileo board

Software:

• Visual Studio 2013
  
  Currently the supported IDE with Intel Galileo is Visual Studio 2013 Express, Professional, Premium or Ultimate. Visual Studio 2015 is not currently supported. If you don’t have Visual Studio 2013 then you can download it from: Visual Studio Downloads .

Setting Up your PC

1. Install telnet on your Computer. Telnet provides access to a command-line interface on a remote host. Using telnet we will access our board remotely.
   
   On your PC go to Control Panel, then Program and Features, select “Turn Windows Features On or off”. The Windows Features Windows will open. Check “Telnet Client”. Click Ok and restart the computer.
   
   
   Figure: Program and Features
   
   
   Figure: InstallingTelnet Client
   
   
2. Install WindowsDeveloperProgramforIoT.msi . You need to register on the Connect Windows Developer Program for IoT with a Microsoft account.
   
   
     Figure: Windows Developer Program for IoT with a Microsoft account
   
   
3. After running this file you will see two main changes in your computer.
   
   It will install a utility called Galileo Watcher that will help you to access your board and
   
   
     Figure: Galileo Watcher
   
   in Visual Studio there will be a template for IoT called “Galileo Wiring App” in New Projects.
   
   
   Figure: Template for IoT

Setting Up the Galileo Board

Update the firmware on the board as described here.

Creating Bootable Windows Image for Intel Galileo

Software Package:

• Download Microsoft Windows for Galileo
• Download apply-BootMedia.cmd

Create a new folder in the root of the directory and name it “galileo” and place these two downloaded files in that. I placed them in C:\ drive since it is easier to access this way. My SD card came in the D:\ drive.


Figure: Formatting SD card

Connect your micro SD card to your PC and format it with the Fat32 file system. If there will be any data, Windows image creation will fail. Let us create a Bootable Windows Image for Galileo: 

1. Go to the Command Prompt, right-click and select ”Run as Administrator”.
   
   
   Figure: CMD Run as Administrator
   
   
2. Navigate to your “galileo” folder (where you saved the downloaded files).
   
   
3. Type :
   
   {Files containing directory}apply-bootmedia.cmd -destination {YourSDCardDrive} -image {.wimFile downloaded above} -hostname mygalileo -password admin

For example in our case:

C:\galileo>apply-bootmedia.cmd -destination d:\ -image 9600.16384.x86fre.winblue_rtm_iotbuild.150309-0310_galileo_v2.wim -hostname mygalileo -password admin


Figure: creating bootable win Image

Here we are using apply-bootmedia.cmd to create the image on the destination drive on which our SD card is mounted. You need not to write the entire image name, just write “–image” and press the Tab key, the Command Prompt will complete that for you. You must pass to more parameters “hostname” and “password” for your Administrator account of Windows. It is highly recommended to use “mygalileo” as hostname and “admin” as password. Unless you do not have a valid reason stick to this. The Visual Studio template for IoT uses “mygalileo” as the default hostname, if you change it here then be sure to change it in Visual Studio debug configurations. The mounting process will start, it will take some time. Before applying the image it pauses for a minute, give it some time. This entire process will take around 10 minutes. Then it will display the hostname, timezone, username and password.


Figure: Windows Image Created

Connecting and booting Windows

Once your bootable image is ready you can mount it to your Intel Galileo board in the SD card slot. Connect your board to a power supply, Galieo gen1 and gen2 boards use different power supplies. If you are using a Gen2 board then use the 12 volt power supply and with Gen1 use a 5 volt power supply.

1. Connect one end of your network cable to Intel Galileo.
   
   
2. Connect the other end of the network cable to the Ethernet port of your computer or you can use an Ethernet-USB adapter if you do not have an Ethernet port available.
   
   
3. Power your board.
   
   
4. Galileo will start booting from the SD card image of the Windows OS. The SD card light will start flickering during this process. When the light settles down it will finish booting, this process can take around 2 minutes.
   
   
   Figure: Connections
   

Galileo Watcher

Now you can run the Galileo Watcher utility. The “Galileo Watcher” will automatically detect your board. If it doesn’t then ensure that it has network access using a firewall. This utility will display some information about your board such as its MAC address and IP address. It also has a check box to show whether your Galileo is connected or not. When you right-click on board it will open a Handy Context Menu, with this you can copy the MAC and IP address or remotely connect to your Galileo.


Figure: Remotely connect to your Galileo

Telnet here

It will start a telnet session with the board. You will be able to get a remote command prompt against your Galileo. It will ask for Username and password that are:

Username: Administrator
Password: admin


Figure: Telnet here

Web Browser here

There is a webserver running on MinWin, you can see a task list, process running on your board, file list and memory statistic. It is like a Task Manager for Galileo. You can just open a web browser and type http://<your galileo host name or ip address> .


Figure: Process running on Galileo

Figure: Memory statistics

Open Network Share:

The Windows on Galileo has a c$ share. You will get a remote file system. The connection parameters are the following:
Username: mygalileo\Administrator
Password: admin


Figure: Window security prompt

You can type \\mygalileo\c$ in File Explorer to open a network share.

If it won’t recognize the username then you can use an IP address.


Figure: Network share

Developing your first application for Galileo on Windows

When we set up an electronic board we first test it by running a program for blinking the LED. It is the same as running your Hello world program. So let’s write our Hello World application for Windows on Galileo.

1. Attach an LED to pin 13. They have polarity, that means we need to connect them in the right order. There are many ways to differentiate between cathode and anode of the LED, we can tell that by looking at the LED carefully in many ways.
   
   The longer lead will be the cathode and the shorter will be the anode.
   
   When we examine the LED from the top we see the two metal posts, the smaller of the two is the anode and the bigger is the cathode
2. Open Visual Studio 2013, go to File, New, then Project, under templates go to Visual C++, select Windows for IoT, then click Galileo Wiring app.
   
   
   
   Figure: IoT Galileo Wiring app
   
   
3. It is basically a C++ console app that has references to the Galileo SDK to allow it to talk to the Arduino side of things. Underneath the project in Main.cpp you will find all of your code.
4. It is a default Blink Sketch. The sketch looks nearly similar to one like in Arduino, the only difference is the Log method that writes the output to both stdOut and debugger.
   
   
   Figure: The Code
   
   
5. Run your program by clicking on Remote Windows Debugger or by pressing F5. For the first connection attempt it will prompt for credentials.
   
   Username: mygalileo\Administrator
   Password: admin
   
   Now you will see you LED blinking, hence you have successfully deployed your first application on Windows on Galileo.
   
   References:
   
   https://dev.windows.com/en-us/iot