Drewby: Mobility

Windows Mobile Virtual Labs

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 15:13:52 GMT

There’s some cool new Windows Mobile Virtual Labs on MSDN. One goes through developing managed applications and the other goes through native code applications:

Windows Mobile is more than email. Windows Mobile lets you re-use your existing infrastructure, business logic and desktop code on a mobile device, to innovate and solve new business problems. By leveraging the familiar.NET programming language and Visual Studio development environment, you can use your existing development skills, and push corporate data out to your users in situations where a desktop or laptop solution is not feasible.

Windows Mobile 5.0: Developing Managed Applications for Pocket PC and Smartphone Devices

Windows Mobile 5.0: Developing Native Applications for Pocket PC and Smartphone Devices

Using Platform Builder to Build a Windows CE Device, Part 2

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 23:24:13 GMT

This is a continuation of Using Platform Builder to Build a Windows CE Device, Part 1.

When you create a Windows CE Operating System project using Platform Builder, you have two options. One is to start from scratch, adding components of the Windows CE OS to a blank project until you've composed the functionality you need in your device. This can be a time consuming task to figure out exactly what you need and make sure you have all of the dependencies.

The second and more common approach is to use one of the many Design Templates included with Platform Builder. The Design Templates have preconfigured the components required for various types of devices such as an Internet Browser Kiosk, IP Phone or Network Router.

The Platform Builder New Project Wizard is launched when you create a new project. The wizard will walk you through choosing a target platform from the Board Support Packages installed on your machine, selecting a template and then adding additional components, such as Internet Explorer or Windows Media Player, to the operating system.

There are a bunch of design templates to choose from, including:

Digital Media Receiver
Enterprise Terminal
Enterprise Web Pad
Industrial Controller
Internet Appliance
IP Phone
Mobile Handheld
Mobile Phone
Set-Top Box
Tiny Kernel
Windows Thin Client

Descriptions of each template are available here.

The Tiny Kernel is interesting - it creates an image that is under 2mb which is great for flashing to devices where the flash memory size is limited. Of course, you can't accomplish a lot with the Tiny Kernel, but you can use it as a base and add more components.

In the next part, I'll go through the Platform Builder Catalog and the various types of items you can add to your OS design.

Using Platform Builder to Build a Windows CE Device, Part 1

Sat, 18 Mar 2006 05:46:17 GMT

I presented a session today called "Introduction to Platform Builder" to a group of developers that meet monthly at the office in Southfield, MI. The session went over the Windows CE operating system and Platform Builder. In preparing for the session, I decided it would be nore fun if I actually targeted a device.

I looked around for something unqiue and came up with the GumStix platform. This board is named that because it is about the size of a stick of gum. I ordered a GumStix connex 200 which has an Intel PXA225 200mhz processor, 4mb flash memory, 64mb SDRAM and the ability to add both types of expansion boards from GumStix.

Along with the platform board, I ordered three extensions:

Tweener - provides a serial connection (FFUART).
AudioStix - my plan was to play an audio file in the presentation today.
netMMC - provides a 10/100 Ethernet (RJ-45) connection and MMC reader.

I probably should have gotten the STUART Waysmall board instead of the Tweener. They are about the same price, but the Tweener only has one serial connection and cannot be connected at the same time as the netMMC card, making some portions of the project more difficult.

In addition to the boards, I needed to get power adapter, a null modem cable with the Mini-DIN connector on one end. I also purchased a "reduced-size" MMC card that nicely fits into the slot on the netMMC board without hanging over the edge.

The first step in building the Windows CE operating system for a device is to locate or create a Board Support Package (BSP) for the hardware board. GumStix comes with Linux embedded and they do not provide a BSP for Windows CE. However, the WE-DIG user group in Washington created a BSP and stored it on GotDotNet. The project is called DrumStix.

This BSP works great! It comes with a customized version of Eboot (the bootloader) and includes drivers for most of the GumStix devices.

Over the next few days, I'm going to write about my experiences building a Windows CE device and deploying it to the GumStix board. Next up is running through the New Platform wizard and choosing a Design Template.

Thanks to David Vescovi and the members of WE-DIG for making this fun and easy!

Continued in Using Platform Builder to Build a Windows CE Device, Part 2.