Getting the Boards Working

Installing everything

First install the Maple IDE following the instructions on the page relevant to your OS (linux/Mac/Windows) Make sure you follow all the steps such as running the install-udev-rules.sh script if in linux

Making the IDE and board play nicely

We will assume that you have had the appropriate booloader flashed to your board but nothing else. If you already have your board coming up as a virtual serial port skip to the making auto reset work section.

When your board is initially plugged into the computer it will show up as a DFU device (leaf 0003) for about 3 seconds then will appear to disconnect and that will be all. This is because the boolader runs for 3 seconds then just to jump into your code but you don't have any code yet so it just does nothing. You must upload some code first and the first time you do this, it is a bit tricky. First make sure that you have chosen the correct board in the drop down menu: Tools:board you want either Leaflabs Maple RET6 edition to flash (if you got the more expensive board) or Leaflabs Mpale rev3+ to flash for the slightly cheaper board. Note that the to flash is important otherwise when you reset your board all your code will disappear.

Go to the IDE and file:examples:communication:ASCII table. Click the upload button. In the space at the bottom of the ide it will say compiling. Be ready to reset your board when the ide says something like auto reset failed searching for dfu device, hit the reset button. If it worked you should see it start to upload code. This may take a couple of tries to get the timing right.

Getting Auto Reset to Work

Ok so now your board should have a program on it. Auto reset works by sending a DTR pulse to the virtual serial device that the maple appears to the OS as once it it out of the bootloader mode (about 3 seconds). You need to let the maple IDE know which serial device is the board. If you have just connected your board wait a few seconds for it to move out of bootloader mode. Ok now go Tools:Serial Port:/dev/ttyACM0 in linux it will likely be ttyACM0 in windows something like COM8 or COM9 or something. The ide should remember this in future.

If you had previously uploaded the ascii table code click the serial monitor button. This is your serial terminal (though you are welcome to use a more fully featured one like picocom from the command line if you want to). enter a letter and you should be presented with an ASCII table generated buy your board.

From now on if you hit the upload button you should not need to press the reset button to get the code onto the micro, the virtual DTR should do that for you