Permanent Way Module Software

Architecture

The P-Way module microcontroller will run the NuttX RTOS. This is a Posix-like threaded OS with a mature driver tree for STM32F4 and proven reliability in complex applications. It is open source with a permissive license.

Firmware Loading

During development firmware will be written to flash using an SWD programmer such as the ST-Link.

In the field, updates will be loaded from SD card (either manually copied to the card or loaded over the network). To accommodate this a bootloader will be located at the start of flash and not normally written to (it may be locked down). It starts the main application, located further into Flash, or writes a new update to flash as appropriate.

The bootloader is a minimal NuttX build with just enough functionality for its tasks.

Best Practice

Functionality will be added in a modular fashion such that each component may be included or excluded without affecting other components where no critical dependency exists.

In so much as multiple threads are desirable for P-Way (which has diverse responsibilities with asynchronous data sources) all inter-thread operations will route through thread-safe message queues.

Fast time-critical operations such as bitbanging the DCC protocol will be scheduled by hardware timers and run under interrupts. Any lengthy operations will always be queued down to the task, even if triggered under interrupt.

Resources

Github links to follow.