1. Engineering
  2. Software
  3. SDK

Build and run your own version of Epsilon

Install the SDK

Windows

We recommend using the Msys2 environment to install most of the required tools. We support Windows 7 and up. Once Msys2 has been installed, launch the Msys2 terminal application, and enter the following commands

pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc mingw-w64-x86_64-freetype mingw-w64-x86_64-pkg-config mingw-w64-x86_64-libusb make mingw-w64-x86_64-python3 mingw-w64-x86_64-libjpeg-turbo mingw-w64-x86_64-libpng mingw-w64-x86_64-imagemagick mingw-w64-x86_64-librsvg mingw-w64-x86_64-inkscape mingw-w64-x86_64-python3-pip
echo "export PATH=/mingw64/bin:$PATH" >> .bashrc
pip3 install lz4 pypng stringcase

Last but not least, download and install the latest GCC toolchain from ARM. When prompted for an install location, choose C:\msys64\home\User\gcc-arm\. You’ll then need to add this folder to your $PATH in Msys2 by running this command: echo "export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/gcc-arm/bin" >> .bashrc and restarting Msys2.

macOS

We recommend using Homebrew to install all dependencies. Once you have installed Homebrew, install all the dependencies with the following command:

brew install numworks/tap/epsilon-sdk

Debian or Ubuntu

Most of the required tools are available as apt packages:

apt-get install build-essential git imagemagick libx11-dev libxext-dev libfreetype6-dev libpng-dev libjpeg-dev pkg-config python3 python3-pip
pip3 install lz4 pypng stringcase

You’ll also need to install the latest version of GCC and make it available in your $PATH:

  1. Download the GCC toolchain distributed by ARM. You should obtain a gcc-arm-none-eabi-x-linux.tar.bz2 file.
  2. Decompress that file with tar xvfj gcc-arm-none-eabi-*-linux.tar.bz2
  3. Add the resulting folder to your $PATH. If you use bash, echo "export PATH=\$PATH:`find $(pwd)/gcc-arm-none-eabi-*-update/bin -type d`" >> ~/.bashrc should do what you need (you’ll need to restart your terminal afterwards).

Alternatively, on Debian 10 and later you can directly install a sufficiently modern cross-toolchain:

apt-get install gcc-arm-none-eabi binutils-arm-none-eabi

Retrieve the source code

The code is hosted on GitHub. You can retrieve it using the following command in your terminal (Msys2, Terminal.app, xterm…).

git clone https://github.com/numworks/epsilon.git

Run Epsilon on your computer

Once the SDK has been installed, just open your terminal, navigate to the epsilon folder and type the following commands:

make PLATFORM=simulator clean
make PLATFORM=simulator epsilon_run

Run Epsilon on your calculator as a third-party software

You can also update your NumWorks calculator easily. Please note that after a reset, your calculator will exclusively run an offical NumWorks software.

You’ll first need to plug your calculator to the computer via USB, and check that there is a message “The calculator is connected” displayed on the calculator screen.
Then open your terminal, navigate to the epsilon folder and type the following commands:

make clean
if [ "$(python3 build/device/dfu.py -l | grep '0x90000000')" ]; then make userland.A.dfu; python3 build/device/dfu.py -s 0x90010000:leave -D output/release/device/n0110/userland/userland.A.dfu; else make userland.B.dfu; python3 build/device/dfu.py -s 0x90410000:leave -D output/release/device/n0110/userland/userland.B.dfu; fi;

Congratulations, you’re running your very own version of Epsilon!

Troubleshooting

If you encounter an error when flashing the device (python3 build/device/dfu.py -s 0x90010000:leave -D ...), make sure you’ve closed all web pages that could interact with the calculator (such as https://my.numworks.com/).
If your device is not detected (python3 build/device/dfu.py -l failing), try with another cable and another port of your computer.