Installing the toolchain on Windows

Although discouraged, here is the recommended process for installing the as much of the MY18 toolchain as possible on Windows. Be aware that free upgrades to Windows 10 Pro are available to MIT students through here, which would allow you to use the standardized Ubuntu scripts on Ubuntu Bash for Windows 10.

1. Install MinGW.

   Go to the MinGW website and click "Download Installer." Run the installer and make sure the box for "...also install support for the graphical user interface" is checked. After selecting "All packages," scroll down until you find the packages named mingw32-make or mingw32-gcc. Right click on each of them and select "Mark for Installation." Go to the Installation menu at the top and click "Apply Changes."

2. Clone LPC21ISP.

   Clone the LPC21ISP repository into any directory using git clone https://github.com/MITEVT/lpc21isp.

3. Add LPC21ISP and MinGW to your path.

   Search your computer for "Edit the system environment variables" and select the first option. Click the "Environment Variables" button and select Path. Click "Edit" and then "New". Paste in the path the directory where MinGW installed its binaries, probably C:\MinGW\bin. Click "New" again and paste the path to the LPC21ISP repository. You will have to restart your terminal for this to take effect.

4. Build LPC21ISP.

   In your terminal, navigate to the directory for the LPC21ISP repository. Run mingw32-make.

5. Download the ARM toolchain.

   Go to the ARM Developer Website and click Download. Select the first Windows 32-bit option. Run the installer and make sure to check the "Add path to environment variable" box.

6. Add make alias. Optional.

   If you use PowerShell, you set an alias for mingw32-make so that you can just type make into the terminal. To do this, create the folder "WindowsPowerShell" in "Documents". Create a file Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1 and add the line Set-Alias make mingw32-make. Finally, run PowerShell as administrator and run the command Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned.

Note: Whenever you use a Makefile, you will need to make sure that COMPORT is set correctly. To do this, open the Device Manager while the board you are trying to program is plugged in. Under "Ports (COM & LPT)", check what COM number shows up. Set COMPORT equal to that in your Makefile (for example, COMPORT = COM5).

Note: It's unclear whether Powershell implements VT-100 protocol properly, so it is recommended to use Termite or Putty to communicate over UART, especially if you're using microrl like in the BMS.