The AXIOM Beta Manual (ABM) can be downloaded in full, in various languages from AXIOM Beta/AXIOM Beta Manual/Versions

Note: In some instances the instructions we have prepared are written in a manor that can be followed by people without a deep technical knowledge. If you are an advanced user please keep this in mind.

Notes on Userspace: Arch Linux comes with systemd, which has one advantage that the boot process is incredibly fast. Standard tools such as sshd and dhcpcd have been preinstalled.

One idea to store camera relevant parameters inside the camera and provide access from most programming languages is to use a database like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley\DB

1 General Information

1.1 AXIOM Beta Connector Overview

ToDo

1.2 Mountpoints

ToDo

1.3 Accessories and Connected Devices

ToDo

2 Operating Basics

2.1 Getting Started

2.1.1 Prepare Your AXIOM Beta Camera for Use

Use a micro-USB cable to connect the camera's MicroZed development board (USB UART) to a computer. The MicroZed board is the backmost, red PCB. (There is another micro-USB socket on the Power Board, but that is the JTAG Interface.)
Connect the ethernet port on the MicroZed to an ethernet port on your computer. You might have to use an ethernet adapter on newer, smaller machines which come without a native ethernet port.
Connect the AC adapter to the camera's Power Board. (The power cord plugs into an adapter that connects to the Power Board; to power the camera off at a later point, you need not disconnect the adapter from the board but can just unplug the cord from the adapter.)

2.1.2 Prep your computer for use with your camera

To communicate with your AXIOM Beta camera, you will send it instructions via your computer's command line.

In case you have not worked with a shell (console, terminal) much or ever before, we have prepared detailed instructions to help you get you set up. The steps which need to be taken to prepare your machine sometimes differ between operating systems, so pick the ones that are applicable to you(r system).

Note that dollar signs $ placed in front of commands are not meant to be typed in but denote the command line prompt (a signal indicating the computer is ready for user input). It is used in documentation to differentiate between commands and output resulting from commands. The prompt might look different on your machine (e.g. an angled bracket >) and be preceded by your user name, computer name or the name of the directory which you are currently inside.

2.1.2.1 USB to UART drivers

For the USB connection to work, you will need drivers for bridging USB to UART (USB to serial). (Under Linux this works out of the box in most distributions) for other operating systems they can be downloaded from e.g. Silicon Labs' website – pick the software provided for your OS and install it.

2.1.2.2 Serial console

The tool we recommend for connecting to the AXIOM Beta camera via serial port with Mac OS X or Linux is minicom; for connections from Windows machines, we have used Putty.

2.1.2.2.1 Linux setup

Check if you already have minicom installed on your system by trying to run it:

$ minicom

Your system will respond with a message like bash: command not found: minicom if it's not installed.

Install minicom

Install the minicom package like you'd install other software on your system – which could be via a GUI tool or using aptitude or apt-get (for wich you might need super user rights), e.g.:

$ apt-get install minicom

or

$ sudo apt-get install minicom

2.1.2.2.2 Mac OS X setup

Overview

You will want to have Homebrew installed on your system to use minicom for serial communication as it is more convenient than using screen.

Note: Homebrew is a package manager for Mac - a piece of software that helps you install other software on your Mac machine, particularly software which is readily available on Linux but which does not come in the form of Mac "applications", which you can download via your web browser and simply drop into your Applications folder.

Open Terminal.app (or your preferred terminal emulator if you have another installed). Terminal can be found via e.g. Spotlight search or via the Finder menu: Go > Utilities > Terminal.app.

Check if you already have brew installed by entering the brew command:

$ brew

If you don't have Homebrew installed, your shell will reply with something like bash: command not found: brew. Otherwise, it will spit out a list of brew commands.

Install Homebrew

To install Homebrew, go to the Homebrew website and follow the install instructions there. You can simply copy the command used for installing Homebrew from their website and paste it into your terminal.

Install minicom

With brew installed, you want to install minicom:

$ brew install minicom

Homebrew will tell you if you already have minicom installed on your system (e.g. Warning: minicom-2.7 already installed), otherwise it will install it for you.

2.1.2.2.3 minicom configuration

instructions (Mac and Linux)