Blackberry – Tech Blog

On the Host (Using Google ADT + Blackberry SDK)

Right click on the project -> BlackBerry Tools -> Configure Targets -> run “BlackBerry Development Setup Wizzard”

press “Next” and check “Device connected using Wi-Fi”. Complete “IP Address” with your BB10’s IP and “Password” with your device password.

Once the wizzard connected to your device, it will ask for your BlackBerry Code Signing Keys. You can get your keys filling out the BlackBerry Signing Key Order Form.

It is recommend to save your Signing Keys and Developer Certificate once they were generated.

In order to run code on the device, a device token must be generated and uploaded to the BB10.

Uploading the Debug Tokens is the last step in the Wizzard. Then a summary appears, and we are done!

I found really interesting a small protoboard created by Sparkfun that allows you to easily connect a Pearl (the one made famous by RIM / Blackberry devices) with a microcontroller. This time I choose the LPC2138 from NXP because I also have a complete 2D graphic engine for interfacing the LPC2138 with a Nokia 128×128 LCD with 16 bits per pixel. One issue with this device is that a small movement on the pearl is detected. And sometimes you want to move in a direction but this little ball moves in more than one direction at a time. So the big problem was designing a software able to detect the movements correctly, providing anti bouncing and a way to easily modify how many pulses of the pearl are detected as one movement.


void pearl_Task() {
    if ((!(PEARL_INPUT_PIN & (1 << PEARL_LEFT_PIN))) && (pearl_state_left == 0)) {
        pearl_dir_left_changes++;
        pearl_state_left = 1;
    }
    else if (((PEARL_INPUT_PIN & (1 << PEARL_LEFT_PIN)))
                  && (pearl_state_left == 1)) {
        pearl_dir_left_changes++;
        pearl_state_left = 0;
    }
    if ((!(PEARL_INPUT_PIN & (1 << PEARL_RIGHT_PIN))) && (pearl_state_right == 0)) {
        pearl_dir_right_changes++;
        pearl_state_right = 1;
    }
    else if (((PEARL_INPUT_PIN & (1 << PEARL_RIGHT_PIN)))
                  && (pearl_state_right == 1)) {
        pearl_dir_right_changes++;
        pearl_state_right = 0;
    }
    if ((!(PEARL_INPUT_PIN & (1 << PEARL_DOWN_PIN))) && (pearl_state_down == 0)) {
        pearl_dir_down_changes++;
        pearl_state_down = 1;
    }
    else if (((PEARL_INPUT_PIN & (1 << PEARL_DOWN_PIN)))
                  && (pearl_state_down == 1)) {
        pearl_dir_down_changes++;
        pearl_state_down = 0;
    }
    if ((!(PEARL_INPUT_PIN & (1 << PEARL_UP_PIN))) && (pearl_state_up == 0)) {
        pearl_dir_up_changes++;
        pearl_state_up = 1;
    }
    else if (((PEARL_INPUT_PIN & (1 << PEARL_UP_PIN)))
                  && (pearl_state_up == 1)) {
        pearl_dir_up_changes++;
        pearl_state_up = 0;
    }
}

This task can be perform in a main loop, or can be called by a timer when it overflows (as I do in my code). The following piece of code is an example of how to ask if a movement in a particular direction was performed.


unsigned char pearl_IsMovingLeft() {
	if (pearl_dir_left_changes >= PEARL_DIR_LEFT_LIMIT) {
		pearl_dir_left_changes = 0;
		return 1;
	}
	return 0;
}

Where if PEARL_DIR_LEFT_LIMIT is between 3 or 5 and you run the pearl task every 50mSec the movement is quite smooth.