5.1. TI Apps Launcher - User Guide

5.1.1. Overview

TI Apps Launcher is a QT Based Application launcher for TI Platforms. Currently, TI Apps Launcher incorporates following applications across all supported platforms,

  • Industrial HMI

  • Live Camera

  • Benchmarks

  • GPU Performance

  • Seva Store

  • Chromium

  • Settings

All of the necessary equipment requirement and instructions are provided here.

Note

Not all of the above set of applications are supported by each platform. So there will be differences between each.

5.1.2. Hardware Prerequisites

  • TI AM69 SK

  • PC (Windows or Linux, to use serial terminal console)

  • HDMI Monitor (to view the Demo on Display)

  • Ethernet Cable (to connect AM69 SK to internet)

  • USB Camera or OV5640 camera sensor module (for Live Camera)

  • Keyboard & Mouse (to control the TI Apps Launcher)

  • SD card (minimum 16GB)

5.1.3. Launching and Using the TI Apps Launcher

The TI Apps Launcher launches on Linux startup. Follow the below instructions to use it.

  1. Flash an SD card with the tisdk-default-image. User can download the tisdk-default-image-j784s4-evm.wic.xz image from the SDK downloads page. Please follow the instructions from here to Flash an SD card.

Note

Images may vary between each platform based on the number of supported applications.

  1. Insert the flashed SD card to the board, connect the display, mouse, ethernet cable, keyboard and power on the TI AM69 SK. The TI Apps Launcher will launch automatically when the device is fully booted.

../../_images/ti-apps-launcher-j7.png

5.1.3.1. Launching the Industrial HMI

  1. To launch the Industrial HMI demo, click on the Industrial HMI button on the left menu.

../../_images/hmi-demo-j7.png

  1. You can click on the Auto-Manual slider button to switch modes.

  2. In Manual mode, you can use the ^ and v buttons of each motor to control the RPM.

5.1.3.2. Launching the Camera App

  1. AM69 has hardware codecs which are capable of encoding and decoding H.246 and H.265 Videos.

  2. The Camera app supports recording and playback of video in H264 and H265 formats.

  3. Click on the ‘Camera’ button on the left menu to start the app.

../../_images/ti-apps-launcher-camera-button.png

  1. If a camera is detected, it will start previewing by default.

  2. By default, the Codec chosen for recording and playback is H264. If you want to use H265 instead, just toggle the switch on the bottom left corner.

../../_images/ti-apps-launcher-camera-codecswitch.png

  1. If there are multiple cameras connected, you can switch between them by selecting the preferred camera from Cameras Dropdown.

  2. Once a camera is selected and the preview is visible, you can start recording by clicking on the Record/Stop button right next to the Cameras Dropdown. The Camera preview will still be available while recording.

  3. The status message on the top right will display the filename into which the video is being recorded.

../../_images/ti-apps-launcher-camera-recording.png

  1. Press the Record/Stop button again to Stop Recording.

  2. To play the recorded videos, Select a video file from the Gallery Dropdown, and click Play Button. The info about the file being played will be displayed on the top left corner.

../../_images/ti-apps-launcher-camera-gallery-dropdown.png ../../_images/ti-apps-launcher-camera-playback.png

  1. This player can be used to play any .h264, .h265 and .mp4 (h264 and h265 only) files. To test with other files instead of recorded videos, copy the test files to /opt/ti-apps-launcher/gallery/.

Note

The Gallery Dropdown filters files based on the name of the file. So the filename must have “h264” or “h265” as substring.

  1. To delete the recorded files, after selecting the file from Dropdown, click Delete Button next to the Play Button.

5.1.3.3. Launching the ARM Analytics Demo

Note

This section is not valid for this platform.

5.1.3.4. Launching the Benchmarks Demo

  1. The Benchmarks Demo includes various System Benchmarks like dhrystone, linpack, nbench, etc. and GPU benchmarks like glmark2.

  2. Click on the Benchmarks button on the left panel.

  1. User will now see the list of Benchmarks available to test on TI AM69. Click on the play button infront of the benchmark you like to test. The image below is captured while running the dhrystone.

../../_images/benchmarks-system.png

5.1.3.5. Launching the GPU Performance Demo

  1. The GPU Performance demo allows users to vary the GPU loads using glmark2. Click on the GPU Performance button on the left panel.

  2. Now you can choose the GPU Load Level from the buttons available on the right. Choose from ‘0’ which is no load to ‘4’ max load.

  1. The image below is captured while running the glmark2 with GPU Load Level as 3.

../../_images/gpu-benchmarks-textures.png

  1. You will see the updated values of FPS & Score metrices getting populated in the table.

5.1.3.6. Launching the Seva Store

  1. AM69 SDK now supports Seva Store. Seva Store is a TI developed demo gallery which allows users to download and install demos on the go. Developers can host their demos as Docker Images on any public Docker Registry and link them to Seva Design Gallery.

  2. Refer Seva Store - User Guide to know more about Seva Store.

../../_images/seva-store.png

5.1.3.7. Launching the Chromium Browser

  1. AM69 SDK now supports GPU Accelarated Chromium Browser. Click on the Chromium button on the left panel.

  2. Click Launch button to launch the Chromium Browser. The Browser launches with WebGL Aquarium as the first tab by default.

  3. Refer Chromium Browser - User Guide to know more about Chromium Browser.

5.1.3.8. Launching the 3D Demo

Note

This section is not valid for this platform.

5.1.3.9. Using the Settings Button

  1. The Settings button on the left panel can be used to set docker’s systemd-proxy and system proxy if your TI AM69 SK is connected to a VPN.

  2. Once the user clicks on the Settings button, it will ask for a HTTPS Proxy and No proxy values.

../../_images/ti-apps-launcher-settings.png

  1. Once you enter the necessary values for both HTTPS and No proxy, click on Set Proxy to set the proxy configuration.

5.1.3.10. Power Menu

  1. The top right corner of the TI Apps Launcher is dedicated for the Power Menu.

  1. The Power Menu supports Shutdown, Reboot and Exit (from TI Apps Launcher) functions.

../../_images/ti-apps-launcher-powermenu2.png

5.1.4. Building the TI Apps Launcher

The TI Apps Launcher is enabled by default in yocto for AM69 Linux and RT-Linux.

The source code is available at TI Apps Launcher and can be re-compiled with the following steps

  1. To setup the environment, from the root of the SDK installation directory, source environment-setup script.

    $ source linux-devkit/environment-setup

  2. Go to the root of TI Apps Launcher repository and run the following command to build the application.

    $ qmake "SOURCES += configs/am69-sk.cpp" "DEFINES += SOC_J784S4"; make

  3. Copy the compiled binary to /usr/bin directory of the device

    $ scp ti-apps-launcher root@<ip-addr-of-device>:/usr/bin/

  4. If you have modified the scripts under the ti-apps-launcher scripts directory then copy the same to the device

    $ scp -r scripts/ root@<ip-addr-of-device>:/opt/ti-apps-launcher/