First Time User Guide
This guide will review the contents of the NAI documentation site and discuss the best path of navigation to gain a better understanding of your NAI hardware and jumpstart development.
Site Map
The site is organized into the following tabs:
Getting Started
The Getting Started tab contains guides aimed at expediting the setup process. This is the recommended starting point for any user and will ensure you make full use of the suite of tools NAI provides. It also includes the Technical Standards section, which covers military and industry standards that NAI products are aligned or compliant with.
Dev Guides
The Dev Guides tab provides documentation for the NAI Software Support Kit (SSK) API. It includes guides with code snippets for using motherboard features such as Interrupts and Watchdog Timers, as well as information about custom types, parameters, and header files used throughout the NAI libraries.
Manuals (Modules / Motherboards / Systems)
The Manuals tab contains documentation for all of NAI’s latest products, organized into three sub-tabs: Modules, Motherboards, and Systems. NAI manuals cover theory of operation, specifications, register maps, pin mappings, connector information, and more.
Sample Apps
NAI’s Software Support Kit includes several sample applications that demonstrate the process of connecting to an NAI board and communicating with its function modules. These applications provide an accelerated starting point for development by detailing which API calls and libraries are necessary for exercising different board and module capabilities.
FAQ
The FAQ tab covers frequently asked questions about setting up and using NAI products. These questions either have their own dedicated response guides or provide links to relevant sections elsewhere on the site.
Note
Due to the large amount of content in the FAQ section, it is recommended to use the search feature.
Power Supplies
The Power Supplies tab contains all resources relating to NAI power supplies, including setup, configuration, and usage documentation.
Navigating NAI’s Development Resources
NAI has a variety of resources that have been created to simplify getting started both before and after the receipt of hardware. These manuals and guides inform each step from unboxing and cabling your unit to deploying your application. The following section is a breakdown of the general getting started process accompanied by the order of resources that will accelerate your time to mission.
Note
If you do not have your NAI hardware yet, it is still possible to begin development. NAI libraries are designed to work identically with any OS and processor combination that we support, so the resources below will instruct you on how to begin developing applications using our Software Support Kit that can be deployed on your hardware. Simply write your code in your favorite environment and later add the source files to the target environment for whichever board you choose, such as the Xilinx SDK or Workbench.
Getting Started with Hardware
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Manuals — The first goal after choosing an NAI product is likely to gain a better understanding of its capabilities, specifications, and how you will be interacting with it. NAI’s product manuals contain a general introduction, several categories of specifications, and a detailed memory map which depicts exactly where and how you can exercise all of the product’s functionality.
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Connectors and Cabling Info — Once you have received your NAI board(s) and modules, the first thing that you will need to do is get everything connected. This guide includes schematics and descriptions for connections that will be necessary to interface with your unit, including power, ethernet & IO, and breakout boards for wiring up module pins during development.
Getting Started with Software
- Downloads — Now that your hardware is connected, you can make use of NAI’s software resources to communicate with your board and begin exercising the modules. The downloads page includes several versions of our Software Support Kit for various operating systems and architectures as well as our Embedded Soft Panel, which will be your primary method of testing with your function modules before developing an application.
Note
NAI currently offers both a 1.x and 2.x version of our Software Support Kit, depending on which board and operating system you are using. Do not download the SSK from this page if a version of the SSK has already been delivered to you alongside your hardware.
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Embedded Soft Panel Quick Start Guide — ESP has several uses throughout the development process, including a Demo Mode to be used before receipt of hardware, soft panel tabs to interact with nearly any module family, an API Logger to demonstrate which NAI API calls are used for any changes that are made, and more. Consult this guide to help get connected to your hardware and learn more about how you can use your function modules.
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Software Development Guides — Now that you are more familiar with how to use your board and function modules (and with the API Logger as a jumping-off point), you can begin the process of developing an application that targets them. These guides cover setting up your development environment, building our libraries and sample applications, and how to create and deploy your own application from scratch using the NAI libraries.
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Sample Applications — Our Software Support Kits include a variety of sample applications that employ a menu-based approach for connecting to your hardware and targeting many different types of modules. This tab includes the raw C code of these applications along with a small description of their purpose and which functions they contain. These applications can be built and run to use your hardware without writing code similar to ESP, but also serve as a template for writing your own code that requires similar configuration and functionality.
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Dev Guides — NAI’s API Library provides every API call available to the user for each module family along with a description of its function, its parameters, and variable types. These APIs are identical for every target architecture and OS. The Dev Guides tab also includes additional guides for specific functionality and use cases that may be helpful once you have entered the development process.
Some NAI products may have a special development procedure that is not covered in the general guides listed above. In this case, please locate any additional documentation in the software package included in your hardware delivery or contact NAI for support.