microHIL

microhil is development device which can be used for HWIL.

The README is used to introduce the tool and provide instructions on how to install the tool, any machine dependencies it may have and any other information that should be provided before the tool is installed.

Table of Contents

• Statistics
  • Contributing activities
  • SW Firmware checks
  • SW Firmware test checks
  • SW Desktop checks
  • SW Desktop test checks
• Development
  • SW Firmware Application
  • SW Desktop Application
• Installation
  • SW Firmware Application installation
  • SW Desktop Application installation
• Dependencies
  • SW Firmware Application dependencies
  • SW Desktop Application dependencies
• Docs
• Copyright and licence
  • microHIL Licenses
  • Third-Party Component Licenses

Statistics

Contributing activities

SW Firmware checks

SW Firmware test checks

SW Desktop checks

SW Desktop test checks

Development

SW Firmware Application

microhil-base

A C-based firmware designed for the microHIL hardware controller (Raspberry Pi Pico). It acts as the direct hardware interface layer, managing physical relays, status LEDs, and buzzer alerts by parsing and executing command protocols received over standard serial interfaces.

• Supported Operations:
  • Channel Toggle: Control individual relays (channels 1-8) by turning them ON or OFF.
  • Timer Mode: Keep a channel active for a specified duration in seconds.
  • Pulse Mode: Trigger a brief pulse on a channel for a duration specified in milliseconds.
  • Blink Mode: Configure blinking loops with custom ON/OFF durations and a loop count.
  • Channel Masking: Apply an 8-bit binary mask (e.g., 10101010) to update all 8 channel states at once.
  • Status Monitoring: Query the current state of a single channel or all channels.
  • System Reset: Trigger a watchdog-based hardware reboot.
  • Diagnostics: Query system board identity and firmware version info.

microhil-base-ble

A C-based firmware designed for the microHIL hardware controller (Raspberry Pi Pico W). It integrates the CYW43439 wireless chipset with the BTstack Bluetooth stack, exposing a Nordic BLE UART (SPP) GATT service for wireless HWIL control, physical relay management, status LEDs, and buzzer alerts.

• Supported Operations:
  • Wireless BLE Transport: Nordic UART Service (NUS) GATT implementation over Bluetooth Low Energy.
  • Channel Toggle: Control individual relays (channels 1-8) by turning them ON or OFF.
  • Timer & Pulse Mode: Activate channels with second-level precision or trigger millisecond-level pulses.
  • Blink Mode: Trigger repeating blinking loops with configurable duty cycles and loop counts.
  • Channel Masking: Apply an 8-bit binary mask (e.g., 10101010) to update all 8 channels at once.
  • System Status & Reset: Monitor channel status and reboot the board via hardware watchdog.
  • Diagnostics: Query device identification (microhil-ble) and firmware version details.

microhil-base-wifi

A C-based firmware designed for the microHIL hardware controller (Raspberry Pi Pico W). It utilizes the CYW43439 Wi-Fi chipset, lwIP raw TCP socket server, and on-board Flash NVM storage, allowing full remote HWIL control over Wi-Fi TCP/IP (Access Point or Station mode) with live USB-Serial network provisioning.

• Supported Operations:
  • Wi-Fi & TCP Server: Dual-mode Wi-Fi (AP hotspot on 192.168.4.1 or Station mode) hosting raw TCP server on port 5000.
  • Persistent NVM Configuration: Live parameter provisioning and Flash persistence (<mh#net#...#end>).
  • Channel Toggle: Control individual relays (channels 1-8) by turning them ON or OFF.
  • Timer & Pulse Mode: Activate channels with second-level precision or trigger millisecond-level pulses.
  • Blink Mode: Trigger repeating blinking loops with configurable duty cycles and loop counts.
  • Channel Masking: Apply an 8-bit binary mask (e.g., 10101010) to update all 8 channels at once.
  • System Status & Reset: Monitor channel status and reboot the board remotely.
  • Diagnostics: Query device identification (microhil-wifi) and network settings.

microhil-nuttx

An RTOS-based firmware built on Apache NuttX (v12.0.0+) for the microHIL hardware controller (Raspberry Pi Pico). It runs a low-latency, non-blocking background daemon (microhil_daemon) for controlling hardware channels and features a combined boot mode that exposes a NuttX Shell (NSH) console on the physical UART0 interface.

• Supported Operations:
  • Background Daemon Execution: Automatically initializes hardware channels, zujalica (buzzer) and WS2812 status LED upon boot.
  • Channel Control: Turn individual relays (channels 1-8) ON or OFF.
  • Timer & Pulse Mode: Activate channels with second-level precision or trigger millisecond-level pulses.
  • Blink Mode: Trigger repeating blinking loops with configurable duty cycles and loop counts.
  • Combined Console Support: Exposes standard NSH console on UART0 (GP0/GP1) for device diagnostics and microhil control daemon on the virtual USB CDC ACM serial interface (/dev/ttyACM0).
  • System Status & Reset: Monitor real-time channel status and reboot the board remotely.

microhil-upy

A MicroPython-based firmware designed for the microHIL hardware controller (Raspberry Pi Pico). It implements a non-blocking execution loop that manages channel states, timer-based activities, status LEDs, and buzzer beeps by processing command strings in a structured <mh#...#end> format received over serial connections.

• Supported Operations:
  • Channel Control: Toggle channel state ON/OFF or apply an 8-bit channel mask.
  • Timer & Pulse Mode: Activate a channel for a duration in seconds or trigger a millisecond-precision pulse.
  • Blink Mode: Trigger repeating ON/OFF blinking cycles with a specific loop count.
  • System Status & Reset: Monitor channel statuses and trigger remote system watchdog resets.
  • Diagnostics: Query device version and identification details.

SW Desktop Application

microhildesk

A desktop GUI application built in C++ using gtkmm. It acts as the primary orchestration and control panel, allowing users to interact with and manage microHIL hardware controllers visually.

• Supported Operations:
  • Multi-Interface Connectivity: Switch and communicate seamlessly over Serial, TCP (Socket), and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) interfaces.
  • Visual Control Dashboard: Visually toggle channel states, apply 8-bit channel masks, and monitor live statuses.
  • Advanced Control Configuration: Configure and execute timer, pulse, and blinking tasks on hardware channels through the GUI.
  • Diagnostics & System Control: Read connected board IDs/versions and trigger remote watchdog system resets.

Installation

Navigate to release page download and extract release archive.

SW Firmware Application installation

To install microhil-base type the following

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/electux/microhil.git
cd microhil/sw/microhil_base

# Create build directory
mkdir build && cd build

# Configure build (ensure PICO_SDK_PATH is set)
cmake -DPICO_SDK_PATH=/path/to/pico-sdk ..

# Build
make

# Deploy by copying the generated microhil-base.uf2 file to the Pico mounted storage
cp src/microhil-base.uf2 /media/$USER/RPI-RP2/

To install microhil-base-ble type the following

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/electux/microhil.git
cd microhil/sw/microhil_base_ble

# Create build directory
mkdir build && cd build

# Configure build (ensure PICO_SDK_PATH is set)
cmake -DPICO_SDK_PATH=/path/to/pico-sdk ..

# Build
make

# Deploy by copying the generated microhil-base-ble.uf2 file to the Pico W mounted storage
cp src/microhil-base-ble.uf2 /media/$USER/RPI-RP2/

To install microhil-base-wifi type the following

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/electux/microhil.git
cd microhil/sw/microhil_base_wifi

# Create build directory
mkdir build && cd build

# Configure build (ensure PICO_SDK_PATH is set)
cmake -DPICO_SDK_PATH=/path/to/pico-sdk ..

# Build
make

# Deploy by copying the generated microhil-base-wifi.uf2 file to the Pico W mounted storage
cp src/microhil-base-wifi.uf2 /media/$USER/RPI-RP2/

To install microhil-nuttx type the following

# Clone the repository recursively (to pull the NuttX submodule)
git clone --recursive https://github.com/electux/microhil.git
cd microhil/sw/microhil_nuttx
 
# Build the firmware (automatically configures if .config is missing)
make
 
# Deploy by copying the generated microhil-nuttx.uf2 file to the Pico mounted storage
# Note: Ensure the Pico is in BOOTSEL mode before running
make flash

To install microhil-upy type the following

# Clone the repository recursively (to pull the MicroPython submodule)
git clone --recursive https://github.com/electux/microhil.git
cd microhil/sw/microhil_upy
 
# Setup virtual environment and generate typings for development
make env

# Compile the MicroPython OS firmware image (.uf2) from source
make firmware

# Flash the compiled OS firmware to Raspberry Pi Pico (in BOOTSEL mode)
make flash
 
# Compile Python application scripts to .mpy bytecodes and stage deployment package
make
 
# Deploy the compiled scripts to Raspberry Pi Pico (using mpremote)
make deploy

SW Desktop Application installation

To install microhildesk type the following

From Source:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/electux/microhil.git
cd microhil/sw/microhildesk/build

# Build the release version
make release

# Run the application
./microhildesk

As a Debian Package (.deb):

# Generate the .deb package
python3 sw/microhildesk/scripts/deb/create_deb.py

# Install the package
sudo dpkg -i sw/microhildesk/build/deb_dist/microhildesk_*.deb

Dependencies

SW Firmware Application dependencies

microhil-base requires next modules and libraries

• Runtime:
  • Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2040) hardware
• Development / Build:
  • Raspberry Pi Pico SDK (pico-sdk)
  • GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain (gcc-arm-none-eabi)
  • CMake (v3.12+)

microhil-base-ble requires next modules and libraries

• Runtime:
  • Raspberry Pi Pico W (RP2040 + CYW43439) hardware
• Development / Build:
  • Raspberry Pi Pico SDK (pico-sdk) with BTstack & CYW43 driver support
  • GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain (gcc-arm-none-eabi)
  • CMake (v3.13+)

microhil-base-wifi requires next modules and libraries

• Runtime:
  • Raspberry Pi Pico W (RP2040 + CYW43439) hardware
• Development / Build:
  • Raspberry Pi Pico SDK (pico-sdk) with lwIP & CYW43 driver support
  • GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain (gcc-arm-none-eabi)
  • CMake (v3.13+)

microhil-nuttx requires next modules and libraries

• Runtime:
  • Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2040) hardware
• Development / Build:
  • GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain (gcc-arm-none-eabi)
  • kconfig-frontends (for NuttX configuration)
  • make and standard Linux build tools

microhil-upy requires next modules and libraries

• Runtime:
  • MicroPython firmware (v1.20+) on Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2/RP2040)
• Development / Environment Setup:
  • micropython-rp2-stubs (for static analysis/autocomplete typings)
  • micropython-stdlib-stubs (for standard library autocomplete typings)

SW Desktop Application dependencies

microhildesk requires next modules and libraries

• Runtime:
  • libgtkmm-4.0-1 | libgtkmm-4.0-1t64
  • socat (for virtual serial ports)
• Development / Build:
  • pkg-config
  • libgtkmm-4.0-dev
  • C++17 compliant compiler (g++)

Docs

More documentation and info at

• https://microhil.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
• https://www.gnome.org

Copyright and licence

microHIL Licenses

microhil is free software and is dual-licensed under the GPLv3 and Apache 2.0 licenses. Copyright (C) 2020 - 2026 by electux.github.io/microhil.

Third-Party Component Licenses

This project utilizes several open-source technologies, each under their respective licenses:

• Apache NuttX RTOS: Licensed under the license.
• MicroPython (uPy): Licensed under the license.
• GNOME / gtkmm: Licensed under the license.
• Raspberry Pi Pico SDK: Licensed under the license.

Lets help and support Raspberry PI, Nuttx, MicroPython and GNOME.