What you need to use and program TINI

Please note that TINI does not currently come "complete" in one neat box with all the documentation, software, etc. There are some good reasons for this, but it can be a bit of a chore to round up all the pieces you need. The good news is that a lot of this is free, and very good quality. There is a tremendously supportive community of TINI users and Java programmers.

We'll try to help make the process easier in these tutorials. Here's an overview of what to look for. If you are already very experienced at these sorts of things you can no doubt find other solutions for some of these items. Here's what works for me.

1. You need a TINI module and a TINI socket board. Of course, we recommend Systronix TINI products (http://www.systronix.com). You can order everything you need (including the TINI module, power cube, cables, etc) from one place in our secure online store.
2. Be sure you have a good power source. We offer good power cubes as an option with all our boards. Don't cause problems by using a cheap, crummy power source - good ones are under $10.
3. You need a straight serial cable to go from your PC to your TINI socket board.
4. Your PC must have TCP/IP softtware installed and configured, and have a 10 Mbit ethernet link to TINI in order to load applications into TINI. You can't load apps over the serial port with JavaKit.
5. You need a 10 Mbit ethernet connection between your PC and TINI. This can go through a mixed 10/100 hub or switch as long as TINI's end is 10 MBit. You can cable your PC ethernet direct to TINI's ethernet if you use a "crossover" ethernet cable. If you are using a hub, all the cables between the hub, your PC, and TINI are "straight" ethernet cables (the hub does the crossover internally).
6. The TINI firmware files. Schematics would also be handy. You download all this from Dallas Semiconductor. Here's how.
7. A Java JDK, and optionally a nice graphical development environment. I use JBuilder (the Foundation version is free, and it's very good), here's how to get it.
8. You'll need to write some batch files to make life easier, and/or use optional tools such as TINI Tools. Here's how to get them.

TINI is all about TCP/IP networking. In keeping with that, all the TINI documentation and updates are available on line over the Internet. There is not much TINI information printed in ink on dead trees. This makes it easy to update all the TINI firmware and related tools but can make it a bit frustrating trying to collect all the pieces and put it all together. In late 1999 we (Systronix) found out about TINI, ordered one, couldn't get the tools installed and set it aside. A couple of weeks later I tried again and managed to get things to work with help from the TINI email list. One thing led to another and now here we are, the leading provider of TINI sockets boards and related tools.

This tutorial is intended to walk you through the steps you need to take to get TINI up and running, and to be able to program it easily. They are intended for use by Systronix customers, as well as anyone using or thinking about using TINI.