Install on a Raspberry Pi

Write the MCX-RTOS image to an SD card for a Raspberry Pi and connect to it.

  3 minute read  

A Raspberry Pi runs MCX-RTOS from its microSD card. You write the image to the card on your PC with Raspberry Pi Imager, let the image use the whole card, and put the card in the Pi. For a Raspberry Pi Compute Module, which has built-in storage instead of a card, see Install on a Compute Module.

Before you start

  • The Raspberry Pi image, downloaded from the store: see Download.
  • A microSD card and a card reader for your PC.

Write the image to the card

  1. Download Raspberry Pi Imager for your operating system from raspberrypi.com/software and install it.

    Download page of Raspberry Pi Imager with a download button per operating system

  2. Insert the SD card into your PC and open Raspberry Pi Imager. The labels below are those of the version in the screenshots; newer versions word them differently.

    Raspberry Pi Imager with the CHOOSE OS, CHOOSE STORAGE and WRITE buttons

  3. Press CHOOSE OS, scroll down and choose Use custom. Select the Raspberry Pi image you downloaded.

    Operating System list in Raspberry Pi Imager, with Use custom at the bottom: select a custom .img from your computer

  4. Press CHOOSE STORAGE and select the SD card.

    Storage list in Raspberry Pi Imager with the SD card

  5. Press WRITE. Raspberry Pi Imager warns that all data on the card will be erased; press YES to go on.

    Warning in Raspberry Pi Imager that all existing data on the card will be erased, with the YES and NO buttons

  6. Wait until writing and verifying are done.

Use the whole card

The image only fills part of the card. Grow its second partition to the end of the card, so MCX-RTOS can use all of it. This uses GPartedGParted is a free partition editor for Linux. It resizes, moves and creates partitions on a disk. on a Linux PC.

  1. Install GParted, for example with sudo apt install gparted on Ubuntu, and open it.

  2. At the top right, select the SD card. Select its second partition and press (Resize/Move).

    GParted with the SD card /dev/mmcblk0 selected, its second partition highlighted, unallocated space behind it and the resize button marked

  3. Set New size (MiB) to the maximum and press Resize/Move.

    Resize/Move dialog of GParted with New size set to the maximum size of 15039 MiB

  4. Press (Apply All Operations) to apply the change to the card.

    GParted with one pending operation, growing the second partition from 1.26 GiB to 14.69 GiB, and the apply button marked

  5. Eject the SD card, put it in the Raspberry Pi and switch the Pi on.

Connect to the Raspberry Pi

A standard Raspberry Pi has one network port, and MCX-RTOS uses it for the EtherCAT network. You reach the controller over Wi-Fi, or through a second wired network adapter such as a USB-to-Ethernet adapter.

Without a second adapter, the Raspberry Pi opens its own Wi-Fi network. This needs a Raspberry Pi model with Wi-Fi.

  1. On your PC, connect to the Wi-Fi network of the controller, for example mcx-fa3c06, with the password vectioneer.
  2. The controller’s address on that network is 192.168.0.1. Use it wherever these pages say controller_ip_addressThe IP address of your controller. In most cases 192.168.2.100..

To join the controller to an existing Wi-Fi network instead, or to change its access point, see Network configuration.

Next: Step 2: connect your PC.