Maple IDE Installation

If you still can’t get the IDE installed after reading this page, check the troubleshooting page for help with some common problems. If all else fails, try our forum, or contact us directly!

Download

This documentation was built from a development version of libmaple. See the formally released LeafLabs documentation for more information about the current Maple IDE release.

The package bundles together a compiler, an upload utility, a software library, and a simple GUI text editor. All this software is free and open; we are grateful to the Arduino, CodeSourcery, GNU, and OpenMoko developers, as well as many others, who allow us to reuse their software.

Looking for something older? Source archives and binaries are available for previously-released versions.

Installation

• Windows
• Linux
• OS X

Windows

First, extract all the files in the ZIP file to a suitable location on your system (like your Desktop folder). Next, you have to install some drivers. Sorry!

Note

Note that while these instructions work on Windows XP, changes in Windows 7 mean that you won’t be able to install the IDE without disabling driver signing on your computer. We’re working on resolving this situation. For now, users on the forum have reported a workaround.

First, install DFU drivers (for uploading code to your Maple) using the following steps.

1. Plug your Maple into the USB port.
2. Hit the reset button on your Maple (it’s the small button at the bottom left, labeled RESET). Notice that it blinks quickly 6 times, then blinks slowly a few more times.
3. Hit reset again, and this time push and hold the other button during the 6 fast blinks (the button is on the top right; it is labeled BUT). You can release it once the slow blinks start.
4. Your Maple is now in perpetual bootloader mode. This should give you a chance to install the DFU drivers.
5. Windows should now prompt you for some drivers. In the top level directory of the Maple IDE, point Windows to drivers/mapleDrv/dfu/.

Next, install serial drivers (for communicating with your Maple using serial over USB).

1. Reset your Maple and allow it to exit the bootloader (wait for the slow blinking to stop). The Maple will next start running whatever program was uploaded to it last. (New Maples will start running the test program we upload to them before shipping them to you).
2. Once Maple is running some user code, Windows should prompt you for more drivers. Point windows to driver/mapleDrv/serial.

You can now run the Maple IDE by double-clicking on the maple-ide program from within the extracted IDE directory.

Linux

Note

The IDE is written in Java and requires a compatible runtime (JRE).

If you don’t have one, they’re usually pretty easy to install. Oracle Java 1.6 and OpenJDK 1.6 are known to work, and runtimes mostly compatible with Oracle Java 1.5+ should probably get the job done.

To install Java, try using your distribution’s software packaging tool and search for “JRE” or “java”. On Debian-based systems (including Ubuntu) you can try to install the OpenJDK 1.6 JRE with:

$ sudo aptitude install openjdk-6-jre

Extract the tarball to an appropriate location (like your home directory or desktop).

Make sure you have a Java runtime (JRE) installed; if you can run java from the shell, you should be fine.

Next, run the script install-udev-rules.sh in the extracted IDE directory. It will ask for root permissions (you will be prompted with something along the lines of [sudo] password for <username>:). You now need to restart udev:

$ sudo restart udev

This will grant members of the group plugdev read/write access to Maple devices over USB. Make sure that you are in that group by running $ sudo adduser <your username> plugdev (which will ensure access to the Maple, but may report that you are already a member of that group). (For more information on why this is part of the install process, see the Unix toolchain quickstart).

To run the Maple IDE, run maple-ide from the shell, or double-click on it if your window system supports it.

Feel free to put the IDE directory wherever you want. As long as you leave its internal structure unchanged, things should be fine.

OS X

Double-click on the .dmg file you downloaded to mount the disk image. From the mounted image, drag and drop the Maple IDE icon into your computer’s Applications folder.

To run the Maple IDE, double-click the Maple IDE application you dragged into your computer’s Applications folder.