The ConVEX firmware library is an add on package for the ChibiOS/RT operating system that supports the VEX cortex microcontroller. The library adds the necessary functionality to allow C applications to be created and executed on the cortex that can access its available hardware.

ConVEX is not trying to be competitive with ROBOTC or EasyC, it is only appropriate for advanced users who have some familiarity with RTOS concepts and are comfortable with programming micro-controllers at a bare bones level.

ConVEX uses many features of the ChibiOS/RT library and the hardware abstraction layer it provides for the STM32 processor. Modification of the low level drivers could cause damage to the cortex hardware, however, under most circumstances user code can be developed that is as robust as the existing environments for the cortex.

Follow the steps outlined in the Getting Started section to install ConVEX and the necessary tools. A few demo programs are included that can be used as a starting point for user projects.

Features

Preemptive multithreading
128 priority levels
Round-robin scheduling for threads at the same priority level
Software timers
Counting semaphores
Mutexes with support for the priority inheritance algorithm
Condition variables
Synchronous and asynchronous Messages
Event flags and handlers
Queues
Synchronous and asynchronous I/O with timeout capability
Thread-safe memory heap and memory pool allocators.

Cortex specific features

Digital IO
Analog Inputs, potentiometer, accelerometer etc.
Ultrasonic sensor support
Quadrature encoder support
Motor control
Integrated motor encoder support
Support for two VEX LCD displays
Competition control
Simple audio tones and chip tone playback support
Command line interface (shell)

Optional features

SmartMotor library
Apollo - real time display of motor and sensor data
VEX Gyro
PID library
ROBOTC style tasks and Sensor support to allow easy code porting