Platform Tools

In order to communicate with the Vision AI DevKit using a command line, including updating the firmware when needed, you will need the Android SDK Platform Tools. The Vision AI DevKit specifically uses the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) and Fastboot.

ADB

Android Debug Bridge (ADB) is a versatile command-line tool that lets you communicate with a device. The ADB command facilitates a variety of device actions, such as installing and debugging apps, and it provides access to a Unix shell that you can use to run a variety of commands on a device. It is a client-server program that includes three components:

  • A client, which sends commands. The client runs on your development machine. You can invoke a client from a command-line terminal by issuing an adb command.
  • A daemon (adbd), which runs commands on a device. The daemon runs as a background process on each device.
  • A server, which manages communication between the client and the daemon. The server runs as a background process on your development machine.

Fastboot

Fastboot is a protocal for communicating with bootloaders over USB or ethernet. The Vision AI DevKit uses Fastboot for firmware updates.

Installing

If you have a package manager installed (Chocolatey/Homebrew/Apt/Yum or similar), use a command-line similar to:

choco install adb

(replacing ‘choco’ with the package manager of your choice) to install the Platform Tools. Alternatively, you can download and extract the zip containing the Platform Tools to a folder on your PC.

Set path

Add the directory you extracted the platform tools into to your computer’s path environment variable. For Windows, use the command line:

```cmd
set path=%path%;<platform tools path>
```

Common ADB commands

  • Show connected devices

     adb devices

  • Check device firmware version

     adb shell cat /etc/version

  • Check device battery level (provided as % value)

     adb shell cat /sys/class/power_supply/battery/capacity

  • Reboot the device

     adb reboot

  • Show available adb command options

     adb

  • Run a Linux command on the device

     adb shell [command]

  • Interactively run Linux commands on the device

     adb shell

  • Exit the shell

     exit

    ADB commands with two devices connected

  • In case you have two devices connected to your laptop you can define which one to controls with adb -s [deviceID] shell

For example:

   adb -s f2ff30x9 shell docker ps

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