Once you have your hardware assembled, the next step towards building an Android Things application is to install the Android Things OS to your development board.
This post will focus on that process
More of a visual learner? This video details the install process
What Do You Need?
- Compatible hardware
- Power cable
- Android Things Setup Utility
- (Optional) wifi network
Where To Get Setup Utility
“You will need to sign in to your Google account and accept the licensing agreement and terms of service”
Starting the Utility
Navigate to your working directory, and invoke the setup utility from the command line.
In my case, I ran the macos variant, but there are versions for linux and windows as well.
~/.../android-things-setup-utility/android-things-setup-utility-macos
Setup Process
The setup process is very straightforward.
Follow the command line prompts, selecting the appropriate options.
When asked, be sure to select the correct board
The first 3 selected options in my case were:
1 - Install Android Things and optionally set up Wi-Fi2 - NXP Pico i.MX7D1 - Default image: Used for development purposes. No access to the Android
Things Console features such as metrics, crash reports, and OTA updates.
Wifi
Wifi can be configured using the Setup Utility as well.
It can be done as its own process, or as the last step in setting up your board.
To run as it’s own process
- re-run the Setup Utility
- select option 2 to configure wifi
- follow the prompts to enter your wifi credentials
That’s it. Your development board should now be connected to wifi.
What Next?
Now you’re ready to build your first Android Things application!
To get started building a UI based application using the touch screen, you can check out this post:
To get started building using the Rainbow HAT add-on board check this out:
Cross Posted
This content was originally posted here
Thoughts, questions, tips on installing Android Things? Comment below or share on social media. I’d love to continue the conversation.
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