Embedded-Hacking/drivers/0x02_blink_rust/README.md

0x02 Blink Rust Driver

This repository contains a Bare-Metal Rust driver for blinking an LED using the GPIO peripheral on the RP2350 (and RP2040) microcontrollers.

It includes:

• A thin demo (src/main.rs) that blinks an LED and prints the state over UART.
• A reusable library module (src/blink.rs) providing a hardware-agnostic BlinkDriver.
• Board initialization logic (src/board.rs).

🚀 Getting Started from Scratch

If you're starting with a fresh machine, follow these exact steps to install the toolchain, build the code, and flash it to your microcontroller.

1. Install Rust

First, install rustup (the Rust toolchain installer) if you haven't already:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

Note: Restart your terminal or run source $HOME/.cargo/env after this finishes.

Ensure your Rust compiler is up to date:

rustup update

2. Install the Target Architecture

This project is configured for the RP2350 (ARM Cortex-M33). We need to install the cross-compilation target for it:

rustup target add thumbv8m.main-none-eabihf

(If you were targeting the RP2040, you would use thumbv6m-none-eabi instead).

3. Install Build Tools

You will need a few extra tools to help link and format the firmware for the RP-series chips.

Install flip-link (adds zero-cost stack overflow protection):

cargo install flip-link

Install picotool (used by cargo run to flash the chip):

• macOS: brew install picotool
• Linux/Windows: Follow the official Raspberry Pi documentation to install picotool or build it from source.

4. Building the Code

To compile the code for the microcontroller, simply run:

cargo build

To build a highly optimized release version (smaller and faster):

cargo build --release

5. Flashing to the Microcontroller

This project is pre-configured in .cargo/config.toml to use picotool as the custom runner.

To flash the code:

1. Hold down the BOOTSEL button on your RP2350 board.
2. Plug it into your computer via USB (or press the RUN/RESET button while holding BOOTSEL).
3. Run the following command:

cargo run --release

cargo will compile the code and automatically use picotool to upload the .elf file directly to your board and start executing it!

6. Testing on the Host

Because the Blink driver logic is separated into a reusable library with hardware mocked using traits, you can run the unit tests natively on your computer (no microcontroller required!).

However, because this project sets a default bare-metal target (thumbv8m.main-none-eabihf) in .cargo/config.toml, running a plain cargo test will fail because the standard library doesn't exist on the microcontroller. You must explicitly tell Cargo to compile the tests for your host computer's processor architecture:

Mac (Apple Silicon):

cargo test --lib --target aarch64-apple-darwin

Linux (Intel/AMD 64-bit):

cargo test --lib --target x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

Windows (64-bit):

cargo test --lib --target x86_64-pc-windows-msvc

🧠 Code Walkthrough

This section explains exactly how the code works, where the entry point is, and traces the flow of execution as if you were stepping through it line-by-line.

1. The Entry Point (src/main.rs)

Unlike a standard computer program, bare-metal microcontrollers do not have an operating system to call main(). Instead, we use the #[entry] macro from the HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) to define the very first function that runs after the chip boots up.

• main() -> !: This is the absolute start of our code. It takes ownership of all the hardware peripherals (hal::pac::Peripherals::take().unwrap()) and immediately passes them into board::run(...). The -> ! means this function never returns (because embedded devices run in an infinite loop).

2. Board Initialization (src/board.rs)

Once execution enters board.rs, we need to wake up the specific hardware subsystems we want to use (Clocks, Pins, UART, and SysTick).

• run(...): The master setup function. It sequentially calls the helper initialization functions below, and then kicks off the blink loop.
• init_clocks(...): Wakes up the external 12 MHz crystal (XOSC) and configures the PLLs (Phase-Locked Loops) to drive the system clock at its maximum speed.
• init_pins(...): Takes control of physical pins across IO_BANK0.
• init_uart(...): Configures the hardware UART0 peripheral to operate at a standard 115200 baud rate with an 8N1 configuration for debug printing.
• init_delay(...): Captures the ARM Cortex-M SYST (SysTick) peripheral to create a blocking delay timer.
• start_blink(...): Wraps the hardware GPIO 25 pin in our custom BlinkDriver, prints a "Blink driver initialized" welcome message to the serial console, and jumps into the blink_loop.
• blink_loop(...): An infinite loop { ... } that toggles the LED, reads back the state, prints the state over UART, and delays for 500ms.

3. The Reusable Blink Driver (src/blink.rs)

The hardware-specific logic from board.rs uses the BlinkDriver struct to abstract away the messy details of toggling digital pins.

• BlinkDriver::init(...): Creates a new instance of our driver, taking ownership of the hardware GPIO pin and guaranteeing it starts in a LOW (off) state.
• on(&mut self): Drives the GPIO pin HIGH, turning on the LED.
• off(&mut self): Drives the GPIO pin LOW, turning off the LED.
• toggle(&mut self): Reads the current state of the pin and aggressively flips it.
• get_state(&mut self): Reads the hardware register to determine if the pin is currently being driven HIGH or LOW.