TinyOS FAQ

This is a moving work-in-progress -- note that the new,un-categorized entries go into misc to be organized later.

You can always find the latest FAQ at http://webs.cs.berkeley.edu/tos/faq.html. Questions or comments about this FAQ should go to kwright at cs dot berkeley dot edu.

General Information
Installation
Compilation & Mote Upload
Design
Development
Hardware
Miscellaneous
GENERAL

What is TinyOS?

TinyOS is an event based operating environment designed for use with embedded networked sensors. More specifically, it is designed to support the concurrency intensive operations required by networked sensors with minimal hardware requirements. There are hundreds of TinyOS projects throughout the world. See the Related Work page for a fraction of them (and if you'd like to send a link to other related work, send it to kwright@cs.berkeley.edu.

The programming language of TinyOS is stylized C that uses a custom compiler 'NesC'. The source for NesC as well as TinyOS are available on SourceForge.

TinyOS was initially developed by the U.C. Berkeley EECS Department, and is distributed under the disclaimer below.

We have support for "offline simulation", i.e. running virtual motes on your computer.

Where is the official TinyOS website?
http://webs.cs.berkeley.edu/tos/
What platforms are supported?
Though it may work on other platforms, the supported platforms are Linux RedHat 9.0, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.
What hardware/software do I need to use TinyOS?

The software that you will need to develop and run TinyOS is included in the Linux RPMs or Windows Installshield Wizard for TinyOS. You can find pointers to the respective installation packages at http://webs.cs.berkeley.edu/tos/download.html.

You need a parallel and a serial port on your machine to be able to communicate and program the motes. There is an ethernet programming board and other new communications options currently (12/03) in development. Check with Crossbow, the manufacturer of the Berkeley Mote hardware, to see what are the latest and greatest options available.

How hard is TinyOS to learn?

The concurrency concept requires some effort to get used to but it's essentially C. Proficiency and/or experience with GNU development tools is a plus, but not mandatory.

Where can I get TinyOS?
You can download the most recent version of Tiny OS here.
Where can I find Getting Started guides for my motes?
Moteiv Telos/TMote: Moteiv Support Page . Look for "Quick Start Guide".
Crossbow Mica*: Crossbow Manuals . Look for "Getting Started Guide" under the 'Wireless' section.
We recommend that you start with the manufacturer-provided Getting Started / Quick Start guides and then proceed to the TinyOS tutorials.
What copyright/disclaimer is TinyOS distributed with?

Copyright Бй2001 The Regents of the University of California (Regents). All Rights Reserved.
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose, without fee, and without written agreement is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and the following two paragraphs appear in all copies of this software. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE AND ITS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE SOFTWARE PROVIDED HEREUNDER IS ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, AND THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HAS NO OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT, UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS, OR MODIFICATIONS.
What is the most recent version?
The most recent major release is 1.1.0 released September 29, 2003, for the 'mica2' hardware platforms. The previous release was version 1.0, released October 11, 2002, for the 'mica' and 'mica2' platforms. 0.6.1, released May 10, 2002, was for the 'mica', 'rene', and 'rene2' hardware platforms.
The most recent snapshot release is 1.1.15 which is a CVS snapshot released July 29, 2005. Please see the Download page for the differences between snapshot and major releases. Hardware platforms presently supported include telos, telosb, tmote and micaz as well as the mica and mica2 platforms.
Tinyos 2.0.0 Beta Release was released on February 10, 2006. You can find more information on tinyos.net: TinyOS 2.0 Beta Release .
What TinyOS email lists exist?
The various TinyOS-related lists can be found linked off the TinyOS support page.
Why is my post to the tinyos-help list being held for moderator approval? The reason mailman gives is: "Post by non-member to a members-only list" but I AM already a member of tinyos-help. What's up?
The reason is probably that the address that you're sending from is slightly different from the email address that you joined with. For example, if I'm joined as 'kwright@cs.berkeley.edu' and I send mail as 'kwright@eecs.berkeley.edu', the Mailman list management software can't tell that both email addresses belong to the same person. Or perhaps you've joined with your work email address, yet you're trying to send email from your home email address.
There are two approaches you can take: first, you can be sure to always send from the address that you're joined with. This option, however, isn't always practical given the number of email addresses people have these days. A more flexible solution is to subscribe using several email addresses and set all but one of those subscriptions to not receive mail.
To take the latter approach, first join tinyos-help with all of the addresses that you might use. (You can join from the tinyos-help info page -- see below.) Next, configure all but one of these subscriptions to not receive mail. To set a subscription to not receive mail, go to the tinyos-help list's info page: http://mail.millennium.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/tinyos-help . Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you'll see a text field next to a button that says 'Unsubscribe or Edit Options'. Follow the directions and put the email address that you'd like to configure to receive no mail and click the button. On the configure page, set the Mail Delivery to 'Disabled' by checking the 'Disabled' checkbox. To make this change permanent, click the "Submit My Changes" button at the bottom of the page.
This information applies to all the tinyos mailing lists.
Where do I email suggestions for improvements to TinyOS?
We use a bugs database on SourceForge. Enter bugs or suggestions there. Here is the URL: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=28656&atid=393934
You can also email information/suggestions to kwright@cs.berkeley.edu . Lastly, you can also email suggestions to any of the appropriate TinyOS mailing lists off the support page .
INSTALLATION

Where are the installation instructions?
You can find the installation instructions off the download page: http://webs.cs.berkeley.edu/tos/download.html.
I just installed TinyOS 1.1.x; where is the TinyOS source?
You can find the tinyos tree at /opt/tinyos-1.x (provided that you didn't relocate it to someplace else with a prefix= option in Unix).
Why does the Installshield setup claim that it can't find a JavaCOMM 2.0 installation when I do have one?
The setup looks for the file called JAVAHOME/lib/javax.comm.properties where JAVAHOME is defined by the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/JavaSoft/Java Development Kit/1.4/JavaHome. While JAVAHOME/lib works, a better location is 'JAVAHOME/jre/lib' and yours may be there.
This is really a bug in the Installshield setup as we also recommend putting javax.comm.properties in JAVAHOME/jre/lib. The upshot is that you can ignore that warning if you're certain you have a JAVACOMM 2.0 installation.
After I install tinyos, I can't write in the directories as a non-Administrator user.
In a cygwin shell, cd to the directory that your tinyos-1.x tree is in (usually /opt), do this:
```
$ chmod -R a+rw tinyos-1.x
```
The above will make the tinyos-1.x directory and all the files in it accessible for reading and writing for all users. You can adapt the permissions to your security policy. See 'info chmod' for more information on the chmod command.
I followed the uninstall directions to uninstall my old cygwin installation; why did Cygwin store some things in [INSTALLDIR]\cygwin and other things in my old cygwin location?
You might have a HOME environment variable defined that points to the old location. Check and, if you do, remove it. (See the related FAQ entry for how to modify environment variables.)
What is an RPM and why does TinyOS use them for installation?
RPM is a package management system. RPM installs and uninstalls software. A .rpm file is an individual package. For example, mysoftware-1.2-1.rpm would install version 1.2, release 1 of the 'mysoftware' package.
TinyOS uses RPMs to distribute TinyOS and it's subcomponents and tools for several reasons:
1. It is a standard installation tool for the Unix platform and, thus, it is already familiar to many in the TinyOS community.
2. RPMs can be used on both Linux and cygwin/Windows. Though we officially only test and support RedHat 9.0, you might find that the RPMs work on other linux variants.
3. It allows us to package and, therefore, distribute each component in the TinyOS development environment individually. This makes it possible to release just the RPMs that have changed.
For convenience, we offer an Installshield setup for the Windows platform. The IS setup automates the installation process as much as possible but under the covers the same RPMs are installed.
If you'd like to find out more about RPMs, please see www.redhat.com and search for 'rpm manual'.
How do I manually install uisp on Windows?
As administrator, do this in cygwin:
1. $ cd tools/src/uisp/src
2. $ make; make install
3. $ cd tools/src/uisp/kernel/win32
4. $ make; make install
When I run the InstallShield Wizard downloaded from the web, it requests the file 'instmsiw.exe'. What's happening?
InstallShield requires the Microsoft Installer on your machine. If the installation wizard does not find it on your machine, it attempts to download it from Microsoft. If the file cannot be downloaded from Microsoft, you are asked to supply the location of the file.

We have put this and another file that you may need, isscript.msi, online:
- instmsiw.exe
- isscript.msi
Download these two files into the same directory that the TinyOS installation file resides in. Run instmsiw.exe, run isscript.msi, and then run the TinyOS installation once again.
How can I modify an Environment Variable in Windows?
As you proceed, you'll notice that there are two kinds of environment variables: System or User. When editing TinyOS-related variables, it's safest to make them system variables.
Do this:
- Right Click on My Computer (usually an icon on the Desktop)
- Select Properties
- Select Advanced tab
- Click on Environment Variables
- If the environment variable already exists, select Edit; If the variable doesn't exist, select New
- Proceed to edit or create in the standard Windows UI way
How can I properly uninstall TinyOS?
See the file tinyos-1.x/doc/uninstall.html . An online copy can be found at webs.cs.berkeley.edu/tos/tinyos-1.x/doc/uninstall.html.
I have just upgraded to the cygwin version that is required by TinyOS 1.1.11+ and I have this error: "... gcc: installation problem, cannot exec `cc1': No such file or directory ". How can I fix it?
It's a known installation problem with that package of gcc. If you use the Cygwin setup.exe program to reinstall gcc and it's related packages, the problem will be fixed.
To reinstall gcc, click on the setup.exe that you used to upgrade Cygwin,go through the screens until you can choose packages to keep, upgrade, install. Find gcc and click on the 'Keep' until it says 'Reinstall'.
Why does my attempt to checkout the TinyOS code anonymously from the CVS server not work in the Cygwin/Windows environment(CVS complains about a .cvspass file or just hangs)?
One problem could simply be the CVS version you're working with. Please look at this page for more information: http://webs.cs.berkeley.edu/tos/anonymous.html
Why can't I compile the the TinyDB application in my current TinyOS tree?
TinyDB does not compile with more recent versions of TinyOS, though there has been discussion of updating the code. The last known-working combination was TinyDB 1.1.3 with TinyOS 1.1.7 (both released in July 2004). Users have reported, however, that TinyDB 1.1.3 did work with TinyOS 1.1.10 but required NesC 1.1.2a rather than NesC 1.1.2b. NesC 1.1.2a, TinyDB 1.1.3 and all 1.1.x versions of TinyOS are available in the TinyOS software distribution tree: http://www.tinyos.net/dist-1.1.0/tinyos/.
I have installed TinyOS 1.1.11 and get this error when I run toscheck "WARNING: CLASSPATH may not include '.' (that is, the symbol for the current working directory). Please add '.' to your CLASSPATH or you may experience configuration problems." I have checked and I do have '.' in my path. What could be wrong?
This was a bug in the environment in 1.1.11 that has been fixed. You can safely ignore the error if you do have '.' (that is, a reference to the current directory) in your CLASSPATH environment variable.
Why do I get this error
```
error: Failed dependencies:
        nesc >= 1.1.1 is needed by tinyos-1.1.14Jul2005cvs-1
```
when I try to install tinyos.
Recent versions of TinyOS depend on NesC version 1.1.1 or greater. The most recent version of NesC is 1.1.2b. You can download and install the 1.1.2b NesC rpm from http://www.tinyos.net/dist-1.1.0/tinyos/. If you have a linux environment, click on the linux link; if you have a windows environment, click on the windows link.
If you do not want to upgrade NesC, you could install the rpm using the --nodeps argument but we do not recommend that.
COMPILATION & MOTE UPLOAD
Why do I get assembler errors that looks like this:
```
/tmp/ccFOvuiZ.s: Assembler messages:
/tmp/ccFOvuiZ.s:10: Error: unknown opcode `disablecou'
/tmp/ccFOvuiZ.s:12: Error: unrecognized symbol type ""
...
```
or
```
/tmp/ccrlquXA.s: Assembler messages:
/tmp/ccrlquXA.s:111: Error: `,' required
/tmp/ccrlquXA.s:111: Error: constant value required
/tmp/ccrlquXA.s:111: Error: garbage at end of line
```
when I try to compile an application?
TinyOS requires a patch to the assembler so that NesC can use dollarsigns within object names in intermediate code representations. This patched assembler was included and installed in versions of NesC prior to NesC version 1.2.
NesC 1.2 and beyond, however, does not install this patched assembler for you. Instead, the patched assembler can be found in the binutils RPM available for your platform. You can find these binutils RPMS for the MSP430, AVR, and xscale platforms here: http://www.tinyos.net/dist-1.2.0/tools/. To ensure compatibility within compiler toolsets, you should upgrade all of your compiler tools (gcc,binutils,libc) with the rpms found in the above source repository. They are named by platform.
When I load my mote, why do I get an error similar to the one below and what can I do about it?
```
...
Verifying: flash
flash error at address 0x500: file=0x80, mem=0xff
flash error at address 0x501: file=0x93, mem=0xff
```
If you are not using a MIB500, which is programming board for the Mica family that programs motes via the parallel port, you need to ensure that (1) your MAKERULES environment variable is pointing to $TOSROOT/tinyos-1.x/tools/make/Makerules and that (2) you're using the correct make flags. The correct make command should look like this:
- mica2 example:MIB510=/dev/ttyS3 make mica2 reinstall,mib510
- telos example:make telos install,2 bsl,3
See your manufacturer's Getting Started Guide and tools/make/README for more on make flags.
If you are using a MIB500, this could be caused by a number of things, most of which relate to the use of the parallel port to program the mote. First, be sure that the mote is connected to the parallel port as you expect; that is, be sure it's firmly seated in the port/cable and, if using a cable, be sure the cable is firmly seated in the port. You might try removing the parallel cable from your setup to see if the cable is causing the problem.
Next, peruse the following document for hints on how to fix the problem UISP, Mote Programming and Mote Fuse or buy the MIB510 board from Crossbow that uses the serial port. Our understanding from Crossbow is that the MIB510 price for low quantities for domestic users is $95.
These flash errors can also be a symptom of a condition whereby the atmel128 (the mote's chip) fuses can become incorrectly programmed. If you have already received these errors and then find that you're receiving the error "...Probably the wiring is incorrect or target might be damaged...", you can read, check, and set your fuses properly with a JTAG board and AVR Studio. If you don't own a JTAG board and AVR Studio and you think that your fuses may have become compromised while programming the mote unsuccessfully, contact Crossbow for advice.
Why do I get the following error when compiling a TinyOS app? Unknown target mica.
Known targets for TinyOS directory are ...
The NesC compiler program, ncc, cannot find the TinyOS libraries which are stored under tinyos-1.x/tos. You can specify the location with the ncc option -tosdir=dir or by defining the TOSDIR environment variable. Here is an example of how to define TOSDIR in the bash shell:
```
$ export TOSDIR=/home/kwright/src/tinyos-1.x/tos
```
You can check what ncc thinks is the tosdir by using the -print-tosdir option. See the nesc documentation in doc/nesc for more information. See more information about TOSDIR in this faq here.
Why am I getting errors like
```
Blink.nc:74: component Main not found
Blink.nc:68 component StdControl not found
...
```
when I compile?
The NesC compiler must know where your TOS standard library is -- that is, the directory tinyos-1.x/tos. While the installation rpm / installsheild wizard attempt to compile the correct location into the ncc executable before installation, under certain circumstances the wrong directory is specified.
You can choose from these fixes:
1. Set the environment variable TOSDIR to point to the correct location. For example, in tcsh:
```
setenv TOSDIR /home/kwright/src/tinyos-1.x/tos
```
2. Replace the drive letter in the following line in the СnccТ perl script with the letter of the drive that your installation is on. The ncc perl script is in /usr/local/bin. For example, if TinyOS was installed on drive СkТ in a windows installation, then you would change line 30 like so:
```
    $TOSDIR = У/cygdrive/k/tinyos-1.x/tosФ
```
In 1.1.0 and later versions, the configuration is done by the RPMs. If you're having these problems and haven't installed at least 1.1.0, I strongly encourage you to do so.
When I try to compile TOS java tools, I get the error package javax.comm does not exist.
Check a couple things:
1. In Windows, make sure that which java returns a path which includes something similar to /cygdrive/your-system-drive/jdk1.4.1_02/j2sdk1.4.1_02/bin/java. In linux, be sure it returns a 1.4 JDK. If it doesn't, find where you've installed your 1.4 jdk and add /bin to the front of your PATH environment variable. The idea is that there could be several jdks installed on your machine and you want the jdk that you're using to be the jdk under which javax.comm is installed.
2. If your javax.comm jar file is installed in the correct spot, the JDK should find it automatically with no CLASSPATH modifications. If that's not happening, you might want to append your CLASSPATH might need to include the comm.jar library -- something like this: c:\jdk1.4.1_02\j2sdk1.4.1_02\jre\lib\ext\comm.jar
What does ...tinyos/SerialForwarder.java:43: cannot resolve symbol mean?
It means that java couldn't find the definition for a required Java class. Try adding . (literally a dot, meaning the current working directory) to your CLASSPATH environment variable. Ensure that your classpath also includes
/lib.
What does ...java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: mytoolname (wrong name: net/tinyos/mytoolname/mytoolname) mean?

The way you've specified the class on the command line does not match what the class itself thinks it is called. The compiled java class might include a path in its name. For example, the class defined in tools/net/tinyos/oscilloscope/oscilloscope.java has the classname tools/net/tinyos/oscilloscope/oscilloscope. For example, to run the oscilloscope tool, you can cd to tools/java and type java net/tinyos/oscilloscope/oscilloscope .

When I try to install, I get the message ...Probably the wiring is incorrect or target might be damaged.... What is wrong?
The wiring could be wrong, but probably not. Check these things:
- Ensure that the mote is firmly seated in the right slot.
- Ensure that the mote hasn't fallen to the floor off the cable/slot
- Ensure that you haven't connected your printer to the mote's slot since your last install
If you have recently received many flash errors while programming your mote, it is possible for the mote's fuses to become incorrectly programmed. This error can be a symptom of messed-up fuses. See this related FAQ.
What does Probably the AVR MCU is not in the RESET state. Check it out and run me again. mean when I type 'make install'?
This message could be caused by a number of things:
- Check that your mote is seated properly on the programming board pins.
- Your mote may not have sufficient power. Try a fresh pair of batteries (the batteries need not be completely dead for this to be the problem; once the voltage goes below a certain threshhold, the mote will no longer function correctly) and make sure that the mote is firmly seated in the programming board. If you have a programming board that supports an external power supply, use it rather than the batteries while programming.
- If you have an IBM ThinkPad, be sure that you have the following line is added to apps/Makelocal (create it if it doesn't exist):
```
   PROGRAMMER_EXTRA_FLAGS = -dlpt=3
```
"make install target" successfully clears and programs my mote, but it always fails during the "verify" stage. What's wrong?
The mote isn't powered by its own supply or via the adapter connected to the programming board. Even though the light on the programming board is on, you may not have the necessary power supply to program and verify the mote successfully. You can check for this if the red LED on the programming board is flashing durning the "Uploading: flash" state of the "make install" target.
DESIGN

Where can I find the definitions for the functions like TOSH_SET_RED_LED_PIN()?
Those are actually macros. You can find the definitions in tos/platform/platform where platform is something like mica or mica2. Specifically, look in the file hardware.h. For the avr platforms, you can find further definitions in tos/platform/avrmote/avrhardware.h.
Hint: Just look at the definitions for a while and it will all make sense.
What is the difference between TOSH_INTERRUPT and TOSH_SIGNAL?
When an event occurs at the hardware layer, an associated interrupt handler routine is called. If the interrupt handler routine is defined as TOSH_INTERRUPT (e.g. see tos/platform/mica/HPLClock.nc) then interrupts are enabled, if it's defined as TOSH_SIGNAL then interrupts are disabled. So let's say your event A is the clock firing, and event B is you receiving a message. Event A is defined as TOSH_INTERRUPT which means it can be interrupted and event B (the reception of a message) is defined as TOSH_SIGNAL, which means it cannot be interrupted.
How does the new serial framing protocol in TOS 1.1.x work?
Previous versions of TOS sent a serial message without real framing:
```
	addr	2 bytes
	type	1 byte
	group	1 byte
	length	1 byte
	payload 29 bytes
	crc	2 bytes
```
The trick was that since the addr field is not needed on a serial link, they made the first character 126, which happens to be the HDLC framing byte. Readers look for 126 and assume that the next 35 bytes are the rest of the TOS message.
The new format adds some additional framing bytes:
```
	sync	1 byte (HDLC framing byte: 126)
	proto	1 byte (packet type: 66)
	previous_tos_message (36 bytes)
	sync	1 byte (HDLC framing byte: 126)
```
The trick here is that within the Уprevious_tos_messageФ all instances of the HDLC framing byte (126) and the HDLC escape bytes (125) must be escaped. To escape a byte, the byte is replaced with a two byte sequence. The first byte of the sequence is the HDLC escape byte (125), and the second byte is the original byte xored with x20. Since the first byte of the Уprevious_tos_messageФ is always a 126, it must always be escaped, adding a byte to the length of the message.
What MAC algorithm is used on the your-favorite-mote Mote?
CC1000 (used in the Mica2 and Mica2dot platforms)
-------------------------------------------------
Bug fixes and tweaks aside, there are two versions of the MAC for the Mica2 and Mica2dot's CC1000 radio: one version found on stacks before 1.1.3 and a version called B-MAC found on stacks from 1.1.3 on. Both are CSMA. You can find comparisons of the two versions here:
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~polastre/joep-nest-cc1000.ppt
Code for the CC1000 radio stack can be found in this TinyOS directory: tos/platform/mica2/CC1000*
Summaries:
1.1.0 version (also in 1.1.1 and 1.1.2)
- CSMA
- fixed noise floor
- if RSSI reading less than floor then transmit
- pre-BMAC
1.1.3 and beyond:
- CSMA
- called B-MAC
- includes AGC: an algorithm to adjust the noise floor dynamically
- includes improvements to reduce preamble length
- collisions reduced, increased bandwidth over 1.1.0 version above
The version of B-MAC mentioned in Versatile Low Power Media Access for Wireless Sensor Networks is in contrib/ucb/tos/CC1000Pulse but not stress tested. You can find the contrib directory in the tinyos-contrib rpm package or in the TinyOS CVS repository at SourceForge.
CC2420 (used in the MicaZ and Telos platforms)
-----------------------------------------------
Support for the CC2420 radio was introduced in TinyOS 1.1.7. The CC2420 uses B-MAC. However, the CC2420 radio does not have the Low Power Listening functionality; it does have the MacControl and MacBackoff interfaces but, again, the underlying functionality is not implemented.
What is Zigbee and what is the relationship between Zigbee and TinyOS?
One of the goals of the Zigbee Alliance is to defining the network, security and application software layers for wireless networks for monitoring and control products. The lowest level of the communications stack defined by Zigbee is the networking level. Therefore, it is not a replacement for but rather compatible with TinyOS. That is, a Zigbee protocol could be written in TinyOS; indeed, there are several efforts for creating such a network layer on top of existing TinyOS MAC protocols.
The Zigbee standards are only available to Zigbee Alliance members; that is, they are not open-source.
Zigbee is not a MAC protocol, an operating system, or a hardware platform.
Here is the Zigbee Alliance website: http://www.zigbee.org/en/index.asp
What is 802.15.4 and what is the relationship between 802.15.4 and TinyOS?
802.15.4 is an IEEE standard that defines a MAC and PHY layer targeted to wireless sensor networks. Some radios have hardware that supports the 802.15.4 standard. Among these radios is the Chipcon CC2420. You can find a CC2420 radio stack in TinyOS in tos/lib/CC2420. The Telos and MicaZ platforms both use the CC2420 radio stack.
The CC2420 radio stack does not support the full IEEE 802.15.4 standard; instead it provided B-MAC primitives and sends 802.15.4-compliant packets, but does not implement the 802.15.4 MAC protocol.
The IEEE 802.15.4 (formally called "IEEE 802.15.4 WPAN Task Group 4") web site is here: http://www.ieee802.org/15/pub/TG4.html
What is the relationship between 802.15.4 and Zigbee?
The Zigbee Alliance's standards assume an underlying 802.15.4 layer.
DEVELOPMENT

Where do I find hardware specifications for the TinyOS platforms and the sensorboards?
It is usually possible to go right to the manufacturer's page and get specs. There are design diagrams of all the TinyOS platforms off the TinyOS design page . Atmel has manuals and specifications online for the chips at www.atmel.com .

Here's an example of how you might go about finding information about the microphone on the Mica Sensorboard:
1. Browsing through the hardware page , you look at the table at the top of the page and happen upon a listing of parts for the Mica Sensorboard .
2. Looking through the excel spreadsheet, you see that the microphone is a Panasonic WM-62A.
3. Using 'Panasonic WM-62A specifications' as a search string at Google yields the as the first entry: Panasonic Omnidirectional Back Electret Condenser Microphone Cartridge .
How do I set the transmission power on the mica2 or mica2dot motes (CC1000 Radio)?
Wire to the CC1000Control interface in CC1000RadioC. Call CC1000Control.setRFPower(char value) with the desired power level as per the CC1000 datasheet on page 29. The output power dB changes with frequency, so check the table on page 29 to pick your desired output RF power.
What does Could not chdir to home directory /home/users/: No such file or directory when I try to access sourceforge.net mean?

Your user directory doesn't exist on the sourceforge cvs server until you ssh directly into it. Once you ssh into the server directly, your directory will be created and then you can check out source.

Try something like this:
```
    ssh -l  cvs.tinyos.sourceforge.net
```
Enter your sourceforge password when asked. Because of the restricted shell, you'll be logged out of cvs.tinyos.sourceforge.net immediately, but the directory will still have been created.

Note that this does not apply to using the 'anonymous' username to check-out files.

I compiled and successfully loaded CntToLeds, but the lights don't blink.
Your source tree might have files left from a make for a different hardware version (mica instead of rene, for example). Try 'make clean' and then remake and reinstall. Be sure to specify the version of hardware for your mote in your make commands.
Why does the java tool ListenRaw return "port busy"?

This means either you are reading from the wrong port, or that the correct port is currently being used by another application. Check to see if some other software is currently occupying the port (your Palm desktop software, etc.)

If you're using Linux make sure that your current user has read/write access to the port.

Why is there no output from oscilloscope.java after successfull compilation?
Oscilloscope.java is currently hard-wired to read from serial port 1. If your mote is connected to serial port 3, you need to change the setup and recompile oscilloscope.java.

Can I get the received signal strength in TinyOS?

Mica2: The strength field (TOS_Msg->strength) of the TOS_Msg structure is filled in with data from the radio's Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) pin. The RSSI data is inversely proportional to the signal's strength. You can find out exactly how to interpret the RSSI data by looking at the RSSI Output section of the Chipcon CC1000 radio's datasheet: http://www.chipcon.com/files/CC1000_Data_Sheet_2_1.pdf

Mica: It is possible to get the signal strength field on the Mica's RFM radio, but the code in the tree does not support that functionality; the code in the tree leaves the strength field equal to 0. However, there are implementations out there that do support the strength field though they're for older versions of code. For an example, see this archived help message: http://mail.millennium.berkeley.edu/pipermail/tinyos-help/2003-March/001018.html and the RFM TR1000's datasheet: http://www.rfm.com/products/data/tr1000.pdf

With windows and Mica2 motes, we have successful reports for the Belkin F5U109 and the Targus PA088.
We have had a report that the Keyspan USA-19QW model worked with RH9 and Debian Linux. With this particular adapter, the user specified -dspeed=115200. Note that the Mica2 works at 57600 by default, but this worked in this instance.
Another report said that the Keyspan USA-19HS does not work and recommends the ATEN UC-232A USB-Serial converter.
With Mandrake Linux, an unknown :) $20 model adapter was purchased, plugged in and worked thanks to the Linux Hot Plug service. The only modification necessary was to specify to uisp this argument:
```
    -dserial=/dev/ttyUSB0
```

TinyOS FAQ

Table of Contents