3 For various reasons, a custom build of Betaflight might be needed. A user might want to enable certain features that are disabled on his / her target, for example. This guide provides the basic instructions needed to build Betaflight on a Windows system. Two options are given:
5 - Using the Linux subsystem (Windows 10 only)
6 - Using the Cygwin environment (Windows 7/8/10)
8 ## Building on Windows 10 using the Linux subsystem
10 A new feature in Windows 10 allows any developer to quickly and easily run an entire linux subsystem in Windows and access it via a bash terminal. This gives developers full use of the entire Linux OS and all of the great existing linux tools and programs. When Bash for Windows is up and running it feels like you sshed into a full Linux box, except the linux distro is actually running alongside Windows locally.
12 If you use Bash on Windows you can easily build Betaflight exactly as you would for Ubuntu. [For instructions follow the official guide here.](https://msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/wsl/install_guide)
14 - https://msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/wsl/install_guide
16 Once you have Bash On Windows running you can follow the "Building in Ubuntu" instructions for building Betaflight.
18 ## Building on Windows 7/8/10 using the Cygwin environment
20 The Cygwin environment provides some functionality similar to a Linux distribution, allowing to build Betaflight in a relatively small (~1 Gb) environment within Windows.
22 ### Installing Cygwin and required packages
24 Download the Setup*.exe from https://www.cygwin.com/
26 ![Cygwin Installation](assets/001.cygwin_dl.png)
28 Execute the downloaded Setup*.exe and step through the installation wizard (no need to customize the settings here). Stop at the "Select Packages" Screen and select the following Packages
33 - Devel/bash-completion (was git-completion, Optional)
36 - Editors/vim or Editors/nano (file editors, `nano` is most straightforward while `vim` offers more advanced options)
37 - Shells/mintty (should be already selected)
40 ![Cygwin Installation](assets/002.cygwin_setup.png)
42 ![Cygwin Installation](assets/003.cygwin_setup.png)
44 ![Cygwin Installation](assets/004.cygwin_setup.png)
46 ![Cygwin Installation](assets/005.cygwin_setup.png)
48 ![Cygwin Installation](assets/006.cygwin_setup.png)
50 Continue with the Installation and accept all autodetected dependencies.
52 ![Cygwin Installation](assets/007.cygwin_setup.png)
54 The Cygwin environment is now installed and can be used with the `Cygwin-Terminal` application.
56 ### Clone the Betaflight repository
58 Head over to the Betaflight Github page and grab the URL of the GIT Repository: "https://github.com/betaflight/betaflight.git"
60 ![GIT Checkout](assets/011.git_checkout.png)
62 Open the Cygwin-Terminal, navigate to the `/dev` folder and use the git command `git clone` to checkout the repository.
66 git clone https://github.com/betaflight/betaflight.git
68 ![GIT Checkout](assets/012.git_checkout.png)
70 The `/dev/betaflight` folder now holds a copy of the current Betaflight source code repository.
72 ### Setup GNU ARM Toolchain
74 To compile the Betafligth source code for the ARM processors used on the various flight controllers, the GNU ARM Toolchain is required. Versions are important, current Betaflight (4.0.0) requires at least ```arm-none-eabi-gcc``` version ```7.3.1```.
76 The toolchain can be installed in two ways:
78 - Using the provided `arm_sdk_install` script
81 The provided script will install the correct version of the ARM toolchain to the `/dev/betaflight/` directory, which will thus only be avaialble to this project. This method ensures the corerct version is installed and prevents collision with possible other projects you might have.
83 The manual installation option will install the ARM toolchain system-wide, allowing it to also be used for other projects on the system, should that be necesary.
85 #### Scripted installation
87 To install the ARM toolchain, use the `make arm_sdk_install` command within the `/dev/betaflight` directory:
90 Stefan@DESKTOP-U5FUCGO /dev
93 Stefan@DESKTOP-U5FUCGO /dev/betaflight
94 $ make arm_sdk_install
97 % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
98 Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
99 100 241 100 241 0 0 241 0 0:00:01 --:--:-- 0:00:01 1288
100 100 124M 100 124M 0 0 1965k 0 0:01:05 0:01:05 --:--:-- 2014k
103 The ARM toolchain is now installed. Note the toolchain can be removed with `make arm_sdk_clean` from the `/dev/betaflight` directory.
105 #### Manual Installation
107 Manual installation requires you download the Windows zip ```7.3.1``` (7-2018-q2-update), which can be obtained here:
109 - https://developer.arm.com/open-source/gnu-toolchain/gnu-rm/downloads (7-2018-q2-update)
113 - https://armkeil.blob.core.windows.net/developer/Files/downloads/gnu-rm/7-2018q2/gcc-arm-none-eabi-7-2018-q2-update-win32.zip
115 Extract the contents of this archive to any folder of your choice, for instance ```C:\dev\gcc-arm```.
117 ![GNU ARM Toolchain Setup](assets/008.toolchain.png)
119 Add the "bin" subdirectory to the PATH Windows environment variable: ```%PATH%;C:\dev\gcc-arm\bin```
121 ![GNU ARM Toolchain Setup](assets/009.toolchain_path.png)
123 ![GNU ARM Toolchain Setup](assets/010.toolchain_path.png)
125 The ARM toolchain is now available within the Cygwin environment.
127 #### Building the firmware
129 To compile your Betaflight binaries; open the Cygwin terminal, enter the Betaflight directory and build the project using the `make` command. You can append TARGET=[HARDWARE] if you want to build anything other than the default NAZE target:
136 ![GIT Checkout](assets/013.compile.png)
138 Within few moments you should have your binary ready:
141 Stefan@DESKTOP-U5FUCGO /dev/betaflight
144 Stefan@DESKTOP-U5FUCGO /dev/betaflight
145 $ make TARGET=BETAFLIGHTF3
146 make -j ./obj/betaflight_4.1.0_BETAFLIGHTF3.hex
147 make[1]: Entering directory '/dev/betaflight'
148 %% startup_stm32f30x_md_gcc.S
149 %% (optimised) ./src/main/startup/system_stm32f30x.c
152 %% (optimised) ./src/main/drivers/usb_io.c
154 Memory region Used Size Region Size %age Used
155 FLASH: 241016 B 252 KB 93.40%
156 FLASH_CONFIG: 0 GB 4 KB 0.00%
157 RAM: 33568 B 40 KB 81.95%
158 CCM: 2 KB 8 KB 25.00%
159 MEMORY_B1: 0 GB 0 GB -1.#J%
160 text data bss dec hex filename
161 237600 3416 32200 273216 42b40 ./obj/main/betaflight_BETAFLIGHTF3.elf
162 Creating HEX ./obj/betaflight_4.1.0_BETAFLIGHTF3.hex
165 Note that the final message will also inform you about flash space use
167 You can use the Betaflight-Configurator to flash the `obj/betaflight_NAZE.hex` file.
169 ### Updating and rebuilding
171 In order to update your local copy of the source code, navigate to the local betaflight repository and use the following steps to pull the latest changes and rebuild your version of betaflight:
177 make clean TARGET=NAZE