Hello I am trying to build my own digital gauge cluster for my vehicle. I am using an Ixora board with iMX8M Plus. My initial plan was to use Boot2Qt and Qt Creator for development. I’ve contacted the Qt company and discovered that they require a commercial license(500$/month) to use Qt on embedded devices. There is an Open Source option but it doesn’t apply to embedded devices. I believe the Qt for Device Creation Demo Image in the Toradex easy installer is just that a “Demo” which is just used for viewing nothing can be added altered or installed on top of this image without the use of the commercial license of Qt Creator. (I may be incorrect about this correct me if I’m wrong). I believe I will need to use a different Yocto image. What would be the best prebuilt image alternative to Boot2Qt. Are there any images that are similar to Boot2Qt minus the proprietary data? I am trying to avoid having to learn to build a Yocto image from scratch. Also, once that image is installed what would be the best alternative to Qt Creator to develop & deploy the applications and visual effects.
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You are correct that the Qt for Device Creation Demo Image available through the Toradex Easy Installer is primarily intended for evaluation purposes and requires a commercial license for full development capabilities. If you are looking for an alternative to Boot2Qt that does not require a commercial license, you have a few options:
Prebuilt Image Alternatives
- TorizonCore: Torizon is Toradex’s easy-to-use industrial Linux platform. It is designed to simplify the development and deployment of applications on Toradex hardware. TorizonCore is a great alternative as it provides a robust base with support for Docker containers, which can be used to deploy your applications. You can find more information and download TorizonCore from the Toradex website.
Development and Deployment Alternatives
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VS Code with Torizon Extension: For development, you can use Visual Studio Code with the Torizon extension. This setup allows you to develop, deploy, and debug applications on TorizonCore. The Torizon extension simplifies the process of containerizing your applications and deploying them to your Toradex module.
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GTK+: If you are looking for an alternative GUI framework, GTK+ is a popular open-source option. It is well-supported on embedded Linux and can be used to create rich graphical applications. You can use tools like Glade for designing your UI and integrate it with your application code.
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Electron: For web-based applications, Electron can be a good choice. It allows you to build cross-platform desktop applications using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Electron applications can be packaged and run on TorizonCore.
Steps to Get Started with TorizonCore and VS Code
- Install TorizonCore: Use the Toradex Easy Installer to install TorizonCore on your Ixora board with iMX8M Plus.
- Set Up VS Code: Install Visual Studio Code on your development machine and add the Torizon extension.
- Develop and Deploy: Use the Torizon extension to create a new project, develop your application, and deploy it to your Toradex module.
Resources
By using TorizonCore and the VS Code Torizon extension, you can avoid the need for a commercial Qt license and still have a powerful development environment for your digital gauge cluster project.
Please, also check if these links can help you solve your problem:
BSP Layers and Reference Images for Yocto Project Software | Toradex Developer Center.
While using the Qt Creator IDE requires a paid license, you can still develop Qt-based applications using C++ and Qt for Python (PySide) templates for Torizon OS completely free of charge.
Alternatively, you can explore other solutions like Crank Storyboard or implement a web-based UI.
LVGL continues to improve, and I think the latest version has a built-in Wayland driver and OpenGL ES driver.
I have also implemented a Kiosk-Browser:
This uses the Qt OSS components, has on-screen keyboard, etc. The nice thing about this architecture is the kiosk-browser can be subject to GPL restrictions, while your application, which serves a web UI, does not.
scp or rsync are ways to deploy files to an existing system.
Thanks this was very helpful!
How is this kiosk-browser different from using chromium itself in kiosk mode?
Apart from the virtual keyboard, I mean.
In case you would like that the toradex/torizon users could easily benefit of it, you can try to propose it to be packed and distributed as one of the containers of the project commontorizon
Keyboard is the main thing, but we also have features like:
- custom loading page
- custom error page
- rotation
And we are continuing to add other features like battery/network status, WiFi/Network configuration, etc.
Being able to wrap the browser in QML is turning out to be very handy for customizing things like this.
I’ve just opened an issue in commontorizon project to investigate about the interest in having a container with yoe-kiosk-browser
Hi @Waunye11,
Just wanted to check. I see a solution was marked in this thread. Does that mean you are satisfied for now? Or do you have further questions?
Best Regards,
Jeremias
Yes this question has been answered I have another question Im not sure if I should open another thread. Since Ive already installed the demo image using the easy installer how do I reset the device so I can use the easy installer again? Is this article be what I should follow?
Also which OS image of Tezi should I use for my device? Would it be Verdin iMX8M Plus
If you want to reload Toradex Easy Installer back onto the device you should follow this article: Loading Toradex Easy Installer | Toradex Developer Center
You can download the latest release of Toradex Easy Installer from this page: Download Toradex Easy Installer | Toradex Developer Center
Best Regards,
Jeremias