Windows user build guide

Introduction

In this page you will find all the necessary resources and information that will enable you to run the SmartRover™ frontend app and SMCE-gd emulator sketch to experience the Mars environment and sensation of driving a rover on our neighboring planet. This page would help you to solve all your questions regarding the installation of the each and every software needed to start exploring and we will try to reference other relevant libraries and dependencies to expend the resources further.

1. Install SMCE-gd Emulator (Courtesy Of ItJustWorks™)

Step 1.1: Get a package Manager

Recommendation is to use Chocolatey as a Manager

For installing the package manager and dependencies start by opening Power Shell in Administrative Mode.

Step 1.2: Install Dependencies

Use the following commands in Power Shell as Administrator

choco install cmake -y --installargs 'ADD_CMAKE_TO_PATH=System'

choco install arduino-cli openssl -y

choco install visualstudio2019buildtools -y --package-parameters "--add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.VCTools --includeRecommended --passive --locale en-US"

Step 1.3: Install SMCE-Godot

Once done, go to SMCE-gd emulator's releases page, and download the latest .msi installer. Run it, disregarding SmartScreen security warning (see this picture if you do not know how to ignore SmartScreen once).

Step 1.4: Get terrain mod and The rover model

• The rover model: To get the rover model, you will need mod-package.zip from our release v1.0.0.

2. Install Smart Rover Front End App

To install the Front End App first head over to the Releases Page. From here click the latest release and then download the latest .exe installer file. Then to install, double click the file. Windows will then display the standard warning message, choose More Info and then click Run Anyway. The App is then installed to the User directory. Now to run the App, just double click the Smart Rover icon.

3. Get Arduino Sketch File

To get the latest version of the SmartRover sketch to run on the SMCE-gd, please visit our Releases page. Arduino sketch will be listed as one of the release assets and named like "SmartRover_vx.x.x-sketch.zip" with reference to current release version. After you download and save the zip file into your computer, please extract it so that you have "SmartRover/SmartRover.ino" structure intact.

From SMCE-gd emulator, you can navigate the above folder you have extracted and select ino sketch file to compile. That's it.

4. Install MQTT

MQTT protocol enables bi-directional communication between the SmartRover emulator and the Frontend app, so that you can receive telemetry data and camera stream and send driving commands from control pad or console terminal. For the best performance, it is recommended to install a local MQTT broker on your computer and configure both emulator and the frontend to connect to "localhost". Or for more realistic experience of a "delayed" communication between the SmartRover, Mars Orbiter and the Earth, you can choose and use from numerous online MQTT brokers.

Option 1. Install or choose an online MQTT broker

• List of Servers and brokers at https://mqtt.org/software/.

Option 2. Istall Mosquitto local broker

We have used and tested with a local installation of the open source Mosquitto broker.

Instructions to install Mosquitto broker in Windows

5. PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is used for saving and loading data.

5.1 Install PostgreSQL

First of, go to the official download page.

Find the setup file for Windows and download the latest version. After downloading, run the file and follow the instructions. For support go to postgresqltutorial.com or Youtube.

5.2 Configure settings

To setup the database first start pgAdmin.

In pgAdmin start a new server with these instructions.

In the Connection tab enter the following settings:

Host:

Port:

Username:

Password:

Role:

5.3 Import packages

First open pgAdmin.

Select the database and open Query tool.

In the Query tool choose "open file".