After you installed Visual Studio 2012 (also “Express for Windows Desktop” edition) from the previous chapter, you need to install .Net Micro Framework SDK that you can download from “Downloads” section on the CodePlex project web site (http://netmf.codeplex.com). The last released version is 4.3 (RTM) but the SDK contains all previous versions (until back 3.0); the documentation is available as another downloadable file at the same page.
After installation, under “Program Files” folder you can find a “Microsoft .Net Micro Framework” folder that contains all the versions from the 3.0 to 4.3 (the older versions before 3.0 aren’t available in this SDK). For each version, there are all assemblies for both big and little endian CPUs, some fonts and some tools (included an emulator); for our example, you will use only MFDeploy tool to configure Netduino network settings and the necessary main assemblies.
Figure 6.1 : .Net Micro Framework on CodePlex and downloadable SDK
As we said in the previous chapter, every OEM compiles .Net Micro Framework sources to fit its hardware and releases an SDK for using it from managed code. Secret Labs has its SDK that is downloadable from Netduino official web site in the “Downloads” section. At the time of writing, Secret Labs hasn’t released an official SDK to support .Net Micro Framework 4.3 but the most recent release is the “Netduino SDK v4.2.2.0” (32 or 64 bit) for .Net Micro Framework 4.2. In the same page, as the project is open source and If you are curious, you can find all CPUs datasheets, schematics and board layouts and the Netduino firmware source code that you can recompile using porting kit.
Figure 6.2 : Secret Labs official Netduino SDKs
Even if there isn’t an official Netduino SDK for .Net Micro Framework 4.3, Secret Labs provides a Beta version SDK 4.3 on its forum (http://forums.netduino.com/index.php?/topic/8084-new-netduino-43-sdk-and-vs2012-support/) that works with all boards generation and it is fully supported in Visual Studio 2012 with project templates. You can decide which SDK to install; the Beta version SDK 4.3 also supports Beta firmware 4.3 for Netduino 2 and Netduino Plus 2 (new generation boards).
After installation, you can find all Netduino assemblies and drivers to connect your board to the PC in the “Secret Labs\Netduino SDK” folder under “Program Files”. As you can see, the assemblies are for all Netduino versions (first and new generation) including Netduino Mini and Netduino Go.
If you launch Visual Studio 2012, you can find “Micro Framework” templates for Visual C# and Visual Basic under “New Project”. If you installed the official released Secret Labs SDK (4.2.2.0), it doesn’t include Netduino project templates for Visual Studio 2012 (but only for Visual Studio 2010), so you will add assembly references manually into your .Net Micro Framework application. The templates available are for typical “Class library”, “Console Application” and “Windows Application”; furthermore, the .Net Micro Framework allows to develop a custom emulator using “Device Emulator” template.
Figure 6.3 : .Net Micro Framework projects templates
If you installed Beta version SDK 4.3, you can see the Netduino project templates when you create a new “Micro Framework” project; these templates are available for both board generations (ex. Netduino Plus 1 and Netduino Plus 2).
Figure 6.4 : .Net Micro Framework and Netduino project templates
For our example, you have to use a Netduino Plus board (Ethernet connectivity is necessary for MQTT!) but you can choose between first or second generation.