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Interactive shell

When Rubik’s Futuro Cube is connected to a PC, it is possible to communicate with the cube using the interactive command shell.

Shell can be easily accessed from Rubik's Futuro Cube Suite, but is available for other applications as well, because USB communication on the cube provides a common VIRTUAL COM PORT.

Before accessing the shell from other applications it is recommended to cycle USB to reset communication on character basis. This eventually resets more complex communication scheme. Note that in this case, characters are not automatically sent back to the terminal. Use command echoon if needed.

Default shell settings

Anytime USB is plugged into an active port, the cube gets reset to it's default state. Unless it is connected to RFC Suite, the charging display is launched. If you open a VIRTUAL COM PORT device provided by RFC, you can type commands and receive answers. After each reset the shell restarts with these settings:

echoing characters on line OFF toggle it with "echoon", "echoff"
displaying prompt "$>" ON toggle with "prompton", "promptoff"
multiplexed packet mode DISABLED can be enabled for experiments (1)
character speed ANY com port is virtual
HW control flow (RTS/CTS) DISABLED other modes not supported

(1) In multiplexed packet line mode RFC has internally several lines like SHELL LINE, BOOT LINE, NAND BOOT LINE, SCRIPT BOOT LINE and FAST/SLOW RAW MOTION DATA LINE. Those lines are multiplexed in separated packets with information like size and check sum. We can provide details upon request.

Shell in RFC Suite

SDK view in RFC Suite offers direct access to the cube shell. Everything is set and ready to go as soon as you switch to this mode. You can very easily test all available shell commands there. It is important to mention that RFC Suite turns ON multiplexed packet mode and does not turn it OFF! Therefore, this must be kept in mind if other proprietary apps want to access the shell right after the cube has been connected to RFC Suite.

Setting shell to default from any app

If you want create a smart app that will communicate with RFC any time, there is a sequence that resets the shell to it's default state under any condition (with no need to cycle USB). The code is in python, but can be ported to any language you use.

## ########################################
## somewhere in code open sline serial port
## ########################################
sline = serial.Serial()
## ########################################
def init_basic_shell(kill_clean = 1):
  sline.timeout = 0

  if (kill_clean):
    #"stdshell" in multiplex mode, see below
    cmd = "SQ\x00\0x0a\x00stdshell\x0d\x70\x71\x00\x73"
  else:
    #"stdshellnk" in mulitplex mode, see below
    cmd = "\x53\x51\x00\x0c\x00\stdshellnk\x0d\x49\x71\x00\x73"

  sline.write(cmd)
  # we have to send once "\r" for case the multiplex was off
  # and we need to discard nonsense commands to obtain the prompt
  sline.write("\r")
  time.sleep(0.2)
  sline.flushInput()

  ##############################################################
  # at this moment, the cube should be communicating in a simple
  # shell with prompt ON and echo OFF
  ##############################################################
  # stdshell kills all ongoing apps
  # if you do not want to interfere
  # and let running apps continue,
  # use "stdshellnk" instead (kill_clean=0)
  ##############################################################
  # if you don't kill a running script on cube, the script can
  # interfere with the shell with its output -
  # use only if you know what you are doing :-)
  ##############################################################