Cross-compiling LabVIEW-programs for the AVM Fritz!Box

The AVM Fritz!Box is an internet router based on linux. A complete toolchain is available with the freetz-project. So the firmware of the box can be customized and also own programs can be compiled to run on the box.
National Instruments offers a graphical programming environment called LabVIEW. As addon a code-generator for Ansi-C is available, called Microprocessor SDK.
Using this tools I will show how to create a program, that uses the Fritz!Box as gateway between ethernet and a serial port.

Preconditions

What you need is a Fritz!Box with an USB-port and an USB-to-serial-adpater connected to it. I use an adapter based on the Prolific PL-2303HX chipset.
LabVIEW including the Microprocessor SDK has to be installed on a Windows machine.
The Freetz-toolchain should be built on a Linux machine.

Creating the program

After porting the LabVIEW-libraries to the MIPS-processor of the Fritz!Box you get one library-file to link with your own program files.
The following flash-movie shows how to create a small program with LabVIEW. The generated sourcefiles are saved into the folder "Console_Application". I copy that folder to the Linux-machine. Then I launch the build.sh script, which compiles the files and finally links them with the library-file. The resulting file is copied to root-folder of an apache-webserver, so I can access the file from the Fritz!Box.
On my Fritz!Box a customized firmware is running, providing telnet and modules for the PL-2303-chipset.