Just cant get PiDome to work.

[ericvdb]

@dafoink said:

one other question, will PiDome run on windows?

Yes it will if you have a JRE installed.

[tbowmo]

@dafoink

I reported the "Object doesn't support" error a while back to the pidome issue tracker, and there was an update to fix it. (It fixed it in my setup anyway).

So I think you need to update to a more recent build.

[dafoink]

Thanks for the info. I will grab a newer build later today!

[John]

Please clear the browser cache after updating!

And yes PiDome will run on windows, will it behave as expected? Sometimes. A while ago when i started with the usb connect/disconnect features my test system was a windows system. To get the real time usb connect/disconnect events you have to reference windows DLL's (create a hidden window, to be able to receive the events, hook up to processes etc...). At time of testing it did work from windows XP (i had an old laptop laying around) up to windows Vista (that was my win os at that time).

This part of the code hasn't been touched for a while, and the procedures to install PiDome as a windows service has been removed because of the older code from which i currently can not say it should work. I will be picking up this part when the server has hit beta and the procedures will be updated.

Regarding connecting USB devices, PiDome tracks a list of devices which work reliable, and this list is used when hot plugging. Not in the "safe" list, it also does not show up in the list when connected and the log says unsupported. This behavior will change in later builds when more work is done on more stable usb connect routines. An item which already is long on the list is to be able to add devices to the safe list when connecting.

[dafoink]

Thanks John for the information about windows. I think I might hold off on that for awhile. I have enough on my shoulders right now.

For now, it seems that I have everything working.

----- Edit (don't worry. I didn't read your "clear cache" I did that and everything is working!!!!!!! Very cool. thanks for your help!

[John]

I will notify users using twitter when windows support becomes official.

Good you have it working! What was the actual change you did so data was received?

[dafoink]

The big thing that I did is change the serial settings. once I did that and then had a bit of patience, things started showing up. Clearing the cache in my browser also removed the time that it took to save and test things.

I think my biggest issue was coming up to speed on the controller interface and getting a feeling of the terminology.

I appreciate the patience and help you have provided. I think that this will help me monitor and control my hydro/aquaponics farm and also help others in the small scale farming industry automate.

[John]

@dafoink
Ok, this makes it clear to me, i already got some responses regarding the serial settings, Need to take a good look at it, it is not all that clear. But because it uses a common serial driver a lot of options are available and makes it difficult to set specific "default" values for every possible serial device.

The controller interface "was" quite easy, with the latest changes it can be a bit confusing. Especially the terminology. I have started a page where a little explanation is done: http://platform.pidome.org/help Maybe it helps a bit on how the device structures are set up (information will grow on the site explaining more about PiDome).

[dafoink]

I noticed that when I reboot the RPi, I loose the peripheral save. I have to re-add the peripheral manually in the peripheral screen. Once I do that, all of my device setup shows up.

Any way to save that peripheral setting in case I want to create a trigger that reboots the pi for some reason?

[John]

@dafoink
When an peripheral is added there is an option to start, and to save and start. The save and start saves the usb port it is connected to. The start starts the peripheral, but forgets it as soon it is disconnected.

The save and start does do a check that if a specific peripheral has been saved at usb1, removed and attached again, it still is the same device.

The main reason this is implemented is that a lot are using for example FTDI. or Arduino's and attach multiple of them at the same time. By saving the mapping it kinda tries to keep the attached devices apart from eachother. It is not completely fool proof.

If the mapping is usb2, and after reboot the mapping becomes usb1, it has to be re-added. So it depends on mapping availability.
I know it is not wise to map the savings to the specific port names and it's better to be mapped to the usb bus locations and also keep the device's serial numbers (not only vid and pid) where possible. It is on the list ;).