Best IDE to use for MySensors projects

[Daniel Oliveira]

Hello,

@smilvert I would like to know if you succeed using PlatformIO.

Thank you

[hek]

MySensors is on plaformio, so I guess it should work.

http://platformio.org/lib/show/548/MySensors

[ivankravets]

@Daniel-Oliveira We have some problems with previous PlatformIO 2.0 Build System and MySensor Library structure. All these issues are resolved in PlatformIO 3.0 where are introduced new build system and library manager with support for 3-rd party manifests (Arduino's library.properties, ARM mbed module.json).

PlatformIO 3.0 has not been finally released. We released the first public alpha version. How to use it?

1. Install PlatformIO IDE or PlatformIO CLI and switch it to development version.
2. Menu: PlatformIO > Initialize new project
3. Open platformio.ini project configuration files (will be created in the project)
4. Specify project dependencies. See docs for lib_deps option.
5. Press build/upload button.

For example, the final project configuration file for the Arduino Uno will look like:

[env:uno]
platform = atmelavr
framework = arduino
board = uno
lib_deps = MySensors

You can also specify Semantic Versioning rules and depend on the specific version or range of versions. For example, lib_deps = MySensors@~2.0.1-beta means that any version of 2.0.x (including beta and higher) is allowed for your project.

[hek]

@ivankravets

You've done a great job on plaformio :thumbsup: , finally a decent library manager with dependency handling.

[tbowmo]

@ivankravets

Great work.. One question, is it possible to install your own hardware profiles? For example for the Sensebender Micro, or the new Gateway device I'm working on?

[ivankravets]

@hek thanks a lot for the feedback :+1:

[ivankravets]

@tbowmo Sure, it is possible in PlatformIO 2.0 too. However, we don't recommend to make integration with it. PlatformIO 2.0 has not been changed since 2014 year. It was as hobby/experimental project.

PlatformIO 3.0 is a new PlatformIO where all hardware related parts were moved to separated repositories. PlatformIO 3.0 is closer to open source. You don't need to contact with The PlatformIO Team (as you need to do it with PlatformIO 2.0) because you can create own development platform, clone existing or just add an own board to the existing development platform. Feel free to make PR and we will merge it.

We will create "Development Platforms Registry" later. It will 3-rd party developers to register own development platforms and hardware in the public registry.

The core idea of PlatformIO 3.0 is to provide professional cross-platform build system without dependencies with powerful library manager. It will allow others developers/companies to create awesome software basing on PlatformIO Tools.

P.S: Here is docs (beta) how to create development platform or integrate custom embedded board: http://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/platforms/custom_platform_and_board.html

[stedew]

Hello Mr Kravets,
Can you give a hint/short explanation why Mysensors 2.0 Compiles ok in the upgraded version (the development branch). I can understand its maybe one off your internal secrets but i think that it can be benificial for others. I love a lot one off the "concurrent" IDE (Arduino Eclipse) and the (for my case) Problem is that it doesn't compile Mysensors 2.0. I assume with my limited knowledge and observations off the compiler errors the problems there are related..
-I Also tested the build and it took severall attempt to get it compiling. Unfotunatly i cannot reproduce it (Windows usr ;-) ) I had to fiddle severall times in the PATH var and settings and restart the IDE ....

Anyway I hope that Arduino ide sees one day the Light and gets some inspiration on a project like this or even better start co-operating....
Good work !!!

[ivankravets]

@stedew said:

Can you give a hint/short explanation why Mysensors 2.0 Compiles ok in the upgraded version (the development branch). I can understand its maybe one off your internal secrets but i think that it can be benificial for others.

This is not a secret. PlatformIO 2.0 doesn't support 3-rd party library manifests. These different manifests are suitable for the own builders. For example, Arduino IDE builder has own behaviour. If library doesn't contain src folder, then it will build only source files from the root of library (other folders are ignored). If src directory exists, then only the source code from src should be built. The another story is with ARM mbed compiler.

PlatformIO 3.0 is an unique cross-platform ecosystem that replaces all builders above and allows you to build different project in the same manner. We wrote different extensions for PlatformIO 3.0 Build System that allow handling 3-rd party manifests and "configure" build system on-the-fly. What is more, we don't depend on Arduino IDE, Java or ARM mbed yotta. PlatformIO is written in pure Python and doesn't depend on OS software. The only 1 requirement is Python interpreter (that is installed everywhere except Windows).

-I Also tested the build and it took severall attempt to get it compiling. Unfotunatly i cannot reproduce it (Windows usr ;-) ) I had to fiddle severall times in the PATH var and settings and restart the IDE ....

Could you explain in details? Thanks.

[stedew]

Hmm tnx for the clarification
I have a small party here (Wife birthday) so I will try to reproduce it later.
Otherwise the automatic script Divorse now will start...
regards,
Stefan.

[ivankravets]

@stedew my congrats for your wife :blush: :bouquet: :birthday:

[tbowmo]

@ivankravets

One more question about the framework..

Right now, we only have a very minimal hardware definition setup for the Sensebender Micro / Gateway boards, and rely on arduino to have installed their board files for the mcu architecture that we are using (for example, by choosing SenseBender GW, SAMD board, you also need to have arduino zero installed as a target in Arduino IDE, to get arduino core files)

Can we do the same in platformio? Or do we need to include the complete arduino samd framework in our mysensors hw repositories, to be able to build in platform.io?

[ivankravets]

@tbowmo said:

There is no problem to add your custom board to existing development platform. What MCU is used in the board?
See existing SAM/SAMD manifests https://github.com/platformio/platform-atmelsam/tree/develop/boards

In PlatformIO you have to specify platform type for the build environment in platformio.ini. board and framework options are optional. You don't need to keep framework/SDK code within library. Development platform depends on it. See

See project examples:

• https://github.com/platformio/platformio-examples

[ivankravets]

@hek , @tbowmo would you like to integrate you project with Travis CI and PlatformIO? See example. The config for this example is very simple.

Here is documentation for multiple continuous integration systems. If you want, I can prepare PR for you. It will allow you to test examples or unit tests over more than 250+ embedded boards without additional steps.

[tbowmo]

@ivankravets

Ok, thanks for explaining.. I'll have to dig into it :) would be awesome to get platformio in as supported build environment as well (as standard arduino IDE is not that good).

We are using jenkins CI at the moment, to verify PRs to mysensors repositories at github, setup by our jenkins ninja @Anticimex :)

[ivankravets]

@tbowmo

I'll have to dig into it :) would be awesome to get platformio in as supported build environment as well (as standard arduino IDE is not that good).

I recommend keeping CI with Arduino IDE builder no matter it is good or bad. A lot of developers use Arduino IDE and you need to be sure that your code compiles well. In PlatformIO we also have a lot of Arduino-IDE specific sketches that we test on each build. I understand that it sounds strange from me but we should think about users.

We are using jenkins CI at the moment, to verify PRs to mysensors repositories at github

I think that you can continue use Jenkins for Arduino IDE builder and Travis CI for PlatformIO Builder. As I've said before, I can prepare .travis.yml for you.

[hek]

@ivankravets said:

I can prepare .travis.yml for you.

That would be great!

[dpressle]

Did anyone get platformIO to work with MySensors? I get this error:
.pioenvs\pro8MHzatmega328\MySensors_ID548\core\MyGatewayTransportMQTTClient.cpp:35:2: error: 'byte' does not name a type
byte _MQTT_clientMAC[] = { MY_MAC_ADDRESS };
^

and more...

[ivankravets]

@dpressle

1. Do you use the latest http://docs.platformio.org/en/stable/installation.html#development-version ?
2. Do you have #include <Arduino.h> in one of your project file?

[dpressle]

@ivankravets said:

@dpressle

1. Do you use the latest http://docs.platformio.org/en/stable/installation.html#development-version ?
2. Do you have #include <Arduino.h> in one of your project file?

You got it right, all i needed is to do is to use the development branch.

Thanks.