Best IDE to use for MySensors projects

[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.

[ivankravets]

@hek

.travis.yml config (should be placed in the root of project)

language: python
python:
    - "2.7"

# Cache PlatformIO packages using Travis CI container-based infrastructure
sudo: false
cache:
    directories:
        - ~/.platformio

env:
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/AirQualitySensor
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/BatteryPoweredSensor
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/BinarySwitchSleepSensor
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/ClearEepromConfig
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/CO2Sensor
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/DimmableLEDActuator
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/DimmableLight
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/DustSensor
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/DustSensorDSM
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/EnergyMeterPulseSensor
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/GatewayESP8266 PLATFORMIO_CI_BOARDS_ARGS="--board esp01 --board nodemcuv2"
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/GatewayESP8266MQTTClient PLATFORMIO_CI_BOARDS_ARGS="--board esp01 --board nodemcuv2"
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/GatewayESP8266OTA PLATFORMIO_CI_BOARDS_ARGS="--board esp01 --board nodemcuv2"
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/GatewaySerial
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/GatewaySerialRS485
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/GatewayW5100
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/GatewayW5100MQTTClient
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/LightSensor
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/MockMySensors
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/MotionSensor
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/MotionSensorRS485
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/PHSensor
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/PingPongSensor
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/RelayActuator
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/RepeaterNode
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/SecretKnockSensor
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/SecureActuator
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/SecurityPersonalizer
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/SoilMoistSensor
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/UVSensor
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/VibrationSensor
    - PLATFORMIO_CI_SRC=examples/WaterMeterPulseSensor

install:
    # Don't forget to switch to stable PlatformIO 3.0 (line below) when it will be released
    # - pip install -U platformio
    - pip install -U https://github.com/platformio/platformio/archive/develop.zip

script:
    - if [[ $PLATFORMIO_CI_BOARDS_ARGS ]]; then bash -c 'platformio ci --lib="." $PLATFORMIO_CI_BOARDS_ARGS'; else platformio ci  --lib="." --board uno --board megaatmega2560 --board esp01 --board nodemcuv2 --board zero; fi

Here are test results. Some examples are failed because I don't know if they should be compatible with all boards or just AVR-based. You can specify custom boards per example using $PLATFORMIO_CI_BOARDS_ARGS. See example above for examples/GatewayESP8266.

Also, you can add a lot of boards as you need. Please check PlatformIO Board Manager.

To enable project for Travis CI please follow the steps 1, 2 and 5 here http://docs.travis-ci.com/user/getting-started/#To-get-started-with-Travis-CI

[stedew]

@ivankravets
Hello Mr Ivankravets

Ok birthday is done and bottles empty....
-Well When you compare to Arduino IDE vs PlatforIO is something slightly different:
Running the "BatteryPoweredSensor.ino" (Mysensors 2.0) example in Arduino 1.6
1)Load new Sketch "Examples">>Mysensors >> BatteryPoweredSensor
2)Compile >>will not work for all boards (due to INTERNAL is not defined for all AVR members )
3)Download to controller

PlatformIO:
1) Choose Board (here tested with UNO)
2) Choose Dir (only existing dir no create possible) (First make MKDIR BatteryPoweredSensor )
3) Copy code file from Mysensors example dir to PlatformIO \src dir (right click open in explorer)
4) Enable Use development Version of PlatformIO (at the moment for PIO 3.0) in settings
5) Add PATH string variable in settings (Good explanation anyway)
6) Start cmd (Powershell in Windoze) from PlatformIO
7) Execute the cmd  >>  platformio lib install 548 (For Mysensors 2.0 lib)
8) Compile
9) Download to controller

-This being sayed for these additional steps you get something what is non existing in Arduino ide:
+AutoComplete variables /suggest with function prototypes
+Acces to all used code off the included library
+Compile in seconds

-Still some questions also:
Is there a quick way to refractor over source files (not readed the manual)?
Goto declaration does not work (maybe my fault) Clang is installed however.
Local version control?
Specify wich serial port for upload (and not use the default first one)

Tnx in advance,
Stefan.

[ivankravets]

@stedew

2. Choose Dir (only existing dir no create possible) (First make MKDIR BatteryPoweredSensor )

Atom uses your system file manager and should allow creating a new directory. In most cases, the button in file manager is named as "New Folder". What is your OS?

5. Add PATH string variable in settings (Good explanation anyway)

Why do you need that? It should work with empty field if "Use built-in PlatformIO CLI" is checked. This option is for advanced using when you want to use custom PlatformIO CLI that is installed in Python virtualenv outside IDE.

6. Start cmd (Powershell in Windoze) from PlatformIO
7. Execute the cmd >> platformio lib install 548 (For Mysensors 2.0 lib)

No need to do that. See my comment https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/1369/best-ide-to-use-for-mysensors-projects/24 . Just add 1 line to your platformio.ini config: lib_deps = MySensors

-This being sayed for these additional steps you get something what is non existing in Arduino ide:

Yep, that is our big disadvantage. We don't have similar behaviour as Arduino IDE. Arduino IDE allows building 1 sketch for the 1 board. PlatformIO is another planet. You can build the same source with the multiple build environments(platforms, boards) and upload it simultaneously.

Is there a quick way to refractor over source files (not readed the manual)?

We have Menu: PlatformIO > Import Arduino IDE based project.... It allows keeping compatibility between 2 IDEs (you need to check a special checkbox in import wizard).

Goto declaration does not work (maybe my fault) Clang is installed however.

We have some issue under Windows OS. It should work under macOS/Linux.

Local version control?

PlatformIO IDE is based on Atom text editor. You can extend IDE with hundreds cool packages and themes. Please visit https://atom.io/packages
Here is plugin what do you need https://atom.io/packages/local-history

Specify wich serial port for upload (and not use the default first one)

See upload_port option.

P.S: Thanks a lot for the feedback! What we should improve?

[stedew]

@ivankravets

Ok as i mentioned before:
At start nothing worked like i wanted in PIO then start reading....
Testing &implement all steps that seems to be needed (forums are top sometimes :-)
Then changed computer (Wife...) and re-install everything from scratch.
And so i came to this exhaustive (wrong) list
So now the corrected one:

PlatformIO:
1) Choose Board (here tested with UNO)
2) Choose Dir (only existing dir no create possible) (First make MKDIR BatteryPoweredSensor )
2) Choose Dir ( existing dir or create "BatteryPoweredSensor" )
3) Copy code file from Mysensors example dir to PlatformIO \src dir (right click open in explorer)
4) Enable Use development Version of PlatformIO (at the moment for PIO 3.0) in settings
~~ 5) Add PATH string variable in settings (Good explanation anyway)~~
~~6) Start cmd (Powershell in Windoze) from PlatformIO ~~
7) Execute the cmd >> platformio lib install 548 (For Mysensors 2.0 lib)
5 ) add 1 line to your platformio.ini config: lib_deps = MySensors (Dmnn that i try-ed already did not work then ?? to many modifs made i think)
6 ) Compile info: on my Laptop (slow one) compiles MySerialGw in 2sec!! (record for PIO)
7 ) Download to controller

About the other topics:
Refractoring is handy especialy when you use constants over severall files.
I am a chaotic person so i tend to forget one enum somewhere...
Goto declaration >> ok have to switch OS maybe not you/team to blame.
-Local history will try /need it (same problem as refractor point :-( )
-upload_port very good one... will test it .

--Improvements ?? Don't know i already own you a couple of beers i think.
I believe it is maybe handy to have a write up with screenshots "Adventures migration from Arduino to PIO".

Regards,Stefan.

[ivankravets]

@stedew said:

6 ) Compile info: on my Laptop (slow one) compiles MySerialGw in 2sec!! (record for PIO)

How many seconds to you need for Arduino IDE builder?

I believe it is maybe handy to have a write up with screenshots "Adventures migration from Arduino to PIO".

Would be thankful for contribution. Our documentation is open source and everyone can edit it. For example, Documentation for PlatformIO IDE, click on Edit on GitHub.

--Improvements ?? Don't know i already own you a couple of beers i think.

Happy coding with PlatformIO! :blush: