💬 Building a Raspberry Pi Gateway

[mirodin]

@tbowmo I run the gateway on my Pi directly with the radio is connected to the Pi's GPIOs. Compilation and gateway do just fine I, if only I could convince my Pi to let Node-RED talk to the device :D

EDIT:
This is my output:

dietpi@buddy:~ $ ll /dev/ttMySensorsGateway 
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Jun 18 14:38 /dev/ttMySensorsGateway -> /dev/pts/2
dietpi@buddy:~ $ ll /dev/pts/
total 0
crw--w---- 1 dietpi tty  136, 0 Jun 18 14:38 0
crw--w---- 1 dietpi tty  136, 1 Jun 18 14:38 1
crw--w---- 1 root   tty  136, 2 Jun 18 14:38 2
crw--w---- 1 dietpi tty  136, 3 Jun 18 14:38 3
c--------- 1 root   root   5, 2 Nov  3  2016 ptmx

[gohan]

wasn't it the problem of the missing permission on the dialup group?

[mirodin]

Unfortunately adding my nodered user to dialout did not bring the hoped success. I still get premission denied messages after a reboot of my raspberry.

As my console print above shows the /dev/pts device belongs to tty but adding nodered to tty did not work out either (since the group only has write privileg). I have no idea how to fix this other then chowning the port to nodered but that feels wrong for me after years using linux based systems.

[gohan]

it is not a solution, but you could switch to ethernet GW and you will avoid all the permissions problems.

[tbowmo]

My 5 cents:
Run it as a MQTT gateway, if possible. It makes things so much easier, when you interact with the data in node-red. Even integrating other controllers is easier, as you have the MQTT as standard backbone bus between everything.

You need to have a MQTT broker (mosquitto) running as well.. But it's worth it..

[mirodin]

Yes I came to the conclusion that this might be my only option even if it sucks as I have to subscribe to all events from MySensors, process them with Node-RED and republish again which screws my logging a bit. Right now I have another flow subscribed to "#" and write every event into my DB.

Since I have everything talking to mosquitto setup to follow Homie Convention I was hoping for only having my MQTT broker bombarded with compliant messages and have Node-RED convert everything (assign device names, etc. using a SQLite DB) from serial so the rather cryptic MySensors topics do not show up there.

[gohan]

@mirodin you actually need only mysensors-in and mysensors-out topics and their subtopics

[mirodin]

@gohan Yes I know but now I can no longer just wildcard-dump every event on my mosquitto instance into my DB as I need to filter out the mysensor-in and -out topics.

[gohan]

Or meanwhile just use the ethernet gw

[mirodin]

Well... I think I fixed it, let's hear it for documentation. Just when I had MQTT setup half way I got struck by the idea that there was some group flag for configure. And indeed there is, setting --my-serial-groupname=nodered did the trick making /dev/pts/X owned by group nodered and let Node-RED connect to it, writing and reading works just fine now.

Thanks @gohan for your input I think I would have gone the ethernet route in the end if this last test had failed.

[Inso]

I am currently trying to update to 2.3
Have stopped service and deleted the file (systemctl status mysgw -> Unit mysgw.service could not be found.)
Also renamed the config file /etc/mysensors.dat
Renamed the old folder, then copied new files.
Checked readme.md in MySensors-folder: MySensors Library v2.3.0
Then I configured the radio and -> make, no errors
However, changing to bin folder and executing mysgw shows: Protocol 2.2.0
What am I missing?

[mirodin]

@inso Did you sudo make install after building it? This command copies the service file and mysgw to their respective locations.

[gohan]

@inso remember to unregister the service and then make a new make install of the new gw

[mfalkvidd]

@gohan how is the unregistration done? I didn’t know that was needed. We should probably add upgrade instructions to the build page.

[Inso]

@mirodin
make install before testing did the trick, now it is 2.3.0 . :smiley:
Was just going step by step through tutorial, there it´s make -> test -> make install. Didn´t realized it would use old parts if it´s not first install :relaxed:

@gohan
thought stop, disable and remove the service would be enough to ensure the service is completely "uninstalled" - could you give me a hint what I´ve missed? :sweat_smile:

[ricorico94]

Hi,
I try to access log info from my gateway installed on my domoticz raspberry pi, but I get no success..
First, I can't find the mysensors.conf file : nothing in the /etc folder. I tried to use "find / -name 'mysensors.conf' 2>/dev/null" command, but it finds nothing.
I tried creating such a file (then it's found by the fond command above) and in which I have the lines

log_pipe=0
log_pipe_file=/tmp/mysgw.pipe

as instructed above.
I restarted the wole Raspberry PI, then tried the command cat /tmp/mysgw.pipe but error message:

cat: /tmp/mysgw.pipe: Aucun fichier ou dossier de ce type

(= no file or folder like that)
I then tried this: sudo mysgw -c /etc/mysensors.conf and I got also error message:

mysgw: invalid option -- 'c'

I installed the Mysensor gateway on 17th October 2017 and my raspberry pi is working on Wheezy. In Domoticz, I see the Mysensor gateway has version 2.1.1.
MY gateway seems working fine, communicating properly with sensors (both ways). I'm trying to find log because I face an issue with a new sensor which works properly when powered with external FTDI 3.3V and only 1 way (sensor to gateway only) when powered on battery (I raised question in another post, where I was suggested to check log fil on gtw side..)

Any idea of what I should do (except "reinstall whole raspberry pi with latest OS..) ?
Thanks a lot,
Ricorico

[mfalkvidd]

@ricorico94 there seems to have been some major changes in the raspberry pi gateway, without vorresponding updates to the documentation.

I have not been able to locate the exact changes though. @marceloaqno might know.

[mfalkvidd]

Found the reference: https://github.com/mysensors/MySensors/pull/1061

[ricorico94]

@mfalkvidd : thanks a lot ! I had searched for such version history and couldn't find it.
Indeed it seems introduction of the switches for log files was introduced in February, so I should probably update my install.

Precisely, talking about upgrade process: I read in previous posts that we should uninstall/unregister the install/service. WHat would be commands to do so ? Should it be:

sudo systemctl disable mysgw.service

and executed before anything else ? So upgrade process would be:

sudo systemctl disable mysgw.service
make
sudo make install
sudo systemctl enable mysgw.service

(and maybe test the gateway before the "systemctl enable..")
Is there anyfile to remove manually ? or any other command to apply before or after ?

[alowhum]

Would someone be willing to create a post that lists each step required to set up the simple encryption+signing option? I understand I have to add a password line to the arduino sketch. But how exactly one sets up the server side is still a bit of a mystery to me. It would rock if there was a similar simple command to give during the make process.