Hi Everyone,

I initially started with a goal and MySensors suited, and was very approachable. I built it and it still works. I didn't need much help.

I had a bunch of fun getting things to work and acquired some skills. The work with MySensors helped me get a job as an embedded software engineer, with my environmental sciences i.e. data analysis background.

Since getting that job, I have moved much more towards minimalism in my private life. As such I am designing simple systems that don't need automating, and asking myself what I need. My current focus during my spare time on ultralight winter backpacking/skitouring as well as vipassana meditation helps me see more clearly what is necessary to be happy. My insight does not bode well for most of current IoT use.

I may make some noise when I have decided that a certain thing is necessary AND I need help OR if I dare to show off ;). Meanwhile, enjoy the peace and quiet.

I think when I do get back into MySensors, it will be when I combine my statistics and firmware knowledge: so-called embedded AI applied to inventory management. That is also the solution to truly devalue a cloud connection, in my opinion. Do the work locally (or on your gateway), and say something, if necessary. We'll see if that tendency/thought makes sense in a few years.

I will also revisit MySensors when I want to build an energy harvesting sensor. This is somewhat proximate. I am not a big fan of batteries.

Thank you for the support and the handy framework. I am grateful for the simple systems that work, and keep working.

Going outside now :).

Kind regards,
Brian

SSH will get you into your pi. If your pi has a wifi connection and ssh enabled, the following should work.

ssh pi@raspberrypi.local

Hi Elmar

You probably need to peg the version of MySensors to an older one.

See some examples here:
https://github.com/oneyb/template-mysensors-platformio/blob/master/platformio.ini

Again, please post the contents of your platformio.ini file
Best wishes

@fishermans, I would look into this for you but I do not have enough information to be able to reproduce your error.

The error looks a little strange. Please post the contents of your platformio.ini.

As a first hipshot, I would try removing .pioenvs and then compile and upload your blobs.

HTH

@mfalkvidd that is pretty nifty. I need to figure out how I can use this. Thanks for keeping this discussion active. Little things like that have the possibility of saving even more power.

@zboblamont would you please direct me to the table/array method. I can imagine a few approaches, but am very interested how you have it set up. Thanks!

@artag I don't know how to do that generally.

A quick look at the results of:

pio device list

will get you the information to insert into platformio.ini. Their doc is pretty good. Maybe try it to the serial id. I haven't gotten so advanced yet. They have some nice examples.
https://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/projectconf/advanced_scripting.html#custom-options-in-platformio-ini

That's funny. I can't stand the Arduino IDE for the same reason. I have to remember where to get a dependency from which menu, select the correct port, and deal with a different editor than I am used to. I also didn't like how it would doctor the code with function declarations etc. It's C++. Why hide that fact? Sure, beginner-friendly is nice and it helped me for blinking LEDs, but afterwards it was annoying. Now I am pretty fast when working with a new board.

CLI to create a web-based tool that can flash simple sketches.
That sounds a little funny. So you want to have your web browser (indirectly) accessing hardware ports or at least determining the correct port? I guess that would be ok. I have a bunch of extensions which may not be so secure. I guess for beginners that would be nice. How would you deal with library dependencies? I guess the CLI tool would be advanced enough for that.

If you are used to python the CLI from platformio is pretty simple. I guess my approach is for those who write code for a significant portion of their day.

@oneyb said in Arduino has an official CLI app now:

$EDITOR platformio.ini src/*cpp

You missed a bit of 'digging' :).

I cleaned up the code and pushed it so it will compile, but eventually you will want to dig. Blinking an led gets old.
Pull in my changes please and then it will compile for you. Then you can start with some fun.
If you like it, a possible workflow is to fork it and rename it to whatever. As you wish. I hope it helps.

No, I haven't. I guess I don't plan on it either. Have you heard of platformio?

It's pretty damn handy. For those that wish, it has a better IDE than Arduino, fetches dependencies as specified, and above all has a great CLI. If you're interested in compiling and uploading binaries from the CLI, I would recommend you have a look at:

https://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/core.html

I know it doesn't answer your question, but I like to have a proper C++ linter running, letting a computer work for me, documenting exactly what I did to get code compiling and uploading, and to edit code in a proper editor.

A quick start with platformio could be:

pip install platformio
git clone https://github.com/oneyb/template-mysensors-platformio blink
cd blink
# Do some stuff
$EDITOR platformio.ini src/*cc
# and finally:
pio run -t upload

I hope that helps you to be more efficient. It sure has helped me.

Hi @mfalkvidd,

I can't find anything about writing tests. I see you have mentioned tests for building on different hardware. That's pretty neat. Did you document you testing infrastructure. I would be very interested in how you set that up. I imagine it being a pretty messy job.

I find it helpful to have a policy on testing code.

Cheers
Brian

Hi @mfalkvidd,
thank you for the encouragement. My dream is to become proficient in small-scale industrial applications. For example, I would like to build a kitchen countertop food processor to process larger batches of fruits, pour them in (recycled) glasses in a protected sterile atmosphere, and seal them. Basically it would be a canning machine for the lazy :).

For now I want to apply my c++ skills.

The contribution guidelines are great, especially regarding coding style.

I'll have a look at the issues.

Hello there,

I have been brushing up on my c++ skills lately so that I can be more adept with embedded systems programming.

I would like to contribute to MySensors and would like some guidance on where help is needed.

I see there are a few things here:
https://github.com/mysensors/MySensors/projects/6

Regards
Brian

@yveaux

nice tip; I am still getting into the proper mindset for memory conservation.

To be clear, do you mean the following?

void loop(){
  // for example
  float fgehum = myHumidity.readHumidity()
  send( MyMessage(CHILD_ID_FGEHUM,  V_HUM ).set(fgehum) );
...
}

Also, @mfalkvidd, why would you prefer to declare a MyMessage object instead of on the fly? I guess that there's overhead for creation of the object anew everytime. So there would be powersavings due to having a single and MyMessage object and then reusing it. Am I in the ballpark?

Yes, I have.
This is how I configured things:

https://github.com/oneyb/rpi-embed-dev/blob/master/install-mysensors-gateway-raspberry.yaml

HTH

Thank you @hek and @mfalkvidd for the quick replies! I did not receive a notification, so I had no idea anyone had had a look.

@mfalkvidd, indeed I like the group solution and just missed that option. Because I occasionally upload firmware with my Pi, I have the group 'dialout', which suits this purpose well. So, I tried it and it worked like a charm. I think that should be mentioned on the install page.

For the record:

./configure  --my-gateway=serial --my-serial-is-pty --my-serial-pty=/dev/ttyUSBMySensorsGateway --my-transport=nrf24 --my-rf24-irq-pin=15 --my-serial-groupname=dialout
make

I try to keep everything documented how I do things (for myself). I have an ansible playbook in my RPi ansible management repository.

For my configuration, please see:
https://github.com/oneyb/rpi-embed-dev/blob/master/install-mysensors-gateway-raspberry.yaml

Thanks again!

Dear All,
thank you for all the work done and all the help in advance. I have a hassbian controller and gateway working nicely with MySensors 2.2. I am happy.

One annoyance with the RPi gateway are the permissions of /dev/ttyUSBMySensorsGateway, which are by default owned by root and the root group. Modifying the permissions manually allows Home Assistant to happily read messages from the serial port until the next reboot (sudo chmod 777 /dev/ttyUSBMySensorsGateway).

How do you manage this? Ideally I would add the user homeassistant to the dialout group but this would not help because the group of this serial port is root, if I got it right. Likely this is a problem of udev rules. But how do you manage it?

I will put my setup on github as soon as it's cleaned up and tell you about it. Good stuff.

Thanks for the advice.

Cheers
Brian