4. June 2017

Workaround: Failed to activate the platformio-ide package

PlatformIO was working without any problem, but after several updates, there was following error message:

Failed to activate the platformio-ide package

The bug is also mentioned at GitHub. It seems that the bug has a relation to the default OS shell.

Try following workaround (it worked for my Linux/ZSH):

  • change default shell to Bash
    sudo chsh -s /bin/bash YOUR_LOGIN
    
  • start Platform IO IDE
  • revert the shell back to your favorite
    sudo chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh YOUR_LOGIN
    

This solution worked for me. Let me know whether you have the same experience.

13. February 2017

Vertical text block selection in PlatformIO/Atom on Linux

Sometimes it is necessary to modify multiple lines at once. PlatformIO has support for multiple cursors which allows you to perform operation on multiple places.

You can place separate cursors by holding Ctrl and left click by mouse. That is handy, but when you need 4 or more lines it’s a little bit cumbersome.

When you need to select vertical text block of text in PlatformIO on Linux just hold Shift+Alt and use arrows Up/Down to select text block. Make sure that you press and hold keys in defined order. 1st is Shift and 2nd is Alt. If you change the order then the selection won’t work.

Here is how it looks like.

Shift+Alt+Up/Down:

Now you can use Shift+Left/Right to select block of text:

If you’d like to discuss this feature, there is a very very long discussion thread about it at Atom’s web page.

1. December 2016

ESP8266 WiFiManager gotchas

Thanks to PlatformIO it is very easy to add further functionality from libraries to the code for ESP8266. When you need to install library, just start Library Manager from ide and type:

pio lib install WiFiManager

PlatformIO will resolve dependencies and download all necessary stuff. Even better option is to add dependency to platformio.ini file:

[env:d1_mini]
platform = espressif8266
board = d1_mini
framework = arduino
lib_deps =
  ArduinoJson
  esp8266_mdns
  PubSubClient
  WiFiManager

PlatformIO will manage the installation after you save the file. That is very neat.

Then new problems occurred when I started with integration of WiFiManager. Do not take me wrong. WiFiManager is very handy library, but you may experience some tricky issues.

The first problem that I hit was that WiFiManager interface was not visible at 192.168.4.1 port 80. ESP was apparently running in AP mode for configuration, but there was no web interface. This issue was caused by this line in my code:

ESP8266WebServer server(80);

I had web server in the main code before I merged the code from WiFiManager. Web server was serving simple REST API for controlling relay. Unfortunately this construct blocked the port so the AutoConnect web server. The server was not able to bind the port. Solution was simple. It was sufficient to instantiate web server after WiFi was working.

The second problem was that AutoConnect from WiFiManager was always turning in AP mode. I was hunting the problem for several hours without any result. One idea was that WiFiManager is not saving the password. That was not true. Other idea was that the memory is corrupted and reformat would help. Unfortunately it didn’t. I gave up.

That solved the problem. Seriously. I gave up and that solved the problem. I let the device running and then ding. It was online. For some strange reason ESP8266 was not able to establish connection with particular WiFi router at first shot. Then it turned on AP mode and after timeout of Config Portal it connected to the WiFi network. Remedy? Just shorten ConfigPortalTimeout:

wifiManager.setConfigPortalTimeout(60);

The third problem was that Config Portal was not displaying information stored as extra custom parameters. I stored there host name of MQTT broker and other options so they won’t be hardcoded. The problem was caused by WiFiManagerParameter constructed in global scope. Issue was similar the first problem with web server.

Solution was to move construction of WiFiManagerParameter to the method after loading configuration values from file config.json stored on file system.

File configFile = SPIFFS.open("/config.json", "r");
...
WiFiManagerParameter custom_mqtt_host("mqtt_host", "MQTT host", configMqttHost, 40);

After resolving these issues WiFiManager is working and it is possible to set values for configuration via Config Portal and there is no need to hardcode them anymore.

Original code is stored at GitHub – LampESP branch v0.1. The new version is at Github – LampESP branch master. I made also small refactoring and the functionality was divided into smaller files which resembles modules for better code maintenance.

22. November 2016

IoT and waiting for the sun

It took me some time to implement all features to ESP8266 controlling relay of my lamp.

smart-home-lidl-salt-lamp

Thanks to examples from PlatformIO I was able to use all neat features in one code:

You can find complete code at github repo LampESP. Just replace HOST_NAME_HERE and ROOM_NAME_HERE with your MQTT server and your room name.

Once you deploy code to ESP8266 you can use Over-the-air update (OTA). Just change the value in platformio.ini and set upload_port to IP address of your device.

The implementation allows control via simple GET API by accessing the web of device or LampAndroidApp.

As I wrote few weeks ago, my goal was to add MQTT. I’ve installed Mosquitto and connected the device to the server.

It is possible to watch states of device is possible via MQTT client:

mosquitto_sub -v -h HOST_NAME_HERE -t '/#'

Here is example how to change states of relay:

mosquitto_pub -h HOST_NAME_HERE -t '/home/ROOM_NAME_HERE/command' -m 'on'
mosquitto_pub -h HOST_NAME_HERE -t '/home/ROOM_NAME_HERE/command' -m 'off'

I had an idea about next cool feature: turn on/off lamp based on sunset and sunrise. I found very simple and elegant solution that I would like to share with you.

Download Sunwait and compile it. The program just starts and waits until the time of sunrise or sunset based on geographic coordinates. You can also specify offset (how long before or after event) should program end.

Now you can put the sunwait into your local cron table and chain it with command that should be executed after sunrise/sunset occurs.

Here is example how to configure cron to turn on the lamp 15 minutes before sunset and turn it off 15 minutes after sunrise.

crontab -e
10 15 * * * /usr/bin/sunwait sun down -0:15:00 49.230738N, 16.576802E; /usr/bin/mosquitto_pub -h HOST_NAME_HERE -t /home/ROOM_NAME_HERE/command -m "on"
4 15 * * * /usr/bin/sunwait sun up +0:15:00 49.230738N, 16.576802E; /usr/bin/mosquitto_pub -h HOST_NAME_HERE -t /home/ROOM_NAME_HERE/command -m "off"

The lamp is now working. The only problem is the Android app. I thought that adding MQTT client to Android app will be as easy as adding it to ESP8266, but it’s far from truth. There are still some challenges ;-)