MySensors with NodeJS Controller and OTA bootloader on RPi

Hardware

Headless Raspberry Pi model B with wired Ethernet

I'm connecting a monitor only for first time boot to get the IP address and then connect via Putty/xRDP

Download and install latest Raspbian version on a fresh SD-Card

Tutorials for this task are available on the internet (download, copy to SD)

Setup base parameters

(adjust to your needs - here: RPi-IP: 10.0.1.5 / Router-IP: 10.0.1.1 / password: test / timezone: Europe,Berlin / hostname: mysensors)

• login as pi / raspberry
• sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

  #iface eth0 inet dhcp
  iface eth0 inet static
  address 10.0.1.5
  netmask 255.255.255.0
  gateway 10.0.1.1
  nameserver 10.0.1.1

• sudo raspi-config
  • 1. Expand Filesystem
  • 2. Change User Password
    

    test

  • 4. Internationalisation Options
    • I2. Change Timezone

      Europe / Berlin

  • 8. Advanced Options
    • A2. Hostname

      mysensors

    • A3. Memory Split

      16

• Finish
• Reboot

Install latest updates

• login as pi / test
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get upgrade
• sudo reboot

Install NodeJS (here: latest stable version available for RPi: 0.10.28)

• login as pi / test
• sudo mkdir /opt/node
• wget http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.10.28/node-v0.10.28-linux-arm-pi.tar.gz
• tar xvzf node-v0.10.28-linux-arm-pi.tar.gz
• rm node-v0.10.28-linux-arm-pi.tar.gz
• sudo cp -r node-v0.10.28-linux-arm-pi/* /opt/node
• rm -rf node-v0.10.28-linux-arm-pi/
• sudo nano /etc/profile

  NODE_JS_HOME="/opt/node"
  PATH="$PATH:$NODE_JS_HOME/bin"
  export PATH

• sudo reboot
• to confirm it's working as expected login as pi/test and run "node -v" which should return the installed node version (here: v0.10.28)

Install MongoDB

• login as pi / test
• sudo useradd -c mongodb -d /home/mongodb -m -U mongodb
• sudo mkdir -p /opt/mongo/bin
• sudo mkdir /var/lib/mongodb
• sudo chown mongodb:nogroup /var/lib/mongodb
• sudo mkdir /var/log/mongodb
• sudo chown mongodb:nogroup /var/log/mongodb
• wget https://github.com/brice-morin/ArduPi/raw/master/mongodb-rpi/mongo/bin/mongo
• wget https://github.com/brice-morin/ArduPi/raw/master/mongodb-rpi/mongo/bin/mongod
• wget https://github.com/brice-morin/ArduPi/raw/master/mongodb-rpi/mongo/bin/mongodump
• wget https://github.com/brice-morin/ArduPi/raw/master/mongodb-rpi/mongo/bin/bsondump
• sudo mv mongo /opt/mongo/bin/
• sudo mv mongod /opt/mongo/bin/
• sudo mv mongodump /opt/mongo/bin/
• sudo mv bsondump /opt/mongo/bin/
• sudo chmod -R 775 /opt/mongo/bin
• sudo ln -s /opt/mongo/bin/mongod /usr/bin/mongod
• wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/skrabban/mongo-nonx86/master/debian/mongodb.conf
• wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/skrabban/mongo-nonx86/master/debian/init.d
• sudo mv mongodb.conf /etc/mongodb.conf
• sudo mv init.d /etc/init.d/mongodb
• sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/mongodb
• sudo update-rc.d mongodb defaults
• sudo reboot
• to confirm it's working as expected login as pi/test and run "/opt/mongo/bin/mongo" which should start the mongo shell (type "exit" to close the shell again)
• if the RPi loses power without proper shutdown while mongod is running, you can't restart without manually removing the pid file first. To do so run “sudo rm /var/lib/mongodb/mongod.lock”

Install MySensors from Git branch development (here: password: test)

• login as pi / test
• git clone https://github.com/mysensors/Arduino.git
• cd Arduino
• git checkout development
• cd NodeJsController
• npm install
• to confirm that the NodeJsController is working as expected and connects to the local mongo DB: "node NodeJsController.js" which should start the controller, connect to the database and run into an error connecting to the gateway. Stop node again via Ctrl-c

Start NodeJsController on boot

• cd ~/Arduino/NodeJsController
• chmod 755 *.sh
• sudo cp MySensorsInitScript.sh /etc/init.d/mysensors
• sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/var/run
• sudo chmod -R 777 /usr/local/var/run
• sudo update-rc.d mysensors defaults
• sudo reboot
• to confirm that NodeJsController is starting at boot, check the log file /home/pi/logs/NodeJsController.log

Serial Gateway

Hardware

• as described for the standard Serial Gateway - using the standard Serial Gateway sketch with DEBUG (in MyConfig.h) disabled
• I'm using the version with inclusion mode button and LEDs based on no Arduino but a plain ATmega328p on a breadboard
• Connect directly to the serial GPIO pins of the RPi:

  Arduino GND <-> Raspberry Pi GND (pin 6)
  Arduino RX <-> Raspberry Pi TX (pin 8)
  Arduino TX <-> Raspberry Pi RX (pin 10)
  Arduino RESET <-> Raspberry Pi GPIO22 (pin 15)

• Right now I'm using a separate power supply for the serial gateway instead of the 3.3V or 5V pins of the RPi because I ran in some issues with power consumption during programming

Disable default use of RPi serial port

• sudo nano /etc/inittab

  #T0:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyAMA0 115200 vt100

• sudo nano /boot/cmdline.txt - remove part of the file:

  console=ttyAMA0,115200

• cd /dev
• sudo ln -s ttyAMA0 ttyUSB9
• sudo apt-get install minicom
• sudo reboot

Setup NodeJsController

• nano ~/Arduino/NodeJsController/NodeJsController.js

  //const gwType = 'Ethernet';
  //const gwAddress = '10.0.1.99';
  //const gwPort = 9999;
  //const gwType = 'Serial';
  //const gwPort = '/dev/ttyAMA0';
  //const gwBaud = 115200;

• sudo service mysensors restart (at this point stop/restart doesn't work. use "sudo killall node" followed by "sudo service mysensors start" instead)

Ethernet Gateway

Hardware

• as described for the standard Ethernet Gateway - using the standard Ethernet Gateway sketch with DEBUG (in MyConfig.h) disabled
• I'm using the version with inclusion mode button and LEDs based on no Arduino but a plain ATmega328p on a breadboard and the ENC28J60 Ethernet module
• here: 10.0.1.99 / port: 9999

Setup NodeJsController

• nano ~/Arduino/NodeJsController/NodeJsController.js

  const gwAddress = '10.0.1.99';

• sudo service mysensors restart (at this point stop/restart doesn't work. use "sudo killall node" followed by "sudo service mysensors start" instead)

Sensor Node Bootloader

Hardware

• as described for a simple Sensor Node
• here: no Arduino but a plain ATmega328p on a breadboard
• using DallasTemperature example (one sensor connected to pin 3)

Compile Bootloader (can be skipped but good to see if everything is working)

• cd ~/Arduino/Bootloader
• make
• this should compile the bootloader and produce three files in the same directory: MyOtaBootloader.o / MyOtaBootloader.elf / MyOtaBootloader.hex

Flash Bootloader

• cd ~/Arduino/Bootloader
• nano Makefile
• adjust avrdude settings to the available programmer. In my case (mySmartUSB MK3 programmer temporarily connected to RPi USB port):

  ISP_PORT = /dev/ttyUSB0
  ISP_SPEED = 115200
  ISP_PROTOCOL = stk500v2
  ISP_MCU = m328p

• make load

End-to-End Test

Add Firmware to Controller (here: DallasTemperatureSensor)

• nano ~/Arduino/NodeJsController/NodeJsController.js

  const fwHexFiles = [ '../libraries/MySensors/examples/DallasTemperatureSensor/DallasTemperatureSensor.ino' ];
  const fwDefaultType = 0;

• sudo service mysensors restart (at this point stop/restart doesn't work. use "sudo killall node" followed by "sudo service mysensors start" instead)

Flash Firmware OTA

• tail -f ~/logs/NodeJsController.log
• Power up sensor node with OTA bootloader

Check functionality

• in addition to watching the log file (tail command above) you can connect to the mongo db using a client (e.g. Robomongo) and check if new values are written to the database as a real end-to-end test once the bootloader finished uploading the firmware