Avatar for dgustavus

dgustavus

Member since Sep 2015 • Last active Sep 2019
  • 1 conversations
  • 10 comments

Most recent activity

  • in Interfacing
    Avatar for dgustavus

    Thanks Gordon! I am embarrassed to say I was one pin off in my connection. I moved everything over one pin and I get the Connected message. I still have not read a packet, but that probably has to do with the packet format the moteino uses. Now back to reading the docs.

    Duane

  • in Interfacing
    Avatar for dgustavus

    Hi! I am trying to get a Sparkfun RFM69HCW breakout board to work with a Pico. This is the only thread I can find about the RFM69 module. I am using the example in the tutorials for SPI connected devices to listen for incoming packets, but whenever I actually force the onInit() function to run by entering it in the web IDE, this happens:

    >echo(0);
    =undefined
    >
    =undefined
    >onInit()
    =undefined
    >Uncaught Error: RFM69 not found
     at line 1 col 58
    ...row Error("RFM69 not found");b.w(47,85);if(85!=b.r(47))throw.­..
                                  ^
    in function called from system
    =undefined
    > 
    

    I am not a very experienced js programmer, but can try to help debug this module with some guidance. There seems to be little interest in it, but having used an esp8266, I find that power is a consideration for battery operation and also the range through walls is not very good. In contrast, my Moteino network is superior in both of those areas. A Pico could be a very nice addition to the network with a working driver.

    Thanks, Duane

  • in Porting to new Devices
    Avatar for dgustavus

    Hi, just some observations from the peanut gallery:

    I believe a great starting point would be Gordon's suggestion of a Raspian/Debian (hopefully jessie-based) image that booted directly into espruino. If it had a kernel driver for time accuracy, and maybe a template for adding other drivers, it would be a very simple step for the rpi community. Even more important, I, for one, would pay for that (say the cost of a pico) assuming it had been optimized (or maybe cleaned up a bit is a better term) for espruino. BTW, I now run node on my rpi model Bs.

    I think it would be most attractive if it runs on any of the various berries and could use the espruino modules that already exist. An RT implementation might go a long way towards making it distinctive, but that could perhaps be phased in later if there were enough interest. A full development system (ie using the WebIDE from a browser) would be the rpi philosophy, though I must admit I do not find my rpi model Bs fast enough to use for Arduino development (yes they work; I just need faster turn-around when I am coding).

    One last comment: I think the rpi has demonstrated that it is not necessary to "hide" linux to make the system attractive. Programming is the primary application of the rpi, so an easy entry point, and lots of examples, help and support from the community for learning clearly works. From my perspective, community is one of the strong points of the rpi and espruino as well.

    If you are looking for a non-hardware method to support espruino, maybe adding this kind of platform makes sense. At the very least, it will not require the upfront investment that a new hardware board demands.

    Sorry if this is viewed as "highjacking" the topic since it does not deal specifically with the rpiZ. Under 10 dollar hardware seems to be the trend, but for me it mostly means that hardware costs become an ever smaller factor in the development cost with a new platform.

  • in General
    Avatar for dgustavus

    Hi Gordon! I just ordered another Pico and an adapter board via Tindie, so I thought it a good moment to comment on the funding issue. I am probably not representative of the main contributors here (~70 retired from a UNIC/C environment), but am fascinated by the idea of having Espruino for embedded projects. I am buying the extra Pico to support Espruino development work. For me something more like the form factor of the original Espruino would be better, but I wanted the ram and flash of the Pico. I am hoping the adapter board will help me move beyond a protoboard with the Pico, but the 0.05" connectors are a big hurdle for me. Perhaps selling a "pinned" board with the smaller connector pinned as well would be possible?

    I suspect getting funding for a software-only product is difficult, so maybe a relationship with the Nucleo folks (I really like Espruino on the Nucleo F411RE) would be an option? I know they have mbed, but a few minutes playing with Espruino should convince them that it would be worth supporting development for their platform.

    As far as size goes, I think small beyond a certain point is not valuable unless the price can become trivial (ESP8266). On the other hand, wireless communication is very desirable (not necessarily wifi due to power requirements).

    Hope these observations are useful, and keep up the good work.
    Duane

    • 11 comments
    • 4,013 views
  • in General
    Avatar for dgustavus

    My problem getting WebIDE to work with esp-link was ip address related (DHCP changing the addr). I now have a static addr for the esp-link node, and the WebIDE works. So far, it seems that while the console works at 115200, there are problems uploading scripts at that speed. I backed it down to 9600, and that problem seems to go away. I will try finding a higher baud rate at which it will work, and post results later. I need to play with it a bit on battery power etc to make sure all is working well, but initial results seem fine.

    An oddity with the WebIDE is that once a connection has failed, it seems necessary to quit the WebIDE and restart it to get a working connection. I am not sure if this has to do with the network connection or the WebIDE. More testing may help understand what is going on.

  • in General
    Avatar for dgustavus

    Hello, I have a PICO connected to an Adafruit HUZZAH 8266 via Serial1. The 8266 is running esp-link, and I can connect to the PICO fine with either telnet or nc (as well as to the esp-link web server), but it would be much nicer if I could connect using the WebIDE. I have tried putting the address of the board (ie 192.168.10.20:23) in the communications section, but it always fails to connect. I have only set the baud rate in an init file because I believe the console is already switched to Serial1 when there is no USB connection (at least it certainly acts like the console when I connect via nc). Is there something else I need to do to get the WebIDE to connect?

    I think the Adafruit 8266 is a useful addition to support as it is an esp-12 already on a breakout board with power supply, and still only costs $10.

    Thanks for the help!

  • in General
    Avatar for dgustavus

    I have been using the 1v81 official release for the f411 without problems on my Nucleo F411 board. In order to test I just placed the espruino_1v81.23_nucleof411re.bin file (drag and drop with file manager) on the USB file system (debian jessie). The led1 on the board edge turned green (no flashing). I powered off the board, then back on, and the led1 is red. Ran the WebIDE and it connects fine and shows 1v81.23 as it should. I do not see any problem.

    Hope this helps (and @tve thanks for the esp-link!).

  • in Tutorials
    Avatar for dgustavus

    Thanks for all the work on getting Espruino to run on the 8266! My question concerns the differences between models of 8266. Is the process the same (rather the values for locations to flash) for all variations of 8266? I have a couple of Adafruit boards I am using with nodemcu, and would be very happy to get them running espruino.

    Thanks again, Duane

  • in Interfacing
    Avatar for dgustavus

    Something like that would sure be useful to me. I cannot really use the 0.05" ports without some way to get them to 0.1". The shims seem good for a specific purpose, but something to make it a bit easier to try a variety of different sensors would be really useful to help decide exactly what you want to build.

Actions