Device drivers?

[Ed Davies]

I'm looking forwards to receiving my device … but I'm a bit worried by the comment in the Shipping details blog post saying:

Quote:…just install Drivers and then the Chrome App to configure it

Which system are these drivers for? In the absence of any “requirements” specification I assumed this device could be configured with any old web browser on whatever system is to hand. Is that not right?

---

Ah - read a bit more. Any idea if the “chrom app” will work under Chromium (the open source version of the Chrome browser)?

[Ed Davies]

Received the device this morning in the rural north of Scotland.

Plugged in and tried with the configuration app in Chromium (Version 52.0.2743.116 Built on Ubuntu , running on Ubuntu 16.04 (64-bit). It appears to be communicating but still shows as “Not Found”. Pressing the “Not Found” button causes a new search with data received but still reverts to the “Not Found” state. Trying then to set the WiFi or to set the update interval down to 10 seconds doesn't provoke any output from the device.

This happens even if you a) start the app, b) wait for it to go to “Not Found”, c) plug in the device, d) pretty much immediately press the “Not Found” button. I was wondering if I'd messed around for too long starting the app and the device had gone into a 120 second sleep but I don't think that's what is happening.

According to stty it's set to 9600 baud. Running “screen /dev/ttyUSB0” gives plausible output. The CO₂ is shown as -2 for a while then goes to 750 or so, moving around by one or two values from there. The pressure, humidity and temperature are plausible though the temperature seems a little high: it shows 23.<something> when another thermometer on the desk which I think is about right shows 19°C but electronic thermometers are commonly off in their calibration by this sort of amount in my experience.

Code:

Searching for v.Air  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . Searching for v.Air Trying : /dev/ttyUSB0

rcv: Heap Heap at start: 38680

. rcv: Setup sensor: SI7021
Setup sens
rcv: or: BME280
Found BME280 - Tempe
rcv: rature/Humidity/Pressure Sensor
rcv:
Setup sensor: PM2005
Setup sen
rcv: sor: CDM7160
Found CDM7160 CO2
rcv: Sensor

rcv:
--- Setup DESTINATIONS ---
Setu
rcv: p Destination: CustomHTTP
Setup
rcv:  Destination: SerialDump
Setup
. rcv: Destination: MQTT
Heap At setup
rcv:  end: 36192

OK
Waiting for W
rcv: ifi connection

vESPrino v1.16
rcv: build20160917
IP address: 0.0.0
rcv: .0
ready >.
.  . rcv: .
.  . rcv: .
.  . rcv: .
.  . rcv: .
.  . rcv: .
.  . rcv: .
.  . rcv: .
.  . rcv: .
.

[admin]

(09-21-2016, 09:10 AM)Ed Davies Wrote: Received the device this morning in the rural north of Scotland.
...

Aaahh Ed, sorry for not responding earlier! I had not configured notifications for new messages from the forum and neither did i expect shipping in just 3 days )
I am still ramping up with documentation.
For the problem you face - have a look if you have the "vThings - Dual Beam Configuration Utility" (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detai...kkpogepgjj)
The "rcv:" looks more like you got the older version "vThings - Configuration Utility". ( i know it is a bit confusing, ideally in a week i will merge them again)

Also have in mind that i just did some fixes on the FW, so once you connect the Wifi, it will update it (and the LED would light RED during this time)

[Ed Davies]

Oops, yes, I was indeed using the wrong configuration utility. I looked at the list and carefully checked which to use then must have selected the wrong link. How embarrassing. All working nicely now.

Back in the late 1980s/early 1990s I wrote the firmware in a logger for use in aviation (gliding - recording pressure altitude and later GPS position) and the associated DOS software to upload from it. Then somebody else came along and created a new version of the logger which uploaded in a radically different format (binary rather than text) and a Windows program to upload from that. Even with all these versions around we were very careful that all recent software could upload from all logger versions, however old. It was a bit of an effort but it saved us an enormous amount of support hassle compared with some of the other manufacturers in the market at the time.

That's a long-winded way of say, yes, I think it would be good to merge the configuration utilities if you can. Apart from anything, it'd make things easier for anybody who has multiple devices of different types.

I too am impressed by how quickly the package got from Sofia to an odd corner of Scotland. Things often take a day longer to get here than the rest of the UK.

[admin]

yeah.. as soon as I fix those initial hickups and bugs thati didn't find before sending - i am also going to overhaul the config utility quite a lot

[Ed Davies]

Just had to reinstall everything on my laptop due to the hard disk failing yesterday morning which reminds my of a little wrinkle with use of the configuration utility under Ubuntu which is probably worth documenting for future users.

When a USB serial device is plugged in a device called something like /dev/ttyUSB0 is created for it. It is owned by the root user and is in group dialout. By default on modern Ubuntu systems normal users are not in group dialout. There is, I think, a GUI program to manage such things; it looks like it's Menu → Administration → Users and Groups → <user> → Advanced Settings → User Privileges (or Main Menu → System → Administration …) then one of the settings but I'm not sure which: “Connect to Internet using a modem” or “Use modems” look likely, if a little quaint.

Alternatively, from the command line:

Code:

sudo adduser <user> dialout

If you're not in the right group the configuration utility will appear to search the port but won't find the device. Ideally, I suppose, it should note some sort of error for the port if it can't open it (which I assume it can't).

[admin]

Thanks Ed! And i am sorry for your hard disk and data. I hope you did not loose too many things!

i added a link to this post on the page with the driver setup instructions, so that it is easier to find it
http://vair-monitor.com/drivers/