Updates

Peter ScargillUncategorized6 Comments on Updates

Just some minor updates…

If you’re using Blynk server locally for your IOT there is a new update – a fix for crashing with Raspberry Pi 3 and some other fixes by the look of it – link is here. Incidentally I just rename the server file to server.jar and restart Node-Red when they come out with a fix. I should say that mine is running on a pair of Raspberry Pi 2 boards and I’ve not had one error out of it in the last couple of months. I’m using the node-red-contrib-blynk-websockets library which continues (unlike the non-websockets version) to operate flawlessly. Now if only Blynk would get rid of the fixed on/off titles on buttons…

MQTT – TuanPM version – I noted a minor fix in there which explained some issues I’d had with retries on bad connections. About a month old but just in case you missed this – https://github.com/tuanpmt/esp_mqtt 

Thanks to David Miles for alerting me to this cheap cat poo sensor – ordered a couple of China as no-one in Europe seems to be selling them on Ebay – http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272041590945  that should alert me to any cat-accidents – I’m wondering if it will pick up on kitchen smells – I’m thinking for our holiday cottage rental it could be useful to long-term monitor the air.

The code we use for our own IOT which is featured in Home Control 2016 and the Serial Nextion project (don’t forget to vote – item 75 in the ESP8266.com competition) has been updated to handle multiple SSIDs and is something I keep going back to and improving within the limitations of rapidly decreasing .TEXT memory in the ESP (my one gripe about the chip).

Still finding success with Imperihome Android App but the lack of general purpose buttons, sliders and LEDS is beginning to get to me – so many people putting in requests for specialised hardware, it seems to me that providing generalised inputs and outputs seems a more sensible route – I guess they must get a lot of mail as I’ve had no feedback from my requests. Hence I still need Blynk and node-red-contrib-ui to perform certain functions like setting on/off times and heating schedules for my thermostat.

And that’s about all that is new for now.

6 thoughts on “Updates”

  1. Hi Pete. First let me say I am awe of your blog, it is my go to place for ESP8266, Home Automation and interesting gadgets. I am going to donate, as if we were located nearer, I would buy you several beers to try and learn from you. I am an old C++ app developer (ie limited techie), pre-java and pre-eclipse, trying to get to grips with your ‘stuff’. I am interested in OTA updates and using RBOOT in my windows eclipse/arduino/plugin environment. I have struggled to build the rboot-sample code, stupid problems with conflicts between sdk uart and rboot’s uart., I spent hours last night ‘fixing’ the code and getting it to compile. Now a very simple/basic question, when you flash your esp to enable OTA (for the first time maybe?), do you use the upload function in the eclipse/arduino/plugin? For what it’s worth, I flashed the compiled/linked (using the eclipse makefile, which I assume is wrong) it just made the esp produce non-stop errors at a very early/basic level….ie addresses and errors. Apolgoies for the long post, I won’t do this again. I guess my question is really ‘What is your workflow to get an ESP up and running, maybe first time and then with changes.

    1. Donations always appreciated – I get it in the neck from my beloved for constantly being on EBAY – however I think she’s going to LOVE the cat poo sensors I just ordered 🙂 I was always drawm more to C than C# etc because I started life with K&R book – and computers where you could direct the output of the C compiler to the screen to see what code it generated – which meant I understood what it was actually doing – as soon as you get more abstracted you lose that – HAVING SAID THAT I am loving node.js and Node-Red as a development environment. RBOOT gave me GREAT difficulty and it is only because Richard who designed it gave me lots of help that I have it working. My problem now is as my program becomes more general purpose and bigger – the .TEXT memory where functions are stored is starting to run low and in fact I’m one version behind on theSDK as something they introduced has tipped memory use over the edge. All that FLASH on the ESP-12s, I could go on developing forever but the RAM will prove the limiting factor.

      I don’t use the Arduino version at all – I use Windows – and the unofficial development environment. So I’m in Eclipse and programming in C.

      2. BTW….I am playing with MQTT/Node.JS/Imperihome, based on your blog….and I am loving it! I deployed my first real ‘thing’ cheap LED RGB Strips controlled by Imperihome. Wife is very impressed (although I am suspicious that is just humoring me!)

        1. Trust me – she’s humouring you. Mine just nods now. Playing with LED strips is GREAT fun! I have done everyhing with Imperihome and LED strips except actually attaching any – however when I get to Spain near the end of April, my Pergola over there has large strips of serial LEDS attached to an ESP – and they will be the first target for Imperihome.

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