Tag Archives: esp8266

Sensors Monitoring – Grafana Configuration

After configuring nodered to forward the data to the databases, temperature and humidity sensors are used with ESP8266, as already seen in the previous articles

Mqtt with Beaglebone and ESP8266 – Articles List

Below is the firmware used and the code for sending data from the ESP8266 nodes

ESP8266 Firmware

ESP8266 Temp-Hum

Inside the zip file there is a script to upload the firmware to the COMX port (to be modified with your COM port) on windows.

In the LUA code instead it is necessary to enter the settings of your wireless router, the mqtt ip address, the room settings, replacing roomx, with room1, room2,etc.

You can then set Grafana, accessing the Dashboard, adding Mysql and InfluxDB as data sources

grafanaSourceWith Add data source you access the Data Source screen, from which you can choose InfluxDB and MySql

grafanaAddSourceBelow  the settings for InfluxDB and MySql

InfluxDB

InfluxDBESPMySqlMySqlESPThe two connections are listed in the datasource configuration

AllDataSourceBelow there is the export of the two Dashboards used in the article to be imported on your system with the Import button

importDashboards

Dashboards

Here is the ESPRealtime Dashboard screen with the data available  on the InfluxDB

RealTimeGrafanaTo view the data history, we use MySql data in the ESPHistory Dashboard

HistoryGrafana

 

 

Sensors Monitoring – Nodered Configuration

At this point we set nodered to read the messages on Mosquitto and insert the data into InfluxDB and MySql.

Below the json file to be imported into nodered

Nodered Json

This flow is functional to the explanation of the functioning of the architecture as a whole; the flow must be optimized by programming nodered so as to automatically generate the information of the nodes from which the data arrives without resorting to different nodes for each sensor.

To execute the import proceed as follows, after accessing nodered

http://dashboardora.local/nodered

and after clicking on the menu on the right, choose to import the json from the clipboard

importFlowsAt the next screen, choose to import the json file into a new flow

flowOnce imported, set the credentials to access MySql and InfluxDB, selecting Configuration nodes from the menu on the right and setting the user account and password

configureNodesThe connections to the dbs and mosquitto are shown

configureNodesDBBelow is the MySql setting, accessed by clicking the mouse twice on ESPMYSQL

MySqlSettingUpdate button updates the node.

To make the flows operational click on Deploy

deploy

Now, with nodered we take the contents of the various mqtt topics and insert them into MySql and InfluxDB.

In the next article we display these data in Grafana

Sensors Monitoring – Grafana Configuration

Sensors Monitoring – InfluxDB Configuration

After MySql tables creation

Sensors Monitoring – MySql Configuration

we have to create a database  on InfluxDB.

The first step is to activate an administrative user on the system, as described in the link

Authentication and Authorization

InfluxDB  is accessed from the local client by running the influx command from a shell

Run

In the file /etc/infuxdb/influxdb.conf, using the root user or the sudo command, the auth-enabled parameter is set from false to true

Restart influxdb

Using a command shell on Debian  create the database DATAESP with the following commands

Enter the admin credentials to the auth command and proceed to create the database

Below is the result of the commands listed above

datainfluxdb

For the management of the Influxdb database, it is possible to use Chronograph

Chronograph

The Chronograph download is available at the link

Chronograph Download

Installation can be performed in two ways.

Application start

Log in with the monitor user and in a command shell

Start the chronograf application

 

Start as a Service

Log in with the monitor user; use a command shell to execute

In the /opt/chronograf/usr/lib/chronograf/scripts folder there are scripts for the automatic start of chronograf.

Here are the operations performed in our system:

  • Copy /opt/chronograf/usr/lib/chronograf/scripts/init.sh into /etc/init.d/chronograf and assign execution permissions

  • Copy /opt/chronograf/usr/lib/chronograf/scripts/chronogaf.service  into /etc/systemd/system/chronograf.service

Change in both files the user and path of the various chronograf components, i.e. change the user to monitor and the paths that point to /opt/chronograf

Below is the link to the modified files

Automatic Startup Chronograf

After the modifications run

To enable it at startup and start it run

After starting chronograf in one of the ways described above, it can be accessed via browser and port 8888

http://dashboardora.local:8888

ChronografPress Get Started and set the connection and the credentials of the admin user with relative password defined before

Chronograf2conSet up the Influxdb dashboard

ChronografDashboardDo not set the Kapacitor component

Chronograf3Complete the configuration and by clicking on View All Connections

Chronograf4we access to the newly created connection

ChronografConnections

This component can be useful later to manage and monitor InfluxDB.

In the next article, we ‘ll define the rules on Nodered to populate MySql and InfluxDB databases with the data sent by the sensors

Sensors Monitoring – Nodered Configuration

 

 

 

 

Sensors Monitoring – MySql Configuration

After the software installation on Orange Pi PC we proceed to the their configuration

Sensors Monitoring – Envinronment Setup 2

Creating Tables on MySql

On MySql 3 tables have been created containing the values of temperature, humidity and pressure of the sensors.

Here is the MySql model

MySql Model

to import into MySql Workbench

ESPModelloOnce imported, access the Database-> Forward Engineering menu and import the tables on your MySql system on the Orange Pi PC, by entering the MySql root user and relative password

ESPImportAt the next screen we  use the connection created on MySql Workbench to connect to the database

ESPImport1Leave everything by default and enter the root password when prompted.

The tables are now available on the database

ESPTablesIn the next article we configure InfluxDb to store data in real time sent by the sensors

Sensors Monitoring – InfluxDB Configuration

Sensors Monitoring – Envinronment Setup 2

After the software components installation in the previous article

Sensors Monitoring – Eninronment Setup

we finish this operation with this article.

Infludb

The Influxdb is installed as indicated in the link

Influxdb

For Debian 9 we execute the following commands

Check that everything works correctly by connecting with the infludb client

infux

Nodered

We proceed to the installation of node.js

Then we proceed to  nodered installation, as indicated at the link

Nodered installation

To run nodered at the start up, we use the script available at the following link

Nodered autostart

We did not run the automated script, but executed the following steps

Edit /etc/init.d/nodered and change the user from pi to monitor, ie change the parameter

in

Run

Start  nodered

Check that nodered works by accessing the following link with the browser

http://dashboardora.local:1880

nodered

Restart the system and check that nodered starts automatically.

Proceed to the installation of the nodered add-ons

 

Grafana

We proceed to download the version for arm

Grafana for ARM

Enable and start Grafana

Access the system using the url

http://dashboardora.local:3000

Log in with the user admin and password admin; change the password

GrafanaOnce the new password has been set, the setup interface is available

Grafana2In the next articles we will execute the settings to be able to view the sensors data.

Reverse Proxy installation

To access the system through port 80 of the http server we use nginx as a reverse proxy

nginx

We disable apache

We proceed to the installation of nginx

Everything must be configured to access the two systems using the following links

http://dashboardora.local/nodered for nodered

http://dashboardora.local/grafana for grafana

For Grafana we follow the official documentation

Grafana proxy

We change the file /etc/grafana/grafana.ini by modifying the domain and root_url parameters; in our file the parameteres are modified  as follows

Then we configure nginx, creating the servizi file with the following contents in the /etc/nginx/sites-available folder

Here is the link of the nginx configuration

nginx configuration

We run the following command

and start nginx and grafana services

At this point it is possible to access the two services via the links

http://dashboardora.local/nodered

nodered-nginx

http://dashboardora.local/grafana

grafana-nginxIn the next article we start the configuration of the various modules needed for the sensors monitoring

Sensors Monitoring – MySql Configuration

Sensors Monitoring – Envinronment Setup

In setting up the infrastructure for monitoring sensors made up of ESP8266 devices in previously published articles

Mqtt with Beaglebone ed ESP8266 – Freeboard

Freeboard had been set up to display the data coming from the sensors.

In this new series of articles, we  set up Grafana

Grafana Dashboard

as  environment to view the data of the various sensors.

We implement the environment, in this case,  on an Orange Pi PC board, but other arm or pc system can be used.

Below the architecture used in this series of articles

archGrafana

In these articles we’ll use the maximum authorizations for each environment, we will not use authorizations on mosquitto and no encrypted connections will be used. In a test environment this setting is fine, but in an operating environment it is necessary to set up the correct authorizations and possibly the encryptions in the connections in all environments.

We have installed our compiled version of Debian 9 Stretch for Orange PI PC. The image used is the following

Image Download

The monitor user was created during the Image setup, while the hostname was renamed in dashboardora. If not installed proceed to install the avahi daemon

In this way the services can be accessed by publishing the hostname, i.e. dashboardora.local.

Using the armbian utilities  disable ip6 on the system; to carry out this setting launch armbian-config

ipv6Disable1Proceed to diasble IPV6

ipv6Disable2

As a first step we install the  mqtt broker mosquitto

Install the http services and the databases Mysql and MySqlWorkbench

Apache2

and various prerequisites

Start apache

and check that the server responds to the web address, which in our case corresponds to http://dashboardora.local

apache

MySql

Debian 9  comes with MariaDB; you must set the password for the database administration user root with the following command

We set the root password and the ability to log in from other hosts as root

mariadb-secureThe other chosen options are listed below

mariadb-secure2

We install phpmyadmin for database management

At the next screen choose apache2

phpmyadminFinally choose NO

phpmyadmin1

Run the commands listed below

Check that the system works correctly by accessing via web browser by adding to the apache phpmyadmin address, in our case

http://dashboardora.local/phpmyadmin

phpmyadmin2

Log in with the database root credentials.

Mariadb must be enabled to accept connections from other hosts. To do this, go to the folder

and edit the 50-server.cnf file as root, changing the setting

in

To allow the root database user to be able to access from an external client, it is necessary to log on mariadb locally with his client and enable this option; therefore the following is performed

 

Mysql Workbench Installation on PC

Go to the following link

MySql Workbench

and download the version for your operating system; proceed with the installation.

For Linux the package is also available in the distribution repositories.

After configuring the connection, you access the MySql system control screen.

MySQLWorkbenchIn the next article we will continue the installation of the other components to be able to monitor the sensors

Sensors Monitoring – Envinronment Setup 2

MicroPython – MicroPython compiling for ESP8266 with additional modules

After the firmware build of the MicroPython firmware for esp8266 in the previous article

MicroPython – MicroPython compiling for ESP8266

we now show how build a module inside the firmware; this option optimizes the module execution and minimizes the size of the same on the device; the module is frozen into the firmware.

With the firmware compiled with the defaults, the following modules are available, listed in the REPL console with the command

standardmodulesNow let’s try to compile the firmware with the mqtt modules already inside. For this purpose, the module sources are copied to the umqtt folder under modules

umqttfolderWe proceed to recompile the firmware. From micropython/ports/esp8266 we run the following commands

We can see from the compilation log, that these modules are placed in the frozen state

frozenmodulesAfter uploading this firmware we obtain the following list of modules inside the firmware

firmwarewithmodulesIt is also possible to create the firmware with the modules not compiled and optimized, by copying the sources in the scripts folder under esp8266; in the specific case the sources must be placed as shown below

The modules are always visible in the firmware, but not optimized, so if you need some module it is convenient to copy it on the device during the coding  and in the last phase of the project compile the firmware with the frozen modules.

 

 

MicroPython – MicroPython compiling for ESP8266

After using in some examples the MicroPython firmware on the ESP8266 board

MicroPython – Nodes examples with DHT11, Relay and MQTT

this article shows how to generate the MicroPython firmware for the ESP8266 board.

The operating system used for this task is Debian 9, already encountered when we analyzed  the esptool utility

MicroPython – Python on embedded devices

Log on  with the operating system user on Debian 9, sviluppo in our case; under the home folder  create the Micropython folder and inside this folder the  esp8266 folder

The MicroPython source code is available at the following link

Github Micropython

Instructions to build the firmware for the ESP8266 are available at the link

MicroPython esp8266

Clone the repository

Download the cross compiler, as described here

Cross compiler

As indicated in the link above, download the source of the cross compiler always from the folder esp8266

Install the prerequisites for building

Proceed to the build of the cross compiler with the following commands

At the end of the build add the binary folder of the cross compiler to the PATH envinronment variable

Go into the micropython folder available under ~/Micropython/esp8266

Run

to add external dependencies.

Next step is the MicroPython cross compiler build

Finally we can build the ESP8266 firmware with the following commands

The firmware is generated under ports/esp8266/build folder with the name firmware_combined.bin.

Proceed to load the firmware with the command

where  /dev/ttyXXX is repalced with the actual serial port to which we connect the ESP8266 board.

In our case, the firmware upload was successful with the command

It is also possible to load the firmware_combined.bin image with the command

In the next article we’ll  analyze how to build the MicroPython firmware adding into the image additional MicroPython modules

MicroPython – MicroPython compiling for ESP8266 with additional modules

MicroPython – Nodes examples with DHT11, Relay and MQTT

In a series of articles seen previously  on Mqtt, Beaglebone and ESP8266

Mqtt with Beaglebone and ESP8266 – Articles List

we have created the infrastructure for managing the ESP8266 nodes .

In this article we program the two ESP8266 nodes  using MicroPython instead of Nodemcu and Lua.

The infrastructure remains identical; on the Beaglebone there is Mqtt Mosquitto Server and Freeboard for the management of the mqtt topics, visualization and interaction.

The ESP8266 node examples with relay and DHT11 sensor use the umqtt MicroPython libraries, available on the site

umqtt simple

In the following examples, only the umqtt simple is used; in the code several delays have been inserted to allow the board to manage the messages and not run into errors; in the case the Mqtt server is not available the code restarts the board.

Below the code used for these examples.

Node with DHT11 sensor

  • boot.py: code executed at startup

  • umqtt/simple.py:  mqtt library

  • dht11.py: module for reading the temperature and humidity on the GPIO2

  • main.py: code executed after boot

  •  client_mqtt.py: Main module for node management

  • riavvia.py: service code to restart the module from uPyCraft

 

Node with relay

  • boot.py: code executed at startup

  • umqtt/simple.py: mqtt library

    • main.py: code executed after boot

    •  client_mqtt.py: Main module for node management

  • riavvia.py: service code to restart the module from uPyCraft

Below is the filesystem on ESP8266 for the relays sample

ESPFilesystemBy accessing Freeboard we have the same informations obtained with Nodemcu and LUA on ESP8266 nodes

FreeboardMicroPythonBelow are the screens with MQTT Dashboard installed on an Android smartphone, with the possibility to check the status of the relay, read the sensor parameters, restart and sleep the two nodes

MqttPublish

MqttSubscribe

Here are the links to download the two examples

DHT11 sensor sample

Relay sample

In the next article we will compile the MicroPython firmware for ESP8266

MicroPython – MicroPython compiling for ESP8266

 

 

 

 

MicroPython – MicroPython program structure

After reviewing various development tools for MicroPython in previous articles

MicroPython – Development tools Ampy – Eric

MicroPython IDE uPyCraft

in this article we briefly describe the main features of MicroPython. In particular, we examine the documentation relating to the ESP8266, but the concepts can also be extended to the other boards.

The documentation on the ESP8266 soc and MicroPython  is available at the link

ESP8266 MicroPython Documentation

At the link we can find all the informations necessary to implement the code on the card and the features of MicroPython as well as the differences compared to Python.

Here are the main points for coding in MicroPython:

  • MicroPython has a REPL (Read Evaluate Print Loop) console through the serial port to which the device is connected on which we can give the various MicroPython commands interactively.
  • The REPL console can also be accessed via connection to the IP address of the device by enabling the WEBREPL (Web Browser Interactive prompt) console

WebREPL Documentation

importing the webrepl package, enabling it and starting it at each device restart. To access the configured device, we can use the link

WEBREPL Access

or locally cloning it  from github

  • At the start of the device the system runs boot.py and after main.py.
  • The MicroPython libraries are available on the github at the link

MicroPython libraries

  • Additional packages

The additional modules can be downloaded from the link of the libraries presented above or downloaded with the upip utility (Package Manager) from the REPL console if available in the Python Package Index (PyPI) repository

PYPI

as described below

upip

Below is a simple example that connects to the router and allows us to access the MicroPython console with the browser and WEBREPL.

  • boot.py code

At the first access it is required to enable webrepl to be executed in the REPL console with the command

we can activate the service and the access password.

The procedure generates the webrepl_cfg.py file on the device.

After setting up and restarting, we access the web console by opening the locally cloned webrepl.html file with a browser

WebreplPressing connect and after entering the password ,set in the initial setup, we access the console

WebreplConnectedNow we install from the WEBREPL console, for example, the stat module using upip

To paste commands  execute Ctrl+A e Ctrl+V

WebreplupipIn this case the package was taken from the PYPI repository, unpacked and installed on the device.

We have noticed that some modules, although available on the repository, give an error during installation with upip; these modules are installed directly without using the upip utility,but by downloading the library from the site listed above and transferring the code to the device.

Here is the link of the code shown above

Webreplsample

Another option available is to build  the firmware with the required modules.

In the next article we will examine examples similar to what was done with LUA on ESP8266 in previous articles

MicroPython – Nodes examples with DHT11, Relay and MQTT