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General

Mozilla & IoT: Web of Things – Internet Of Things

Source: Mozilla & IoT: Web of Things – Internet Of Things

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General

Webinar: Internet of Things – Why aren’t we there yet? | Acreo

Internet of things (IoT) is on the very top of Gartner’s Hype Cycle for emerging technologies, politicians have learned to say that internet of things is important for the society, and every research unit active within information and communication technologies – and with some level of self-preservation – is involved in IoT-activities. So with all this buzz around IoT, what is really the status of the technology?

Source: Webinar: Internet of Things – Why aren’t we there yet? | Acreo

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General

What are we doing in Coffeechug Cafe? | Coffee For The Brain

So often in Coffeechug Cafe we test, experiment, teach, conduct activities, and more. Like most educators we forget to share all things we are working on. Sometimes they make it to the blog and social media if it takes off, but not all things are huge. This does not mean that they should not be shared. So I will be adding a bit of a series to the blog updating on things we are working on every few weeks. One of the challenges of instructional coaching is showcasing how our time is being used and what sort of impact we have on education. I don’t believe in full length meetings with teachers questioning their every move unless they ask and volunteer for this type of support. Rather, what I am finding is that teachers want to get better and they do that through exploring new options of teaching and learning, sampling ideas with a small group, developing radical ideas with a student, and basically dabbing a toe in the water of a new frontier. I thought it would be cool to share what has

Source: What are we doing in Coffeechug Cafe? | Coffee For The Brain

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HowTo's VSCP

Using the #VSCP #MQTT driver Part 2 #IoT #m2m

VSCP MQTT Driver Simplify mode

Part 1

Screenshot from 2016-02-14 22:00:26

Make measurement event come out as a plain number over the MQTT channel.

Sometimes, and especially if your device is a low end device, it can be nice to publish measurement events from the VSCP daemon to it as plain numbers. You can do this with the simplify feature.

First look at the driver  entry in /etc/vscp/dm.xml

<!– Level II MQTT driver –>
<driver enable=”true” >
     <name>MQTT2</name>
     <path>/usr/local/lib/vscpl2drv_mqtt.so</path>
    <config>session2;publish;vscp-pub;192.168.1.9:1883
    <guid>00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00</guid>
</driver>

We see that this driver defines  a publishing MQTT channel with

  • topic = vscp_pub
  • session id = session2
  • broker is at  address = 192.168.1.9
  • broker use standard MQTT port  = 1823

Nothing strange here. Normally VSCP events would be available if you subscribe to the topic vscp_pub on this broker. On the console typically like

mosquitto_sub -h 192.168.1.9 -v -t ‘vscp-pub’

This is just the same as we described above. But now lets define a simplify variable like (/srv/vscp/variables.xml or in the web interface of the VSCP daemon).

<variable type=”string”>
     <name>MQTT2_SIMPLIFY</name>
     <note>Feed temperature measurements to “the thing”</note>
     <value>1040,6,0,1,0,0</value>
</variable>

When the MQTT driver loads it looks fore variables named like it’s name + “-” + keyword and configure itself from the variables. This configuration actually overrides the configuration done in the diver configuration string.

It also add extra configuration possibilities and SIMPLIFY is on of them so

MQTT2_SIMPLIFY

is a variable with name “SIMPLIFY” that is destined for the driver with name “MQTT2”.

The content of  a simplify variable specify the event we want to send on the MQTT channel as a plain number.  In our case we have

1040,6,0,1,0,0

which boils down to

  1. 1040 – This is the VSCP class. In this case CLASS2.MEASUREMENT_STR
  2. 6 – This is the VSCP Type and six is “temperature”.
  3. 0 – This is the sensor index. Only events with this sensor index will be published.
  4. 0  – This is the zone. Only events with this vallue will be published.
  5. 0  – This is the sub zone. Only events with this value will be published.
  6. 0 – This is the unit. Only events with this value will be published.

You can use CLASS1_MEASUREMENT and CLASS2_MEASUREMENT_FLOAT also if you which for this functionality and the format for them are here.

So now when you restart the VSCP daemon CLASS2.MEASUREMENT_STR events will come out as plain numbers on the MQTT channel. We can test this in the TCP/IP interface by sending

send 0,1040,6,0,0,-,0,0,0,1,0×35,0x35,0x35,0x2e,0x30,0x32

which will come out as

vscp-pub 555.02

if you subscribed using mosquitto_sub -h 192.168.1.9 -v -t ‘vscp-pub’

Send plain numbers over a MQTT channel and have them automatically translated into proper VSCP events.

You may just want to send plain numbers instead of a full VSCP event to the VSCP framework.  Typically this can be some stupid device that just is capable of sending out plain numbers. The simplicity mode can make these kind of devices a bit more useful also. YES you want at least the unt of your measurement to come along with your data in a standardized way.

To use this feature we us the first driver entry we specified

<!– Level II MQTT Driver –>
    <driver enable=”true” > 
    <name>MQTT1</name>
    <path>/usr/local/lib/vscpl2drv_mqtt.so</path>
    <config>session1;subscribe;vscp-sub;192.168.1.9:1883
    <guid>00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00</guid>
</driver>

Here we subscribe to a MQTT channel vscp_sub on the broker located at 192.168.1.9 on port 1883. We name the session “session1”.  Remember that all drivers MUST have a unique session name.

So things publishe form other devices on topic vscp_sub will be received by the driver and normally this is VSCP events on the standard string form

send head,class,type,obid,time-stamp,GUID,data1,data2,data3…

you can read mode here about this format used n the TCP/IP interface of the VSCP daemon among other places.

But now we want to send just a number and get a VSCP events. So for this we use the simplify feature again.

We start out just as above by specifying the SIMPLIFY variable.  As you see we now referee to the first driver entry MQTT1

<variable type=”string”>
   <name>MQTT1_SIMPLIFY</name>
   <note>Allow for sending plain numbers </note>
   <value>1060,6,0,1,0,0</value>
</variable>

Only 1060 is different than above, We could have used 1040 here alos to get CLASS2.MEASUREMENT_STR event but to be not to repetitive we use CLASS2.MEASUREMENT_FLOAT for this example.

And using VSCP Works to check the incoming event gives the expected result

Screenshot from 2016-02-14 22:32:04

 

If we set  CLASS2.MEASUREMENT_STR (1040) instead we got the same end result

Screenshot from 2016-02-14 22:32:04

And you can use one of the other measurement types also of course. Read the docs.

Well that was it for this time.  The full driver info is here.

 

Categories
HowTo's VSCP

Using the #VSCP #MQTT driver Part 1 #IoT #m2m

Using

Screenshot from 2016-02-14 22:44:16

The MQTT driver for the VSCP Daemon is a way to connect VSCP  to things communicating over MQTT.  Well it’s just as easy as 1-2-3 to do so. Just follow this instruction.

Suppose that we want two MQTT channels. One that publish content to a broker and one that subscribe content from a broker channel. Of course we can have as many as we like. Just add more driver entries if you need more. There is no practical limit.

So for driver additions we add the following driver enteries to the vscpd.conf file (/etc/vscp/vscpd.conf on Linux and /programdata/vscp/vscpd.conf on windows).

<!– Level II MQTT driver –>
    <driver enable=”true” >
    <name>MQTT1</name>
    <path>/usr/local/lib/vscpl2drv_mqtt.so</path>
    <config>session1;subscribe;vscp-sub;192.168.1.9:1883
   <guid>00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00</guid>
</driver>

<!– Level II MQTT driver –>
<driver enable=”true” >
    <name>MQTT2</name>
    <path>/usr/local/lib/vscpl2drv_mqtt.so</path>
    <config>session2;publish;vscp-pub;192.168.1.9:1883
    <guid>00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00</guid>
</driver>

Both have there own unique names, MQTT1 and MQTT2 as they should. Paths are set to the driver location. Windows user need to point this path to the installation folder. The GUID is set to all zeros meaning the driver will use the GUID of the interface. We are fine with that in this sample but for most cases it is better to set a unique GUID.

Then we have the configuration string and it is different for the two driver entries. We look at each driver on its own from here,

MQTT1

The configuration string looks like this

session1;subscribe;vscp-sub;192.168.1.9:1883

That is we create a subscription channel, that is a channel which subscribes on content from a MQTT broker, and in this case expects VSCP events on the standard text form coming in on the channel. The broker is at IP-address 192.168.1.9 and using the  standard port 1883. The topic we are interested in is vscp_sub.  That’s almost it. We need one more thing. We need to name the session for our communication with the MQTT broker. In this case we set the session name to session1.  Remember that this session name must be unique in each driver entry.

Restating the daemon and we are ready to go

Using  mosquitto_pub we can now send MQTT events to the VSCP system

mosquitto_pub -d -t vscp-sub -m “vscp-pub vscp-pub 0,10,6,0,0,-,0x88,0x82,0x0A,0x09”

which comes in as 25.68 degrees Celsius from sensor 1.

Screenshot from 2016-02-14 23:06:00

Data

This section can be skipped if your not interested in how the data is coed.

This format is fully described in the data coding section of the specification but we give a brief explanation of the event data here also (but you should read the spec. for a comprehensive understanding).  The event is CLASS1. MEASUREMENT, Type=6, Temperature. So we have a temperature measurement. Good to know.

It is a VSCP level I events. We see that from CLASS1. in the class name. This is a low end measurement event used in VSCP that can handle all SI system defined types.  VSCP level I event have a maximum of eight data bytes as it is defined to be possoble to be handled by the smallest devices out there. Eight byte is not much but you can tell what type of measurement it is, what sensor of eight possible on a board it comes from, and what unit the measurement is give in. Not bad. Compare that to just sensing 44.20 over the topic.

The data can be coded as a string or a floating point value or in something called a normalized integer as here. If your device can handle floating point you should use that. But many devices does not have resources to handle floating point data as it costs memory. They ned the memory for other tasks. And that is where the normalized integer comes in handy.

As you see the data for the measurement is

0x88, 0x82, 0x0A, 0x09

The first byte of this data  is the coding byte, here 0x88. In this byte fits information about the index for the sensor  (bits 0,1,2), the the unit for the measurement (bits 3,4) and the type of data that follows (bits 5,6,7).

So in binary 0x88 is

10001000

which if we break apart the different fields become

100 01 000

  • Bits 0,1,2 is set to 000 so this is a measurement from sensor 0 of the board.
  • Bits 3,4 is set to 01 so this is the second defined unit of the measurement. Unit zero is always the SI unit and as this is a temperature measurement (we got that information from the class and the type) the available units for temperatures  are Kelvin (unit=0), Celsius (unit=1), Fahrenheit (unit=2). So our measurement is in degrees Celsius.
  • Bit 5,6,7 Tells if the value is a string, a floating point value or any of the other defined types. In this case 100 tells us that it is a normalized integer.

OK We have a measurement value from sensor 0 that is expressed as degrees Celsius. Just need to know the value as well.

A normalized integer have a decimal point shift byte as its second byte and then the  1-6 bytes that follow are the actual integer value. So here the value is 0x0A09 (VSCP always store everything MSB first). Translated to decimal 0x0A09  is 2569.

The second data byte (0x82) says, if it has bit seven set,  that the decimal point should be moved left in the number that follows with the amount told by the remaining bits. So in this case the decimal point should move two steps to the left which gives 25.62.

So the measurement value is a temperature measurement of 25.69 degrees Celsius.

Sending on/off

Everything is well specified in VSCP.  So to turn something on or off is well specified of course.

To tun something ON one use the CLASS1.CONTROL, Type=5 in VSCP.  To turn something off one use CLASS1.CONTROL, Type=6.

The event CLASS1.CONTROL is coded as 30.

Now to something that might look strange to VSCP newcomers at first. VSCP normally does not address things.  WHAT!? you might scream out. Yes it does not. Instead it send a TurnOn event to devices in a zone/subzone. The sender does not know if the receiver is one or as man as hundred devices. It does not even care. It just send the event. It trust the transport mechanism to deliver the event to interested parties.

So for both TurnOn and TurnOff of the data format is

0x00, zone, subzone

So to turn something on in zone=1/subzone=2 we send

mosquitto_pub -d -t vscp-sub -m “vscp-pub vscp-pub 0,30,5,0,0,-,0,1,2”

and to turn something off we send

mosquitto_pub -d -t vscp-sub -m “vscp-pub vscp-pub 0,30,6,0,0,-,0,1,2”

Not to hard is it?

MQTT1

The configuration string looks like this

session2;publish;vscp-pub;192.168.1.9:1883

Well we recognize the confoguration string from above. The session name is “session2”. Remember it should be unique. and we publish to a broker instead of subscribing. The MQTT topic is set to vscp_pub.

So to if you subscribe to vscp_pub on the broker you get events from the VSCP system sent to you.  You set filters to tell which events you want and do many other things.

Using the mosquitto_sub subscribing is

mosquitto_sub -h 192.168.1.9 -v -t ‘vscp-pub’

which you can use for testing. But Arduino or Raspberry Pi also have MQTT libraries so you can take in VSCP events to them to, well or sening  giving you access to the VCSP framework with web interfaces, diagrams, message routing and a lot more.

It may be simpler to use just VSCP and get the same advantages but this write-up is for those of you that use MQTT today.

Another part will follow describing a way to simplify message handing over MQTT.

Part 2

Categories
VSCP

Why choose #VSCP as your #IoT/#m2m framework?

vscp_new_v2

VSCP

Short answer or executive summary: You should not!

Longer answer:

VSCP is developed by one man.  He is very old. Actually old guys like him can die any day. Just like that.  Rule. Never trust a system developed by one old man. Microsoft, Google, IBM have many young men and woman on there teams and they will be there forever. Just like Ashton Tate and Altavista actually did… hmmm… or did’t they…

VSCP has no budget. No nothing. Not a single cent. There are plenty of other IoT/m2m frameworks that have a budget. And we all know what people can do with a budget. Right.  Rule: Choose an IoT framework with a budget because every project needs one. We all know that. At least we should all know that.

VSCP have just few users. Ten or so?  Less.  Rule: Go for a system with many users. Users can help each other and also test a system so it gets better and better. Some users of some systems even contribute code. VSCP users does not do that. They usually rewrite code that is there because they don’t like the way it’s formatted or something like that. But not a big problem. As they are so few.

VSCP is just 2.5K flash and tens of ram implemented in a node.  What can actually be done in 2.5K of code? Print “Hello World”? Rule: Real systems use 32M of ram and five times that of flash . At least.

VSCP consist of so many lines of code. Close to a million lines? Or more? Rule: Small is beautiful. That is source. The opposite s true for deployed code.

VSCP have so damn much documentation. Countless pages. Written by someone that is not naive in English. It’s a hell to read. And to understand. Rule: And page with documentation is enough. Always.

The VSCP developer never help the government to plant backdoors in the code.  We all know that the big companies of course help the government when they ask for help. After all NSA is there for our security. Also for non Americans.

The bloody code is free. Free as a free  bottle of  beer. Rule: There is not such a thing as a free lunch.

VSCP has been continuously been developed for 16 years. Well who is crazy enough to pursue such a project. Rule: Never enter a project developed by crazy people. Especially if they are old and just one member of the team. If you join that crazy person probably know who you are and may come after you with an ax. Google, Microsoft and IBM does not even have a support email so they will never notice you enter so you are safe even if they also go as crazy and support the same system for sixteen years.

You get answers to you questions. So stupid. Often within a few hours. If you find a bug it sometimes is also fixed in a short time.  Rule: Never trust a developer that respond to support requests.

VSCP never wins prices. Well of course it does not. It takes more than 15 seconds to understand what it is.  Rule: Only use systems that win prices.

And a lot more. Of course there are more. VSCP is just shit. Plain shit. And will never be anything else than shit. Rule: You should not use shit.

If you decide to go for VSCP anyway, well, you are plain crazy and probably should see a doctor before it gets worse! But you should probably start here if you do.

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Google Developing ‘Brillo’ OS For Internet of Things – Slashdot

capable of running on devices with extremely limited hardware — as little as 32 MB of RAM

Source: Google Developing ‘Brillo’ OS For Internet of Things – Slashdot

Hmmm…  yes that is extremely limited devices;-)

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Gateway Kit | Bluetooth Technology Website

Ready to develop with blue? Download the Gateway Smart Starter Kit to learn how to connect your Bluetooth sensors to the Internet of Things (IoT).

Source: Gateway Kit | Bluetooth Technology Website

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Quick & dirty cable length & impedance measurement | EDN

Can’t afford a full-blown TDR? Here are a few quick & dirty measurement tips.

Source: Quick & dirty cable length & impedance measurement | EDN

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Let’s Encrypt – Free SSL/TLS Certificates

Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated, and open certificate authority brought to you by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG). ISRG is a California public benefit corporation, and is recognized by the IRS as a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Source: Let’s Encrypt – Free SSL/TLS Certificates