The first release candidate of the VSCP & Friends Sodium release for Windows is available for test here https://sourceforge.net/projects/m2m/files/VSCP%20Software/1.1.0%20Sodium/
Please test to install and report any problems.
Cheers
/Ake
Category: VSCP
Categories
quiet != no business
Not much info other than links recently on this channel but that does not mean that noting is happening. As usual there is +16h/day passes here at the Paradise of the Frog AB and we are working hard to get the Sodium release of VSCP out. YES it has been delayed and this is due to some findings in the serial driver which lead to some other changes in there to. Took some time but are fixed now. It is an amazing and useful driver now I must tell you.
At the moment we are adding some last BIG things and then a release candidate will be available for download.
One of the big questions at the moment is to decide if Lua or Javascripts should be used for the internal script engine in the VSCP daemon. If you have thoughts on this feel free to comment. This same scripting support will eventually also come to VSCP Works. But this is a life decision. Not easy to change after a decision is taken.
Why a scripting engine in VSCP daemon? Well with it you can execute a scripts when an event is received. Thus doing a lot of dynamic things or just if/then handling or simple things like OpenHAB for example do. If we ever get some active UX development this can be extended to a drag and drop interface to make things happen. A bit like node red if you like.
On the hardware side three boards still is in the pipe. Accra, Vilnius needs some final code and are next in line. Frankfurt Eth prototypes are on the way to us at this very moment and will be done after that. Kelvin 1-wire Frankfurt BT will come next. And I can tell you we have a lot more brewing.
So now you know that we are still working here in the north of Sweden. We will be back with more info soon.
Can’t promise you fame and fortune. But it can be nice to just be part of something that will change the world.
There is a lot to do of course. It always is. But bindings to different languages (also to languages not in the list) is something that we really need and gives other people a chance to do great things. Yes we can do with libs. that is not based on the VSCP helper lib and interface the REST or the websocket interface of the VSCP daemon.
There is a list here with things that we think it would be nice to see. But there is million of other things you can contribute with. Its fin. Its valuable. Its a world changer.
JOIN US!
Categories
Python bindings available for VSCP
Salvo Musumeci has made Python bindnings available for the VSCP helper library. Great work Salvo! You can find his work here.
We need bindings for PHP, Java, C#, Perl, node.js etc also so if you want something to do this fall this is a task to take on.
We have got new sponsoring for the VSCP project. Thank you Iain and Steve for your kind and valuable support to this work.
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Important change to the VSCP Specification
I made an important change to the VSCP specification today.
The CLASS1_INFORMATION, Type = 9 (0x09) Node Heartbeat has previously not been mandatory to implement for a node. But this has changed and it is now mandatory as the only exception of a mandatory event to implement outside of the CLASS1.PROTOCOL class. The same is true for the Level II event CLASS2_INFORMATION, http://www.vscp.org/docs/vscpspec/doku.php?id=class2.information#type_2_0x0002_level_ii_node_heartbeat
The recommended interval is 30-60 seconds between heartbeats bur exception can be made for nodes that have to sleep for a longer time.
The reason for this change is that it makes it easier for wireless nodes to announce there presence as they are harder to scan as wired modules.
Changes to the VSCP specification is as always listed here.
A new class has also been added today. This is the Level II class Class=1060 (0x424) Measurement float. This class is a companion class to the Class=1040 (0x410) Measurement string. Both follow the CLASS1_MEASUREMENT class types except that it allow for more sensors (0-256) and more units (0-256). Obviously the Level I definition is the interchangeable one.
NOT ANOTHER MEASUREMENT CLASS you might scream.
Yes there is plenty of them already. But this double precision floating point class can make some order again and I will add translators from all other classes to this class in the daemon and in the CAN4VSCP driver. So for all work at higher levels these to classes are the one that should be used. At least if not communicating things down to Level I nodes.
Be Hungry – Stay Foolish!
/Ake
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Oooooops, wrong day!
Ops! Wrong day. VSCP birthday is today. Oh well another day of celebrations does not hurt. “Hand me the cake…” 😉
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VSCP turns fifteen today #vscp #IoT #m2m
Today VSCP turns fifteen. Well the project was called EDA, for Event, Decision, Action from the beginning, but it was put up on Source Forge this very day fifteen years ago after having being around for a week or so before that and brewing in my head since the end of the 70th.
The project started as a simple replacement for a home automation system project that Ericsson and Electrolux was running. This project died after some years and VSCP really never made it into it anyway.
To be the little brother of other projects is a little bit of the signum for VSCP. They have been many the big and hyped projects over the years (“winners”) that came and went, died, and which now is burred and forgotten while VSCP still lives and is in active development. Small in numbers but alive and well. Very much alive. Dancing.
Some paper the other year dubbed VSCP the “IoT protocol that is older then IoT itself“. And yes it is true. If labels like IoT is important. For me working with VSCP, the framework, and what it can do is more important than labels put on to it. VSCP is still the only franework around that present a solution that scale from the smallest to the largest devices and actually solves “the problem”.
I can’t promise VSCP will be around for another fifteen years. But I will work for it to be. It isn’t always easy to carry out what you believe in. VSCP is struggling with the same problems most open and free projects are struggling with. If you have the 10K dollars you should of course bet on one of the “open” standard projects. If you don’t have that kind of money you should probably bet on one of them anyway. It’s a safe ride. Most people like safe rides. It’s ok to be a follower. After all most people are. But VSCP is about changing the world. And that is actually what we celebrate here today. Leading the way to the future. A solution for the brave. I will celebrate this day and the continue the work.
Ake Hedman
Maintainer of VSCP (Paradise of the Frog)
Well in my last post I told about our hardware designs/firmware/docs going fully open. Some guy out there asked me the other day in a mail if something happened, and I really felt he hoped something bad was going on, but nothing happened. And I told him. He probably got disappointed. Well except for a very cold summer and some happiness over some very nice days in the sun this week, everything is moving on as usual here at the Paradise of the Frog. Hard work. Many hours a day.
The fact on this matter is that I’m not after big profits. I have never been. I am a good guy and want to feel like I am to. My goal is to have enough money to pay my bills and have as fun as possible doing so. Some think that attitude is bad. But I have lived long enough now to know it isn’t. All them shiny cars and waterfront houses and money in the bank is probably fun to. But it is not just my bag of fun. Yes to maximize money you should probably protect as much as possible. Well I’m the good guy… You even get a meal and a beer without charge if you come around to my house. And some open hardware and some software.
I truly believe that the world becomes a better place if we share things with each other. It is in any case impossible to build anything at all without building it on others achievements. It does not matter how clever the things we come up with is. It is always built upon other peoples work. I think we all should recognize that. By sharing that is.
So just like VSCP is open source licensed the modules we make and sell at Grodans Paradis AB/Paradise of the Frog is now under an open source license. This includes drawings, documentation and firmware including sample code etc.
The license we selected in the end is the The Artistic License 3.0. You can read all about it here. In short it means
You are free:
- to Share—to copy, distribute and transmit the work, and
- to Remix—to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
- Attribution—You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work.)
With the understanding that:
- Waiver—Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.
- Other Rights—In no way are any of the following rights affected by the license:
- your fair dealing or fair use rights;
- the author’s moral rights; and
- rights other persons may have either in the work itself or in how the work is used, such as publicity or privacy rights.
So if you use the stuff we make in your own products you have to give credit to us. If you don’t want to do that. You should contact us to arrange another license.
A lot of hardware i brewing here. I have put some of it up on GitHub already and a lot more will follow. If you want to support this buy something from the Frogshop or contribute code. It is as simple as that really.
Cheers
Åke HedmanGrodans Paradis AB / Paradise of the Frog
Categories
The world
A problem I have faced during all the years I have been developing open source software and hardware (3/4 of my life now) and which most open source/hardware developers face, is that most people does not care to give back. Most people just take and take and take as they where put on earth just for doing that. They never care who they take from and what. “It’s free, it’s available, I just care about me, Me, ME and my close ones…”. No it’s not spoken out. It’s all in there actions. It’s not hard to see.
YES as an open source developer you get fed-up with this from time to time. We all have bills to pay. Open source/hardware developers have to. Surprisingly ey? So we sometimes close our source to protect our intellectual capital. Become people we don’t want to be. Protective of our work in a way that is against all we believe in.
Oh yes I know companies that use my work and get good money from it and even don’t bother to give a simple link back to any of my sites and it’s even a lesser chance they buy something from the FrogShop to support my work. “Why should they” they seem to think. If someone is foolish enough to leave something unprotected, of course we take it, use it, make it ours. “If I see a new TV or a car with the keys left in it on a parking lot I of course take it to. If someone left it there is must me mine. Right!?”
So when you are into this you often wounder what type of man you want to be. Like them? Or different? Different because you have other values in life.
No need to think about that for a long time. I decide on different.
So from now on all modules made by Grodans Paradis AB/Paradise of the Frog will be open source and open hardware. This means eagle files and all design documents, including source code for firmware will be available for all of them. License will be MIT. This info is not in all files yet but will be. I will add designmaterial and files as we go.
Yes the greedy ones will get more to “take” and make there own. But some will give back and contribute. I decide to focus on them. Because that make the world look a little better to me. It’s a fortune in that. At least I do believe it is.
Below the first two freed modules
https://github.com/grodansparadis/can4vscp_frankfurt_rs232 https://github.com/grodansparadis/can4vscp_beijing
More will follow .
Cheers
/Ake