I.T. – Page 4 – Ben's blog

I’ve been revamping and refactoring the software stack for plotty… pewty… gondola plotty… etchy? bot. Everytime a new riff on drawing machines came up, I’d grab the last code I worked on and tailored it for the new endeavor, often adding generalizable improvements along the way, but never taking the time to refactor previous work.

I always try to be helpful when people reach out on this blog about something they need/want/would like, but I have limited time and I’ve learned to filter a bit and not let other people’s projects take too much of my time. Last December though, the folks from Code Club Luxembourg got in touch with a few questions, and I gave them the usual “helpful but not too much” filter. Except they went on to build 5 PlottyBots, a whole integration with Scratch, and now use it to teach coding. Music to my ears, and clearly they meant business. And so we hopped on a call to exchange ideas.

Clearly the software could use consistency and so I started thinking holistically with the laser code. Each machine has slightly different motor control, but it’s now evident which software pieces are consistent across implementations. Ideally, I’d like the same software stack no matter which machine you happen to be running on. So I refactored back to the gondola plotter, and finally the tabletop one. It’s still not finished but it’s definitely better and more consistent.

To test new software on the original PlottyBot, I ran it on my reMarkable tablet.

I’m not going to do a whole post dedicated to its merits, I’m allergic to promotional content, but I will say a quick few things on this unrelated post. I’ve been interested in Eink for the longest time but never found a compelling device I felt was more than a temporary gimmick. Even getting a pricy reMarkable was a bit of an experiment that could land in a closet gathering dust. But I did want to experiment with quieter and purpose targeted devices so I went on with it after more than a decade of seeing various Eink devices go by. I haven’t adopted it for everything I want to yet, it takes time to change long established work habits, but I will say that it absolutely NAILS writing. It nails it so hard it changed the way I problem solve to an earlier saner process. It might be a generational thing, but writing is key to information absorption and processing for me. The problem with paper is that I have pieces flying everywhere, and mistakes make for an unclean train of thought committed to paper which is frustrating to engage with further. With Eink writing, you get an infinite canvas, and the ability to massage thoughts into a perfect form, one ripe for implementation. I have found that I will pick this device with a sense of relief as it means I’m about to engage in uninterrupted deep thinking. I find many signs that it was carefully designed to be such a device and not your next fancy tech gizmo, and I absolutely love it for this. Hopping on a computer on the other hand does not yield a sense of relief, but rather stressed anticipation at the onslaught of mechanisms devised to get in the way of what I was trying to do. Of course, I can’t do as much on the reMarkable, but I’m curious more than ever to shift to it whatever I can.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

This isn’t the most involved project but I might as well document it. I’ve been trying to automate some of the more boring tasks of running the evaporator, I’ve got some nice stainless steel float valves to regulate the sap going in now for example. One of the things that kept requiring constant attention is the air intake to adjust the strength of the fire. I’d have to sit with a foot on it to be able to regulate it almost constantly, to make sure the fire wasn’t burning too hard or too weak. And so naturally I thought I could do something with a Pi.

This proved quite successful even with very loose wiring and fastening just to see how it would work.

All of a sudden I barely need to pay attention to the fire’s strength, with a few refinements I won’t have to at all.

The circuit is quite simple:

Wifi barely reaches the sugarhouse so I made sure this could run independent of connectivity. Which involves coding threads on a Pi Pico, which is supported but not as one would expect.

import machine
import time
import network
import socket
from max6675 import MAX6675
import _thread
    

html = """{\"evaporator_temperature\":<TEMPERATURE>}"""

# LED
led = machine.Pin( "LED", machine.Pin.OUT )

# temperature
sck = machine.Pin( 2, machine.Pin.OUT )
cs = machine.Pin( 3, machine.Pin.OUT )
so = machine.Pin( 4, machine.Pin.IN )
sensor = MAX6675( sck, cs , so )
temperature_min = 25
temperature_max = 30
temperature = -1337.0

# servo
servo = machine.PWM( machine.Pin(0) )
servo.freq( 50 )
servo_min = 1000
servo_max = 8000
servo_at = 0


def temp_to_servo( temp ):
    if (temperature_max - temperature_min)==0:
        # right in the middle
        return int( (servo_max-servo_min)/2 )
    result = (temp - temperature_min) * (servo_max - servo_min) / (temperature_max - temperature_min) + servo_min
    if result>servo_max:
        result = servo_max
    if result<servo_min:
        result = servo_min
    return int( result )


def blink_number( number ):
    number = str( int(number) )
    for char in number:
        for i in range(int(char)):
            led.value( 1 )
            time.sleep( 0.2 )
            led.value( 0 )
            time.sleep( 0.2 )
        time.sleep( 0.3 )
        led.value( 1 )
        time.sleep( 0.1 )
        led.value( 0 )
        time.sleep( 0.3 )
            


keep_going = False
def servo_thread():
    global temperature, servo_at, servo
    
    while keep_going:
        time.sleep( 5 )
        print( "# measuring average temperature over 1 seconds..." )
        temperature_total = 0.0
        for i in range(10):
            temperature_total += sensor.read()
            time.sleep( 0.1 )
        temperature = temperature_total / 10
        blink_number( temperature )
        print( "# " + str(temperature) )
        new_servo_position = temp_to_servo( temperature )
        print( "# new_servo_position: " + str(new_servo_position) )
        step = 1
        if new_servo_position<servo_at:
            step = -1
        for i in range(servo_at, new_servo_position, step):
            time.sleep( 0.001 )
            servo_at = i
            servo.duty_u16( i )
    print( "# servo tread finishing" )

# main thread
servo.duty_u16( servo_min )
for i in range(servo_min, servo_max):
    time.sleep( 0.001 )
    servo_at = i
    servo.duty_u16( i )

try:
    ssid = "<wifi_ssid>"
    password = "<wifi_password>"
    wlan = network.WLAN( network.STA_IF )
    wlan.active( True )
    wlan.connect( ssid, password )

    # wait for connect or fail
    max_wait = 20
    while max_wait>0:
        if wlan.status() < 0 or wlan.status() >= 3:
            break
        max_wait -= 1
        print( "> waiting for connection..." )
        time.sleep( 1 )

    # handle connection error
    if wlan.status()!=3:
        print( "> network connection failed, will launch servo thread in 1 minute" )
        time.sleep( 60 )
        print( "> launching" )
        keep_going = True
        _thread.start_new_thread(servo_thread, ())
        while True:
            time.sleep( 1 )
    else:
        print( "> connected" )
        status = wlan.ifconfig()
        print( "ip = " + status[0] )

        # open socket
        addr = socket.getaddrinfo( "0.0.0.0", 80)[0][-1]
        s = socket.socket()
        s.setsockopt( socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1 )
        #s.settimeout(1)
        s.bind( addr )
        s.listen( 1 )
        print( "> web server listening on", addr )

        # listen for connections
        while True:
            print( ">" )
            try:
                cl, addr = s.accept()
                print( "client connected from", addr)

                request = cl.recv( 1024 )
               
                request = request.decode( "utf-8" ).strip()
                print( request )

                if request.startswith( "GET / " ):
                    print( "get data" )
                    response = html.replace( "<TEMPERATURE>", str(temperature) )
                    cl.send( "HTTP/1.0 200 OK\r\nContent-type: application/json\r\n\r\n" )
                    cl.send( response )
                elif request.startswith( "GET /min_temperature " ):
                     print( "get min_temperature" )
                     cl.send( "HTTP/1.0 200 OK\r\nContent-type: application/json\r\n\r\n" )
                     cl.send( str(temperature_min) )
                elif request.startswith( "GET /max_temperature " ):
                     print( "get max_temperature" )
                     cl.send( "HTTP/1.0 200 OK\r\nContent-type: application/json\r\n\r\n" )
                     cl.send( str(temperature_max) )
                elif request.startswith( "PUT /min_temperature " ):
                    print( "put min_temperature" )
                    new_min_temperature = int(request.split( "\r\n\r\n" )[1])
                    print( new_min_temperature )
                    temperature_min = new_min_temperature
                    cl.send( "HTTP/1.0 200 OK\r\nContent-type: application/json\r\n\r\n" )
                    cl.send( "\"ok\"" )
                elif request.startswith( "PUT /max_temperature " ):
                    print( "put max_temperature" )
                    new_max_temperature = int(request.split( "\r\n\r\n" )[1])
                    print( new_max_temperature )
                    temperature_max = new_max_temperature
                    cl.send( "HTTP/1.0 200 OK\r\nContent-type: application/json\r\n\r\n" )
                    cl.send( "\"ok\"" )
                elif request.startswith( "PUT /start " ):
                    print( "put start" )
                    cl.send( "HTTP/1.0 200 OK\r\nContent-type: application/json\r\n\r\n" )
                    if keep_going:
                        print( "  already started" )
                        cl.send( "\"already started\"" )
                    else:
                        keep_going = True
                        _thread.start_new_thread(servo_thread, ())
                        cl.send( "\"started\"" )
                        for i in range(5000, 6000):
                            time.sleep( 0.001 )
                            servo_at = i
                            servo.duty_u16( i )
                elif request.startswith( "PUT /stop " ):
                    print( "put stop" )
                    #cl.send( "HTTP/1.0 501 OK\r\nContent-type: application/json\r\n\r\n" )
                    #cl.send( "\"not implemented\"" )
                    # crash on stop, thread support is that bad
                    cl.send( "HTTP/1.0 200 OK\r\nContent-type: application/json\r\n\r\n" )
                    if keep_going:
                        keep_going = False
                        cl.send( "\"stopped\"" )
                    else:
                        print( "  already stopped" )
                        cl.send( "\"already stopped\"" )

                cl.close()
         
            except OSError as e:
                cl.close()
                print( "> connection closed" )
                keep_going = False
                time.sleep( 2 )
    

except KeyboardInterrupt:
    print( "> ctrl+c, wrapping up..." )
    keep_going = False
    time.sleep( 10 )
except Exception as e:
    print( e )
    print( "> unexpected exception, wrapping up..." )
    keep_going = False
    time.sleep( 10 )

import time
class MAX6675:
    MEASUREMENT_PERIOD_MS = 220

    def __init__(self, sck, cs, so):
        """
        Creates new object for controlling MAX6675
        :param sck: SCK (clock) pin, must be configured as Pin.OUT
        :param cs: CS (select) pin, must be configured as Pin.OUT
        :param so: SO (data) pin, must be configured as Pin.IN
        """
        # Thermocouple
        self._sck = sck
        self._sck.low()

        self._cs = cs
        self._cs.high()

        self._so = so
        self._so.low()

        self._last_measurement_start = 0
        self._last_read_temp = 0
        self._error = 0

    def _cycle_sck(self):
        self._sck.high()
        time.sleep_us(1)
        self._sck.low()
        time.sleep_us(1)

    def refresh(self):
        """
        Start a new measurement.
        """
        self._cs.low()
        time.sleep_us(10)
        self._cs.high()
        self._last_measurement_start = time.ticks_ms()

    def ready(self):
        """
        Signals if measurement is finished.
        :return: True if measurement is ready for reading.
        """
        return time.ticks_ms() - self._last_measurement_start > MAX6675.MEASUREMENT_PERIOD_MS

    def error(self):
        """
        Returns error bit of last reading. If this bit is set (=1), there's problem with the
        thermocouple - it can be damaged or loosely connected
        :return: Error bit value
        """
        return self._error

    def read(self):
        """
        Reads last measurement and starts a new one. If new measurement is not ready yet, returns last value.
        Note: The last measurement can be quite old (e.g. since last call to `read`).
        To refresh measurement, call `refresh` and wait for `ready` to become True before reading.
        :return: Measured temperature
        """
        # Check if new reading is available
        if self.ready():
            # Bring CS pin low to start protocol for reading result of
            # the conversion process. Forcing the pin down outputs
            # first (dummy) sign bit 15.
            self._cs.low()
            time.sleep_us(10)

            # Read temperature bits 14-3 from MAX6675.
            value = 0
            for i in range(12):
                # SCK should resemble clock signal and new SO value
                # is presented at falling edge
                self._cycle_sck()
                value += self._so.value() << (11 - i)

            # Read the TC Input pin to check if the input is open
            self._cycle_sck()
            self._error = self._so.value()

            # Read the last two bits to complete protocol
            for i in range(2):
                self._cycle_sck()

            # Finish protocol and start new measurement
            self._cs.high()
            self._last_measurement_start = time.ticks_ms()

            self._last_read_temp = value * 0.25

        return self._last_read_temp

Web requests collection.

Category: I.T.

Eink, Plots & Luxembourg

PewtyBot 1.0 x2

Evaporator Regulator