@peapodtech/peapodos

PeaPod OS

Main software for PeaPod.

A cloud-connected isolated and automated plant growth environment, able to generate any environment from a combination of independent environment parameters.

Designed as both a hassle-free food production system and a research tool for precise and distributed mapping of the plant-environment relationship.

Table of Contents

• Background
• Production
  • Setting Up Raspberry Pi
• Development
  • Arduino Test Suite
  • Raspberry Pi Serial Testing
  • Build from Source

Background

Production

Setting Up Raspberry Pi

The following are performed on a computer:

• Format a microSD card (>=4GB) with a single FAT partition.
• Download the Raspberry Pi Imager (Download).
• Flash the SD card with a Raspberry Pi OS Lite image.

Note: In Future, a custom PeaPod Raspberry Pi OS Lite image will be released with steps 5, 6, and 12 already complete.

• Plug in a keyboard and display, insert the microSD card, and power the Raspberry Pi device.

The following are performed on the Raspberry Pi, with a keyboard and monitor:

• Login with the default username (pi) and password (raspberry).
• Execute sudo raspi-config and perform these steps to setup the Pi:
  • System Options > Wireless Lan - Setup WiFi and connect to the Internet
  • System Options > Hostname - Set a unique host name (e.g. john-peapod)
  • System Options > Boot/Auto Login - Select Console Autologin
  • Interface Options > SSH - Enable SSH Server
  • Interface Options > Serial Port - Disable serial login shell, but Enable the serial port hardware
  • Performance Options > GPU Memory - 256 (MB)
  • Localisation Options > Locale (i.e. en_US.UTF-8)
  • Localisation Options > Timezone (i.e. US > Eastern)
  • Localisation Options > Keyboard (i.e. Generic 105-key > English (US) > Default > No compose key)
  • Optional: Advanced Options > Expand Filesystem
  • Reboot to save: sudo reboot

You can now SSH into the Raspberry Pi to perform the rest of the setup (ssh [e-mail], or with VS Code)

Note: In Future, steps 7-11 will be performed at runtime.

• Update Packages:
  • Update package listings, upgrade existing packages: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y
  • Install Node.JS, the Node package manager, and avrdude: sudo apt-get install -y nodejs npm avrdude python3-venv (could take a while)
  • Install main software package: sudo npm i -g @peapodtech/peapodos --save

• Install PlatformIO Core with python3 -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/platformio/platformio/master/scripts/get-platformio.py)"

• Create a custom configuration file for the AVR flash utility avrdude to be able to program the Arduino Nano via ICSP over the Raspberry Pi's GPIO pins:

  • Create a local copy of the avrdude configuration file with cp /etc/avrdude.conf ~/software/microcontroller/avrdude_gpio.conf, then modify your copy with nano ~/software/microcontroller/avrdude_gpio.conf. Copy the following to the end of the file:

    # Raspberry Pi GPIO configuration for avrdude.
    programmer
      id    = "peapod";
      desc  = "Use the Linux sysfs interface to bitbang GPIO lines";
      type  = "linuxgpio";
      reset = 5;
      sck   = 6;
      mosi  = 12;
      miso  = 13;
    ;
    

    (Ctrl-O to save, Ctrl-X to exit)

  • Verify the configuration and connection to the Arduino with sudo avrdude -p m328p -C/avrdude_gpio.conf -c peapod -v. A successful output should look something like:

    avrdude: Version 6.3-20171130
         Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
         Copyright (c) 2007-2014 Joerg Wunsch
    
         System wide configuration file is "/home/pi/avrdude_gpio.conf"
         User configuration file is "/root/.avrduderc"
         User configuration file does not exist or is not a regular file, skipping
    
         Using Port                    : unknown
         Using Programmer              : peapod
         AVR Part                      : ATmega328P
         Chip Erase delay              : 9000 us
         PAGEL                         : PD7
         BS2                           : PC2
         RESET disposition             : dedicated
         RETRY pulse                   : SCK
         serial program mode           : yes
         parallel program mode         : yes
         Timeout                       : 200
         StabDelay                     : 100
         CmdexeDelay                   : 25
         SyncLoops                     : 32
         ByteDelay                     : 0
         PollIndex                     : 3
         PollValue                     : 0x53
         Memory Detail                 :
    
                                  Block Poll               Page                       Polled
           Memory Type Mode Delay Size  Indx Paged  Size   Size #Pages MinW  MaxW   ReadBack
           ----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
           eeprom        65    20     4    0 no       1024    4      0  3600  3600 0xff 0xff
           flash         65     6   128    0 yes     32768  128    256  4500  4500 0xff 0xff
           lfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
           hfuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
           efuse          0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
           lock           0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0  4500  4500 0x00 0x00
           calibration    0     0     0    0 no          1    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00
           signature      0     0     0    0 no          3    0      0     0     0 0x00 0x00
    
         Programmer Type : linuxgpio
         Description     : Use the Linux sysfs interface to bitbang GPIO lines
         Pin assignment  : /sys/class/gpio/gpio{n}
           RESET   =  8
           SCK     =  11
           MOSI    =  10
           MISO    =  9
    
    avrdude: AVR device initialized and ready to accept instructions
    
    Reading | ################################################## | 100% 0.00s
    
    avrdude: Device signature = 0x1e950f (probably m328p)
    avrdude: safemode: lfuse reads as FF
    avrdude: safemode: hfuse reads as DA
    avrdude: safemode: efuse reads as FD
    
    avrdude: safemode: lfuse reads as FF
    avrdude: safemode: hfuse reads as DA
    avrdude: safemode: efuse reads as FD
    avrdude: safemode: Fuses OK (E:FD, H:DA, L:FF)
    
    avrdude done.  Thank you.
    

• Perform first-time flashing with ~/.platformio/penv/bin/platformio run -d ~/software/microcontroller/ --target upload

• Edit the sudoers file to allow avrdude to be executed using sudo without a password:

  • Open the sudoers file: sudo visudo

  • Add the following line to the end (assuming your username is pi, the hostname is peapod, and the avrdude binary is located at /usr/bin/avrdude):

    pi peapod = (root) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/avrdude

    (Ctrl-O to save, Ctrl-X to exit; avrdude can be located with whereis avrdude)

• Install the UV4L camera library:

  • curl https://www.linux-projects.org/listing/uv4l_repo/lpkey.asc | sudo apt-key add -
  • Add the package listings: echo "deb https://www.linux-projects.org/listing/uv4l_repo/raspbian/stretch stretch main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/uv4l.list
  • Update packages: sudo apt-get update
  • Install the core library, the Raspberry Pi driver, extra scripts, adn WebRTC support: sudo apt-get install uv4l uv4l-raspicam uv4l-raspicam-extras uv4l-webrtc-armv6

• Populate a .env file with Firebase and Google and/or GitHub auth keys (a template is provided as .env.template), as well as the field SERIALPORT="/dev/ttyS0" (Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W GPIO mini-UART).

• Run the main program by executing peapodos.

Development

Arduino Test Suite

To run the PlatformIO Arduino test suite: ~/.platformio/penv/bin/platformio test -d ~/software/microcontroller/

Raspberry Pi Serial Testing

To test the GPIO serial port (/dev/ttyS0), connect GPIO pins 8 and 10 (TX and RX) and execute the following:

• Install the Python package manager pip: sudo apt-get install pip
• Install the Serial package pyserial: pip install pyserial
• Execute the test script: python ~/PeaPod/software/tests/serialTest.py

Correct output should look like:

Serial port '/dev/ttyS0' ready for test:
Sent 20 bytes: 'Testing Raspberry Pi GPIO serial port ...'
Received 20 bytes: 'Testing Raspberry Pi GPIO serial port ...'
Port '/dev/ttyS0' is is setup correctly!

Build from Source

• Install TypeScript language support and compiler, as well as a Node build tool: sudo npm install -g typescript
• Clone source
• Navigate to software/ folder
• Build the serialport package from source: sudo npm install serialport --unsafe-perm --build-from-source
• Install all other Node dependencies: npm i
• Compile the source with tsc and execute with node .