ESP8266 ESP-12F with NodeMCU firmware reboots when using looped GPIO write - lua

I have an ESP-12F module that I flashed with the current NodeMCU dev-branch firmware. The module is powered by a >2A power supply. I use 4 GPIO's to control the driver of a little stepper motor (this is the combo).
I wrote a little Lua script (partially based on the arduino version described here) in ESPlorer to control the motor, and the program does work, the motor turns accordingly, but it reboots the module when I call the function turn with too many steps. The limit is at around 180 steps, sometimes a little bit higher, sometimes a little bit below that number.
I'm really new to programming this kind of modules and I'm also just learning Lua, can anybody imagine what happens here and how I can avoid the reboots? BTW: I also tried supplying external 5 Volts to the driver board, but it did not change anything.
This is my script:
gpio.mode(5, gpio.OUTPUT)
gpio.mode(6, gpio.OUTPUT)
gpio.mode(7, gpio.OUTPUT)
gpio.mode(0, gpio.OUTPUT)
sg = function (n,v) gpio.write(n, (v == 0 and gpio.LOW or gpio.HIGH)) end
stepRight = function ()
sg(5,0);sg(6,0);sg(7,0);sg(0,1);
sg(5,0);sg(6,0);sg(7,1);sg(0,1);
sg(5,0);sg(6,0);sg(7,1);sg(0,0);
sg(5,0);sg(6,1);sg(7,1);sg(0,0);
sg(5,0);sg(6,1);sg(7,0);sg(0,0);
sg(5,1);sg(6,1);sg(7,0);sg(0,0);
sg(5,1);sg(6,0);sg(7,0);sg(0,0);
sg(5,1);sg(6,0);sg(7,0);sg(0,1);
sg(5,0);sg(6,0);sg(7,0);sg(0,0);
end
turn = function (dir, steps)
if dir == 'right' then
for i=0,steps,1 do
stepRight()
end
end
end
Here are some details about the module and the firmware:
NodeMCU custom build by frightanic.com
branch: dev
commit: c54bc05ba61fe55f0dccc1a1506791ba41f1d31b
SSL: true
modules: adc,cjson,crypto,dht,file,gpio,hmc5883l,http,i2c,l3g4200d,mqtt,net,node,ow,pwm,spi,tmr,tsl2561,uart,wifi
build built on: 2016-11-21 19:02
powered by Lua 5.1.4 on SDK 1.5.4.1(39cb9a32)
This is what it looks like when I call the turn function with a too high value:
turn('right',200)
ets Jan 8 2013,rst cause:2, boot mode:(3,7)
load 0x40100000, len 26144, room 16
tail 0
chksum 0x95
load 0x3ffe8000, len 2288, room 8
tail 8
chksum 0xa8
load 0x3ffe88f0, len 8, room 0
tail 8
chksum 0x66
csum 0x66
����o�r��n|�llll`��r�l�l��
NodeMCU custom build by frightanic.com
branch: dev
commit: c54bc05ba61fe55f0dccc1a1506791ba41f1d31b
SSL: true
modules: adc,cjson,crypto,dht,file,gpio,hmc5883l,http,i2c,l3g4200d,mqtt,net,node,ow,pwm,spi,tmr,tsl2561,uart,wifi
build built on: 2016-11-21 19:02
powered by Lua 5.1.4 on SDK 1.5.4.1(39cb9a32)
lua: cannot open init.lua
>
Update: I found a solution that works, but I can't explain why. Maybe someone can shed some light on this?
I thought that I had to approach the problem by finding out when and how the reboot occurs, so I added a little timer delay to the for loop:
for i=0,steps,1 do
stepRight()
tmr.delay(10)
end
This does not affect the speed of the motor in any noticable way, but now I can easily crank up the numbers as high as I want ;) I can use turn('right',200000) and the reboot is completely gone, it did not reoccur even once, even if I set the delay to only 1 µs. That's great - but I'd love to know why that helps?

You are calling the sg()7,200 times in a single turn function. You have to break your processing up to avoid time-outs. This is just the way that the ESP8266 SDK requires.
Read my FAQ in the documentation for a more detailed discussion.

Related

Problems interpreting a square wave

I'm trying to use an ESP8266 SoC to read a water flow sensor that is said to produce a square wave as output. I thought it would be a simple matter of using a GPIO port in interrupt mode, to count rising edge transitions -- and in fact that initially seemed to work. Then I upgraded the firmware from 0.96 to 1.5 and it has since ceased to work, I see no transitions when the wheel spins anymore.
However, if I run a wire to the pin [for the GPIO I'm using] and touch it to VCC momentarily, the interrupt routine is called as expected, so I know the sensor is wired to the right pin, and the interrupt routine is registered correctly. My code:
function intCb(level)
SpinCount = SpinCount + 1
local levelString = "up"
if level == gpio.HIGH then
levelString = "down"
end
gpio.trig(pin, levelString, intCb)
end
gpio.write(pin, 0)
gpio.trig(pin, "up", intCb)
gpio.mode(pin, gpio.INT, gpio.FLOAT)
So what am I missing? Do I need more support circuitry to read a square wave as input? If so then how did it work initially?
For anything that involves hardware it's really hard to give a definite answer here on SO. In most cases one bases it on hints (and hunches sometimes). A few ideas:
gpio.FLOAT should probably be gpio.PULLUP instead (unless you have an external pull-up resistor).
Your setup doesn't seem to be fundamentally different from e.g. using a push button or a switch to trigger some event. Hence, you probably want to use some kind of debounce or throttle function.
Since you seem to be interested in both rising and falling edges (as you switch between up and down) you might just as well listen for both, no?
So, assuming I drew the right conclusions something like the following generic skeleton may prove to be useful:
-- inspired by https://github.com/hackhitchin/esp8266-co-uk/blob/master/tutorials/introduction-to-gpio-api.md
-- and http://www.esp8266.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=4833&start=5#p29127
local pin = 4 --> GPIO2
function debounce (func)
local last = 0
local delay = 5000
return function (...)
local now = tmr.now()
local delta = now - last
-- if delta < 0 then delta = delta + 2147483647 end; proposed because of delta rolling over
if delta < delay then return end;
last = now
return func(...)
end
end
function onChange ()
print('The pin value has changed to '..gpio.read(pin))
end
gpio.mode(pin, gpio.INT, gpio.PULLUP) -- see https://github.com/hackhitchin/esp8266-co-uk/pull/1
gpio.trig(pin, 'both', debounce(onChange))
I solved this using a 555 timer chip as a schmitt trigger:

Set mmc2 on beaglebone black

I am working with a Beaglebone Black and I would like to use the mmc2 slot.
according to AM335xx TRM, a beaglebone black should have 3 mmc available:
mmc0 (sd card);
mmc1 (2G flash),
mmc2.
I am trying to enable mmc2 by device tree (and I am quite sure to have the right pin settings) but, by doing
dmesg
I obtain:
/ocp/mmc#47810000: can't find DMA channel
omap_hsmmc mmc.11: unable to obtain RX DMA engine channel 65
By putting the oscilloscope probe on the header (e.g. the mmc2 clk signal), I do not see any transition.
I already removed R 160 to have mmc2 cmd accessible but I do not see any transition also there.
I tried both to enable it by
echo > /sys/devices/..../slots
and by
capemgr.enable_partno
with no success:
I can see it in
/sys/devices/..../slots
(with the L meaning loaded)..but no way to see any signal on the header.
I already googled it but answers are not clear at all.
Any ideas?
My
uname -a
is:
Linux beaglebone 3.8.13 #1 SMP Tue Jun 18 02:11:09 EDT 2013 armv7l GNU/Linux
Thanks for your help.
You need to configure the mmc2 DMA events to some DMA channel since these events are not direct mapped.
I was not able to do this successfully using device tree overlays. So I made a change in the
am335-x-bone-common.dtsi directly (not sure this is the best way though):
&edma {
ti,edma-xbar-event-map = <32 12>, /* gpevt2 -> 12 */
<30 20>, /* xdma_event_intr2 -> 20 */
+ <1 32>,
+ <2 33>;
};
In the example above the event 1 (SDTXEVT2) was mapped to channel 32 and event 2 (SDRXEVT2) to channel 33.
In case you want to pick another open DMA channel check tables 11-23. Direct Mapped and Table 11-24. Crossbar Mapped from the technical reference manual Rev J.
In your device tree overlay file add these channels in the mmc3 node:
dmas = <&edma 32
&edma 33>;
dma-names = "tx", "rx";

Error in file.read() return above 2 GB on 64 bit python

I have several ~50 GB text files that I need to parse for specific contents. My files contents are organized in 4 line blocks. To perform this analysis I read in subsections of the file using file.read(chunk_size) and split into blocks of 4 then analyze them.
Because I run this script often, I've been optimizing and have tried varying the chunk size. I run 64 bit 2.7.1 python on OSX Lion on a computer with 16 GB RAM and I noticed that when I load chunks >= 2^31, instead of the expected text, I get large amounts of /x00 repeated. This continues as far as my testing has shown all the way to, and including 2^32, after which I once again get text. However, it seems that it's only returning as many characters as bytes have been added to the buffer above 4 GB.
My test code:
for i in range((2**31)-3, (2**31)+3)+range((2**32)-3, (2**32)+10):
with open('mybigtextfile.txt', 'rU') as inf:
print '%s\t%r'%(i, inf.read(i)[0:10])
My output:
2147483645 '#HWI-ST550'
2147483646 '#HWI-ST550'
2147483647 '#HWI-ST550'
2147483648 '\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00'
2147483649 '\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00'
2147483650 '\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00'
4294967293 '\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00'
4294967294 '\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00'
4294967295 '\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00'
4294967296 '\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00'
4294967297 '#\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00'
4294967298 '#H\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00'
4294967299 '#HW\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00'
4294967300 '#HWI\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00'
4294967301 '#HWI-\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00'
4294967302 '#HWI-S\x00\x00\x00\x00'
4294967303 '#HWI-ST\x00\x00\x00'
4294967304 '#HWI-ST5\x00\x00'
4294967305 '#HWI-ST55\x00'
What exactly is going on?
Yes, this is the known issue according to the comment in cpython's source code. You can check it in Modules/_io/fileio.c. And the code add a workaround on Microsoft windows 64bit only.

Detect SSD using Delphi [duplicate]

I'm getting ready to release a tool that is only effective with regular hard drives, not SSD (solid state drive). In fact, it shouldn't be used with SSD's because it will result in a lot of read/writes with no real effectiveness.
Anyone knows of a way of detecting if a given drive is solid-state?
Finally a reliable solution! Two of them, actually!
Check /sys/block/sdX/queue/rotational, where sdX is the drive name. If it's 0, you're dealing with an SSD, and 1 means plain old HDD.
I can't put my finger on the Linux version where it was introduced, but it's present in Ubuntu's Linux 3.2 and in vanilla Linux 3.6 and not present in vanilla 2.6.38. Oracle also backported it to their Unbreakable Enterprise kernel 5.5, which is based on 2.6.32.
There's also an ioctl to check if the drive is rotational since Linux 3.3, introduced by this commit. Using sysfs is usually more convenient, though.
You can actually fairly easily determine the rotational latency -- I did this once as part of a university project. It is described in this report. You'll want to skip to page 7 where you see some nice graphs of the latency. It goes from about 9.3 ms to 1.1 ms -- a drop of 8.2 ms. That corresponds directly to 60 s / 8.2 ms = 7317 RPM.
It was done with simple C code -- here's the part that measures the between positions aand b in a scratch file. We did this with larger and larger b values until we have been wandered all the way around a cylinder:
/* Measure the difference in access time between a and b. The result
* is measured in nanoseconds. */
int measure_latency(off_t a, off_t b) {
cycles_t ta, tb;
overflow_disk_buffer();
lseek(work_file, a, SEEK_SET);
read(work_file, buf, KiB/2);
ta = get_cycles();
lseek(work_file, b, SEEK_SET);
read(work_file, buf, KiB/2);
tb = get_cycles();
int diff = (tb - ta)/cycles_per_ns;
fprintf(stderr, "%i KiB to %i KiB: %i nsec\n", a / KiB, b / KiB, diff);
return diff;
}
This command lsblk -d -o name,rota lists your drives and has a 1 at ROTA if it's a rotational disk and a 0 if it's an SSD.
Example output :
NAME ROTA
sda 1
sdb 0
Detecting SSDs is not as impossible as dseifert makes out. There is already some progress in linux's libata (http://linux.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/Kernel/2009-04/msg03625.html), though it doesn't seem user-ready yet.
And I definitely understand why this needs to be done. It's basically the difference between a linked list and an array. Defragmentation and such is usually counter-productive on a SSD.
You could get lucky by running
smartctl -i sda
from Smartmontools. Almost all SSDs has SSD in the Model field. No guarantee though.
My two cents to answering this old but very important question... If a disk is accessed via SCSI, then you will (potentially) be able to use SCSI INQUIRY command to request its rotational rate. VPD (Vital Product Data) page for that is called Block Device Characteristics and has a number 0xB1. Bytes 4 and 5 of this page contain a number with meaning:
0000h "Medium rotation rate is not reported"
0001h "Non-rotating medium (e.g., solid state)"
0002h - 0400h "Reserved"
0401h - FFFEh "Nominal medium rotation rate in rotations per minute (i.e.,
rpm) (e.g., 7 200 rpm = 1C20h, 10 000 rpm = 2710h, and 15 000 rpm = 3A98h)"
FFFFh "Reserved"
So, SSD must have 0001h in this field. The T10.org document about this page can be found here.
However, the implementation status of this standard is not clear to me.
I wrote the following javascript code. I needed to determine if machine was ussing SSD drive and if it was boot drive. The solution uses MSFT_PhysicalDisk WMI interface.
function main()
{
var retval= false;
// MediaType - 0 Unknown, 3 HDD, 4 SSD
// SpindleSpeed - -1 has rotational speed, 0 has no rotational speed (SSD)
// DeviceID - 0 boot device
var objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\\\.\\root\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Storage");
var colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("select * from MSFT_PhysicalDisk");
var enumItems = new Enumerator(colItems);
for (; !enumItems.atEnd(); enumItems.moveNext())
{
var objItem = enumItems.item();
if (objItem.MediaType == 4 && objItem.SpindleSpeed == 0)
{
if (objItem.DeviceID ==0)
{
retval=true;
}
}
}
if (retval)
{
WScript.Echo("You have SSD Drive and it is your boot drive.");
}
else
{
WScript.Echo("You do not have SSD Drive");
}
return retval;
}
main();
SSD devices emulate a hard disk device interface, so they can just be used like hard disks. This also means that there is no general way to detect what they are.
You probably could use some characteristics of the drive (latency, speed, size), though this won't be accurate for all drives. Another possibility may be to look at the S.M.A.R.T. data and see whether you can determine the type of disk through this (by model name, certain values), however unless you keep a database of all drives out there, this is not gonna be 100% accurate either.
write text file
read text file
repeat 10000 times...
10000/elapsed
for an ssd will be much higher, python3:
def ssd_test():
doc = 'ssd_test.txt'
start = time.time()
for i in range(10000):
with open(doc, 'w+') as f:
f.write('ssd test')
f.close()
with open(doc, 'r') as f:
ret = f.read()
f.close()
stop = time.time()
elapsed = stop - start
ios = int(10000/elapsed)
hd = 'HDD'
if ios > 6000: # ssd>8000; hdd <4000
hd = 'SSD'
print('detecting hard drive type by read/write speed')
print('ios', ios, 'hard drive type', hd)
return hd

Erlang/OTP - Timing Applications

I am interested in bench-marking different parts of my program for speed. I having tried using info(statistics) and erlang:now()
I need to know down to the microsecond what the average speed is. I don't know why I am having trouble with a script I wrote.
It should be able to start anywhere and end anywhere. I ran into a problem when I tried starting it on a process that may be running up to four times in parallel.
Is there anyone who already has a solution to this issue?
EDIT:
Willing to give a bounty if someone can provide a script to do it. It needs to spawn though multiple process'. I cannot accept a function like timer.. at least in the implementations I have seen. IT only traverses one process and even then some major editing is necessary for a full test of a full program. Hope I made it clear enough.
Here's how to use eprof, likely the easiest solution for you:
First you need to start it, like most applications out there:
23> eprof:start().
{ok,<0.95.0>}
Eprof supports two profiling mode. You can call it and ask to profile a certain function, but we can't use that because other processes will mess everything up. We need to manually start it profiling and tell it when to stop (this is why you won't have an easy script, by the way).
24> eprof:start_profiling([self()]).
profiling
This tells eprof to profile everything that will be run and spawned from the shell. New processes will be included here. I will run some arbitrary multiprocessing function I have, which spawns about 4 processes communicating with each other for a few seconds:
25> trade_calls:main_ab().
Spawned Carl: <0.99.0>
Spawned Jim: <0.101.0>
<0.100.0>
Jim: asking user <0.99.0> for a trade
Carl: <0.101.0> asked for a trade negotiation
Carl: accepting negotiation
Jim: starting negotiation
... <snip> ...
We can now tell eprof to stop profiling once the function is done running.
26> eprof:stop_profiling().
profiling_stopped
And we want the logs. Eprof will print them to screen by default. You can ask it to also log to a file with eprof:log(File). Then you can tell it to analyze the results. We tell it to collapse the run time from all processes into a single table with the option total (see the manual for more options):
27> eprof:analyze(total).
FUNCTION CALLS % TIME [uS / CALLS]
-------- ----- --- ---- [----------]
io:o_request/3 46 0.00 0 [ 0.00]
io:columns/0 2 0.00 0 [ 0.00]
io:columns/1 2 0.00 0 [ 0.00]
io:format/1 4 0.00 0 [ 0.00]
io:format/2 46 0.00 0 [ 0.00]
io:request/2 48 0.00 0 [ 0.00]
...
erlang:atom_to_list/1 5 0.00 0 [ 0.00]
io:format/3 46 16.67 1000 [ 21.74]
erl_eval:bindings/1 4 16.67 1000 [ 250.00]
dict:store_bkt_val/3 400 16.67 1000 [ 2.50]
dict:store/3 114 50.00 3000 [ 26.32]
And you can see that most of the time (50%) is spent in dict:store/3. 16.67% is taken in outputting the result, another 16.67% is taken by erl_eval (this is why you get by running short functions in the shell -- parsing them becomes longer than running them).
You can then start going from there. That's the basics of profiling run times with Erlang. Handle with care, eprof can be quite a load on a production system or for functions that run for too long. Especially on a production system.
You can use eprof or fprof.
The normal way to do this is with timer:tc. Here is a good explanation.
I can recommend you this tool: https://github.com/virtan/eep
You will get something like this https://raw.github.com/virtan/eep/master/doc/sshot1.png as a result.
Step by step instruction for profiling all processes on running system:
On target system:
1> eep:start_file_tracing("file_name"), timer:sleep(20000), eep:stop_tracing().
$ scp -C $PWD/file_name.trace desktop:
On desktop:
1> eep:convert_tracing("file_name").
$ kcachegrind callgrind.out.file_name

Resources