Muchiri

Published July 6, 2015 © GPL3+

LinkIt WiFi Terminal

I have created a simple LinkIt One library and a Python Server terminal for sending and receiving your debugging information over wifi.

IntermediateProtip1,231

Story

Introduction

If you have used LinkIt One or read documentation, you'll discover that serial port is not the only option for debugging your projects. I have created a simple LinkIt One library and a Python Server terminal for sending and receiving your debugging information over your home wifi network. Use the library, plug LiPo battery into LinkIt and start receiving debug messages through WiFi. Feel free to hack and modify the Library to suit your needs if you feel you dont need serial port for debugging. Since the terminal server is written in python its cross platform thus you can run it on any computer with ease or without modification. e.g if you are developing a GPS Application and you've got a poor signal inside your house, you can program LinkIt and place it outside and view your GPS information.

Set up

Arduino Sketch SetUp

include the preprocessor needed and the LTerminal library. To use the LTerminal Library you need to put the LTerminal folder in your Arduino Libraries folder.

//includes required
#include 
#include 

//include LTerminal library
#include

set your wifi and terminal server credentials accordingly

 //defines: user credentials
#define WIFI_AP "your_AP" //wifi AP
#define WIFI_PASSWORD "password" //wifi Password
#define WIFI_AUTH LWIFI_WPA// choose from LWIFI_OPEN, LWIFI_WPA, or LWIFI_WEP.
#define SERVER "192.168.1.101" //set server i.p address
#define PORT 2215 //port

in the setup function, start with LTerminal.begin(WIFI_AP, WIFI_AUTH, WIFI_PASSWORD, SERVER, PORT) and then begin printing your data to terminal using the Print Class Methods e.g. write, printf, print and println.

Note: To send data to server always make sure to put a blank println() at the end your print/write statements i.e. LTerminal.println()

Terminal Setup

Setting up the Terminal is easy

In the downloaded library folder, confirm you have the terminal python file, LTerminal.py
To start the terminal, in windows, open the command shell and type python folder_location/LTerminal.py e.g python D:/libraries/LTerminal/LTerminal.py. same applies to linux OS terminal shell. In both cases make sure you are opening the file using Python 3. If you are using Python 2.7 no worries, just rename all instances of socketserver to SocketServer
If you cant successfully open the terminal, thats is, the terminal identifies wrong i.p address, then specify your host i.p as an argument in the command shell e.g python folder_location/LTerminal.py 192.168.1.101

Terminal output

What's More

Unfortunately you can only send to the server and not back to LinkIt One but implementation is easier since LinkIt wifi Client suports reading responses and the Terminal/Server side is implemented using python socketserver module capable of creating a powerful server.
A Graphical Interface is much better than command shell, if you can do it then hack the LTerminal.py else wait for update.

Code

Sample code

//includes required
#include 
#include 

//include LTerminal library
#include 

//defines: user credentials
#define WIFI_AP "your_AP" //wifi AP
#define WIFI_PASSWORD "password" //wifi Password
#define WIFI_AUTH LWIFI_WPA// choose from LWIFI_OPEN, LWIFI_WPA, or LWIFI_WEP.
#define SERVER "192.168.1.101" //set server i.p address
#define PORT 2215 //port

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
   //connect to terminal with given creds
  LTerminal.begin(WIFI_AP, WIFI_AUTH, WIFI_PASSWORD, SERVER, PORT);
  //send data
  LTerminal.println();
  LTerminal.println("[--     LinkIt One Remote Terminal    --]");
  LTerminal.println("[--           ASCII TABLE DEMO        --]");
  LTerminal.println();
  //wait for 3 seconds
  delay(1000);
  // prints title with ending line break
  LTerminal.println("ASCII Table ~ Character Map");
  LTerminal.println();
  delay(2000);
}

// first visible ASCIIcharacter '!' is number 33:
int thisByte = 33;
// you can also write ASCII characters in single quotes.
// for example. '!' is the same as 33, so you could also use this:
//int thisByte = '!';

void loop() {
  // prints value unaltered, i.e. the raw binary version of the
  // byte. The Console monitor interprets all bytes as
  // ASCII, so 33, the first number,  will show up as '!'
  LTerminal.write(thisByte);

  LTerminal.print(",  dec: ");
  // prints value as string as an ASCII-encoded decimal (base 10).
  // Decimal is the  default format for Console.print() and Console.println(),
  // so no modifier is needed:
  LTerminal.printf("%03d", thisByte);
  // But you can declare the modifier for decimal if you want to.
  //this also works if you uncomment it:

  // Console.print(thisByte, DEC);

  LTerminal.print(",  hex: ");
  // prints value as string in hexadecimal (base 16):
  LTerminal.printf("0x%X",thisByte);

  LTerminal.print(",  oct: ");
  // prints value as string in octal (base 8);
  LTerminal.printf("%03o", thisByte);

  LTerminal.print(",  bin: 0b");
  // prints value as string in binary (base 2)
  // also prints ending line break:
  LTerminal.println(thisByte, BIN);

  // if printed last visible character '~' or 126, stop:
  if (thisByte == 126) {    // you could also use if (thisByte == '~') {
    // ensure the latest bit of data is sent
    //Console.flush();
    LTerminal.println();
    LTerminal.println("Done!");
    // This loop loops forever and does nothing
    while (true) {
      continue;
    }
  }
  // go on to the next character
  thisByte++;
}

Credits

Muchiri

LinkIt WiFi Terminal

Story

Introduction

Set up

What's More

Schematics

Photo of circuit

Code

Sample code

Github

Credits

Comments

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LinkIt WiFi Terminal

LinkIt WiFi Terminal

Story

Introduction

Set up

What's More

Schematics

Photo of circuit

Code

Sample code

Github

Credits

Comments

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