frugal-iot

A platform to enable affordable sensor networks

For now see the Google Doc: Frugal IoT - enabling low cost sensor networks Scroll down to the bottom for links to other docs.

Also see the subdirectory ./docs

Installation and testing POC

This is still at POC stage, so installation is non-optimal, and only tested on Macs - assistance appreciated to improve that !

Please recheck these instructions as they will probably change often as code evolves to an easier POC setup, i.e. installation of each early version might be different !

Getting help

If you having an installation related question please check the (./FAQ.md) and if it you cannot find the answer there, please raise a new issue at (https://github.com/mitra42/frugal-iot/issues) make sure the title starts "INSTALLATION: ". Please note that from our perspective, if you cannot understand how to install that is probably a problem with the quality of our documentation !

Test environment

Our current test dev board is a ESP8266 Lolin D1 Mini with a SHT30 Temp & Humidity shield, also from Lolin, I expect to start testing other combinations of boards and sensors soon. Instructions for other board/sensor combinations are welcome.

I've tried testing on a Lolin C3 Pico (ESP3C) but so far (2024-10-18) not successfully. I expect to solve that soon.

Install pre-requisites

• Check you have node & npm & http-server installed node -v If not then you'll need nodejs from (nodejs.org)
• cd html
• npm install # Adds the libraries needd for the html
• then fork this repo, and cd into wherever it is installed.
• For the purpose of these instructions we will assume that is ~/frugal-iot but it could be anywhere.

Install mosquitto

• Note, at some point soon we'll have a MQTT server on a known location - watch issue#30.d
• On a mac
  • check you have homebrew installed brew -v
  • brew install mosquitto worked for me with no problems.
  • cd ~/frugal-iot/html
  • mosquitto -c mosquitto.conf # Run a mqtt server (which the sensor node will use) and websockets (which the browser uses) on default ports

Run http server

• cd ~/frugal-iot/html
• http-server
• Not down the IP address it reports (not the 127.0.0.1, the other one) - this will also be the address of the mqtt server
• open (http://localhost:8080) in your browser

Arduino IDE basics - skip if you know what you are doing

• In Arduino IDE
• Open ~/frugal-iot/
• Tools -> Upload Speed -> 460800
• Tools -> Board
  • Check you have selected the dev board
  • TODO add instructions, or a link here for adding new boards to an Arduino IDE - most will need to do this.
• Tools -> Port
  • Select the port your device is plugged into
• Tools -> Serial Monitor
  • This can be tricky - it should open at 460800 but might need changing after the first run at which point it should remember

Installing on a dev board

Basic test

• Edit _configuration.h to match your system and functionality required for example uncomment SENSOR_SHT85_WANT to enable that functionality
• Compile and Flash to your dev board (ESP8266 tested, ESP32 should work)
• On a Wifi device such as a phone
• Connect to the wifi node of the board which will have a SSID like esp8266-12345
• Configure the Wifi SSID and Password of your router,
• Configure the mqtt server address (address of your laptop noted when setting up the http server)
• SAVE and RESTART
• It should now connect to the mqtt server

If you got the configuration wrong, you'll need (for now - part of issue#22) to

• erase the settings - on Arduino IDE this is Tools->Erase->All Flash
• recompile/flash.