minicom trouble

Hi all.

I'm using a RFM12Pi I soldered as indicated here, on a Rasp with an SD card installed "from scratch".

Before doing any emoncms installation, I would like to see if I receive anything from the emonTX. So I jumped straight from "Configuring from scratch" to RFM12Pi Setup.

I modified cmdline.txt as suggested. I did not install the php libraries, yet.

When I launch minicom, it exits after like one second without outputing anything.

If I launch it as root, I get

Welcome to minicom 2.6.1

OPTIONS: I18n
Compiled on Apr 28 2012, 19:24:31.
Port /dev/ttyAMA0

Press CTRL-A Z for help on special keys

but no prompt : no ">" sign and I can't write. I can Ctrl+Z A, though.

The serial port should not be taken, as no emoncms cron job has been set.

I don't understand why minicom does not provide any prompt. Any idea ?

Besides, I'm concerned by the fact I had to run it as root. Does this mean I'll have permissions issues when trying to read data from the radio ?

Here is the result of the groups command :

pi adm dialout cdrom sudo audio video plugdev games users netdev input indiecity

Thanks.

jonbev's picture

Re: minicom trouble

Did you also do the change to the inittab and reboot afterwards?

Jérôme's picture

Re: minicom trouble

/me feels stupid...

Thanks, now it works.

I edited the wiki to make the inittab step more visible.

Marquis27's picture

Re: minicom trouble

 

I am having a similar problem. I have a new raspberry pi, with the raspberrypi rfm12b module v1. I have done the cmdline and the inittab swtich. My rfm module has the green light on solidly. 

When I try to use minicom, I get:

Welcome to minicom 2.6.1

OPTIONS: I18n
Compiled on Apr 28 2012, 19:24:31.
Port /dev/ttyAMA0

Press CTRL-A Z for help on special keys

 

But it says offline at the bottom and there is no command promt. Is my rfm12b module not talking to my RPI? What does the solid green light indicate? Any suggestions?

 

TrystanLea's picture

Re: minicom trouble

Marquis27, Do you see anything in the log file? 

Try:

sudo service rfm12piphp restart log

and then

tail -F -n 40  /var/log/rfm12piphp.log

As documented here:

https://github.com/emoncms/raspberrypi

Marquis27's picture

Re: minicom trouble

Sorry, I haven't installed the emoncms on the RPI yet. I was actually planning to just modify the python script to send the data to my remote emonCMS installation without doing the whole RPI install. 

My understanding is that the rfm12b v1 would be able to output to the serial without doing all the install. Is that incorrect? I have basically a clean RPI install, with the two UART modifications done, with a rfm12b module on it. I thought that would be enough to talk to emontx.

Is there any other way I can test the module without installing everything? Thanks.

Jérôme's picture

Re: minicom trouble

Currently, the gateway is designed to be configured through emoncms as a GUI. It has been pointed out already that the whole emoncms local install just for the sake of configuring the gateway with three parameters is a bit overkill, and I'm working on a new implementation with configuration through a config file.

It is still work in progress, not stabilized, and all, but if you want to catch a glimpse, here it is:

https://github.com/Jerome-github/oem_gateway

Anyway, if your module is receiving anything, you should at least see something in minicom.

Marquis27's picture

Re: minicom trouble

Hi Jerome.. The Python gateway you wrote looks to be ideal. I am still reading thought it trying to understand it all. Do you have an example on reading say a tx or a temp. I take it I basically need to create a subclass for node? 

Thanks for sharing this. 

Jérôme's picture

Re: minicom trouble

Hi.

I need to add examples / documentation...

Not sure what you mean by "read a tx" but if you mean listening to an emonTX through the RFM2Pi card, then it should be easy, just adapt the example config file to your configuration. You can remove the socket listener, it is then useless.

"reading a temp". If you mean reading a temp from a sensor on the Pi itself, then you need to either create a specific subclass, or create a small program (any language, but I could provide a 4 line python example) that reads the sensor, then sends data to the gateaway via a socket. In this case, in the gateway config, keep the socket listener, and of course, make sure the port number is the same in the gateway and the sensor reader.

Please ask for more help if any thing is unclear. I just got back from holidays, and I may be more responsive.

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