- Tue Apr 26, 2016 2:42 pm
#46261
I sort of got funnelled into this...
Our 2 wizards have been doing a magnificent job of pushing ESP_Basic to ever new heights, and I know they are itching to improve the browser Editor which has been a bit left behind, but perhaps this may reduce some of the urgency for that distraction.
I've just discovered that Notepad2 (and probably others) can offer a great ofline editor for ESP_Basic scripts.
It's not particularly useful for run-of-the-mill type stuff cos you're better off doing that direct in the browser editor - but if you've got an obscure problem somewhere, or have a big script with lots of text, the syntax-highlighting could be a god-send.
You need to see for yourself because words can't do it justice, so I've included a big 830 line script I'm working on to demonstrate things even though I'm not quite ready to publish it just yet... needs another bug-fix release of ESP_Basic to allow it to run and be stable before I can tidy it up enough to publish.
Feel free to try it though (if this one runs) if you wish, cos I think there may be things of interest to a lot of people.. just don't whinge that things like Blinks doesn't work (which got broke with the latest release).
What you might want to pay attention to are the self-contained Doc pages (click top left ? button), not just because they may have information of interest, but for the impressive fact that ESP_Basic let's you DO this sort of thing ... 10 full pages of text documentation included along with a wide variety of program functionality, and it could be even more except that I've maxxed out the available buttons (if you un-comment 'Bugs' entry in the Footer at bottom of script it crashes because 1 too many buttons being used).
And it runs on my dev module even when I re-format it as 512K.
Never mind the interactive network capability that's underneath... the screens and their navigation alone show what a capable power-house ESP_Basic has become.
Anyway, to get back to topic, perhaps now you will be able to appreciate just how useful a syntax-high-lighted offline editor could be.
I downloaded Notepad2 free from http://www.flos-freeware.ch/
Paste in the Basic script, select View / Syntax Scheme, then select VBscript or VisualBasic from the list, and eureka... syntax high-lighting for ESP_Basic straight out of the box!
Our 2 wizards have been doing a magnificent job of pushing ESP_Basic to ever new heights, and I know they are itching to improve the browser Editor which has been a bit left behind, but perhaps this may reduce some of the urgency for that distraction.
I've just discovered that Notepad2 (and probably others) can offer a great ofline editor for ESP_Basic scripts.
It's not particularly useful for run-of-the-mill type stuff cos you're better off doing that direct in the browser editor - but if you've got an obscure problem somewhere, or have a big script with lots of text, the syntax-highlighting could be a god-send.
You need to see for yourself because words can't do it justice, so I've included a big 830 line script I'm working on to demonstrate things even though I'm not quite ready to publish it just yet... needs another bug-fix release of ESP_Basic to allow it to run and be stable before I can tidy it up enough to publish.
Feel free to try it though (if this one runs) if you wish, cos I think there may be things of interest to a lot of people.. just don't whinge that things like Blinks doesn't work (which got broke with the latest release).
What you might want to pay attention to are the self-contained Doc pages (click top left ? button), not just because they may have information of interest, but for the impressive fact that ESP_Basic let's you DO this sort of thing ... 10 full pages of text documentation included along with a wide variety of program functionality, and it could be even more except that I've maxxed out the available buttons (if you un-comment 'Bugs' entry in the Footer at bottom of script it crashes because 1 too many buttons being used).
And it runs on my dev module even when I re-format it as 512K.
Never mind the interactive network capability that's underneath... the screens and their navigation alone show what a capable power-house ESP_Basic has become.
Anyway, to get back to topic, perhaps now you will be able to appreciate just how useful a syntax-high-lighted offline editor could be.
I downloaded Notepad2 free from http://www.flos-freeware.ch/
Paste in the Basic script, select View / Syntax Scheme, then select VBscript or VisualBasic from the list, and eureka... syntax high-lighting for ESP_Basic straight out of the box!
Code: Select all
memclear
let version = "v0.31"
let localIP = ip()
gosub [stripIP]
let udpport = 5001
let localname="Node" & IP4 ' Over-ride this default by un-commenting the line below and changing to your own unique name
let localname = "PING" ' Unique node name, eg: Node99 or PIR4 etc. For ease of use, names are not case sensitive
let globalname = "ALL" ' Allows addressing different system clusters of nodes separately if wished, eg: "All blinks"
let groupname = "Some" ' Allows addressing different groups of nodes if required. eg: "SOME blinkip"
let description = "" ' Displays an optional node description if wished
let description = " Network-controllable Music Player, valid commands are "
let description = description & upper(localname) & upper(" [Play] [Pause] [Next] [Previous] [Vup] [Vdown]")
let shoutmsg = "Hello world"
let lastmsg = " (last received msg) " ' (Last received msg facility is unfinished and unavailable)
interrupt 0 [button]
let ledpin = 1 ' Onboard GPIO01 blue led
let ledstate = 1
po ledpin ledstate ' Ensure lAed is off
let rly1 = 4 ' relay1 gpio
let rly1status = 1
po rly1 rly1status ' turns off relay1
let ppdelay = 10
let debugmode = "clean"
let nowait = 0 ' Behaviour switch to prevent wait(ing) in [blinkIP] if using automatic BlinkIP at startup
' Original intention was to automatically BlinkIP at startup, which can be done, but poses a catch22 problem of not
' being able send blink notification msg to screen during startup blink time for remote "comfort", so disabled
' print "Node " & localname & " is blinking the last address byte digits for identification"
' let nowait = 1 ' Flag to prevent wait(ing) in [blinkIP] subroutine
' gosub [blinkIP]
[home]
cls
let title = "EasyNet Demonstrator " & version & " - A simple flexible way for ESP_Basic nodes to interact with each other "
let title = title & " (tested on V2 Alpha 15)"
button "?" [usage] & " "
html chr(9) & " " & chr(9) & title ' was trying to find a way to insert spaces, but doesn't work
print
udpbegin udpport
udpbranch [udpmain]
html "<BR>"
html "NODE DETAILS "
if debugmode == "dirty" then button "Edit" [editdetails] ' hides some unfinished stuff
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html "Local name: " & localname
html "<BR>"
html "Global name: " & globalname
html "<BR>"
html "Group name: " & groupname
html "<BR>"
html "Local IP address: " & localIP
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
if description <>"" then html "Description: " & description
html "<BR>" & "<BR>" & "<BR>" & "<BR>"
gosub [sendmsg]
if debugmode == "dirty" then gosub [lastmsgin] ' unfinished and unavailable
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
button "Blinks" [blinks] ' blinks the led 5 times for quick visual location
html " "
button "Blink IP" [blinkIP] ' blinks the last IP bytes digits to show its address locally morse code style
html " "
button "Exit" [exit] ' shut down the node
html " "
button "Reset" [reset] ' reboot the node
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
if rly1status == 1 then button "Turn Relay1 ON" [relay1on]
if rly1status == 0 then button "Turn Relay1 OFF" [relay1off]
html " (give time for button status to update before clicking again)"
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
print
html "<BR>"
html "Debug mode=" & " "
dropdown "clean, verbose, dirty" debugmode
html " "
button "Change" [debugchange]
html "<BR>"
if debugmode <> "clean" then html "Ramfree=" & ramfree() ' just for debugging purposes
html "<BR>"
if debugmode <> "clean" then html "Flashfree=" & flashfree()
html "<BR>"
wait
[relay1on]
let rly1status = 0
po rly1 rly1status
goto [home]
[relay1off]
let rly1status = 1
po rly1 rly1status
goto [home]
[relay1tog]
if rly1status == 0 then rly1status = 1 else rly1status = 0
po rly1 rly1status
goto [home]
[ledtoggle]
if ledstate == 0 then ledstate = 1 else ledstate = 0
po ledpin ledstate
return
[debugchange]
if debugmode == "clean" then verbose = 0 else verbose = 1
'html "<BR>"
goto [home]
[broadcast]
if instr(upper(shoutmsg),"LOCAL") == 1 then goto [local]
udpwrite netIP & "255", udpport, shoutmsg
wait
[local]
let msg = shoutmsg
'udpreply msg
goto [main]
[sendmsg]
html " Broadcast message "
textbox shoutmsg
button "Send" [broadcast] ' broadcast the message
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
return
[lastmsgin]
html " Last recognised message in "
textbox lastmsg
html " ( Trying to show last recognised incoming udp msg, but don't know how to do it yet)"
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
return
[udpmain]
let msg = udpread()
let lastmsg = msg
[main]
if debugmode <> "clean" then udpreply localname & " msg received: " & msg
let name = upper(word(msg, 1))
let command = ""
let params = ""
let pos = len(name)
if len(msg) > pos then command = upper(word(msg, 2))
let pos = instr(upper(msg),command) + len(command) + 1
if len(msg) > pos then params = mid(msg,(pos)) else params = ""
if debugmode <> "clean" then udpreply localname & " Name=" & name
if debugmode <> "clean" then udpreply localname & " Command=" & command
if debugmode <> "clean" then udpreply localname & " Params=" & params
if instr(upper(localname),name) > 0 then name = upper(localname) ' complete partial name to full name
if name == "LOCAL" then goto [local_commands] ' handle locally-sent commands
if name == upper(localname) then goto [local_commands] ' handle localname commands
if name == upper(groupname) then goto [group_commands] ' handle any group commands
if name == upper(globalname) then goto [global_commands] ' handle any global commands
udpreply localname & " Error: NAME not recognised in " & msg
wait
[local_commands]
'let lastmsg = msg
'udpreply "Local commands " & msg 'For test purposes only
' Add any new unique local commands here (change the test udreply to gosub to your appropriate subroutine handler
if instr(command, upper("PLAY")) <> 0 then udpreply "Play"
if instr(command, upper("PAUSE")) <> 0 then udpreply "Pause"
if instr(command, upper("NEXT")) <> 0 then udpreply "Next"
if instr(command, upper("PREVIOUS")) <> 0 then udpreply "Previous"
if instr(command, upper("VUP")) <> 0 then udpreply "Volume Up"
if instr(command, upper("VDOWN")) <> 0 then udpreply "Volume Down"
gosub [common_commands]
if debugmode <> "clean" then udpreply localname & " Error: COMMAND " & command & " not recognised in " & msg
return
[common_commands]
' Commands recognised by all nodes. Add any new common commands here
if instr(command, upper("Ball")) <> 0 then goto [pingpong]
if instr(command, upper("Delay")) <> 0 then goto [pingpong]
if instr(command, upper("Stop")) <> 0 then goto [pingpong]
if instr(command, upper("Report")) <> 0 then goto [report]
if instr(command, upper("Blinks")) <> 0 then goto [blinks]
if instr(command, upper("BlinkIP")) <> 0 then goto [blinkIP]
if instr(command, upper("Reset")) <> 0 then goto [reset]
if instr(command, upper("Relay1")) <> 0 then goto [getrly1param]
return
[group_commands]
' Sent prefixed by groupname.
' Add any new group-only commands here, eg: "Groupname NewGroupCommand"
goto [local_commands]
[global_commands]
' Sent prefixed by globalname, eg: "Globalname NewGlobalCommand"
' Add any new global-only commands here,
goto [local_commands] ' branch to look for local_commands
[getrly1param]
let tempstr = upper(params)
let params = ""
if tempstr = "ON" then goto [relay1on]
if tempstr = "OFF" then goto [relay1off]
if tempstr,"TOG") > 0 then goto [relay1tog]
udpreply localname & " Error: PARAMETER not found for command " & command & " in " & msg
goto [home]
[pingpong]
if name <> "PING" and name <> "PONG" then goto[home]
udpwrite netIP & "255", udpport, "PingPong"
if name == "PING" then shoutmsg = "Pong ball"
if name == "PONG" then shoutmsg = "Ping ball"
if command == "STOP" then goto [home]
if command == "DELAY" then goto[setppdelay]
udpreply "delay=" & ppdelay
gosub [ledtoggle]
udpreply "delay=" & ppdelay
delay ppdelay
udpwrite netIP & "255", udpport, shoutmsg
goto [home]
[setppdelay]
if val(params) > 0 then let ppdelay = val(params)
let params = ""
goto [home]
[editdetails]
cls
html "EDIT NODE DETAILS "
html " * DO NOT USE * This is unfinished and has bugs! "
print
html "<BR>"
html " Edit node details below, then press Save or Cancel."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html "Local name: "
textbox localname
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html "Global name: "
textbox globalname
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html "Group name: "
textbox groupname
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html "Description: "
textbox description
html "<BR>" & "<BR>" & "<BR>"
'button "Save" [save] ' save details to persistent memory
html " "
'button "Cancel" [home] ' don't save edits
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
print
html "<BR>"
if debugmode <> "clean" then html "Ramfree=" & ramfree() ' just for debugging purposes
html "<BR>"
if debugmode <> "clean" then html "Flashfree=" & flashfree()
html "<BR>"
wait
return
[save]
write localname
write globalname
write groupname
write description
goto [home]
return
[exit]
print "<BR>" & "Node " & upper(localname) & " with IP address " & localIP & " has been shut down."
udpwrite netIP & ".255", udpport, "Node " & upper(localname) & " has been shut down." & "<BR>"
for count = 1 to 5
po ledpin 0
delay 70
po ledpin 1
delay 200
next count
end
[reset]
udpreply "Acknowledged Reset of " & upper(localname) & " with IP address " & localIP
print "<BR>" & "Node " & upper(localname) & " with IP address " & localIP & " has been rebooted."
timer 3000,[jump]
wait
'reboot
return
[jump]
reboot
wait
[button]
' Send a broadcast request for system nodes to declare themselves (Who's there)
'print "GPIO00 button pressed"
'let inpin = 0
'pi inpin
'if inpin == 1 then print "inpin = 1" else print "inpin = 0"
if debugmode <> "clean" then udpreply localname & " button pressed"
udpwrite netIP & "255", udpport, localname & " button pressed"
gosub [blinkIP]
wait
[declare]
if debugmode <> "clean" then udpreply localname & " Declare IP acknowledged "
udpreply localname & " " & localIP
return
[report]
if debugmode <> "clean" then udpreply localname & " Report request acknowledged "
udpreply "Sending data" ' change to include whatever info needs to be sent back
return
[blinks]
if debugmode <> "clean" and name <> "LOCAL" then udpreply localname & " Blinks acknowledged "
if val(params) > 0 then let numblinks = val(params) else let numblinks = 5
let params = ""
gosub [blink]
[blink]
let blinkon = 1400
let blinkoff = 600
let blinkpause = 1200
po ledpin 1
delay blinkoff
for bl = 1 to numblinks
po ledpin 0
delay blinkon
po ledpin 1
delay blinkoff
next bl
if nowait == 0 then wait else nowait = 0
return
[blinkIP]
if debugmode <> "clean" then udpreply localname & " BlinkIP acknowledged "
let blinkon = 200
let blinkoff = 400
let blinkpause = 1400
let ip = val(IP4)
let ip = 345 ' just for something more interesting to blink than my AP 192.168.4.1 single digit
po ledpin 1
delay 1000
let ipstr = str(ip)
let iplength = len(ipstr)
for pos = 1 to iplength
let digit = mid(ipstr,pos,1)
' gosub [blink]
for bl = 1 to digit
po ledpin 0
delay blinkon
po ledpin 1
delay blinkoff
next bl
delay blinkpause
next pos
if nowait == 0 then wait else nowait = 0
return
[stripIP]
pos = instrrev(localIP,".")
netIP = left(localIP,pos)
IP4 = mid(localIP,pos+1)
return
'------------* End of program functionality, remainder are just 'doc' pages that can be removed if wished *------------
[usage]
cls
html "USAGE"
print
html "<BR>"
html " Syntax: NAME COMMAND [PARAMETERS]"
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " eg: Node2 Relay1 On"
html "<BR>"
html " eg: Porch Light ON"
html "<BR>"
html " eg: ROUTER Reboot"
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " EasyNet offers simple UDP networking to make it easy for ESP_Basic nodes to communicate and interact with "
html " each other - no network knowledge is necessary because EasyNet takes care of all that for you, and no network "
html " configuration is required because all nodes use the same common framework configuration and communicate "
html " by NAME instead of IP address (click 'Concept' button below for an easy explanation)."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Just assign an appropriate unique name of your choice for other nodes to address their messages to, "
html " then add your own functionality with accompanying commands to do whatever you choose"
html " (click 'Details' for instructions). "
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Name + Command + optional parameter msgs can be sent by nodes to each other, offering possibility for creating "
html " a cluster of automatically interacting nodes."
html "<BR>"
html " eg: various PIR nodes might send trigger alert msgs for appropriate RELAY nodes to respond to, "
html " and various strategically-located VoiceAnnouncer nodes could announce such events where wished."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Commands may be manually sent to other nodes from the Broadcast message window if wished, or sent to themselves "
html " locally by using name 'LOCAL'."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Names and Commands are not case sensitive, for ease of use."
html "<BR>"
html " Parameters are case-sensitive to avoid messing up your data, and are received into variable 'params' for "
html " you to deal with as you wish."
html "<BR>"
html " Example: sending ' LOCAL Blinks 20 ' from the Broadcast message window will over-ride the default of 5 blinks "
html " to blink the local led the specified twenty times."
gosub [docfooter]
wait
[concept]
cls
html "CONCEPT"
print
html "<BR>"
html " EasyNet nodes can be likened to people at a party... where some plonker turns out the lights just as you walk in!"
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " You call out... Who's there?, and everyone responds by calling out their names. "
html "<BR>"
html " The response is deafening, so you call out again... It's ME, who is here from MY crowd? - and this "
html " time, only the friends who know you reply with their names. "
html "<BR>"
html " You heard your pal Fred, and know he always carries a torch, so call... Fred, flash your torch so I know where"
html " you are, and Fred obliges by blinking an led."
html "<BR>"
html " You also heard your boss John, so you ask... John, who turned out the lights?, and he responds... "
html "someone called Wally! "
html "<BR>"
html " You reply... Ok, thanks John, then call out... Hey, Wally you plonker, turn the lights back on, and he obeys. "
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " In that trivial example, messages were sent to specific Names, to a Group, and to Everyone... depending on "
html " needs. "
html "<BR>"
html "Instructions were given, information sent and received, and acknowledgements returned. "
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " That's the sort of interaction EasyNet offers, enabling your ESP_Basic modules to party together."
html " It isn't the fastest or best way to communicate, but it's good enough for many purposes, "
html " and networking just doesn't get any easier than this."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
'html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " So if that didn't baffle you, then you can just as easily use EasyNet to make your ESP_Basic modules talk to "
html " each other in much the same way. All modules will hear all messages, but only those modules that recognise "
html " messages intended for them will bother to heed the message and carry out the instruction if it is recognised."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " You can effectively consider your networked EasyNet nodes just as black-boxes which can communicate using "
html " simple text messages. Some may be listening for instructions telling them to do whatever it is they do "
html " (no matter how complex that may be), and some may be broadcasting messages with instructions or info"
html " for others to recognise and respond to, and probably others may be doing both - but "
html " anything that is capable of issuing and responding to such messages can interact with all others irrespective "
html " of functionality, platform or architecture... and that simple interaction does not require any rocket science."
html " (click 'Think')"
gosub [docfooter]
wait
return
[various]
cls
html "VARIOUS"
print
html "<BR>"
html " EasyNet nodes currently recognise the following common commands..."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " BLINKS - to blink the ESPs blue onboard gpio01 led for locating purposes. Defaults to 5 blinks, but can be "
html " over-ridden by sending optional number parameter. "
html "<BR>"
html " BLINKIP - to flash out the last IP address byte's digits for identification purposes, "
html " eg: IP address 192.168.1.74 would give a group of 7 flashes followed by a group of 4 flashes "
html " (you should already know the subnet address, but may not know the DHCP node address)."
html "<BR>"
html " EXIT - to shut the node down."
html "<BR>"
html " RESET - to reboot the node."
html "<BR>"
html " RELAY3 - which recognises parameters of 'ON' 'OFF' and 'TOGGLE' to control a gpio pin."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " These commands also have buttons on the web page offering browser operation if required. "
html "<BR>"
html " Relay3 is assigned to gpio at the start of the script, and can easily be changed or removed if wished. "
'html "<BR>"
html " Likewise, any or all of these embedded documentation pages can be removed... see 'Tips' below. "
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " The onboard gpio00 flashing button/jumper can be used to locally trigger BlinkIP if needed. "
html " (this currently does not work due to a bug in Alpha 15)."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " The default local name 'Node' is suffixed with the last byte of the node IP address to prevent absent-mindedness"
html " causing multiple instances of the same default node name on the subnet, thus "
html " default-named nodes can be easily tracked down... just connect to their different 'Node(plusIP)' names to "
html " belatedly rename them."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Broadcast message window allows msgs to be manually sent, but current ESP_Basic limitations don't "
html " yet give functionality for a scrolling window to monitor msgs. "
html "<BR>"
html " Use 'LOCAL' instead of target name to send commands to the local node from the Broadcast message window."
html " Messages may be manually sent, received, and monitored by using cicciocb's very handy UDP_debugger utility "
html " which he has kindly created and made available (or you could use a udp Processing script if you're a masochist "
html " with special needs!)."
gosub [docfooter]
wait
return
[think]
cls
html "THINK"
print
html "<BR>"
html " Think about some of the possibilities that EasyNet could offer... not just for networking your own "
html " modules, but also for allowing use of anyone elses."
html "<BR>"
html " As more and more people publish their ESP_Basic projects as EasyNet modules, a growing library of EasyNet "
html " functionality could start to grow... and all of them capable of interacting with each other!"
html "<BR>"
html " People might pick their choice of switch sensors nodes and PIR sensors and data collectors and data processors "
html " and joystick controllers and relay outputs and audio outputs and whatever else is available... then just network "
html " the chosen nodes together to create whatever sort of interactive system functionality they need."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Well that's the hope and intention anyway, and (fingers crossed) it's beginning to look hopeful that the "
html " advantages of ESP_Basic may allow it to become a reality."
html "<BR>"
html " We shall have to wait and see... at the moment this is still just an on-going proof-of-concept "
html " project which still has some way to go yet."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " But here's some more food for thought... cos if the EasyNet concept does prove practical - and at the rate that "
html " mmiscool and cicciocb and others have been speeding ESP_Basic along - I wouldn't be surprised if some form of "
html " condensed and optimised EasyNet functionality made it's way into ESP_Basic itself, and what a nicely matched "
html " partnership THAT might offer!"
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " And for dessert... if ESP_Basic is able lead the way in offering an easy non-technical method for nodes to "
html " interact with each other, then I wouldn't be surprised to see others want to come join the party! "
'html "<BR>"
html " If an inexperienced un-skilled hacker can fumble his way to do this in ESP_Basic, there must be plenty of better "
html " programmers capable"
html " of doing better equivalents for Arduino's and Rasp PI's etc, or anything else for "
html " that matter. At the end of the day, EasyNet nodes are only blackboxes that can recognise and send plain text "
html " messages between each other - and ANY platform is capable of doing that if wished - so it's quite "
html " possible that EasyNet interaction capability could become cross-platform. In fact I know it will for me, "
html " because I need one thing that I know ESP_Basic isn't capable of doing just yet, which is "
html " IR transmit and receive capability... but I know I can do it with arduino C++, and I'm fairly sure I should be "
html " able to do a basic (as in rudimentary) udp comms equivalent for the arduino (albeit without any fancy library) "
html " so my goal is to have arduino IR nodes interacting with ESP_Basic nodes. "
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " In fact it was the need to split up an "
html " over-loaded arduino into a distributed functional equivalent that started the EasyNet idea in the first place."
'html "<BR>"
gosub [docfooter]
wait
return
[ideas]
cls
html "IDEAS"
print
html "<BR>"
html " EasyNet is still only a proof-of-concept test project, but I have already built up sufficient confidence "
html " during development and testing to be happy that it should provide the connectivity I need. "
html "<BR>"
html " So when opportunity permits, I'll start trying to do the various node functionality I require, and will publish "
html " whatever I can get done for the benefit of others who might find anything useful for their own purposess."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " I hope to do a 'PTZ controller' node that will receive commands from things like PIR nodes "
html " and send the appropriate RS485 commands to steer an appropriate ptz cctv camera at a specific trigger location."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " I also hope to do a 'Supervisor' node if possible, which could act as an intelligent system controller for other"
html " nodes (this is all venturing into the unknown of course)."
html "<BR>"
html " It could receive all trigger alerts, and according to "
html " the senders name, would parse out a list of appropriate responses from a corresponding name entry in a config "
html " file. The responses would just be other commands to be sent to other appropriate nodes to action, such as tell "
html " an audio node to announce the alert, and tell different relay nodes to turn specific things on and off. "
html "<BR>"
html " Give it an RTC and SD card and it could log events, or carry out timed actions."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " One of the first to be done should hopefully be an 'audio voice announcer' node for speaking selected "
html " pre-recorded msgs. It's already part way there in the form of a music player which was previously published, "
html " but which I'm not yet able to integrate due to various ESP_Basic release issues."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Also to be included in EasyNet will be a trivial network Ping Pong example for using 2 nodes called Ping and Pong"
html " to keep 'bouncing' a 'ball' message between each other to turn on and off their leds. It will serve to "
html " demonstrate interactivity, but also to give an idea of the real-time udp response performance between nodes. "
html "<BR>"
html " The plan is to have 2 EasyNet nodes called Ping and Pong, then send the command BALL from one to the other, eg:"
html " PING BALL, then they just keep on responding to each other. "
html "<BR>"
html " Will probably try to give Ping and Pong an additional DELAY (value) command for slowing down down their "
html " individual reaction times, "
html " eg: PONG DELAY 3000. "
gosub [docfooter]
wait
return
[details]
cls
html "DETAILS"
print
html "<BR>"
html " Add your own subroutines to do whatever you wish (most likely copied from your original working stand-alone "
html " project), then add an appropriate entry in EasyNet [local_commands] to recognise your new command "
html " and branch to your appropriate new subroutine to deal with as you choose "
html " (copy and modify one of the existing PLAY or PAUSE example entries if you like)."
'html "<BR>"
html " If a node needs to transmit commands or info or acknowledgements to other nodes, then put an appropriate "
html " transmit command entry (udpreply, udpwrite, etc) into any relevent subroutines which need to transmit. "
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html "NOTES:"
html "<BR>"
html " Names and Commands are NOT case-sensitive (a concession for us memory-impaired!), "
html " so if a specified node name or command exists it will be "
html " recognised irrespective of CaSE, ie: blinks or BLINKs or BlinkS or bLiNkS are all recognised as the same."
html "<BR>"
html " Parameters ARE case sensitive, to avoid messing with your data - so remember that small but important difference."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " If an incoming command is not recognised in [local_commands] "
html " it will be looked for in [common_commands]."
html "<BR>"
html " To have even got that far proves that the NAME was recognised ok, "
html " so if the COMMAND is not being recognised it means "
html " that either something must be wrong with the command spelling being sent to the node, or else somthing "
html " is wrong with the receiving nodes instruction that was added to look for it in [local_commands]."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Additional flexibility is offered by ability to address nodes by GLOBAL name and/or GROUP name if wished"
html " These don't have to be used, but allow convenient differentiation of groups of nodes if needed. Your wifi "
html " subnet probably has potential for 254 nodes (1 being the router), therefore you may want more than one EasyNet"
html " system on it - eg: HomeAutomation and Security and Dev clusters etc. - so the Global and "
html " Group names offer a handy way to address just the appropriate system or group of nodes that you are "
html " currently interested in, eg: sending DEV BLINKS could cause just your DEV nodes to blink to show their locations."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " It's also possible to send msgs to ambiguous local_node names if wished. Assuming you had PIR1, PIR99, PIRdoor "
html " and PIRlounge nodes, you could send PIR BLINKS to blink all pir type nodes with names beginning with PIR."
html " So it's worth giving some thought to your Local, Global and Group naming conventions - rather than later "
html " changing any names and then realising you must change all those corresponding names issued by all other nodes "
html " which need to address the renamed node."
gosub [docfooter]
wait
return
[bugs]
cls
html "BUGS & THINGS TO DO"
print
html "<BR>"
html " Setting Debug mode to 'dirty' on the home page will display some of the unfinished or buggy features."
html "<BR>"
html " Some of the remaining issues simply haven't been addressed yet, but others are due to bugs or limitations "
html " that I haven't been able to find my way around yet. "
html " I'm learning on the hoof, so some may not be much of an issue, but any improvements offered by others "
html " would be very welcome."
html "<BR>"
html " Not everything may be possible of course, but I expect future releases of ESP_Basic will fix some issues. "
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " It's all been done on a steep learning curve, but if this proof-of-concept works I will eventually "
html " do a complete rewrite... unless someone more capable does something better first. I would add that I "
html " I have been deliberately adding the 'bloatiness' of these 'doc' pages to see how far ESP_Basic "
html " could be pushed, and quite frankly I'm amazed with what it copes with. The biggest - and only - real problem "
html " I've had has been caused by me leaving out the end double-quote off an html line. The trouble is that doing "
html " so is almost guaranteed to cause the wee beastie to crash and reboot... which gets very wearing after the first "
html " few dozen times (and I've lost count of how many times my impatient carelessness has caused it to happen)."
html " Perhaps I should add that the script is now so big that it takes half a minute for each save and load. "
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " I expect the guys will probably be able to mitigate the rebooting to a less drastic error response when "
html " they get an opportunity, but until then I would not recommend typing in this sort of quantity of html text. "
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " If you have the skills you might want to invest an hour or so creating an 'offline' utility that could take "
html " a block of normal text and split it into approptiate length lines and add the approptiate html header and "
html " doublquotes automatically for subsequent pasting into the script... cos believe me, I've wasted a lot of time "
html " from fixing simple errors. It has proved to me that it's perfectly viable to display multiple pages if "
html " needed, but it doesn't like the pages to get too long."
html "<BR>"
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Textbox is adding unwanted + characters into the message."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Cannot find a way to insert spaces to screen, always stripped down to just 1"
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Cannot find a way to display a confidence msg in the browser while the node is doing something; ie: blinkIP"
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Would be nice to add hyperlink branching to text, if possible"
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Hello_World button and window to list the responders would be good, but such a window is not possible yet."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Be good to have a window showing the last arrived msg sent specifically to the node."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Be nice to provide a network time sync facility to synchronise any RTC nodes for time/date stamping of logs etc."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Need to do broadcast_query and request_info and request_acknowledgement subroutines, which if no response after "
html " timeout period expires, will try to resend repeat number of times, before giving up and flagging an error."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
gosub [docfooter]
wait
return
[tips]
cls
html "TIPS"
print
html "<BR>"
html " I've purposely stuffed in more than necessary knowing it is easier for anything unwanted to be "
html " removed by some poeple than it is for others to add in."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Be aware that the 20 available buttons in Alpha15 have been maxed-out, so if you want to add any new buttons you"
html " will need to remove some unwanted ones first - or else ESP_Basic will crash and reboot. "
'html "<BR>"
html " It will also crash and "
html " reboot if you try assigning a gpio pin that isn't listed on the right of the [VARS} page - and for a whole host "
html " of other reasons - but just remember that you obviously must have done something different to cause the symptom,"
html " so you must back-track to remove that problem else it will keep rebooting until you do. "
'html "<BR>"
html " For those with hair, here are some tips to prevent pulling it out! "
html "<BR>"
html " I should mention that they are just simple things I've learned to do for myself to make life a bit easier "
html " because I don't know any better."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " I've learned to always do CTRL A and CTRL C on the script before Running or Saving cos you never know when "
html " things may go wrong to cause a crash and reboot - and if recovery requires a reflash, the script is wiped from "
html " memory... which isn't much of a problem if you can do Edit to load the clean page then CTRL V to paste the "
html " script back in."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " For similar reasons, I always copy and paste the script to a text file every 3 to 5 Saves, because sometimes "
html " ESP_Basic can get its nickers in a twist when Saving a big file (and this one is BIG and takes half a "
html " minute to save)... and the only recovery is by doing a reformat and reflash. "
'html "<BR>"
html " I always save the text file with Save As, and change it's end 'version' letter to avoid overwriting "
html " the last known good copy with the latest can of worms!"
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " If you click Save and it doesn't eventually pop up the Saved confirmation, you'll probably also find the Edit "
html " window is no longer responsive. It's not the end of the world if you just did Ctrl C beforehand - but the "
html " ESP is now dead, so if you haven't already saved your edited script you are on the brink of losing it."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " But take heart - it is possible to rescue the script from the browser even though the ESP is dead, as long as"
html " you don't panic and dig a deeper hole for yourself... just click Back in the browser, then Forward, "
html " and now the Edit window should be responsive again, allowing you to do a belated Ctrl A and Ctrl C."
'html "<BR>"
html " You can even first undo your previous edits which caused the problem."
'html "<BR>"
html " A reformat and reflash may be inevitable, but at least you can salvage your script. "
'html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
gosub [docfooter]
wait
return
[tips2]
cls
html "TIPS2 - Crash-recovery"
print
html "<BR>"
html " Ater you've tried cutting corners a few times by only doing a reflash - and found that it still doesn't work "
html " - you'll soon learn to bite the bullet and avoid wasting more time by always doing a reformat first."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " During reformat and reflash, the blue led should be banging away - and if it isn't then it's not uploading, so "
html " you'll need to redo the operation again. "
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " After reformat, the ESP does not automatically reboot, so you need to reboot using gpio00 to boot it back "
html " into flash mode again prior to reflash, then wait about 30 secs until the led briefly blinks before rebooting, "
html " then wait the recommended 2 minutes after the reformat reboots before starting the reflash."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " After reflash, the ESP does automatically reboot, so make sure any gpio00 jumper is already removed or the "
html " ESP will boot back up in flash mode, and your reflash could be corrupted before you even get to use it. "
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " If the crash occured during a Run because of program error, autorun could cause it to happen again after the "
html " reflash reboot. You'll know it's rebooting if you see the ESPs blue led give a series of blinks (13), pause, "
html " then give a couple of winks as it re-negotiates wifi reconnection - so you need to press gpio00 flashing button "
html " 'toot-sweet' after that to prevent the program from autorunning again and causing another crash and burn before "
html " you can fix things (note: from Alpha 16 on, autorun can be disabled in SETTINGS. "
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Once the script isn't auto-running, you can take time to consider what to do next. Clearly there was a problem,"
html " but at this point you may not be sure whether that was due to script error, a wayward ESP, or a hormonal "
html " release of ESP_Basic."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Invariably I can never be 100% sure if I did actually save the script last thing before the crash - and I "
html " don't like depending on the last saved text file in case that was also a crasher for previous reasons - plus "
html " it wouldn't be the first time I've done a CTRL C to file instead of CTRL V and ended up losing the latest"
html " version in both file and browser! - so I prefer trying to keep hold of the browsers last Edited script if "
html " possible... (continued in Tips3)."
gosub [docfooter]
wait
return
[tips3]
cls
html "TIPS3 - Crash de-bugging"
print
html "<BR>"
html " After a crash, trying to do a Save, only to discover that the ESP isn't responding, put's you right"
html " back to square one. So the first thing I do after waiting until it looks like the ESP is back up "
html " online, is to try to access the [SETTINGS] page. "
'html "<BR>"
html " If that doesn't work then nothing else will, so a reformat and reflash will be needed, but at least you can "
html " browser Back to the Edit screen and make sure your script is safely copied before going any further. "
html "<BR>"
html " If [SETTINGS] access's ok it proves the ESP is accessable again, so Edit and Save should hopefully also be ok."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Now is a good time to pause and concentrate about what's to be done next... you need to do CTRL A and CTRL C on"
html " the Edit page script to be 100% sure, then press Edit to make sure ESP_Basic brings up a virgin Edit screen, "
html " then CTRL V your precious script into the new Edit window, then add 'end' command to the beginning of the script,"
html " then Save it. It aint difficult, but there's several ways to cock things up if you're not careful about it."
html "<BR>"
html " Adding 'end' at the start of the script prevents accidental re-running or autorunning of a problem script "
html " to prevent unnecessary repeated crashes and reboots until you can root out the problem."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Once you've got the ESP active and stable, you need to find the culprit, and just because you can't find "
html " anything doesn't mean it's time to start blaming ESP_Basic bugs... if it wasn't rebooting before the last "
html " reboot then it waa obviously caused by something you've done, so you need to track the problem down. "
html " Even if it is an ESP_Basic bug, it has still been introduced by something you've changed, so you need to "
html " back-track through your previous edits."
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " If you are not confident of having found the problem(s), the consequences could be repeated crash and burns, "
html " so my advice is to stick an 'end' command at the top of your script, then run the script to at least make sure "
html " the ESP isn't crashing due to some other cause. "
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
html " Then if the script exits nicely with a 'done', keep walking the 'end' deeper into the script until it eventually "
html " crashes again... once you've recovered from that crash you should have a fairly good idea of where the "
html " cause of the problem must be, even if it still isn't obvious. "
html "<BR>"
html " The final conclusive proof of the offending line is to comment it out and the crashing then stops."
html "<BR>"
html " It's worth keeping an eye on [VARS] from time to time, cos that can show up var errors and corruptions that "
html " you wouldn't otherwise be aware of. "
gosub [docfooter]
wait
return
[docfooter]
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
print
html "<BR>"
button "Home" [home]
button "Usage" [usage]
button "Details" [details]
button "Various" [various]
button "Tips" [tips]
button "Tips2" [tips2]
button "Tips3" [tips3]
button "Concept" [concept]
button "Think" [think]
button "Ideas" [ideas]
'button "Bugs" [bugs]
html "<BR>" & "<BR>"
if debugmode <> "clean" then html "Ramfree=" & ramfree() ' just for debugging purposes
html "<BR>"
if debugmode <> "clean" then html "Flashfree=" & flashfree()
html "<BR>"
wait
return
