[Version 2 Release] RaspberryPints - Digital Taplist Solution

[troyp42]

Are you using VNC Viewer? If so, you should see an icon (bottom left). Open that and it should give you a virtual keyboard option. Open the keyboard and select <ALT> <F4> and the browser will close. If you don't have the icon, I'm not certain what's wrong.

Im using VNC viewer on an IMAC but don't have that virtual keyboard option for some reason. I tried to find it in settings but nothing.

 

[ba-brewer]

Ok, if access to a desktop is needed that would make sense. Tap list - not so much: it's on a web server
Between Putty and WinSCP running on my peecee, desktop access is rarely necessary...

Cheers!

Not sure why I don't use a browser to look at the taplist, vnc is setup and a few clicks and it pops up. I do go through a browser window to look at the database stuff. I recall playing around with using an old tablet as a display, think sometimes the displays can be out of sync without a hard refresh. Probably just a muscle memory thing though.

I do backups and resets from the desktop and not too often, the thing just works. I may be taking it for granted not sure when I made a backup image last. Just checked the USB drive I attached for database backups that seems to still be running.

Can't stress this enough because I'm a hella old computer platform architecture and design engineer and have seen a hella lot wrt "backups" over the decades: just as in the days of old and unverified tape backups which were a total crapshoot as to viability when needed, an untested SD card copy is not a backup at all. Whenever you clone an SD card, boot off the clone to make sure you actually have a viable copy...

Cheers!

When I do make a backup of the pi image the new image is verified then becomes the working image. The old previous working image becomes the backup. Figure if there is something subtle wrong it is not hidden in the backup.

I believe it was one of your posts I used to setup a cron task to backup the MySQL database, but cant find the reference in my notes. I did a quick test to see if I could replace the database when I first set things up but have not gone back to verify the integrity of backups since.

Are you doing a MySQL database backups, if so do you do anything to verify those too?​

 

[troyp42]

Ok Im trying to update Rpints to the latest version and Im getting this error message
pi@rpints:~ $ curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rtlindne/RaspberryPints/master/util/installRaspberryPints | sudo bash

% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current

Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed

100 43539 100 43539 0 0 157k 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 158k


***Script rpints_install.sh starting.***

RPints Install Detected. Do you wish to Update RPints? [Y/n]: y


Searching for default web location.


Found /var/www/html in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default*.

Installing to: /var/www/html

/home/pi /home/pi

error: Your local changes to the following files would be overwritten by merge:

index.php

Please commit your changes or stash them before you merge.

Aborting


Ive google this and tried git stash and a few other options but no luck

EDIT:- Ok I solved that problem but now I can't upload my brewery logo anymore and keep getting an error message?

 

[garzlok]

Im using VNC viewer on an IMAC but don't have that virtual keyboard option for some reason. I tried to find it in settings but nothing.

Ok...just downloaded VNC Viewer on my wife’s Mac. To get Chromium out of full screen mode, you need to depress the [fn] + [f11] keys. Because you’re on a Mac, you don’t need a virtual keyboard (I use the iPad App, so I need an emulated keyboard)

 

[RandR+]

(What does the 60000 represent?)

60 seconds. its in milliseconds

 

[garzlok]

60 seconds. its in milliseconds

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

In a nutshell, whenever the temp probe updates and logs a new data point, the page is supposed to refresh in a minute and display that new data point. Yes?

I know my meta tag page refresh is more of a hack job and the refresh time is dependent on when the web page is accessed, and not the best solution.

 

[ba-brewer]

Im comfortable with it but just don't know much about it. I can ssh into my pi and perform basic commands but that's about it.

EDIT:- Ill only use the new Pi 3b+ I just brought and the old one will be scrapped.

I see you are going from 3B to 3B+, I was moving the SD card between two 3Bs. I am not sure if you can move a 3B to the 3B+. Only a guess, but because you are using @RandR+ version you maybe be able to, but I really am not sure.

I know there were some OS and application dependencies with the older version of raspberrypints and 3B+ which lead me go with 3B instead as Rand's version was not yet available. Backward compatibility is easier than predicting the future.

 

[troyp42]

I see you are going from 3B to 3B+, I was moving the SD card between two 3Bs. I am not sure if you can move a 3B to the 3B+.

No Im going from a standard original B to a 3B+. Ill give it a try but if it doesnt work its not too hard to start again I suppose. especially with RandR+ awesome install procedure.

 

[troyp42]

Ok...just downloaded VNC Viewer on my wife’s Mac. To get Chromium out of full screen mode, you need to depress the [fn] + [f11] keys. Because you’re on a Mac, you don’t need a virtual keyboard (I use the iPad App, so I need an emulated keyboard)

Thanks mate, will give that a try. Its a pain having to go to the Pi and use the wireless keyboard everytime. Although it doesnt help that the Pi B is so slow.

 

[troyp42]

So I backed up the SC card to a USb stick on the pi using SD card copier. Now do I just put my new SD card in a card reader, connect it to my PC and copy the contents of the USB stick across to the new Sd card?

 

[day_trippr]

Ugh. You're making this so much more difficult than need be.
And that won't work, anyway, because it's partition-based cloning and simply "copying" the USB stick will not result in a bootable SD card.

Go back and read what I wrote. There is no need to use a USB stick, just a USB card reader with your fresh SD card...

 

[troyp42]

Ugh. You're making this so much more difficult than need be.
And that won't work, anyway, because it's partition-based cloning and simply "copying" the USB stick will not result in a bootable SD card.

Go back and read what I wrote. There is no need to use a USB stick, just a USB card reader with your fresh SD card...

I just read a how to using win32 disk imager so will give that a try. Thanks again.

 

[day_trippr]

Sigh....
No, you don't want to do that, either.

A 16GB SD card never, ever provides exactly 17179869184 bytes of usable storage. There will be tens of thousands of unusable storage locations on any SD card, and the meta data that the file system uses is aware of how much is left that's usable. So, no two SD cards of the same stated capacity will actually have exactly the same capacity.

wind32diskimager is a block-by-block disk image creator. It will create an image file based on the contents of every single byte of usable space on your original SD card - even if the file system never used some of it.

Later, if you try to load the image on an SD card with even one fewer usable byte than the original image, it will not fit, and win32diskimager will fail. So you have a nice image on your peecee but nowhere to put it if you're unlucky - and it happened to me a couple of times before I quit using the stupid thing. It's not a good solution for system backups, imo.

What is the problem with simply attaching your SD card reader - with a fresh SD card in it - directly to your RPi, and using the SD Card Copier utility the way it is intended to be used? Why are you looking to make this so much more difficult than it needs to be?

 

[troyp42]

Sigh....
No, you don't want to do that, either.

What is the problem with simply attaching your SD card reader - with a fresh SD card in it - directly to your RPi, and using the SD Card Copier utility the way it is intended to be used? Why are you looking to make this so much more difficult than it needs to be?

Well because...At first when you said SD card copier I thought you were talking about a windows version of a program with the same name. (Which is what eventually led me to Win32diskimager.) I understand your explanation of why it wont work though. I also thought you could copy to USB then copy to a new SD card on a PC. I now also understand why that wont work either thanks to your detailed explanation.

I received my Pi 3b+ today so will copy the SD card from the B to the new 3B+ SD card using the Pi utility and see how that goes. Thanks for the explanation.

 

[RandR+]

the page is supposed to refresh in a minute and display that new data point. Yes?

Yes but it is relying on when the page is accessed also but using javascript instead of meta. Eventually I should put it something that when the temp changes refresh the page right away

 

[troyp42]

What a difference the Pi 3b+ makes over the old clunky B I had. Heaps faster. I was able to clone the Sd card and use it in the new Pi without any issues. Thanks @day_trippr for the advice.

 

[day_trippr]

yay!

Yes, quad core, faster clock and double the ram makes a huge difference indeed...

Cheers!

 

[DaniFilth]

As i seemed to have fried the alamode by it's usb port (workds via pi power but not when i plug it into the alamode), i'm needing a new one but i see they're $39 and Arduiono Uno is only $16 so is there a great deal of difference? Would i need to do anything different when wiring everything up compaierd to the alamode?

 

[day_trippr]

You can find legit Uno R3 boards for $10 or even less if you look around.
If you have the room the Uno is clearly the better option wrt cost to implement.

One difference is the Uno will communicate via USB to the RPi while the Alamode used a direct 2-wire serial connection (via the IO header).
Another is the preferred choice of powering the Uno is not via the USB port but via its barrel connector using a 9VDC wall wart power supply.

Otherwise the software side is easier as well, as there's no need to install Alamode support on the RPi. A couple of configuration pointer changes to let the RPi know to listen for a USB device instead of serial and you should be ready to go...

Cheers!

 

[garzlok]

Another is the preferred choice of powering the Uno is not via the USB port but via its barrel connector using a 9VDC wall wart power supply.

Well FFS! I wonder if that's been my issue with the Pi and Arduino not wanting to connect on a regular basis and sometimes the Arduino going to ttyACM1?

All the builds I looked at and none (that I saw) had the Arduino powered through the barrel connector...off to find a 9V wall wart (I know I got one somewhere)

 

[Ricand]

Well FFS! I wonder if that's been my issue with the Pi and Arduino not wanting to connect on a regular basis and sometimes the Arduino going to ttyACM1?

All the builds I looked at and none (that I saw) had the Arduino powered through the barrel connector...off to find a 9V wall wart (I know I got one somewhere)

The Alamode was powered by plugging the micro usb into it and powering the Rpi through the Alamode connection. The Uno is the one with the barrel connector. For what it's worth, mine seems to be running ok with just the USB cable supplying power. You need to be sure to have at least a 2A micro usb on the RPi.

 

[day_trippr]

Years ago some experimentation showed significant voltage drops using USB cables, some cables worse than others, but none of them good, with the typical static levels at the Uno around 4.75V. That's a 5% sag right there.

So, nearly all of my Arduino Unos and Megas are powered via the barrel with 9V.
The Alamodes and a couple of Unos get 5V directly from power supplies.
None are powered by the USB receptacle...

Cheers!

 

[garzlok]

I was sold at,

Another is the preferred choice of powering the Uno is not via the USB port

About 4 days ago, I did change USB cables and that gave me some incremental improvement, but nothing that made me happy. I can't wait to see if this makes me happy!

 

[troyp42]

Hey guys just a heads up If you have a Mac and you want to minimize the Chromium Browser to view your Pi Desktop while in VNC Viewer, then its Fn+Cmd+F4. Thanks to Garzlok for helping out with this.

 

[jdeporter]

I'm trying to get a temperature probe working (using RandR+ fork), I have the probe hooked up to my pi and I'm able to see the probe in the OS and read temperatures using Python. I'm looking for advice on how to troubleshoot why RaspberryPints doesn't see the probe.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Ive been playing around with the css file using VNC. Every time I change something I have rebooted the Pi which takes awhile. Is there a way to restart Chromium again to see the changes? Also how do you get Chromium off the screen via VNC and go to the desktop? I have had to use my mini keyboard and Click ALT + 4 but that'd eosin work in VNC?

Clear the browser cache.

 

[RandR+]

I'm looking for advice on how to troubleshoot why RaspberryPints doesn't see the prob

Did you enable temp probes in the settings?
Did you choose to have flowmeters when you installed? (right now if you have to select flow meters at installation because the temperature logic gets started from the flowmeter logic)
If you have flowmeters check /var/log/rpints.log to see if there are any errors OR if there is a line like "1Wire Temperature Thread...is Running"

 

[jdeporter]

Did you enable temp probes in the settings?
Did you choose to have flowmeters when you installed? (right now if you have to select flow meters at installation because the temperature logic gets started from the flowmeter logic)
If you have flowmeters check /var/log/rpints.log to see if there are any errors OR if there is a line like "1Wire Temperature Thread...is Running"

Temp probes are enabled in settings

I didn't choose to have flowmeters when I initially did the install but have now ran the install script to correct that. I have an Arduino Uno plugged into the pi via USB (haven't purchased flowmeters yet). I have rebooted the PI a few times.

I don't see anything about 1Wire in the log.

Still no temp probes appearing in RaspberryPints

 

[RandR+]

Still no temp probes appearing in RaspberryPints

I found the issue. I had the python start the temp probes after it got connected to the Arduino which it appears yours isn't connecting.

If you modify python/FlowMonitor.py and swap lines 242 and 244 so it looks like this

self.reconfigTempProbes()

self.reconfigAlaMode()
debug( "listening to alamode" )


you should have temp probes after you restart flowmon (sudo /etc/init.d/flowmon restart)

(I would commit the change right now but I have other changes I need to finish testing before committing)

 

[jdeporter]

That fixed it.

I also figured out why my Arduino wasn't connecting, the installation script for setting up flowmeters wants to use ./${VER_NAME}-setup but I'm using buster and there is no buster-setup script to run. I just ran the stretch-setup and restarted flowman and it looks like my Arduino is connecting. I'm getting flowmonitor aborted in the rpints.log but I assume that is due to having no flowmeters hooked up to the Uno.