The lower panel(s)
Info
This is mostly self-explanatory but also raises a few points that are well worth knowing if you intend to become an "Esparto Expert".
These are all static values at the heart of the system, some of them permanently, some for example the IP address for this boot of the system only. They cannot be directly changed by the user. For some that can, see the next section.
Hardware Type:
This lets you know what's running "under the hood". It can be any one of these:
- ESP-01 (but why would you bother when there’s…)
- ESP-01S
- Wemos D1
- Wemos D1 mini
- Wemos D1 lite (and thus probably any other ESP8285 device)
- Wemos D1 pro
- NodeMCU 0.9
- SONOFF Basic
- SONOFF S20
- SONOFF SV
Esparto has been tested on all of the above. It will probably run on anything with an ESP-12 in it, but obviously I can't test every single device on the market/ If you want to send me one to try it out and modify if necessary...
Unique Hardware ID:
This is the last 6 digits of the MAC address and is commonly used in new-out-of-the-box scenarios as a default name before choosing your own and setting your SSID / Password credentials the default name of the demo device would be ESPARTO-17D383. See part 2 earlier for more detail on this value and advice renaming your device to replace it.
IP Address:
Need I say more?
Flash Memory Size:
Same as above, except the answer is "Yes".
Esparto weighs in at over 410k - it has a lot of functionality and features. To support OTA updating (and who wouldn't want that?) a "sketch" (app) has to be able to fit into half the available flash size. On smaller devices e.g. the SONOFFs you get 1MB thus 512k is usable if you want OTA (and you do!).
As you can see things are already starting to squeak, so you need to keep your own additional code
small, efficient and light-weight. There is also a very limited amount of heap left. Esparto starts up with about 27k free, and that can go up and down rapidly - see the graphs in part 3 of this series for an example. Keep your heap use to a minimum and guard any heap-using routines with a check in what's free first if you want to avoid crashing (again, you do!).
The good news is that Esparto does so much for you that your own code will be small and consist mostly of short callback routines that Esparto will execute at the relevant time on your behalf. There is no loop() function and no setup() function. You will rapidly get used to doing things the "Esparto Way" once you see how easy it is.
H4 library version number:
If you want to get further than a simple "Blinky" it helps to understand the structure of Esparto. It is built from 3 main libraries, H4, SmartPins and Esparto itself.
H4 which handles all the timer functions, scheduling, task separation and "slip streaming" of asynchronous functions into the synchronous task queue which runs on the main loop. No more WDT resets, no more "volatile"s. When your task runs, it is (almost) the only player in town and the H4 library makes sure you have to try really really hard to break things or upset other tasks.
It comes with 7 of its own examples demonstrating how each and all of its functions work. Esparto "encapsulates" H4, so all of the H4 functions will appear to you as identical Esparto functions, so you do need to understand these first.
SmartPins library version number:
See above. Note the version shown is incorrect - by the time of release it will also be 2.0.0 (actually it is, but I forgot to update the version number field before the demo - my bad!)
SmartPins as its name suggests manages all the input and output pins for you. It is what enables Esparto to give you the fancy real-time flashing LED display for all the pins. It also does everything you could ever want to do with a pin, including debouncing, interrupt handling (although there are good reasons why you would probably never need to use it), rotary decoding and much more.
The Encoder input type lets you manage a rotary with a single line of code - you tell it the name of a variable, and whenever you access the variable it will automagically have the current decoder value in it. One line of code! It's my favourite Esparto feature: most of my own mini-apps have some kind of "tweak" factor using a rotary, it's so easy. Some even have two...at the extra expense of one more line of code...I'll stop now, I think you have got the point.
SmartPins comes with nineteen sample program covering every in and out (literally!) of the many types of input modes it supports. It also has access to all H4's functions and relies on it 100% to function. Pretty much every example has at least one or two H4 features though of course they appear seamlessly as identical SmartPins features.
It is important then to work through the examples in order to fully understand the power and flexibility of Esparto, because in the same way, all Esparto functions are automatically the same as all SmartPins functions.
Even seasoned programmers will benefit, as Esparto works in a very different way from 99.235% of all the thousands of sample sketches you will find online. You need to learn the "Esparto Way", but for those with experience it won't take long at all.
Just as an example, here's the code (with comments removed for brevity) for the simple blinky. "Simple" includes having a fully debounced on/off switch unlike 99.476% of other blinkies.
NOTE:
While H4 and SmartPins both have visible setup() and loop() functions, Esparto does not. There are two reasons for keeping them in:- To make the early examples more readily recognisable and ease you in to the "Esparto Way" and "chunk up" the amount of learning at each stage into bite-sized pieces.
- To enable you to use them on their own without the full Esparto, although I can't think of any reason why you would want to unless you are the kind that likes to make things deliberately hard for themselves
#include <SmartPins.h>
SmartPins smartPins;
void buttonPress(bool hilo){
if(!hilo) smartPins.flashLED(250);
else smartPins.stopLED();
}
void setup(){
Serial.begin(74880);
Serial.println("LED will change state (flashing/off) on each separate button up/down press");
smartPins.Output(BUILTIN_LED);
smartPins.Latching(0,INPUT,15,buttonPress); // GPIO 0 + 15ms of debouncing
}
void loop(){
smartPins.loop();
}
I hope you will agree both that it's pretty easy and also that you get "a lot for your money" for very little coding effort. That principle underlies the whole of the "Esparto Way": Esparto does 90% of the "heavy lifting", you plug in the remaining 10% which is specific to your IOT / home automation app. Esparto allows you to concentrate on just the code that's important to you - all the hard stuff "just works"
NBoot & Code:
These may be the first indication of a (hopefully very rare) problem. NBoot is the number of times this device has been rebooted and "Code" is the reason why. If it has just been freshly programmed then (as has the demo device) then it will read ESPARTO_BOOT_UNCONTROLLED.
What this means is that it was not shut down by user action, but forcibly rebooted, as the IDE does. You will also see this code if the device crashes for any reason.
If you click the Reboot button,. the code will become ESPARTO_BOOT_UI. If you send an MQTT command e.g. testbed/cmd/reboot the code becomes ESPARTO_BOOT_MQTT and son on, although obviously you will replace "testbed" with your own device name first.
If you see an increased boot count and a reason you don't expect - something has gone wrong!
The "tXXX" values:
These measure the amount of milliseconds since boot up when:
tHW:
The time after which your sensors, buttons, relays, remote controlled Gatling guns etc become ready to run. One of the fundamental design goals of Esparto is that your hardware should operate a) as early as possible b) whether you have a WiFi connection or not c) all the time, always.Even if - as happens in the real world - bugs occur and the occasional crash occurs, your hardware will be back up ready to go in about 125 milliseconds. Impressive, non? It's one of the reason behind why Esparto won't let you play with setup() and loop(): it has quite a bit of complex setup of its own to do, and it has to happen fast, and in a very specific order.
tWiFi:
The time after which you can load up the web UI because your device now has a valid IP address.tMQTT:
Similarly, the time after which Esparto is actively listening for MQTT commands, both its own any any that you choose also to listen for. All Esparto command start with "cmd", so you must not use this in any of your own topics, or who knows when that Gatling gun may go off in error?High values of either tWiFi or tMQTT may be early indications of problems with your router, network or MQTT broker. Or they may just be a sign of a slow network - only you will know. Personally, I'd worry about anything much more than the demo values. Again, I think 3.2 secs from power on to receiving MQTT commands is "in the zone".
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