How to Test sensors

Testing Sensors / Features

Pre-requisites

IoT Dev Board (Raspberry Pi 3/4 preferred)
microSD card and microSD card Reader/Adapter
Chosen Hardware Sensor

Pre-Testing Checklist

Before you begin testing please, Check

Ensure that the H/W sensor is working perfectly. (Test with Arduino and Arduino library to know if the sensor H/W works)
Ensure that the sensor is fully ported.
Ensure that an example for your Sensor/Feature is available in the examples/ folder.

Steps for Testing

Install Shunya OS.
Install the library.
Compile the examples.
Connect Hardware.
Configure and Run.

Step 1: Install Shunya OS.

Download and Install Shunya OS, follow this guide if you have any problems installing Shunya OS.

Boot into Shunya Interfaces and you are ready to test!.

Step 2: Install Shunya Interfaces

Shunya Interfaces uses Cmake as it build engine, you can follow these steps to compile and install the library from scratch.

Note: These steps are for native compile (i.e Run these commands on Shunya OS). Currently, We do not have instructions for cross-compiling (i.e Compiling on your laptop) the library.

Clone Shunya Interfaces

Running these commands below on the Terminal in Shunya OS, should get you the latest source.

# Clone the project, Skip if you have cloned the project.
git clone https://github.com/shunyaos/shunyainterfaces.git
cd shunyainterfaces

Checkout the branch

Most of the sensor under testing may not be available in the master branch, So Checkout to the testing branch by running command.

How to find the branch name?: Each sensor that is under porting must have an issue, Please check issues tab, navigate to the sensor specific issue, and you will find the branch-name.

TODO: Dry run this once, Check if this is true. Make it easy for the testers to find the branch and checkout.

git checkout <branch-name>

Configure, Build and Install

Running these commands in the Terminal should get shunya interfaces installed.

# Create a build directory
mkdir build
cd build 
# Configure 
cmake ../
# Build 
make 
# Install Shunya Interfaces
sudo make install

Step 3: Compile Examples

You will find examples for testing the sensor in the examples/ folder, compiling the example is just compiling a C program.

# Command assumes that you are in build folder, from the previous run
# Change the cd command according to your current folder.
cd ../examples 
# Replace the names appropriately
gcc -o test example.c -lshunyaInterfaces_user -lshuynaInterfaces_core

Step 4: Connect Hardware

It is time to connect sensors to the board.

Checklist for Connecting

Make sure dev board power supply is off, before you start connecting.
Check the Vcc and GND pins of the sensor are connected correctly.
Check if you connected 1.8 V or 3.3 V pin on the dev board to the Sensors 1.8V or 3.3V pin and not the 5V pin.

After checking these things you can connect the Power Supply to the dev Board.

Note:

Step 5: Configure Shunya Interfaces and Run.

Tell Shunya Interfaces your hardware connections, by writing the connections into a YAML file.

You will find the file at /etc/shunya/interfaces/config.yaml

to Open the file Run command

$ sudo vi /etc/shunya/interfaces/config.yaml

What do we write into the file ?

We write Pin number to Sensor ID, key:value pairs, where pin number is the key and Sensor ID is the value.

For Example:

pin 3: 1.1 # Key: Value

What are Sensor ID's ?

Sensors for Shunya Interfaces are represented in Sensor ID's. Sensors also have pins, these Pins are also numbered and these numbers are called

Each Sensor is given a number (Sensor ID) which the Shunya Interfaces library recognizes. And each data pins(pins used for data transfer) on the Sensor is given a number (Connection ID).

So when we write pin 1: 1.1 Shunya Interfaces understands it as <Sensor 1>.<Sensor data pin 1> connected to pin 1 of Raspberry Pi (or a board).

For example: Sensor 6 and Data Pin 1 connected to pin 3 on the board.

pin 3: 6.1

Connected multiple sensors to same pin?

You can create an array of Sensor ID's and assign it to a pin.