Testing the initialize RPi script with hardware in the loop

[danineamati]

Context

In PR #17, we added the initialize_rpi.sh script to set up the Raspberry Pi as a "SMesh Logger Raspberrry Pi." While we did verify that it works on the software side, there may be some hardware-in-the-loop checks that may be worthwhile to verify before any field deployment.

⚠ Please document throughout with screenshots and images!

Hardware needed for checks

• Real-Time Clock (RTC) with clock battery
• "Normal" Meshtastic Radio
• Mobile device (ideally both iOS and Android devices)
• Laptop with Raspberry Pi Imager
• Presence in Packard

Code snips separated by Hardware-in-the-loop checks

• Can connect to wifi automatically (e.g., EE-IoT):

  smesh/snode/scripts/initialize_rpi.sh

  Lines 11 to 22 in d5a541c

  	# Set up EE-IoT and SMesh phone hot spot SSID's. Give them time to connect.
  	nmcli radio wifi on
  	# INSERT Wifi configuration section... TODO
  	nmcli connection add type wifi ifname wlan0 con-name "EE-IoT" ssid "EE-IoT"
  	nmcli connection modify "EE-IoT" wifi-sec.key-mgmt wpa-psk
  	nmcli connection modify "EE-IoT" wifi-sec.psk "INSERT_PASSWORD"
  	nmcli connection modify "EE-IoT" 802-11-wireless.hidden yes
  	nmcli connection modify "EE-IoT" 802-11-wireless-security.proto rsn
  	nmcli connection up "EE-IoT"
  	# currently sleeping for 15 seconds... this seems to make a difference for the time required
  	# to setup the connection
  	sleep 15

  • Verified 16 Feb from the third-floor bridge over the atrium. Have we tested this from a fresh Pi Image?
• Connects to Real Time Clock:

  smesh/snode/scripts/initialize_rpi.sh

  Lines 25 to 27 in d5a541c

  	# Enable overlays to activate the I2C real time clock and
  	# the shutdown/reboot switch on GPIO 3 (pin 5). If no RTC available, will throw no issues
  	sudo echo -e "\ndtoverlay=i2c-rtc,ds1307\ndtoverlay=gpio-shutdown,gpio_pin=3\n" | sudo tee -a /boot/firmware/config.txt

• Verify that the swap is set correctly:

  smesh/snode/scripts/initialize_rpi.sh

  Lines 29 to 39 in d5a541c

  	# Setup swap space to be 1G
  	# turn off swap file such that we can change it
  	sudo dphys-swapfile swapoff
  	sudo sed -i '0,/^CONF_SWAPSIZE=/s/^CONF_SWAPSIZE=.*/CONF_SWAPSIZE=1024/' /etc/dphys-swapfile
  	sudo dphys-swapfile setup
  	sudo dphys-swapfile swapon
  	# TODO: LED showing RPi running https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JKwW2ykTD3mngxr49Tp5c5CxWLDgQb8F/view?usp=share_link
  	# Change swappiness from a default of 60 to 1to decrease swap activity to preserve the life of the SD card
  	sudo echo -e "vm.swappiness=1\n" | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf

• Meshtastic radio gets properly configured:

  smesh/snode/scripts/initialize_rpi.sh

  Lines 62 to 63 in d5a541c

  	# Initialize the radio (if connected)
  	python -m meshtastic --configure /home/pi/Documents/smesh/firmware/build_1_config.yaml

• Commands are correctly added to cron and are run at reboot (i.e., rather than immediately):

  smesh/snode/scripts/initialize_rpi.sh

  Lines 65 to 67 in d5a541c

  	# Set up the logger script, which will run automatically each time the RPi boots
  	echo "$(echo '@reboot source /home/pi/.bashrc; cd /home/pi/Documents/smesh/snode; python scripts/rpi_logger.py /dev/ttyUSB0 >> data/rpi_stdouterr.txt 2>&1' ;) " | crontab -
  	crontab -l

• SSH to pi is functional through pi hotspot:

  smesh/snode/scripts/initialize_rpi.sh

  Lines 69 to 76 in d5a541c

  	# WiFi hotspot to SSH into RaspberryPi
  	# TODO, come back and make this where it won't recreate this wifi network
  	sudo nmcli con add type wifi ifname wlan0 mode ap con-name 'accesspoint' ssid "smesh_INSERT_NAME" autoconnect true
  	sudo nmcli con modify 'accesspoint' 802-11-wireless.band bg ipv4.method shared ipv4.address 192.168.6.1/24
  	sudo nmcli con modify 'accesspoint' ipv6.method disabled
  	sudo nmcli con modify 'accesspoint' wifi-sec.key-mgmt wpa-psk
  	sudo nmcli con modify 'accesspoint' wifi-sec.psk "smesh1234"
  	sudo nmcli con up 'accesspoint'

  • Verified 16 Feb using the Terminus App on Pixel 6a. Have we tested on an iOS device?