servo-axis-controller-test

Wiring / Arduino based Embedded Application to test Servo Axis control process class Axis, built on PlatformIO.

The project has been created for and tested on an Arduino Mega 2560 controller module.

Toolchain

PlatformIO is the ideal foundation when developing IoT devices. It supports cross-platform development for many different controller boards widely used in the maker field and also for industrial applications.

Installation

Python 3.7

Windows

• download Python 3.7.x or later from: https://www.python.org/downloads/
• select destination directory: keep default
• make sure python.exe is added to path

Linux

Install Python 3.7 or later using your package manager.

PlatformIO

Install PlatformIO using the Python Package Manager (see also http://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/installation.html#python-package-manager):

This step can be omitted when directly working with Visual Studio Code (see below).

• in a cmd shell enter: pip install -U platformio
• upgrade pip, in the cmd shell enter: python -m pip install --upgrade pip
• upgrade PlatformIO, in the cmd shell enter: pio upgrade

Working with Visual Studio Code

How to install PlatformIO IDE in VSCode

1. Open VSCode
2. In VSCode open the Extensions tab (or just press Ctrl+Shift+x) and search for the extension "PlatformIO IDE" and click on Install

Open project in VSCode

1. Create a directory where your code project shall be cloned into. E.g. C:\git\pio-prj
2. Clone this repository into the folder you created before: git clone [email protected]:dniklaus/servo-axis-controller-test.git (ssh) or git clone https://github.com/dniklaus/servo-axis-controller-test.git (ssl)
3. Open the just cloned project folder, i.e. C:\git\pio-prj\servo-axis-controller-test with VSCode (Menu Edit > Open Folder or press Ctrl+K Ctrl+O)

Connect Terminal Emulation

In order to test and run the CLI commands, a terminal emulation program shall be used. The one giving you the best experience will be the HTerm. Load the hterm-com9.cfg file to configure HTerm properly. Alter the COM9 accordingly to the one that has been selected on your computer.

Debug Features

Debug CLI Commands

Command Tree

 dbg                      Debug CLI root node
   tr                     Debug Trace Port config access
     heap                 Particular Trace Port (heap: see below in chapter Trace Port)
       out                Trace Output config access for the current trace port
         get              Show the assigned Trace Output
         set <outName>    Set a particular Trace Output name
         list             Show all available Trace Output names (and the currently selected)
       lvl                Trace Level config access for the current trace port
         get              Show the current trace level
         set <level>      Set a particular trace level
         list             Show all available trace levels (and the currenntly selected)
     ax0
     ax1
     ax2
     ax3
     ax4
   init
   ax0
     set <angle> <speed>
   ax1
     set <angle> <speed>
   ax2
     set <angle> <speed>
   ax3
     set <angle> <speed>
   ax4
     set <angle> <speed>

Example commands

• dbg tr heap lvl set debug
• dbg ax0 set 40 250
• dbg ax1 set -90 120

Trace Port

Trace Port	default level	functionality
heap	info	if set to debug level: automatically print free heap memory [bytes], every 10 seconds
ax0	info
ax1	info
ax2	info
ax3	info
ax4	info

Library Usage

This chapter lists all the libraries this project is using.

PlatformIO Libraries

ID	Name	URL	Description
	SpinTimer	https://github.com/dniklaus/spin-timer	Universal recurring or non-recurring Timer
	Dbg-Trace	https://github.com/ERNICommunity/dbg-trace	Debug Trace component for Embedded Applications - Debug and Trace Log message system based on trace ports with adjustable levels
	Debug-Cli	https://github.com/ERNICommunity/debug-cli	Debug CLI for Embedded Applications - Command Line Interface for debugging and testing based on object oriented tree structure

Homebrew Libraries

Name	URL	Description
Arduino-SerialCommand	https://github.com/dniklaus/Arduino-SerialCommand	A Wiring/Arduino library to tokenize and parse commands received over a serial port
wiring-app-debug	https://github.com/dniklaus/wiring-app-debug#2.0.1	Wiring application debug setup
arduino-utils-mem	https://github.com/dniklaus/arduino-utils-mem#2.1.0	Arduino Memory Utilities