Variant value?

[MzTechnology97]

What value should I enter the variant? I tried COMP-CONTROLLINO but it doesn't work

[shawaj]

Yes this doesn't work just yet. It's a work in progress

You can follow progress here https://github.com/NebraLtd/hm-pyhelper/pull/128 and here https://github.com/NebraLtd/hm-pyhelper/pull/127

[uros76]

Hi. Is there a variant variable known now?

[c0r391]

would be great when this works now, because of the crappy service fee of contollino :-X

[uros76]

I am afraid this is a dead end too :( no response in months. Perhaps it's due to a lack of agreement between nebra and controllino? I don't know...

[shawaj]

Just FYI this repo is not really monitored.

But in any case, we haven't been able to get this working yet. As you can see here:

https://github.com/NebraLtd/hm-pyhelper/issues/127

[uros76]

Thanks. Even that one is stuck since July :(

Do you guys need any help with testing or anything else to get it working? There are few of us controllino users who can assist in any way we can.

[shawaj]

@uros76 yes unfortunately we haven't had the time to dedicate to another manufacturers software.

The main issue is that they use a concentrator with a power enable, which we don't currently support in our software. And we haven't actually figured out how the enable works yet.

We were hoping to get some info on this directly from controllino but didn't hear back.

[uros76]

Ah ok I understand @shawaj. Controllino was dissolved recently and the new iteration of a maker company is doing crazy stuff like making users wait months for support. Or the new crazy thing they decided to charge for support from next year. You can forget about them coming back to you with any technical development or clarification. In fact they would probably want to charge you for any information. It's that bad.

That's why controllino users community is trying to find a solution to untether from this maker and their crazy ideas completely. I am not a tech expert sadly to help on the concentrator side. The power enable is an unique feature of Embit concentrator? Did you have a look at these docs? http://www.embit.eu/wp-content/uploads/Datasheet-EMB-LR1301-mPCIe_.pdf http://www.embit.eu/wp-content/uploads/Datasheet-EMB-RasPI-130x-Cape.pdf

[shawaj]

@uros76 Who is the new company that took over controllino?

The datasheets are helpful thanks. They show the power enable pin and the i2c bus :-)

I think the other issue as well was that they put the ECC chip on the concentrator itself. But not sure if that will be a blocker.

I'll have to find my controllino hotspot now to check it out 😂

I can't give any idea of how long this will take though as it requires building in new functionality that we don't currently have

[shawaj]

PDFs for future reference Datasheet-EMB-LR1301-mPCIe_.pdf Datasheet-EMB-RasPI-130x-Cape.pdf

[c0r391]

@shawaj @uros76 I appreciate your help with our problem. Thanks from the whole controllino community.

[uros76]

Controllino was not sold but kind of changed name with the same owner. New name is Conelcom. Good luck getting anything useful from them. Many of us have escalated issues with Helium already...

Some users reported that they could swap rpi board and the hotspot resumed working. Not sure if that changes anything but yeah chip seems to be on the concentrator.

Pls dig out that old controllino of yours and play around. If you need ant tips or help or some guinea pig for testing send me a DM ;)

[shawaj]

@uros76 don't suppose you have a controllino hotspot that we could experiment with remotely?

[uros76]

Of course, I have two of them. Shoot me DM and I will set up remote access for you as needed.

[uros76]

One more thing @shawaj I created an unofficial controllino community discord server back in September where I shared tons of findings and our knowledge. Check it out perhaps something useful for your discovery https://discord.io/controllino

[shawaj]

Can you flash the image shown here to the SD card?

https://hub.balena.io/nebraltd/helium-controllino

Click get started, then choose pi 4 as the device type

[uros76]

That link takes me to generic page. You mean this one? https://hub.balena.io/organizations/nebraltd/fleets/HELIUM-CONTROLLINO

[shawaj]

Yes sorry that's the correct link

[uros76]

Downloading slowly don't know why. Once I load it will report back

[shawaj]

Awesome thanks @uros76 then I'll have a poke around 🙂

[uros76]

I tried downloading the image twice and it fails on transfer. Now trying the flashing straight from the browser and etcher app. Let's see if it finally works

[shawaj]

If not try downloading from here, I just downloaded and uploaded to Google drive.

This one will only work on ethernet though...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fpkCHyoVbMrWjaXeyA6HbCFUHwAmtaFE/view?usp=drivesdk

[uros76]

Yeah I will try your link. Flashing direct failed :(

[uros76]

The file from gdrive worked. I just flashed on an sd card and plugged it into my controllino. Do you see it online?

[uros76]

I do see a new dot on the fleet map, it must be working then :) Let me know what you find out.

[shawaj]

Thanks! I'll try and take a look tomorrow 🙂

[uros76]

@shawaj any progress? 😊

[shawaj]

@uros76 I didn't have any time to take a look yet, but I'm home alone tonight so planning to take a look in a bit. Will let you know if I make any progress :-)

[shawaj]

@uros76 good news - i have the concentrator on your unit working. it requires us to turn on the power using the power enable chip

we are going to have to add some new logic to the pyhelper module or somewhere else in order to automatically handle this based on the variant.

this may take a bit of time but will see if we can push it ahead :-)

(Leave the unit turned on and plugged in - and we will see if it witnesses/beacons sometime soon!)

[shawaj]

@kashifpk @KevinWassermann94 - do you have any thoughts on where this logic should go?

it is a power enable chip to turn on the power to the HAT on the controllino unit. I am thinking maybe in hm-pyhelper?

Pull in the pin number for a power enable param in hardware definition (false if not there, number of pin if there?) and then make output and set to 1?

What do you think?

EDIT: on second thought I guess we can use dtoverlay=gpio-poweroff,gpiopin=17,active_low - just tested and this works to pull the pin high at boot and pull it low before shutdown

[uros76]

Wow, that's fantastic news @shawaj Keep me updated 😋 Please just remove the link to my hotspot address.

[shawaj]

Yes will keep you updated. Thanks for agreeing to be the guinea pig here 👌😋

[shawaj]

@uros76 I think units should work for controllino now on this software. Will monitor your one to check but it looks like it's working to me.

It would be useful if you know anyone else with controllino units who could flash this software so we have some more to test with.

[shawaj]

@MzTechnology97 @c0r391 this should be working now just FYI

You can install by going to https://hub.balena.io/organizations/nebraltd/fleets/HELIUM-CONTROLLINO and clicking on "Get Started". You can then configure WiFi if you want to and then download the image and flash to your SD card using balenaEtcher.

[uros76]

@shawaj AMAZING it does work. It just had activity. Let me spread the message amongst controllino community and find more testers. Can we fork as a private fleet and use balena dashboard? Or we need to wait a bit longer for that option?

[gery800]

Hi

Have the firmware installed thanks to Uros76. On the dashboard about the Ip of the Controllino I see Animal Name Unavaible and Errors Found is this normal? or do I have to do something else after downloading the firmware? Radio Operation is Flase and ECC Detected also Flase

[uros76]

Where are you looking at those errors? On balena dashboard?

[gery800]

No Ip-Adress from Miner

[uros76]

Ah no need to looks at that. I have not even opened my hotspots IP, will probably see same. As long as it's working I don't care about local IP dashboard. I do care about balena dashboard if it will work 😃

[shawaj]

Can we fork as a private fleet and use balena dashboard? Or we need to wait a bit longer for that option?

@uros76 yes you can fork the fleet and run your own Balena fleet and use the dashboard but you will lose the automatic updates (or have to set them up yourself using GitHub actions or whatever)

@gery800 can you share the model number shown on your hotspot and a few pictures? Also have you already onboarded this hotspot and asserted location or not?

[gery800]

The hotspot was online with the Controllino firmware and earned HNT. Location is set.

[shawaj]

The hotspot was online with the Controllino firmware and earned HNT. Location is set.

@gery800 Can you share pictures of the unit? And the model number?

I am taking a look at it now from the backend. I think it's possibly got corrupted while downloading the image as the miner container seems to be crashing out. Leave it powered on as I'm trying a couple of things

[uros76]

Thanks again @shawaj I tried to download the base firmware again today and it kept failing during the download process. Perhaps that's issue @gery800 is having.

One more thing regarding forking. Do I need to set some controllino specific variable value on my fleet?

[uros76]

Never mind, found it on hardware_definitions.py Should be "COMP-CONTROLLINO"

[shawaj]

You will need to set:

In device variables:

Name: VARIANT Value: COMP-CONTROLLINO

In device configuration:

Define DT parameters for the default overlay. Set to "i2c_arm=on","spi=on","audio=on"

Define DT overlays. Set to "spi0-1cs","gpio-poweroff,gpiopin=17,active_low"

If you have more than one device, you can set these at fleet level.

[uros76]

Okey, thanks. Will give it a go now. I am downloading forked firmware and it's still alarmingly slow. I don't know is it my computer hating balena source these days...

[shawaj]

@gery800 can you also share the animal name of your unit?

There appears to be an issue with the ECC key failing some tests. It's probably just that it's configured slightly differently to how we do ours but will need to dig a little deeper.

[gery800]

The hotspot was online with the Controllino firmware and earned HNT. Location is set.

@gery800 Can you share pictures of the unit? And the model number?

I am taking a look at it now from the backend. I think it's possibly got corrupted while downloading the image as the miner container seems to be crashing out. Leave it powered on as I'm trying a couple of things

Ethernet Mac DC:A6:32:EF:ED:A6 Hardware Serial Number: 1000000046cb57b5 Animal Name: Tiny-Mocha-Snail

[uros76]

The firmware download keeps failing for me regardless of the device I am downloading with. That's for base firmware and my forked fleet image :( Any idea why this is happening?

[uros76]

Update on downloading problems: I connected with VPN to different country with one of my devices and now it worked fine. There must be something blocking balena traffic to Poland where I live