radio_sender.py: invalid_param

[dl8bb]

Hi folks, today I got the two LoStiks from customs and I'm happy to try it out. I cloned the repo and started trying the examples. blinky.py is working with both sticks but I have not much luck with radio_sender.py and radio_receiver.py scripts. It looks like the sender is only working the 1st time and than it says "invalid_param" forever.

Here is the output I see:

pi@pinebook:~/LoStik/examples$ ./radio_sender.py
ok
RN2483 1.0.4 Oct 12 2017 14:59:25
lora
868100000
sf12
4294967245
ok
ok
ok
ok
ok
radio_tx_ok
ok
invalid_param
ok
ok
invalid_param
ok
ok
invalid_param
ok
ok
invalid_param
^CTraceback (most recent call last):
  File "./radio_sender.py", line 26, in <module>
    time.sleep(2)
KeyboardInterrupt
pi@pinebook:~/LoStik/examples$

and the receiver is on a pi2

pi@raspberrypi:~/LoStik/examples $ ./radio_receiver.py
connection made
RN2483 1.0.4 Oct 12 2017 14:59:25
4294967245
radio_rx  1541778041

Any hints or help for me?

BTW: I modified the parser.add_arguments() call in both files to

parser.add_argument('port', nargs='?', default='/dev/ttyUSB0', help="Serial port descriptor")

cheers birko --

[dl8bb]

I've added some debug output to the radio_sender.py script and it looks like at some point the LoStik doesn't understand the command sys set pindig GPIO11 0 any more.

pi@raspberrypi:~/LoStik/examples $ ./radio_sender.py
### cmd: sys set pindig GPIO11 0
### response: ok
### cmd: sys get ver
### response: RN2483 1.0.4 Oct 12 2017 14:59:25
### cmd: radio get mod
### response: lora
### cmd: radio get freq
### response: 868100000
### cmd: radio get sf
### response: sf12
### cmd: mac pause
### response: 4294967245
### cmd: radio set pwr 10
### response: ok
### cmd: sys set pindig GPIO11 0
### response: ok
### cmd: sys set pindig GPIO11 1
### response: ok
### cmd: radio tx 1541779677
### response: ok
### cmd: sys set pindig GPIO11 0
### response: ok
### cmd: sys set pindig GPIO11 1
### response: radio_tx_ok
### cmd: radio tx 1541779679
### response: ok
### cmd: sys set pindig GPIO11 0
### response: invalid_param
### cmd: sys set pindig GPIO11 1
### response: ok
### cmd: radio tx 1541779681
### response: ok
### cmd: sys set pindig GPIO11 0
### response: invalid_param
^CTraceback (most recent call last):
  File "./radio_sender.py", line 27, in <module>
    time.sleep(2)
KeyboardInterrupt
pi@raspberrypi:~/LoStik/examples $

On the receiver side I only see the 1st transmission.

bergt@pinebook:~/LoStik/examples$ ./radio_receiver.py
connection made
RN2483 1.0.4 Oct 12 2017 14:59:25
4294967245
radio_rx  1541779677

I changed the sender and receiver to the other computer.

[olemd]

Adding a slight delay after send_cmd("sys set pindig GPIO11 1") "works for me". time.sleep(.1)

Removing the whole "sys set pindig GPIO11 1" also works, presumably blinking the LED takes a moment and the stick isn't immediately ready for a new command.

[dl8bb]

Removing both commands to switch the LED on and off helped. The short delay of .1 or .2 didn't work for me.

    while True:
        time.sleep(2)
#        send_cmd("sys set pindig GPIO11 1")
        send_cmd('radio tx %d' % int(time.time()))
        time.sleep(.1)
#        send_cmd("sys set pindig GPIO11 0")
#        time.sleep(.2)

[olemd]

I suppose this could be related to CPU-speed. I've just tested it on my laptop with a i7-6500U. The .1 sleep delay worked fine there, but I suspect a RPi or other low-end system might not need it while a faster CPU might need an even higher delay. Assuming send_cmd and python itself will take a tiny bit longer to execute on the low-end systems?

[ghost]

Adding a slight delay after send_cmd("sys set pindig GPIO11 1") worked for me: time.sleep(.1)

The sender runs on a RPi

[lolsborn]

Hey guys, somehow this whole thread slipped past me. I'm going to update the example code to include an additional timeout. I'm not sure why @dl8bb would need to comment out that code. @dl8bb have you tried running those commands separately? It's possible to wait for an "ok" before moving to the next command. I might play around with something like pexcept in python.

[lolsborn]

I think this commit https://github.com/lolsborn/LoStik/commit/2e9466841410df997064027f402f392dc0608b95 will fix the issue as well as blink the led on send properly and it also sends a frame counter which makes it easier to catch missed frames on the receive.