This is part 3 of my reflow controller series. I’ve got a remote node sending out temperature readings once a second, and now I want to do something with that data.
First step is simply to get it into JeeMon and display values as they come in.
Warning: JeeMon is not Emacs, Eclipse, or Processing. For several reasons:
- JeeMon is portable across a far wider range of platforms. The core also works on tiny embedded Linux boards such as this one, for example.
- I want a system which can be wrapped up, shipped, and used elsewhere without installation hassles – even cross-platform. JeeMon can do that.
- I prefer to use the same editing environment for everything I do because I work with lots of different environments, so I use “TextMate” on Mac and fall back to “vi” on Linux.
- JeeMon can be grown into a “big” system, but it doesn’t need to. It can also be used as bridge for numerous other tools.
- There’s a lot to like about big environments which take care of everything, but I prefer lower-level tools which let me get under the hood and tinker.
Does that make JeeMon primitive? I don’t think so. Infancy: yes. Limited scope: yes (so far). One-man activity: yes (so far). Perfect: nope (nothing ever is). Fit for its intended purpose: you bet!
All good things come in three, so to work with JeeMon, you need three things:
- The JeeMon runtime, a single executable file.
- A programmer’s editor. Pick your favorite. Get a good one. It’ll change your life, as developer.
- Willingness to figure out how to glue things together using the Tcl programming language.
Let’s get started.
1. Set up the tools
There are JeeMon binaries for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux as ZIP files, 2..3 Mb each:
Download the one you need, unpack, and you should end up with an executable called “JeeMon”. Feel free to rename it to “jeemon” (lowercase) or even “jm”. These files are 100% open source, but they’ve been wrapped up into single-file executables to get going fast. See the JeeMon page for more background info on the technology used inside JeeMon.
As for which programmer’s editor to use, you’ve probably already got a preference. It doesn’t matter what it is – stick with it and learn it well, is all I can say. A good editor lets you find references and definitions, colorize your source code, compare file versions, lookup documentation, create boilerplate templates, interface with a version control system, and much much more.
2. Get organized
This is going to be a moving target. I’m still exploring the best way to manage code and data, so that it is easy to use in the editor, in the Arduino IDE, and with JeeMon.
The Arduino IDE already sort of imposes a structure to use for its libraries and sketches. Fine.
We just need a good place for JeeMon. I suggest creating a new folder called “JeeMon”, right next to your “Arduino” sketches folder. On my Mac, that happens to be the Documents folder. This is where the above JeeMon executable should be placed.
Here’s a mock-up of the folder structure I have, when following the above guidelines:
It should be fairly similar on Windows and Linux, I expect.
3. Tie everything together
This is where the real work starts. We need to tell JeeMon how to hook up to the JeeLink, and what to do with incoming packets once connected.
Everything in JeeMon is always driven from a file called “application.tcl”. For this first trial, we can just create that file next to the JeeMon executable itself. Create a file called “application.tcl” with the following contents:
proc start {} {
array set ports [SysDep listSerialPorts]
parray ports
vwait forever
}
In prose: call the listSerialPorts function in the SysDep module, and store the results in an array called ports. Then print that array. Then just stop and wait (but don’t exit, because then the output would be gone too).
In JeeMon, modules are called “rigs” btw – SysDep is a built-in rig. The above “application.tcl” file is also a rig. Once initialized, the system executes “application start” as its very last step. Which is how the “start” procedure in the above “application.tcl” file gets control. There’s no magic and very little syntax. Just some conventions.
Launch JeeMon. Sample output here, with three JeeNodes / JeeLinks hooked up:
ports(usb-A8007UsI) = /dev/tty.usbserial-A8007UsI
ports(usb-A900ad5m) = /dev/tty.usbserial-A900ad5m
ports(usb-A900adav) = /dev/tty.usbserial-A900adav
Your output will be different. The info you need to extract from the output is the connection name of your JeeLink. In my case it is “usb-A900adav”, so that’s what I’ll use in the following examples.
Stop JeeMon.
Replace the contents of “application.tcl” with the following code, but use the name of your interface in that second line, of course:
proc start {} {
Serial connect usb-A900adav 57600
vwait forever
}
In prose: call connect in the Serial rig, then wait forever. Communication takes place in the background.
When you start JeeMon again, you should see some output similar to this:
22:04:30.328 . (adav) [RF12demo] _ i31 g6 @ 868 MHz
22:04:30.342 . (adav) DF I 42 4
22:04:30.343 . (adav) Available commands:
[...]
That’s output from the JeeLink. When the thermocouple node is turned on, you should see its packets being reported. Sample output:
22:04:34.348 . (adav) OK 33 209 0
22:04:34.350 . (adav) -> ack
22:04:35.346 . (adav) OK 33 212 0
22:04:35.348 . (adav) -> ack
22:04:36.344 . (adav) OK 33 206 0
22:04:36.346 . (adav) -> ack
22:04:37.341 . (adav) OK 33 209 0
22:04:37.343 . (adav) -> ack
Not much to write home about. But now you’ve got all the pieces in place to start doing more interesting stuff. GUI, networking, webserver, database, it’s all there in JeeMon, waiting to be activated and combined as needed.
There will be some minor differences between Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, but not much really. If you’re following along and things don’t work as expected, please let me know. I’ll be happy to adjust these notes to cover as many possible details as needed to get going.
Let’s get back to the reflow side of things. We need to figure out how our thermocouple and our oven behave, and after that we need to find a way to control the oven temperature. No worries – one step at a time.
Tomorrow, I’ll set up a temperature graph. Two, in fact.
Note – as of mid 2011, this info is no longer valid. JeeMon has evolved to version 1.5.