1 ICOc

ICOc is a collection of tools and scripts for the ICOtronic system. Currently the main purpose of the software is

  • data collection (via the script icoc) and
  • testing the functionality of
    • Stationary Transceiver Unit (STU) and
    • sensor devices/nodes, such as
      • Sensory Holder Assembly (SHA)/Sensory Tool Holder (STH)
      • Sensory Milling Head (SMH)

The software reads data from the Stationary Transceiver Unit (STU) via CAN using the MyTooliT protocol. The STU itself reads from and writes data to the sensor devices via Bluetooth.

The framework currently requires

Notes:

  • In theory you can also use ICOc in Windows 11. However, we did not test the software on this operating system.
  • The test suite (which uses a CAN class based on python-can) also works on Linux and macOS. The ICOc measurement software does not. For more information on how to use (parts of) the ICOc software on Linux, please take a look here.

For more information about other required software components, please read the subsection “Software” in this document.

1.1 Requirements

1.1.1 Hardware

In order to use ICOc you need at least:

1.1.1.1 Setup

  1. Connect the power injector
    1. to the PCAN adapter, and
    2. the power supply unit.
  2. Connect the USB connector of the PCAN adapter to your computer.
  3. Make sure that your sensor device (SHA/STH/SMH) is connected to a power source. For an STH this usually means that you should check that the battery is (fully) charged.

1.1.2 Software

1.1.2.1 Python

ICOc requires at least Python 3.9. The software also supports Python 3.10 and 3.11. We recommend you use the 64-bit version of Python.

Note: Python 3.12 is currently not supported on Windows, since at least on our test machine (some parts of) the windows-curses library does not seem to work properly.

You can download Python here. When you install the software, please do not forget to enable the checkbox “Add Python to PATH” in the setup window of the installer.

1.1.2.2 PCAN Driver

To communicate with the STU you need a driver that works with the PCAN adapter. The text below describes how to install/enable this driver on

1.1.2.2.1 Linux

You need to make sure that your CAN adapter is available via the SocketCAN interface.

The following steps describe one possible option to configure the CAN interface on (Fedora, Ubuntu) Linux manually.

  1. Connect the CAN adapter to the computer that runs Linux (or alternatively the Linux VM)

  2. Check the list of available interfaces:

    networkctl list

    The command output should list the CAN interface with the name can0

  3. Configure the CAN interface with the following command:

    sudo ip link set can0 type can bitrate 1000000

  4. Bring up the CAN interface

    sudo ip link set can0 up

You can also configure the CAN interface automatically. For that purpose please store the following text:

[Match]
Name=can*

[CAN]
BitRate=1000000

in a file called /etc/systemd/network/can.network. Afterwards enable networkd and reload the configuration with the commands:

sudo systemctl enable systemd-networkd
sudo systemctl restart systemd-networkd
# Note: The command `networkctl reload` only works in systemd 244 or newer
sudo networkctl reload || sudo systemctl reload systemd-networkd

You can check the status of the CAN connection with the command:

networkctl list

If everything works as expected, then the output of the command should look similar to the text below:

IDX LINK   TYPE     OPERATIONAL SETUP
  …
  7 can0   can      carrier     configured

Sources:

1.1.2.2.2 macOS

On macOS you can use the PCBUSB library to add support for the PCAN adapter. For more information on how to install this library please take a look here.

1.1.2.2.3 Windows

You can find the download link for the PCAN Windows driver here. Please make sure that you include the “PCAN-Basic API” when you install the software.

1.1.2.3 Simplicity Commander (Optional)

For the tests that require a firmware flash you need to either install

If you choose the first option, then please make sure to install the Simplicity Commander tool inside Simplicity Studio.

1.1.2.3.1 Linux

Please add the path to commander to the list commands → path → linux in the configuration.

1.1.2.3.2 macOS

If you install Simplicity Studio or Simplicity Commander in the standard install path (/Applications) you do not need to change the config. If you put the application in a different directory, then please add the path to commander to the list commands → path → mac in the configuration.

1.1.2.3.3 Windows

  • If you installed Simplicity Studio (including Simplicity Studio) to the standard location, then you do not need to change the configuration.

  • If you download Simplicity Commander directly, then the tests assume that you unzipped the files into the directory C:\SiliconLabs\Simplicity Commander.

  • If you did not use any of the standard install path, then please add the path to commander.exe to the list commands → path → windows in the configuration.

1.1.2.3.4 Additional Notes
  • If you do not want to change the config, and Simplicity Commander (commander) is not part of the standard locations for your operating system, then please make sure that commander is accessible via the PATH environment variable.
  • Please note, that you do not need to install Simplicity Commander if you just want to measure data with ICOc.

1.2 Install

Please use the following command:

pip install icoc

to install the latest official version of ICOc from PyPi. Afterwards you can use the various scripts included in the package.

1.2.1 Install the Package Using Windows Terminal

  1. Install (Windows) Terminal if you have not done so already; On Windows 11 this application should be installed by default.

  2. Open Terminal

  3. Copy and paste the following text into the Terminal

    pip install icoc

  4. Press Return ⏎

  5. Wait until the install process finished successfully

1.2.2 Troubleshooting

1.2.2.1 Import Errors

If one of the tests or ICOc fails with an error message that looks similar to the following text:

Traceback (most recent call last):
…
    from numexpr.interpreter import MAX_THREADS, use_vml, __BLOCK_SIZE1__
ImportError: DLL load failed while importing interpreter: The specified module could not be found.

DLL load failed while importing interpreter: The specified module could not be found.

then you probably need to install the “Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package”. You can download the latest version

  • for the x64 architecture, i.e. for AMD and Intel CPUs, here and
  • for the ARM64 architecture here.

1.2.2.2 Insufficient Rights

If you do not have sufficient rights to install the package you can also try to install the package in the user package folder:

pip install --user icoc

1.2.2.3 Unable to Install in Editable Mode

If the ICOc install fails with the following error:

ERROR: Project …/ICOc has a 'pyproject.toml' and its build backend is missing the 'build_editable' hook.
Since it does not have a 'setup.py' nor a 'setup.cfg', it cannot be installed in editable mode.
Consider using a build backend that supports PEP 660.

then your version of Setuptools needs to be updated before you install ICOc. You can use the following command to do that:

pip install -U pip setuptools

1.2.2.4 Unable to Locate HDF5

The installation of ICOc might fail with an error message that looks like this:

… implicit declaration of function 'H5close'

If you uses Homebrew on an Apple Silicon based Mac you can use the following commands to fix this problem:

pip uninstall tables
brew install hdf5 c-blosc lzo bzip2
export BLOSC_DIR=/opt/homebrew/opt/c-blosc
export BZIP2_DIR=/opt/homebrew/opt/bzip2
export LZO_DIR=/opt/homebrew/opt/lzo
export HDF5_DIR=/opt/homebrew/opt/hdf5
# Require version 3.9.1, since 3.9.2 might fail because of an
# “Illegal instruction” error:
# https://github.com/PyTables/PyTables/issues/1093
pip install --no-cache-dir tables==3.9.1

1.2.2.5 HDF5 Library Not Loaded

Some of the ICOc commands might fail with an error message that looks like this on macOS:

Library not loaded: /opt/homebrew/opt/hdf5/lib/libhdf5.….dylib

In that case you might have installed an outdated cached version of PyTables. You should be able to fix this issue using the same steps as described above.

1.2.2.6 Unable to open OpenBLAS library

If one of the ICOc command fails with the error message:

ImportError: libopenblas.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

on Raspbian (or some other GNU/Linux version based on Debian) then you probably need to install the OpenBLAS library:

sudo apt-get install libopenblas-dev

1.2.2.7 Unknown Command icoc

If pip install prints warnings about the path that look like this:

The script … is installed in '…\Scripts' which is not on PATH.

then please add the text between the single quotes (without the quotes) to your PATH environment variable. Here …\Scripts is just a placeholder. Please use the value that pip install prints on your machine. If

to install Python, then the warning above should not appear. On the other hand, the Python version from the Microsoft Store might not add the Scripts directory to your path.

1.3 Basic Usage

1.3.1 Starting the Program

The ICOc script can be used to control a sensor device. After you enter the command

icoc

in your terminal, a text based interface shows you the currently available options. For example, the text

                ICOc

       Name      Address            RSSI
———————————————————————————————————————————————
    1: Blubb     08:6b:d7:01:de:81  -44 dBm

┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ 1-9: Connect to STH          │
│                              │
│   f: Change Output File Name │
│   n: Change STH Name         │
│                              │
│   q: Quit ICOc               │
└──────────────────────────────┘

shows that currently one sensor device was detected. The

  • Bluetooth MAC address of the device is 08:6b:d7:01:de:81, while its
  • advertisement name is “Blubb”.

The last value “-44” is the current received signal strength indication (RSSI). To exit the program use the key q.

1.3.2 Reading Sensor Data

To read data from an STH (or SHA), start the ICOc script, and connect to an STH. To do that, enter the number in front of an STH entry (e.g. 1 for the first detected STH) and use the return key ⮐ to confirm your selection. The text based interface will now show you something like this:

                ICOc
STH “Blubb” (08:6b:d7:01:de:81)
———————————————————————————————

Hardware Version      1.4.0
Firmware Version      2.1.10
Firmware Release Name Tanja
Serial Number         –

Supply Voltage        3.16 V
Chip Temperature      26.2 °C

Run Time              ∞ s

Prescaler             2
Acquisition Time      8
Oversampling Rate     64
⇒ Sampling Rate       9524
Reference Voltage     VDD

Sensors               M1: S1

┌───────────────────────────┐
│ s: Start Data Acquisition │
│                           │
│ n: Change STH Name        │
│ r: Change Run Time        │
│ a: Configure ADC          │
│ p: Configure Sensors      │
│ O: Set Standby Mode       │
│                           │
│ q: Disconnect from STH    │
└───────────────────────────┘

To start the data acquisition press the key s. Afterwards a graphical window

Measurement

will show the sensor data. To stop the data acquisition, click the close button on the top of the graph. For more information on how to use ICOc and the test suite, please take a look at the section “Tutorials”.

1.4 Measurement Data

Note: ICOc assumes that the sensor device always measures acceleration data in multiples of the gravity of earth, commonly referred as \(g\) or \(g_0\). While this is true for most of the sensor hardware (such as STHs), some sensor devices measure other values, e.g. force or temperature. Even in this case the measurement software will (incorrectly) convert the data into multiples of \(g\). We are working on adding support for configuring the sensor type in the firmware and ICOc to fix this issue.

The ICOc script stores measured acceleration values in HDF5 files. By default these files will be stored in the root of the repository with

  • a name starting with the text Measurement
  • followed by a date/time-stamp,
  • and the extension .hdf5.

To take a look at the measurement data you can use the tool HDFView. Unfortunately you need to create a free account to download the program. If you do not want to register, then you can try if one of the accounts listed at BugMeNot works. Another option is to download the application from here. Just click on the folder for the latest version of the application (hdfview-…) and afterwards on the folder bin to see a list of compressed binaries (.zip & .tar.gz) for the different supported operating systems.

The screenshot below shows a measurement file produced by ICOc:

Main Window of HDFView

As you can see the table with the name acceleration stores the acceleration data. The screenshot above displays the metadata of the table. The most important meta attributes here are probably:

  • Start_Time, which contains the start time of the measurement run in ISO format, and
  • Sensor_Range, which specifies the range of the used acceleration sensor in multiples of earth’s gravitation (g₀ ≅ 9.81 m/s²).

After you double click on the acceleration table on the left, HDFView will show you the actual acceleration data:

Acceleration Table in HDFView

As you can infer from the x column above the table shows the acceleration measurement data (in multiples of g₀) for a single axis. The table below describes the meaning of the columns:

Column Description Unit
counter A cyclic counter value (0–255) sent with the acceleration data to recognize lost packets –
timestamp The timestamp for the measured value in microseconds since the measurement start μs
x Acceleration in the x direction as multiples of earth’s gravitation g₀ (≅ 9.81 m/s²)

Depending on your sensor and your settings the table might also contain columns for the y and/or z axis.

If you want you can also use HDFView to print a simple graph for your acceleration data. To do that:

  1. Select the values for the the ordinate (e.g. click on the x column to select all acceleration data for the x axis)
  2. Click on the graph icon in the top left corner
  3. Choose the data for the abscissa (e.g. the timestamp column)
  4. Click on the “OK” button

The screenshot below shows an example of such a graph:

Acceleration Graph in HDFView

For a more advanced analysis of the data files you can use our collection of measurement utility software ICOlyzer.

1.4.1 Adding Custom Metadata

Sometimes you also want to add additional data about a measurement. To do that you can also use HDFView. Since the tool opens files in read-only mode by default you need to change the default file access mode to “Read/Write” first:

  1. Open HDFView
  2. Click on “Tools” → “User Options”
  3. Select “General Settings”
  4. Under the text “Default File Access Mode” choose “Read/Write”
  5. Close HDFView

Now you should be able to add and modify attributes. For example, to add a revolutions per minute (RPM) value of 15000 you can use the following steps:

  1. Open the measurement file in HDFView
  2. Click on the table “acceleration” in the left part of the window
  3. In the tab “Object Attribute Info” on the right, click on the button “Add attribute”
  4. Check that “Object List” contains the value “/acceleration”
  5. Enter the text “RPM” in the field “Name”
  6. In the field “Value” enter the text “15000”
  7. The “Datatype Class” should be set to “INTEGER”
  8. For the size (in bits) choose a bit length that is large enough to store the value. In our example everything equal to or larger than 16 bits should work.
  9. Optionally you can also check “Unsigned”, if you are sure that you only want to store positive values
  10. Click the button “OK”

HDFView: RPM Attribute

Sometimes you also want to add some general purpose data. For that you can use the “STRING” datatype class. For example, to store the text “hello world” in an attribute called “Comment” you can do the following

  1. Repeat steps 1. – 4. from above
  2. Choose “STRING” as “Datatype Class”
  3. Under “Array Size” choose a length that is large enough to store the text such as “1000” (every size larger than or equal to 11 characters should work)
  4. Click the button “OK”

HDFView: Comment Attribute

If you want you can also add multiline text. Since you can not add newlines using ⏎ in HDFView directly, we recommend you open your favorite text editor to write the text and then copy and paste the text into the value field. HDFView will only show the last line of the pasted text. However, after you copy and paste the text into another program you will see that HDFView stored the text including the newlines.

1.5 Changing Configuration Values

Note: If you only use the icoc command line tool, then you most probably do not need to change the configuration at all.

All configuration options are currently stored in YAML files (handled by the configuration library Dynaconf). The default values are stored inside the package itself. If you want to overwrite or extend these values you should create a user configuration file. To do that you can use the command:

icon config

which will open the the user configuration in your default text editor. You can then edit this file and save your changes to update the configuration. For a list of available options, please take a look at the default configuration. Please make sure to not make any mistakes when you edit this file. Otherwise (parts of) the ICOc commands will not work, printing an error message about the (first) incorrect configuration value.

1.5.1 Adding the Path to Simplicity Commander on Linux

  1. Open the user configuration file in your default text editor using the command line tool icon:

    icon config

  2. Add the path to Simplicity commander (e.g. /opt/Simplicity Commander/commander/) to the list commands → path → linux:

    commands:
  path:
    linux:
      - /opt/Simplicity Commander/commander/

    Note: Keys (such as commands, path and linux) in the example above are case-insensitive in Dynaconf, e.g. it does not matter if you use commands or COMMANDS in the example above.

  3. Store the modified configuration file

2 Tutorials

2.1 Sensor Device Renaming

  1. Please start ICOc:

    icoc

  2. The text based interface will show you a selection of the available devices:

                    ICOc

       Name      Address            RSSI
———————————————————————————————————————————————
    1: Serial    08:6b:d7:01:de:81  -44 dBm

┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ 1-9: Connect to STH          │
│                              │
│   f: Change Output File Name │
│   n: Change STH Name         │
│                              │
│   q: Quit ICOc               │
└──────────────────────────────┘

    Choose the STH you want to rename by entering the number to the left of the device (here 1). To confirm your selection press the return key ⮐.

  3. Now the menu should look like this:

                    ICOc
STH “Serial” (08:6b:d7:01:de:81)
————————————————————————————————

Hardware Version      1.4.0
Firmware Version      2.1.10
Firmware Release Name Tanja
Serial Number         –

Supply Voltage        3.16 V
Chip Temperature      26.2 °C

Run Time              ∞ s

Prescaler             2
Acquisition Time      8
Oversampling Rate     64
⇒ Sampling Rate       9524
Reference Voltage     VDD

Sensors               M1: S1

┌───────────────────────────┐
│ s: Start Data Acquisition │
│                           │
│ n: Change STH Name        │
│ r: Change Run Time        │
│ a: Configure ADC          │
│ p: Configure Sensors      │
│ O: Set Standby Mode       │
│                           │
│ q: Disconnect from STH    │
└───────────────────────────┘

    Press the button n to change the name.

  4. Enter the new device name.

    New STH name (max. 8 characters): Blubb

    Confirm the name with the return key ⮐.

  5. The interface should now show you the menu of step 3. To disconnect from the holder press e.

  6. Now you see the main menu of ICOc. The STH will show up under the name you used in step 4.

  7. To exit ICOc, please use the key q.

2.2 Command Line Usage of ICOc

The ICOc program accepts optional command line arguments at startup. This way you can set default values for often used options. If you specify

  • the name or
  • Bluetooth address

of a sensor device, then you can even use ICOc without any user interaction, since in this case the program will immediately connect to the specified device and start the measurement process.

2.2.1 Available Options

To show the available command line options you can use the option -h:

icoc -h

which should show you the following output:

usage: icoc [-h] [-b BLUETOOTH_ADDRESS | -n [NAME]] [-f FILENAME] [-r SECONDS] [-1 [FIRST_CHANNEL]] [-2 [SECOND_CHANNEL]] [-3 [THIRD_CHANNEL]] [-s 2–127] [-a {1,2,3,4,8,16,32,64,128,256}]
            [-o {1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024,2048,4096}] [-v {1V25,Vfs1V65,Vfs1V8,Vfs2V1,Vfs2V2,2V5,Vfs2V7,VDD,5V,6V6}] [--log {debug,info,warning,error,critical}]

Configure and measure data with the ICOtronic system

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

Connection:
  -b BLUETOOTH_ADDRESS, --bluetooth-address BLUETOOTH_ADDRESS
                        connect to device with specified Bluetooth address (e.g. “08:6b:d7:01:de:81”)
  -n [NAME], --name [NAME]
                        connect to device with specified name

Measurement:
  -f FILENAME, --filename FILENAME
                        base name of the output file (default: Measurement)
  -r SECONDS, --run-time SECONDS
                        run time in seconds (values equal or below “0” specify infinite runtime) (default: 0)
  -1 [FIRST_CHANNEL], --first-channel [FIRST_CHANNEL]
                        sensor channel number for first measurement channel (1 - 255; 0 to disable) (default: 1)
  -2 [SECOND_CHANNEL], --second-channel [SECOND_CHANNEL]
                        sensor channel number for second measurement channel (1 - 255; 0 to disable) (default: 0)
  -3 [THIRD_CHANNEL], --third-channel [THIRD_CHANNEL]
                        sensor channel number for third measurement channel (1 - 255; 0 to disable) (default: 0)

ADC:
  -s 2–127, --prescaler 2–127
                        Prescaler value (default: 2)
  -a {1,2,3,4,8,16,32,64,128,256}, --acquisition {1,2,3,4,8,16,32,64,128,256}
                        Acquisition time value (default: 8)
  -o {1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024,2048,4096}, --oversampling {1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024,2048,4096}
                        Oversampling rate value (default: 64)
  -v {1V25,Vfs1V65,Vfs1V8,Vfs2V1,Vfs2V2,2V5,Vfs2V7,VDD,5V,6V6}, --voltage-reference {1V25,Vfs1V65,Vfs1V8,Vfs2V1,Vfs2V2,2V5,Vfs2V7,VDD,5V,6V6}
                        Reference voltage (default: VDD)

Logging:
  --log {debug,info,warning,error,critical}
                        Minimum level of messages written to log (default: info)

All options below the section “Measurement” and “ADC” in the help output of ICOc allow you to change a specific configuration value before you start ICOc.

2.2.2 Channel Selection

To enable the measurement for the first (“x”) channel and second (“y”) channel of an “older” STH (Firmware 2.x, BGM113 chip) you can use the following command:

icoc -1 1 -2 1 -3 0

Here 0 indicates that you want to disable the channel, while a positive number (such as 1) specifies that the measurement for the channel should take place. Since the default value

  • for the option -1 is already 1, and
  • for the option -3 is already 0

you can also leave out these options to arrive at the shorter command:

icoc -2 1

Note: Due to a problem in the current firmware the amount of paket loss is much higher, if you

  • use the standard ADC configuration values, and
  • enable data transmission for exactly 2 (channels).

We strongly recommend you use either one or three channels.

For newer STH versions (Firmware 3.x, BGM121 chip) or SMHs (Sensory Milling Heads) you can also change the hardware/sensor channel for the first, second and third measurement channel. For example, to select

  • hardware channel 8 for the first measurement channel
  • hardware channel 1 for the second measurement channel, and
  • hardware channel 3 for the third measurement channel

you can use the following command:

icoc -1 8 -2 1 -3 3

Note: If you connect to an older STH using the command above, then the command would just enable the measurement for all three measurement channels, but not change the selected hardware channel.

If you just want to enable/set a measurement channel and use the hardware channel with the same number you can also just leave the argument for the specific measurement channel empty. For example, to use

  • hardware channel 1 for measurement channel 1,
  • hardware channel 2 for measurement channel 2, and
  • hardware channel 3 for measurement channel 3

you can use the following command:

icoc -1 -2 -3

or even shorter, since the default value for measurement channel 1 is hardware channel 1:

icoc -2 -3

2.2.3 Changing the Run Time

To change the run time of the measurement you can use the option -r, which takes the runtime in seconds as argument. The command

icoc -r 300

for example, would change the runtime to 300 seconds (5 minutes).

2.2.4 Start the Measurement

If you specify one of the options

  • -b/--bluetooth-address or
  • -n/--name

then ICOC will try to connect immediately to the specified device and start the measurement run. For example, to acquire acceleration data from the device with the (Bluetooth advertisement) name “Blubb” you can use the following command:

icoc -n Blubb

To read acceleration values for 5 seconds from the device with the Bluetooth address 08:6b:d7:01:de:81 you can use the following command:

icoc -b 08:6b:d7:01:de:81 -r 5

2.2.5 Changing the Logging Level

By default ICOc only writes log messages of level INFO or higher. In some situations, for example when ICOc behaves incorrectly, you might want to set a lower level. You can do that using the option --log. For example, to activate logging of level WARNING and higher when you start ICOc you can use the following command:

icoc --log warning

The different logs for ICOc are stored in the user log directory in the following files:

  • cli.log: Log messages of ICOc
  • network.log: Log messages of CAN network class
  • plotter.log: Log messages of plotter (process for measurement graph)

To determine the user log directory on your machine you can use the following Python code:

from platformdirs import user_log_path
print(user_log_path(appname="ICOc", appauthor="MyTooliT"))

2.2.6 Changing the Reference Voltage

For certain sensor devices you have to change the reference voltage to retrieve a proper measurement value. For example, STHs that use a ± 40 g acceleration sensor (ADXL356) require a reference voltage of 1.8 V instead of the usual supply voltage (VDD) of 3.3 V. To select the correct reference voltage for these devices at startup use the option -v Vfs1V8:

icoc -v Vfs1V8

2.2.7 Changing the Sampling Rate

If you want to change the sampling rate you can do that by changing the parameters of the ADC. There are 3 parameters which influence the sampling rate.

  • Prescaler (Prescaler used by the ADC to get the sample points)
  • Acquisition Time (Time the ADC holds a value to get a sampling point)
  • Oversampling Rate (Oversampling rate of the ADC)

The formula which can be used to calculate the sampling rate can be found in the documentation of the CAN commands.

2.3 ICOn CLI Tool

One issue of the ICOc (command line tool) is that it only works on Windows. Another problem is that it requires a CAN adapter from PEAK-System.

To improve this situation we offer an API based on python-can, which works on

  • Linux,
  • macOS, and
  • Windows

and should (at least in theory) support the same CAN hardware as python-can. You can access most of this API using the “new” Network class.

We also offer a (currently very limited) CLI tool based on this API called ICOn. The text below describes how you can use this tool.

2.3.1 Listing Available Sensor Devices

To print a list of all available sensor devices please use the subcommand list:

icon list

2.3.2 Collecting Measurement Data

To collect and store measurement data from an STH you can uses the subcommand measure:

icon measure

By default the command will collect streaming data for 10 seconds for the first measurement channel and store the data as Measurement.hdf5 in the current working directory. You can change the default measurement duration using the option -t/--time. For example to collect measurement data for 1.5 seconds from the STH with the name Test-STH use the command:

icon measure -t 1.5 -n Test-STH

2.3.3 Renaming a Sensor Device

To change the name of a sensor you can use the subcommand rename. For example to change the name of the sensor device with the Bluetooth MAC address 08-6B-D7-01-DE-81 to Test-STH use the following command:

icon rename -m 08-6B-D7-01-DE-81 Test-STH

For more information about the command you can use the option -h/--help:

icon rename -h

2.3.4 Opening the User Configuration

To open the user configuration file, you can use the subcommand config:

icon config

If the file does not exist yet, then it will be created and filled with the content of the default user configuration. For more information on how to change the configuration, please take a look here.

2.3.5 STU Commands

To list all available STU subcommands, please use the option -h (or --help):

icon stu -h

2.3.5.1 Enable STU OTA Mode

To enable the Bluetooth advertising of the STU and hence the “over the air” firmware update, please run the following command:

icon stu ota

2.3.5.2 Retrieve the Bluetooth STU MAC Address

To retrieve the STU Bluetooth address you can use the following command:

icon stu mac

2.3.5.3 Reset STU

To reset the STU please use the following command:

icon stu reset

2.4 Production Tests

This tutorial lists the usual steps to test a sensory holder assembly or a sensory tool holder.

2.4.1 General

To run the production tests for one of the ICOtronic devices, please execute one of the following commands:

Device Command
Stationary Transceiver Unit (STU) test-stu
Sensory Holder Assembly (SHA), Sensory Tool Holder (STH) test-sth
Sensory Milling Head (SMH) test-smh

For a list of available command line options, please use the option -h after one of the commands e.g.:

test-sth -h

2.4.1.1 Specific Tests

To only run a single test you need the specify its name. For example, to run the test test__firmware_flash of the STU you can use the following command:

test-stu TestSTU.test__firmware_flash

You can also run specific tests using pattern matching. To do that use the command line option -k. For example to run the firmware flash and the connection test of the STH test you can use the command:

test-sth -k flash -k connection

which executes all tests that contain the text flash or connection.

2.4.2 STH

The text below gives you a more detailed step-by-step guide on how to run the tests of the STH.

  1. Note: You can skip this step, if you do not want to run the flash test. To skip the flash test, please set sth → status in the configuration to Epoxied.

    Please create a directory called Firmware in the current user’s Documents (~) directory.

    Note: To open the user’s home directory on Windows you can use the following command in (Windows) Terminal:

    ii ~/Documents

    Then put the current version of the STH firmware into this directory. Afterwards the directory and file structure should look like this:

    ~
└── Documents
        └── Firmware
                └── manufacturingImageSthv2.1.10.hex

    As alternative to the steps above you can also change the variable sth → firmware → location → flash in the configuration to point to the firmware that should be used for the flash test.

  2. Make sure that the configuration values are set correctly. You probably need to change at least the following variables:

    • Name: Please change the Bluetooth advertisement name (sth → name ) to the name of the STH you want to test.

    • Serial Number of Programming Board: Please make sure, that the variable sth → programming board → serial number contains the serial number of the programming board connected to the STH. This serial number should be displayed on the bottom right of the LCD on the programming board.

  3. Please open your favorite Terminal application and execute, the STH test using the command test-sth. For more information about this command, please take a look at the section “General” above.

    Please note, that the test will rename the tested STH

2.4.3 SMH

The preparation steps for the SMH test are very similar to the ones of the STH test.

  1. Please make sure that the config value that stores the SMH firmware filepath (smh → firmware → location → flash) points to the correct firmware. If you have not downloaded a firmware image for the SMH you can do so here.

  2. Check that the [configuration values][config] like SMH name (smh → name) and programming board serial number (smh → programming board → serial number) are set correctly.

  3. Please execute the test using the following command:

    test-smh

2.4.4 STU

The following description shows you how to run the STU tests.

  1. Note: You can skip this step, if you do not want to run the flash test.

    Please take a look at step 1 of the description for the STH test and replace every occurrence of STH (or sth) with STU (or stu).

    Note: The STU test always uploads the flash file to the board, i.e. the setting stu → status is not read/used by the STU tests.

    In the end of this step the directory structure should look like this:

    ~
└── Documents
       └── Firmware
              └── manufacturingImageStuv2.1.10.hex

    You can find the current version of the STU firmware here.

  2. Please take a look at the section “General” to find out how to execute the production tests for the STU. If you want to run the connection and EEPROM test (aka all tests except the flash test), then please execute the following command:

    test-stu -k eeprom -k connection

2.4.5 Firmware Versions

The (non-exhaustive) table below shows the compatible firmware for a certain device. The production tests assume that you use firmware that includes the bootloader.

Device Hardware Version Microcontroller Firmware
STH 1.3 BGM113 • Version 2.1.10
STH 2.2 BGM123 • Aladdin
SMH 2.1 BGM121 • Version 3.0.0
• Version E3016 Beta

2.5 Verification Tests

2.5.1 Preparation

  • The tests assume that the name of the STH is stored in sth → name in the configuration.
  • Some of the STH tests assume that you connected the SHA/STH or STU via the programming cable. Please do that, since otherwise these tests will fail.

2.5.2 Execution

To run the verification tests for the STH, please enter the following command:

test-sth-verification -v

To execute the STU verification tests, you can use the command:

test-stu-verification -v

Please note that while most of the tests should run successfully, if you use working hardware and firmware, some of them might fail occasionally. In this case please rerun the specific test using the option -k and specifying a text that matches the name of the test. For example, to return the STH test test0107BlueToothConnectMin you can use the following command:

test-sth-verification -v -k test0107

Note: If you want to stop the test while it is running, but Ctrl + C does not terminate the test as you expected, then you can use the command:

Stop-Process -Name python

to stop all running Python interpreters and hence also the test-sth-verification script.

2.5.3 Problematic Tests

The tables below contains a list of tests that failed using a working SHA/STH and STU before. It should provide you with a good overview of which of the verification tests might fail, even if the hardware and firmware works correctly.

2.5.3.1 STH

Date Failed Tests
2021-09-29 • test0107BlueToothConnectMin
• test0332SignalIndicatorsAccZ
• test0334SignalIndicatorsMulti
• test0345MixedStreamingAccYZVoltBat
2021-09-30 • test0332SignalIndicatorsAccZ
• test0334SignalIndicatorsMulti
• test0345MixedStreamingAccYZVoltBat
2021-09-30 • test0332SignalIndicatorsAccZ
• test0334SignalIndicatorsMulti
• test0532MessageCountersAccZBattery
2021-10-05 • test0334SignalIndicatorsMulti
• test0347StreamingAccXSingleBattery
2021-10-06 • test0109BlueToothRssi
• test0334SignalIndicatorsMulti
2021-10-06 • test0107BlueToothConnectMin
• test0334SignalIndicatorsMulti
• test0345MixedStreamingAccYZVoltBat
2021-10-07 • test0107BlueToothConnectMin
• test0332SignalIndicatorsAccZ
• test0334SignalIndicatorsMulti
• test0344MixedStreamingAccXYVoltBat
• test0345MixedStreamingAccYZVoltBat
2021-10-11 • test0015PowerConsumptionEnergySaveMode2
• test0016PowerConsumptionEnergySaveModeAdv4000ms
• test0332SignalIndicatorsAccZ
• test0334SignalIndicatorsMulti
• test0508AdcConfigSingle
2021-10-12 • test0332SignalIndicatorsAccZ
• test0334SignalIndicatorsMulti
• test0532MessageCountersAccZBattery
2021-10-13 • test0332SignalIndicatorsAccZ
• test0334SignalIndicatorsMulti
• test0508AdcConfigSingle
• test0509AdcConfigDouble
• test0510AdcConfigTripple
• test0525MessageCounterAccZ
2021-12-09 • test0107BlueToothConnectMin
• test0510AdcConfigTripple
• test0523MessageCounterAccX
• test0527MessageCounterAccXZ
• test0529MessageCounterAccXYZ
2021-12-14 • test0107BlueToothConnectMin
2022-05-17 • test0015PowerConsumptionEnergySaveMode2
• test0016PowerConsumptionEnergySaveModeAdv4000ms
• test0334SignalIndicatorsMulti
• test0344MixedStreamingAccXYVoltBat
• test0357StreamingAccXYSingleBattery

2.5.3.2 STU

Date Failed Tests
2021-12-14 • test0102BlueToothConnectDisconnectDevice

3 Code Examples

  • Read STH Name: Read the name of the „first“ available STH (device id 0).
  • Read Data Points: Read five acceleration messages (5 · 3 = 15 values) and print their string representation (value, timestamp and message counter)

4 Virtualization

You can also use (parts of) ICOc with various virtualization software. For that to work you have to make sure that (at least) the PEAK CAN adapter is attached to the virtual guest operating system. For some virtualization software you might have to install additional software for that to work. For example, VirtualBox requires that you install the VirtualBox Extension Pack before you can use USB 2 and USB 3 devices.

Note: Please be advised that the VirtualBox Extension Pack is paid software even though you can download and use it without any license key. Oracle might come after you, if you do not pay for the license, even if you use the Extension Pack in an educational setting.

The table below shows some of the virtualization software we tried and that worked (when we tested it).

Virtualization Software Host OS Host Architecture Guest OS Guest Architecture Notes
Parallels Desktop macOS x64 Ubuntu 20.04 x64
Parallels Desktop macOS x64 Windows 10 x64
Parallels Desktop macOS ARM64 Fedora 36 ARM64
Parallels Desktop macOS ARM64 Windows 11 ARM64, x64 JLink (and hence Simplicity Commander) only works with programming adapters that support WinUSB
VirtualBox macOS x64 Windows 10 x64
VirtualBox Windows x64 Fedora 36 x64
WSL 2 Windows x64 Ubuntu 22.04 x64

4.1 Windows Subsystem for Linux 2

Using ICOc in the WSL 2 currently requires using a custom Linux kernel. We would not recommend using ICOc with this type of virtualization software, since the setup requires quite some amount of work and time. Nevertheless the steps below should show you how you can use the PEAK CAN adapter and hence ICOc with WSL 2.

  1. Install WSL 2 (Windows Shell):

    wsl --install

  2. Install Ubuntu 22.04 VM (Windows Shell):

    1. Install Ubuntu 22.04 from the Microsoft Store

    2. Open the Ubuntu 22.04 application

      1. Choose a user name
      2. Choose a password

    3. Execute the following commands in a Powershell session

      wsl --setdefault Ubuntu-22.04
wsl --set-version Ubuntu-22.04 2

      The second command might fail, if Ubuntu-22.04 already uses WSL 2. In this case please just ignore the error message.

  3. Create Custom Kernel

    Windows Shell:

    Note: Please replace <user> with your (Linux) username (e.g. rene)

    cd ~/Documents
mkdir WSL
cd WSL
wsl --export Ubuntu-22.04 CANbuntu.tar
wsl --import CANbuntu CANbuntu CANbuntu.tar
wsl --distribution CANbuntu --user <user>

    Linux Shell:

    sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y bc build-essential flex bison libssl-dev libelf-dev \
                    libncurses-dev autoconf libudev-dev libtool dwarves
cd ~
git clone https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel.git
cd WSL2-Linux-Kernel
uname -r # 5.15.74.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2 → branch …5.15.y
git checkout linux-msft-wsl-5.15.y
cat /proc/config.gz | gunzip > .config
make menuconfig

    Make sure the following features are enabled:

    • Device Drivers → USB Support
    • Device Drivers → USB Support → USB announce new devices
    • Device Drivers → USB Support → USB Modem (CDC ACM) support
    • Device Drivers → USB Support → USB/IP
    • Device Drivers → USB Support → USB/IP → VHCI HCD
    • Device Drivers → USB Support → USB Serial Converter Support
    • Device Drivers → USB Support → USB Serial Converter Support → USB FTDI Single port Serial Driver

    Enable the following features:

    • Networking support → CAN bus subsystem support
    • Networking support → CAN bus subsystem support → Raw CAN Protocol
    • Networking support → CAN bus subsystem support → CAN device drivers → Virtual Local CAN Interface
    • Networking support → CAN bus subsystem support → CAN device drivers → Serial / USB serial CAN Adaptors (slcan)
    • Networking support → CAN bus subsystem support → CAN device drivers → CAN USB Interfaces → PEAK PCAN-USB/USB Pro interfaces for CAN 2.0b/CAN-FD

    Save the modified kernel configuration.

    Linux Shell:

    touch .scmversion
make
sudo make modules_install
sudo make install

  4. Install usbipd-win (Linux Shell):

    cd tools/usb/usbip
./autogen.sh
./configure
sudo make install
sudo cp libsrc/.libs/libusbip.so.0 /lib/libusbip.so.0
sudo apt-get install -y hwdata

  5. Copy image (Linux Shell):

    Note: Please replace <user> with your (Windows) username (e.g. rene)

    cd ~/WSL2-Linux-Kernel
cp arch/x86/boot/bzImage /mnt/c/Users/<user>/Documents/WSL/canbuntu-bzImage

  6. Create .wslconfig in (root of) Windows user directory and store the following text:

    [wsl2]
kernel=c:\\users\\<user>\\Documents\\WSL\\canbuntu-bzImage

    Note: Please replace <user> with your (Windows) username (e.g. rene)

  7. Set default distribution (Windows Shell)

    wsl --setdefault CANbuntu

  8. Shutdown and restart WSL (Windows Shell):

    wsl --shutdown
wsl -d CANbuntu --cd "~"

  9. Change default user of WSL distro (Linux Shell)

    sudo nano /etc/wsl.conf

    Insert the following text:

    [user]
default=<user>

    Note: Please replace <user> with your (Windows) username (e.g. rene)

    Save the file and exit nano:

    1. Ctrl + O
    2. ⏎
    3. Ctrl + X)

  10. Restart WSL: See step 8

  11. Install usbipd (Windows Shell):

    winget install usbipd

  12. Attach CAN-Adapter to Linux VM (Windows Shell)

    usbipd wsl list
# …
# 5-3    0c72:0012  PCAN-USB FD                      Not attached
# …
usbipd wsl attach -d CANbuntu --busid 5-3
usbipd wsl list
# …
# 5-3    0c72:0012  PCAN-USB FD                      Attached - CANbuntu
# …

  13. Check for PEAK CAN adapter in Linux (Optional, Linux Shell):

    dmesg | grep peak_usb
# …
# peak_usb 1-1:1.0: PEAK-System PCAN-USB FD v1 fw v3.2.0 (1 channels)
# …

lsusb
# …
# Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0c72:0012 PEAK System PCAN-USB FD
# …

  14. Add virtual link for CAN device (Linux Shell)

    sudo ip link set can0 type can bitrate 1000000
sudo ip link set can0 up

    Note: If the commands above fail with the error message:

    RTNETLINK answers: Connection timed out

    then please disconnect and connect the USB CAN adapter. After that attach it to the Linux VM again (see step 12).

  15. Install pip (Linux Shell):

    sudo apt install -y python3-pip

  16. Install ICOc (Linux Shell)

    cd ~
mkdir Documents
cd Documents
git clone https://github.com/MyTooliT/ICOc.git
cd ICOc
python3 -m pip install --prefix=$(python3 -m site --user-base) -e .

  17. Run a script to test that everything works as expected (Linux Shell)

    icon list

    If the command above fails with the message

    Command 'icon' not found…

    then you might have to logout and login into the WSL session again before you execute icon list again.

Notes:

  • You only need to repeat steps
  • 12: attach the CAN adapter to the VM in Windows and
  • 14: create the link for the CAN device in Linux

after you set up everything properly once.

4.1.1 Installing/Using Simplicity Commander

  1. Download and unpack Simplicity Commander (Linux Shell)

    sudo apt install -y unzip
mkdir -p ~/Downloads
cd ~/Downloads
wget https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/software/SimplicityCommander-Linux.zip
unzip SimplicityCommander-Linux.zip
cd SimplicityCommander-Linux
tar xf Commander_linux_*.tar.bz
mkdir -p ~/Applications
mv commander ~/Applications
# Fix J-Link connection
# https://wiki.segger.com/J-Link_cannot_connect_to_the_CPU
sudo cp ~/Applications/commander/99-jlink.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/

  2. Add commander binary to path (Linux Shell)

    1. Open ~/.profile in nano:

      nano ~/.profile

    2. Add the following text at the bottom:

      if [ -d "$HOME/Applications/commander" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/Applications/commander:$PATH"
fi

    3. Save your changes

  3. Restart WSL

  4. Connect programming adapter to Linux (Windows Shell)

    usbipd wsl list
# …
# 5-4    1366:0105  JLink CDC UART Port (COM3), J-Link driver Not attached
# …
usbipd wsl attach --busid 5-4

  5. Check if commander JLink connection works without using sudo (Linux Shell)

    commander adapter dbgmode OUT --serialno <serialnumber>
# Setting debug mode to OUT...
# DONE

    Notes:

    • Please replace <serialnumber> with the serial number of your programming board (e.g. 440069950):

      commander adapter dbgmode OUT --serialno 440069950

    • If the command above fails with the error message:

      error while loading shared libraries: libGL.so.1: cannot open shared object file…

      then you need to install libgl1:

      sudo apt install -y libgl1

4.1.2 Run Tests in WSL

Note: The tests use the command-line xdg-open. For the tests also work on Linux, then you need to install the Python package xdg-open-wsl:

pip3 install --user git+https://github.com/cpbotha/xdg-open-wsl.git

  1. Start WSL (Windows Shell)

    wsl -d CANbuntu --cd "~/Documents/ICOc"

  2. Connect programming/CAN adapter to Linux (Windows Shell):

    $jlink_id = usbipd wsl list | Select-String JLink | %{$_ -replace '(\d-\d).*','$1'}
$can_id = usbipd wsl list | Select-String PCAN-USB | %{$_ -replace '(\d-\d).*','$1'}
usbipd wsl attach -d CANbuntu --busid $jlink_id
usbipd wsl attach -d CANbuntu --busid $can_id

  3. Configure CAN interface (Linux Shell):

    sudo ip link set can0 type can bitrate 1000000
sudo ip link set can0 up

  4. Run tests (Linux Shell):

    make run

5 Containerization

5.1 Docker on Linux

The text below shows how you can use (code of) the new Network class in a Docker container on a Linux host. The description on how to move the interface of the Docker container is an adaption of an article/video from the “Chemnitzer Linux-Tage”.

5.1.1 Creating a Docker Image

To create a Docker image that contains ICOc just install the package with pip inside your Dockerfile. We recommend that you use a virtual environment to install the package. For an example, please take a look at the Dockerfile in the folder Docker.

5.1.2 Building the Docker Image

If you do not want to create a Dockerfile yourself, you can build an image based on our Docker example file:

docker build -t mytoolit/icoc -f Docker/Dockerfile .

5.1.3 Using ICOc in the Docker Container

  1. Run the container (Terminal 1)

    1. Open a new terminal window

    2. Open a shell in the Docker container

      docker run --rm -it --name icoc mytoolit/icoc

  2. Make sure the CAN interface is available on the Linux host (Terminal 2)

    1. Open a new terminal window

    2. Check that the following command:

      networkctl list

      lists can0 under the column LINK

  3. Move the CAN interface into the network space of the Docker container (Terminal 2)

    export DOCKERPID="$(docker inspect -f '{{ .State.Pid }}' icoc)"
sudo ip link set can0 netns "$DOCKERPID"
sudo nsenter -t "$DOCKERPID" -n ip link set can0 type can bitrate 1000000
sudo nsenter -t "$DOCKERPID" -n ip link set can0 up

  4. Run a test command in Docker container (Terminal 1) e.g.:

    icon list

6 Scripts

After you installed the ICOc package various helper scripts are available:

  • convert-base64-mac: Utility to convert a Base64 encoded 8 character text into a Bluetooth MAC address
  • convert-mac-base64: Convert Bluetooth MAC address into a (Base64) encoded 8 character string
  • check-eeprom: Write a byte value into the cells of an EEPROM page an check how many of the values are read incorrectly after an reset
  • icoc: Controller and measurement software for the ICOtronic system
  • icon: Controller software for the ICOtronic system
  • test-smh: Test code for the SMH
  • test-sth: Test code for the STH/SHA
  • test-stu: Test code for the STU

6.1 EEPROM Check

The script check-eeprom connects to an STH using its MAC address. Afterwards it writes a given byte value (default: 10) into all the cells of an EEPROM page. It then resets the STH, connects again and shows the amount of incorrect EEPROM bytes. It repeats the last steps 5 times before it prints all values in the EEPROM page.

The command below shows how to execute the EEPROM check for the STH with MAC address 08:6b:d7:01:de:81:

check-eeprom 08:6b:d7:01:de:81

You can specify the value that should be written into the EEPROM cells using the option --value:

check-eeprom 08:6b:d7:01:de:81 --value 42

6.2 ICOc

The command icoc calls ui.py. All command line arguments to the script will be directly forwarded to ui.py. For example, to read acceleration data for 10 seconds from the STH with the (Bluetooth advertisement) name CGvXAd6B, you can use the following command:

icoc -n CGvXAd6B -r 10

6.3 ICOn

The command ICOn uses the new Network class (based on python-can) to communicate with the ICOtronic system. Compared to ICOc the script currently offers very limited functionality. However, in the future most of the functionality from ICOc should be integrated into this new command line tool. A big advantage of ICOn compared to ICOc is that the command also works on Linux and macOS. For more information, please take a look here.

6.4 MAC Address Conversion

The utility convert-mac-base64 returns the Base64 encoded version of a MAC address. We use the encoded addresses as unique Bluetooth advertisement name for the STH (or SHA). Unfortunately we can not use the MAC address directly because the maximum length of the name is limited to 8 characters. To decode the Base64 name back into a Bluetooth address you can use the script convert-base64-mac.

6.4.1 Examples

# Convert a MAC address into an 8 character name
convert-mac-base64 08:6b:d7:01:de:81
#> CGvXAd6B

# Convert the Base64 encoded name back into a MAC address
convert-base64-mac CGvXAd6B
#> 08:6b:d7:01:de:81

6.5 Test-STH

The command test-sth is a command that executes the tests for the STH (sth.py). All command line arguments of the wrapper will be forwarded to sth.py.

6.6 Test-STU

The command test-stu is a wrapper that executes the tests for the STU (stu.py). All command line arguments of the wrapper will be forwarded to stu.py.

6.7 Test-SMH

The command test-smh is a wrapper that executes the tests for the SMH (smh.py). All command line arguments of the wrapper will be forwarded to smh.py.

7 Development

7.1 Install

You can use the instructions below, if you want to work on the code of ICOc, i.e. add additional features or fix bugs.

  1. Clone the repository to a directory of your choice. You can either use the command line tool git:

    git clone https://github.com/MyTooliT/ICOc.git

    or one of the many available graphical user interfaces for Git to do that.

  2. Install ICOc in “developer mode”

    1. Change your working directory to the (root) directory of the cloned repository

    2. Install ICOc:

      pip install -e .[dev,test]

      Notes:

      • The command above will install the repository in “editable mode” (-e), meaning that a command such as icoc will use the current code inside the repository.
      • The command also installs
        • development (dev) and
        • test (test) dependencies

7.2 Style

Please use the guidelines from PEP 8. For code formatting we currently use Black, which should format code according to PEP 8 by default.

To format the whole code base you can use the following command in the root of the repository:

black .

For development we recommend that you use a tool or plugin that reformats your code with Black every time you save. This way we can ensure that we use a consistent style for the whole code base.

7.3 Tests

The following text describes some of the measures we should take to keep the software stable.

Please only push your changes to the master branch, if you think there are no new bugs or regressions. The master branch should always contain a working version of the software. Please always run

  • the automatic test (make run) for every supported OS (Linux, macOS, Windows) and
  • the manual tests on Windows

before you push to the master branch.

7.3.1 Code Checks

7.3.1.1 Flake8

We check the code with flake8:

pip install flake8

Please use the following command in the root of the repository to make sure you did not add any code that introduces warnings:

flake8

7.3.1.2 mypy

To check the type hint in the code base we use the static code checker mypy:

pip install mypy

Please use the following command in the root of the repository to check the code base for type problems:

mypy mytoolit

7.3.1.3 Pylint

We currently use Pylint to check the code (for errors only):

pylint -E mytoolit

7.3.2 Automatic Tests

7.3.2.1 Requirements

Please install the pytest testing module:

pip install pytest
7.3.2.1.1 Usage

Please run the following command in the root of the repository:

pytest -v

and make sure that it reports no test failures.

7.3.3 Manual Tests

7.3.3.1 ICOc

  1. Call the command icoc.
  2. Connect to a working STH (Enter the number and press ⏎)
  3. Start the data acquisition (s)
  4. After some time a window displaying the current acceleration of the STH (or SHA) should show up
  5. Shake the STH
  6. Make sure the window shows the increased acceleration
  7. Close the window
  8. The programm should now exit, without any error messages

7.3.3.2 STH Test

  1. Call the command test-sth for a working STH
  2. Wait for the command execution
  3. Check that the command shows no error messages
  4. Open the PDF report (STH Test.pdf) in the repository root and make sure that it includes the correct test data

7.3.3.3 STU Test

  1. Call the command test-stu (or test-stu -k eeprom -k connection when you want to skip the flash test) for a working STU
  2. Wait for the command execution
  3. Check that the command shows no error messages
  4. Open the PDF report (STU Test.pdf) in the repository root and make sure that it includes the correct test data

7.3.3.3.1 Extended Tests

The text below specifies extended manual test that should be executed before we release a new version of ICOc. Please note that the tests assume that you use more or less the default configuration values.

7.3.3.3.1.1 Check Command Line Interface

  1. Open your favorite terminal application and change your working directory to the root of the repository

  2. Remove HDF5 files from the repository:

    rm *.hdf5

    Note: You can ignore errors about “no matches for wildcard” on Linux and macOS. This message just tells you that there is no file with the extension hdf5 in the current directory.

  3. Check that no HDF5 files exist in the repository. The following command should not produce any output:

    ls *.hdf5

  4. Give your test STH the name “Test-STH”

  5. Measure data for 10 seconds using the following command:

    icoc -n 'Test-STH' -r 10

  6. Check that the repo now contains a HDF5 (*.hdf5) file

    ls *.hdf5

  7. Open the file in HDFView

  8. Check that the table acceleration contains about 95 000 values

  9. Check that the table contains three columns

  10. Check that the meta attributes Sensor_Range and Start_Time exist

  11. Check that Sensor_Range contains the correct maximum acceleration values for “Test-STH”

  12. Check that Start_Time contains (roughly) the date and time when you executed the command from step 5

  13. Check that ICOc handles the following incorrect program calls. The program should not crash and print a (helpful) error description (not a stak trace) before it exits.

    icoc -b '12-12-12-12-12'
icoc -n 'TooooLong'
icoc -s 1
icoc -a 257
icoc -o -1
icoc -1 ' -1'
icoc -2 256
icoc -3 nine
7.3.3.3.1.2 Check User Interface

  1. Repeat steps 1. – 4. from the test above

  2. Open ICOc using the following command:

    icoc

  3. The main menu of ICOc should show up

  4. Try to connect to a non-existent STH

    1. Enter the text “1234”
    2. Press ⏎
    3. ICOc should ignore the incorrect input and just display the main window

  5. Change the output file name to “Test”

    1. Press f
    2. Remove the default name and enter the text “Test”
    3. Press ⏎
    4. After two seconds ICOc should show the main menu again

  6. Connect to your test STH/SHA

    1. Enter the number besides “Test-STH”: Usually this will be the number “1”
    2. Press ⏎
    3. You should now be in the STH menu

  7. Change the runtime to 20 seconds

    1. Press r
    2. Enter the text “hello”
    3. The last step should not have changed the default runtime of “0”
    4. Remove the default runtime (press ⌫)
    5. Enter the text “20”
    6. Press ⏎

  8. Enable the first and second measurement channel

    1. Press p
    2. Remove the default axis config for the first measurement channel (press ⌫ at least one time)
    3. Enter the characters “23456789ab”
    4. The last step should not have changed the empty input value
    5. Enable the first measurement channel:
      1. Press 1
      2. Press ⏎
    6. Enable the second measurement channel:
      1. Press ⌫
      2. Press 1
      3. Press ⏎
    7. Disable the third measurement channel:
      1. Press ⌫
      2. Press 0
      3. Press ⏎

  9. Start the data acquisition

    1. Press s
    2. Shake the STH
    3. Make sure that shaking the STH changes (at least) the displayed value for the first measurement channel
    4. Wait until the measurement took place

  10. Check the output file

    1. Check that the HDF5 output file exists: The filename should start with the characters “Test” followed by a timestamp and the extension “.hdf5”
    2. Open the HDF measurement file in HDFView
    3. Check that the table contains four columns
    4. One of the columns should have the name x
    5. Another column should have the name y

7.3.4 Combined Checks & Tests

While you need to execute some test for ICOc manually, other tests and checks can be automated.

Note: For the text below we assume that you installed make on your machine.

To run all checks, the STH test and the STU test use the following make command:

make run

Afterwards make sure there were no (unexpected) errors in the output of the STH and STU test.

7.4 Release

  1. Check that the CI jobs for the master branch finish successfully

  2. Check that the checks and tests run without any problems on Linux, macOS and Windows

    1. Set the value of sth → status in the configuration to Epoxied

    2. Execute the command:

      make run

      in the root of the repository

  3. Check that the firmware flash works in Windows

    • Execute test-sth

      1. once with sth → status set to Epoxied, and
      2. once set to Bare PCB

      in the configuration. To make sure, that the STU flash test also works, please use both STU test commands described in the section “STU Test”.

      If you follow the steps above you make sure that the flash tests work for both STU and STH, and there are no unintentional consequences of (not) flashing the chip before you run the other parts of the test suite.

  4. Execute the extended manual tests in Windows and check that everything works as expected

  5. Create a new release here

    1. Open the release notes for the latest version

    2. Replace links with a permanent version:

      For example instead of

      • ../../something.txt use
      • https://github.com/MyTooliT/ICOc/blob/REVISION/something.txt,

      where REVISION is the latest version of the master branch (e.g. 8568893f for version 1.0.5)

    3. Commit your changes

    4. Copy the release notes

    5. Paste them into the main text of the release web page

    6. Decrease the header level of each section by two

    7. Remove the very first header

    8. Check that all links work correctly

  6. Change the __version__ number inside the mytoolit package

  7. Push the latest two commits

  8. Update the official ICOc Python package on PyPI:

    1. Install build and twine:

      pip install --upgrade build twine

    2. Build the package (in the root directory of the repository):

      python3 -m build

    3. Check the package:

      twine check dist/*

      The output of the command above should print the text PASSED twice.

    4. Upload the package to PyPI:

      twine upload dist/*

      Note: For the command above to work you need an API token, which you can create after logging into the PyPI mytoolit account. If you need access to the account, please contact René Schwaiger.

  9. Insert the version number (e.g. 1.0.5) into the tag field

  10. For the release title use “Version VERSION”, where VERSION specifies the version number (e.g. “Version 1.0.5”)

  11. Click on “Publish Release”

  12. Close the milestone for the latest release number

  13. Create a new milestone for the next release