Lua Archives - Robert Price

NodeMCU WiFi setup

NodeMCU devices have WiFi built in, and it’s easy to configure using Lua.

One of the easiest examples of setting this up was on Limpkin’s blog. I took this and tweaked it slightly so it works with the more recent Lua wifi module.

station_cfg={}
station_cfg.ssid="Rob's iPhone"
station_cfg.pwd="secret password"
wifi.setmode(wifi.STATION)
wifi.sta.config(station_cfg)
wifi.sta.connect()
tmr.alarm(1, 1000, 1, function()
    if wifi.sta.getip() == nil then
        print("IP unavailable, Waiting...")
    else
        tmr.stop(1)
        print("ESP8266 mode is: " .. wifi.getmode())
        print("The module MAC address is: " .. wifi.ap.getmac())
        print("Config done, IP is "..wifi.sta.getip())
    end
end)

Upload this using luatool or similar as the init.lua file that runs when the NodeMCU powers up.

In this example, the script tries to connect to my iPhone hotspot. We use tmr.alarm to check once a second if we have an IP address. If we don’t, we let the user know. If we do, we stop the timer from continually executing, and print out some of our wifi configuration details.

It’s at this point we could start using the connection to talk to the internet if we needed to.

Using an i2c 128×64 OLED display with Lua on a NodeMCU

Small 128×64 OLED i2c displays can picked up for just over £3 on Amazon, and they are great for interfacing with a NodeMCU IoT device.

Wiring is simple…

NodeMCU 3.3v – OLED VCC
NodeMCU GND – OLED GND
NodeMCU D1 – OLED SDA
NodeMCU D2 – OLED SCL or SCK

Your NodeMCU firmware must have been compiled with the i2c and u8g modules included. If you need to add these, see my previous post – NodeMCU Lua setup using a Mac. It also explains how to upload the example Lua code below.

The u8g module comes with some great examples. I’ve taken some of the relevant parts for a simple two page Lua script that prints out two alternating screens of text.

sda = 1 -- SDA Pin
scl = 2 -- SCL Pin

function init_display(sda,scl) --Set up the u8glib lib
     sla = 0x3C
     i2c.setup(0, sda, scl, i2c.SLOW)
     disp = u8g.ssd1306_128x64_i2c(sla)
     disp:setFont(u8g.font_6x10)
     disp:setFontRefHeightExtendedText()
     disp:setDefaultForegroundColor()
     disp:setFontPosTop()
end

function updateDisplay(func)
  -- Draws one page and schedules the next page, if there is one
  local function drawPages()
    func()
    if (disp:nextPage() == true) then
      node.task.post(drawPages)
    end
  end
  -- Restart the draw loop and start drawing pages
  disp:firstPage()
  node.task.post(drawPages)
end

function drawScreen1()
     disp:drawFrame(2,2,126,62)
     disp:drawFrame(5,5,121,57)
     disp:drawStr(5, 20, "  RobertPrice.co.uk")
     disp:drawStr(5, 35, "    @robertprice")
end

function drawScreen2()
     disp:drawFrame(2,2,126,62)
     disp:drawFrame(5,5,121,57)
     disp:drawStr(5, 20, "  NodeMCU OLED Test")
     disp:drawStr(5, 35, "   12th July 2017")
end

local drawDemo = { drawScreen1, drawScreen2 }

function demoLoop()
  -- Start the draw loop with one of the demo functions
  local f = table.remove(drawDemo,1)
  updateDisplay(f)
  table.insert(drawDemo,f)
end

init_display(sda,scl)
demoLoop()
tmr.alarm(4, 5000, 1, demoLoop)

This may look a bit complex for just displaying text, but it aims to be reusable. We use the tmr.alarm to avoid bogging the CPU down in a loop.

I’ve tried this with two different i2c OLED displays, and they both work.

NodeMCU Lua setup using a Mac

I recently bought a NodeMCU. This is a small ESP8266 based card with built in WiFi, MicroUSB, and a Lua interpreter that can be used for developing IoT (Internet of Things) devices.

I had trouble getting it working initially, so I wanted to share how I fixed this on a Mac.

Install Mac drivers

If you’re not using a Mac, you can skip this part.

You plug the NodeMCU into the Mac via USB. The Mac won’t support this by default, and you need to install a driver. The driver you need to install is the Silcon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge.

Once installed, plug in the NodeMCU and check that the device /dev/tty.SLAB_USBtoUART exists.

To connect to the NodeMCU, you’ll need some tools. To test, download CoolTerm. In Options, for Port select SLAB_USBtoUART, and for Baudrate select 115200.

If you are lucky you’ll get a prompt, if not you may need to build and install some new firmware.

If you do get a prompt type…

print "Hello";

… and Lua should echo “Hello” back to you.

Build and install the NodeMCU firmware

If you need to build new firmware, there is a very useful online site called NodeMCU-Build.com that I used to build the firmware with the right modules I wanted for my project.

Once you’ve build the firmware, you’ll need to install the Python esptool.py to flash the firmware to the NodeMCU.

git clone https://github.com/themadinventor/esptool.git
cd esptool
sudo python ./setup.py install

Check the flash size of your NodeMCU.

To flash the firmware hold down “FLASH” and press “RST” on the NodeMCU, then use the following command (remembering to disconnect CoolTerm first if connected)…

esptool.py --port /dev/tty.SLAB_USBtoUART write_flash -fm dio 0x00000 ~/Downloads/nodemcu-master-12-modules-2017-07-07-21-24-03-float.bin

As esptool.py runs, you should see something like this…

esptool.py v2.0.1
Connecting........_
Detecting chip type... ESP8266
Chip is ESP8266
Uploading stub...
Running stub...
Stub running...
Configuring flash size...
Auto-detected Flash size: 4MB
Flash params set to 0x0240
Compressed 754992 bytes to 505060...
Wrote 754992 bytes (505060 compressed) at 0x00000000 in 44.5 seconds (effective 135.6 kbit/s)...
Hash of data verified.

Leaving...
Hard resetting...

Connect to it using CoolTerm, then press the “RST” button. You should see some messy characters, then something like following (depending on what you built into your firmware)…

NodeMCU custom build by frightanic.com
.branch: master
.commit: c8ac5cfb912ff206b03dd7c60ffbb2dafb83fe5e
.SSL: true
.modules: adc,bit,cron,crypto,encoder,file,gpio,http,i2c,net,node,ow,pcm,sjson,sntp,spi,struct,tmr,u8g,uart,websocket,wifi,tls
 build .built on: 2017-07-12 09:30
 powered by Lua 5.1.4 on SDK 2.1.0(116b762)
lua: cannot open init.lua
>

Upload Lua code to the NodeMCU

The best way to get Lua code onto the NodeMCU is to use the Python luatool.

git clone https://github.com/4refr0nt/luatool
cd luatool

To test we’ll upload a simple Lua script that will blink the NodeMCU’s onboard LED, save this as “blink.lua”.

LED_PIN = 0

gpio.mode(LED_PIN, gpio.OUTPUT)
value = true

tmr.alarm(0, 500, 1, function ()
    gpio.write(LED_PIN, value and gpio.HIGH or gpio.LOW)
    value = not value
end)

Upload it to the NodeMCU using the following command (making sure Coolterm is disconnected first)…

python luatool/luatool.py --port /dev/tty.SLAB_USBtoUART --src blink.lua --dest init.lua --dofile

You should see the following…

->file.open("init.lua", "w") -> ok
->file.close() -> ok
->file.remove("init.lua") -> ok
->file.open("init.lua", "w+") -> ok
->file.writeline([==[LED_PIN = 0]==]) -> ok
->file.writeline([==[]==]) -> ok
->file.writeline([==[gpio.mode(LED_PIN, gpio.OUTPUT)]==]) -> ok
->file.writeline([==[value = true]==]) -> ok
->file.writeline([==[]==]) -> ok
->file.writeline([==[tmr.alarm(0, 500, 1, function ()]==]) -> ok
->file.writeline([==[gpio.write(LED_PIN, value and gpio.HIGH or gpio.LOW)]==]) -> ok
->file.writeline([==[value = not value]==]) -> ok
->file.writeline([==[end)]==]) -> ok
->file.flush() -> ok
->file.close() -> ok
->dofile("init.lua") -> send without check
--->>> All done <<<--

The onboard LED on the NodeMCU should now be blinking.

The NodeMCU executes the init.lua script by default, so when we upload we tell luatool to upload our blink.lua script as init.lua.