RotorHazard Delta5 Arduino FPV Race Timer

Part 3 – Starting the Services

Now we are ready to manually launch the delta5 server. We want to manually launch the service to see if there are any errors printed out or any nodes not being detected. We will do some additional configuration changes such as editing the admin username and password, and changing the default web server port.

First, lets make sure the delta5 service is not running from the previous service created in systemctl.

sudo systemctl stop rotorhazard.service

Now, lets navigate to the server directory and manually launch the delta5 server.

cd /RotorHazard/src/server

Now start the delta5 service.

sudo python server.py

If all went well, we should see the following printout with no errors.

pi@raspberrypi:~/RotorHazard/src/server$ sudo python server.py
Configuration file imported
Node 1 found at address 8
Node 2 found at address 10
Node 3 found at address 12
Node 4 found at address 14
No node at address 16
No node at address 18
No node at address 20
No node at address 22
Node 1: API_level=18, Freq=5843, EnterAt=200, ExitAt=186
Node 2: API_level=18, Freq=5695, EnterAt=200, ExitAt=150
Node 3: API_level=18, Freq=5732, EnterAt=252, ExitAt=185
Node 4: API_level=18, Freq=5769, EnterAt=200, ExitAt=116
Language file imported
LED: hardware GPIO enabled
Number of nodes found: 4
Release: 2.0.1 / Server API: 23 / Latest Node API: 18
Found installed:  openjdk version "11.0.3" 2019-04-16
Found installed:  IMDTabler Version 1.3
Database current laps reset
Set Profile to '1'
Running http server at port 80

Changing HTTP Port and Password

From the src/server directory copy config-dist.json to config.json

cd RotorHazard/src/server
sudo cp config-dist.json config.json

Copy the original config-dist.json to a new file, config.json. Dont rename the config-dist.json. This means if we make mistakes in the config.json file when editing, we can just delete it and copy a new one from the original config-dist.json.

Now edit the file

sudo nano config.json

You will see the following code, scroll down to the #General section and change the following values to your preference. Using port 80 for the HTTP_PORT will not require a port number to be defined when connecting with your web browser. Be sure to change only the values shown in BOLD below, removing any a single entry of syntax will cause issues.

"HTTP_PORT": 5000,
"SECRET_KEY": "secret!",
"ADMIN_USERNAME": "admin",
"ADMIN_PASSWORD": "rotorhazard",

Now hit ctrl+x and type Y to save.
Reboot the timer.

sudo reboot

Troubleshooting

Some common issues you may run into are missing packages or database issues. If you have issues starting the delta5server, I suggest you try deleting the database file first, database.db in the server directory. To do this, make sure you are in the server directory.

cd /RotorHazard/src/server

sudo rm database.db

Then try restart the service. Additional common errors relate to the I2C baud rate being too high. If you are getting [Errno 121] Remote I/O Errors, this is most likely the cause. You need to change the baud rate of the I2C bus. To do this, edit your boot config

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

and add

dtparam=i2c_baudrate=75000

This will force the I2C bus to run at a baud of 75000.

Lastly, if you are getting errors relating to the Neopixel libraries being incompatible or something along those lines (cant remember the exact error), then follow the steps below.

sudo apt-get install python-dev git scons swig

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/jgarff/rpi_ws281x.git

cd rpi_ws281x
sudo scons

cd python
sudo python3 setup.py build

sudo python3 setup.py install

Now try launching the server again.

cd ~
cd RotorHazard/src/server
sudo python server.py

If you are having issues with HostAPD not broadcasting the racetimer SSID, this could be to do with the wpa_supplicant. If there is a wpa_supplicant for the interface you are trying to use with HostAPD in AP mode, the wpa_supplicant will prevent HostAPD from starting and will not allow the SSID to be broadcast. Lets say for example you are using WLAN0 as your HostAPD interface then you want to make sure you do not have a wpa_supplicant.conf in your /etc/wpa_supplicant folder. Lets take the wpa_supplicant.conf and move it to wpa_supplicant-wlan1.conf, or if there is a wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf, again move it to wpa_supplicant-wlan1.conf.

cd /etc/wpa_supplicant
sudo mv wpa_supplicant.conf wpa_supplicant-wlan1.conf
or
sudo mv wpa_supplicant-wlan0.conf wpa_supplicant-wlan1.conf

This now means we have no wpa_supplicant.conf running on interface wlan0. We have moved the wpa_supplicant.conf to run specifically on wlan1, so if you insert a USB WiFi dongle it will appear as WLAN1 and will follow the wpa_supplicant-wlan1.conf file. This means you can edit this file to connect to your WiFi network, using another wireless interface. Now, HostAPD services will start and be able to use WLAN0 to broadcast on.

Updating the Timer

Follow the steps below to update the timer when newer releases are available. We need to find the latest version of the RotorHazard fork and replace the version in the text below before cloning. Where 2.0.1 marks the current version, visit the RotorHazard latest releases page for more information on the latest release and replace 2.0.0 with the version you want to clone. In this case we use 2.1.0-beta1, the latest version at the time this article is updated. For example

Navigate to the Assets section of the release page on github of the version you want to update to. Right click on Source Code (zip) and click copy link and replace the link with the link below, after wget and before the -o.

• 

wget https://codeload.github.com/RotorHazard/RotorHazard/zip/2.1.0-beta.1 -O temp.zip

cd ~
wget https://codeload.github.com/RotorHazard/RotorHazard/zip/2.1.0-beta.1 -O temp.zip
unzip temp.zip
mv RotorHazard RotorHazard.old
mv RotorHazard-2.1.0-beta.1 RotorHazard
rm temp.zip
cp RotorHazard.old/src/server/config.json RotorHazard/src/server
cp RotorHazard.old/src/server/database.db RotorHazard/src/server

Above, we copy the old configuration file config.json to the new RotorHazard directoy, we also copy the database.db to the new directory so that all user settings and your database is restored.

Lastly, we now need to update any dependencies that may have changed. Again, we do this by using the requirements.txt file, which would have any been downloaded in the update, and will contain any new packages or additional packages to install.

cd ~/RotorHazard/src/server
sudo pip install --upgrade --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt

Now, we start the RotorHazard service.

cd RotorHazard/src/server
sudo python server.py

OR

sudo systemctl rotorhazard start

Please refer to the RotorHazard GitHub page to see if the NANO code is required to be updated. Remember, the server is not the only thing that needs updating, the NODES may require new code to be flashed too!

Links & References

Original delta5 code written by Scott Chin on github

RotorHazard Delta5 Fork on github

Delta5 on Facebook

RotorHazard on Facebook

Additional Hostapd Configuration

More Hostapd Configuration

Ready to flash Image!

Below is a image I have created which is pre-configured with the latest version of RotorHazard timer software and is also running the hostapd WiFi hotspot. This is a clean image with no errors so assuming you have all hardware setup correctly, you can flash this image to your PI SD card and just boot the race timer! Connect to it via WiFi, and browse to the IP with your web browser.

Firstly, download and install Win32 Disk Imager.
Now, before running win32, insert a blank SD Card into your computer. Now launch win32 Disk Imager. Here we are flashing a pre-build rotorhazard image, however this is the same process to flash the stock buster image.

Now, select the downloaded and extracted .img file to be flashed. Also select the path of your MicroSD card, be sure to get this right! Now hit write. This will write the image to the SD and when complete, you can just throw the SD into the PI and boot!

Pre-Build RotorHazard Image (Ready To Flash)

RotorHazard v2.1.0 Beta 1 Race Timer IMG – Updated 29.12.19 Version 2.1.0
RotorHazard v2.1.1 Stable.IMG – Updated 12.04.20 Version 2.1.1
RotorHazard v2.2.0 Stable.IMG – Updated 04.07.20 Version 2.2.0
RotorHazard v2.3.2 Stable.IMG – Updated 12.02.21 Version 2.3.2
RotorHazard v3.0.0 Stable.IMG – Updated 15.09.21 Version 3.0.0

Please note to use the pre-built images you must use a 16GB SD Card or above.

To run OTA updater (Version 2.3.2 and above).

cd ~
cd RH-ota
sudo python3 start_ota.py

Image Details (Advanced Users):

SSH Enabled
I2C Enabled
SPI Enabled
Added WS2812b LED Support
Added INA219 Voltage/Current Support
Added BME280 Temperature Support
Added Java
Included OTA Updater
Hostapd configured for wlan0 only - No internet access on this interface.
eth0 on DHCP and for Internet access and downloading updates etc.

Default Usernames and Passwords:

SSID: racetimer
Password: rotorhazard
Static IP: 192.168.10.1 

Web Login:
Username: admin
Password: rotorhazard
Web server port: 80  

Raspbian SU Login (default):
Username: pi
Password: rotorhazard
(I suggest changing this, if you have others connect to the timer as you have SSH enabled. Type passwd in CLI.)
Hostname: raspberrypi

Share Name: \\192.168.10.1\rotorhazard
Username: pi
Password: rotorhazard (Suggest Changing)

In version 2.1.1 I have made some changes to the image. There are two interfaces, WLAN0 and WLAN1.

WLAN0 is configured for internet access as a client interface with DHCP enabled. WLAN1 is configuration as a AP with SSID racetimer. You need to enable WLAN0 in order to update the timer and to get internet access. If you do not have two wireless interfaces some changes will need to be made.I have also added SAMBA in the latest release 2.1.1. This allows you to map a drive and browse the contents of the rotorhazard directory.

Version 2.1.1 also includes the latest stable release of RotorHazard OTH for over the air flashing of nodes.

2.1.0 MD5 Hash: b37c77c4a423c9421a655e99456cdc63
2.1.1 MD5 Hash: 114a6e197fbe9f5423b60dcad37bf5fc
2.2.0 MD5 Hash: 1a48852b830431b99f8a308c31f2e53a
2.3.2 MD5 Hash: 33a49e717a65e7418ea6327446632de6
3.0.0 MD5 Hash: a31bd85b427f29e0849e47216759131a