Struggling to install about bspokelight

[jfrostad]

Thanks, @nomeata - sorry that I forgot to close the loop on this.

Everything ended up working out - I discovered that my issue with stcgal was not related to the counterfeit PL2303, but it was instead because I was not running the command IMMEDIATELY after plugging it in. It would apppear, based on my tests that if you miss the brief window when the device is first recognized, you cannot push the firmware. It seems you have updated your docs to reflect this, so I will just reiterate the importance of that step.

Anyways, thanks for the excellent software, my wheel light has been a huge hit.

[nomeata]

Yeah, the installations instructions are not very polished yet… too few users so far :-)

Try apt install binutils and see if it works then.

[nomeata]

Or, even better, git pull; I just made it use sdobjcopy which should come with the sdcc package.

[jfrostad]

Thanks man, I think I was able to get it to work using the Docker image (in a container built on Windows). At least, I got it to save the firmware.bin file. I will give it a test on my wheel later tonight and if that doesn't work try again on Mac with your new commit.

[jfrostad]

PS for windows users, this is how I was able to get it to work:

 cd 'C:\users\jfrostad\Google Drive\PERSONAL\LED\bSpokeLight'

#run the docker container and mount your current working directory to /home
 docker run --rm -it -v $PWD/:/home/ bspoke

#create the binary
 bSpokeLight -o fw.bin imgs/casc.png 10

[jfrostad]

Note the need for a slash after $PWD

If I ran it the way you had specified for Linux, I got this error:

At line:1 char:24
+ docker run --rm -it -v $PWD:/home bspoke
+                        ~~~~~
Variable reference is not valid. ':' was not followed by a valid variable name character. Consider using ${} to delimit the name.
    + CategoryInfo          : ParserError: (:) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : InvalidVariableReferenceWithDrive

[nomeata]

Oh, you are on Mac? I'm curious if everything works there in the end.

The docker instructions were contributed by someone else, can't vouch for them :-)

[akvadrako]

Indeed, that slash could be windows thing. BTW, I committed the docker image but I never got the firmware flashing to work on my Mac - I had to use Linux in VMWare.

[jfrostad]

Sorry, should have specified in my first comment - yes that error I was running into was on Mac. I will try your new commit later tonight and see if that makes a difference. Otherwise it seems to be working OK in the docker env.

@akvadrako when you say firmware flashing, you mean actually transferring the binary that gets created onto your spoke light?

[akvadrako]

Yes, that's what I meant. If you get it to work, that would be good to know.

[nomeata]

Ignore my new commit, I decided against it. Just make sure you have objcopy installed - on Mac you have to find out which package ships it

[jfrostad]

@akvadrako How did you end up flashing the firmware? I had no luck with mac or windows using stcgal, since it wants to push to /dev/ttyUSB0, which I gather is a filepath that only exists in a Linux system. However, even running Ubuntu in a VM, I am still getting this error:

frostafarian@LT-30225862:~/_code$ stcgal -P stc12 Serial port error: [Errno 2] could not open port /dev/ttyUSB0: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/dev/ttyUSB0'

I have the spoke light attached to my PC via USB, but when I browse /dev/ it appears that directory is not present.

block       ttyS1    ttyS114  ttyS13   ttyS145  ttyS160  ttyS176  ttyS191  ttyS34  ttyS5   ttyS65  ttyS80  ttyS96
fd          ttyS10   ttyS115  ttyS130  ttyS146  ttyS161  ttyS177  ttyS2    ttyS35  ttyS50  ttyS66  ttyS81  ttyS97
kmsg        ttyS100  ttyS116  ttyS131  ttyS147  ttyS162  ttyS178  ttyS20   ttyS36  ttyS51  ttyS67  ttyS82  ttyS98
lxss        ttyS101  ttyS117  ttyS132  ttyS148  ttyS163  ttyS179  ttyS21   ttyS37  ttyS52  ttyS68  ttyS83  ttyS99
lxssclient  ttyS102  ttyS118  ttyS133  ttyS149  ttyS164  ttyS18   ttyS22   ttyS38  ttyS53  ttyS69  ttyS84  urandom
null        ttyS103  ttyS119  ttyS134  ttyS15   ttyS165  ttyS180  ttyS23   ttyS39  ttyS54  ttyS7   ttyS85  zero
ptmx        ttyS104  ttyS12   ttyS135  ttyS150  ttyS166  ttyS181  ttyS24   ttyS4   ttyS55  ttyS70  ttyS86
pts         ttyS105  ttyS120  ttyS136  ttyS151  ttyS167  ttyS182  ttyS25   ttyS40  ttyS56  ttyS71  ttyS87
random      ttyS106  ttyS121  ttyS137  ttyS152  ttyS168  ttyS183  ttyS26   ttyS41  ttyS57  ttyS72  ttyS88
shm         ttyS107  ttyS122  ttyS138  ttyS153  ttyS169  ttyS184  ttyS27   ttyS42  ttyS58  ttyS73  ttyS89
stderr      ttyS108  ttyS123  ttyS139  ttyS154  ttyS17   ttyS185  ttyS28   ttyS43  ttyS59  ttyS74  ttyS9
stdin       ttyS109  ttyS124  ttyS14   ttyS155  ttyS170  ttyS186  ttyS29   ttyS44  ttyS6   ttyS75  ttyS90
stdout      ttyS11   ttyS125  ttyS140  ttyS156  ttyS171  ttyS187  ttyS3    ttyS45  ttyS60  ttyS76  ttyS91
tty         ttyS110  ttyS126  ttyS141  ttyS157  ttyS172  ttyS188  ttyS30   ttyS46  ttyS61  ttyS77  ttyS92
tty0        ttyS111  ttyS127  ttyS142  ttyS158  ttyS173  ttyS189  ttyS31   ttyS47  ttyS62  ttyS78  ttyS93
tty1        ttyS112  ttyS128  ttyS143  ttyS159  ttyS174  ttyS19   ttyS32   ttyS48  ttyS63  ttyS79  ttyS94
ttyS0       ttyS113  ttyS129  ttyS144  ttyS16   ttyS175  ttyS190  ttyS33   ttyS49  ttyS64  ttyS8   ttyS95

[jfrostad]

I ended up figuring out how to flash the firmware using stcgal - it seems that using the Windows Subsystem for Linux, you are unable to access /dev/, so I ended up needing to just install a dual boot of Ubuntu desktop and do it there. However, I am running into a strange issue with stcgal (see here), where after flashing it more than 2 or so times it starts displaying an error and will not work anymore. I am having more luck using the official STC-ISP tool on Windows 10 (v6.86), so perhaps you may want to update the readme with this recommendation for people who are not Linux power users. I will provide further detail if I am able to diagnose the issue with support from the devs for stcgal.

Currently the workflow I have found to be most stable is to work on Windows 10 using the Docker image in Powershell as specified above and then use the official STC-ISP tool to flash it to the wheel.

It is also worth noting that these spoke lights seem to have counterfeit PL2303s inside, which the official Prolific drivers will either brick or refuse to interact with as an anti-piracy measure. More information on how to deal with this issue here and here.

I haven't yet found any information about Linux drivers for the PL2303 having this issue yet, but I can't rule it out as the source of my woes as it seems Ubuntu does automatically detect the driver and use the most recent one.

[nomeata]

so perhaps you may want to update the readme with this recommendation for people who are not Linux power users.

Pull requests welcome! I don’t use windows, so I should not write these docs.

Currently the workflow I have found to be most stable is to work on Windows 10 using the Docker image in Powershell as specified above and then use the official STC-ISP tool to flash it to the wheel.

It is possible to provide the bSpokeLight binary for windows; I have made unofficial releases and sent them to people. Then Windows users would have an easy time.

[nomeata]

Installation is much simpler now, there is a zip file with static binaries.

[nomeata]

MMEDIATELY after plugging it in. It would apppear, based on my tests that if you miss the brief window when the device is first recognized, you cannot push the firmware. It seems you have updated your docs to reflect this, so I will just reiterate the importance of that step.

Oh, sorry for having you figure that out on your own. I updated the README two weeks ago to reflect that, based on someone else’s input.

BTW, if you have good photos or even short videos of your wheel alight, then I’d love to have them for the repo or a blog post; photographing these things is non-trivial.