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Jack Farley, Computer Engineer

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  • 4/19/2022, 12:00:00 AM

    New Zealand Low Power Wide Area Networks

    electronicssoftware

    I have started experimenting with low power wide area networks (LP-WAN) in New Zealand using a u-blox SARA-R410-02B. Here is is what I have experimented with so far.

  • 2/7/2022, 6:59:00 AM

    Starting with ESP32

    esp32electronicssoftwaretrap-watch

    I started developing my trap-watch project on an ESP32-CAM using the ESP IDF. Here is the newbie difficulties I ran into.

  • 2/4/2022, 3:29:00 AM

    VIM Window Rabbit Hole

    linux

    Developing ESP-IDF components I thought it would be great if I could make a command to open all the files for a component at once. What a rabbit hole it was. Here is how I did it.

    The ESP-IDF has a concept of components, allowing you to split your code into separate parts. Developing the trap-watch, I have created quite a few components.

    The components themselves are by default made up of a header file (components/<component>/include/<component>.h), a c file (components/<component>/<component>.c) and a CMakeList.txt file (components/<component>/CMakeList.txt). Starting off the component, you need to edit all three files to set it up correctly.

    The process of setting up a component is something I haven't committed to memory, so I always have to look at a CMakeList.txt file for another component. I had the thought of surely I can make a simple command for opening all these files in vim... surely...

    So I set about making it.

    vimc <component>

    I created the command as a function in my esp environment file. I wanted the ability to optionally open the CMakeList.txt file, either split with the header file, or alongside the other files, and to be able to open another components files at the same time.

    To do the first part was nice and simple (once I figured out how to parse arguments again): If I passed an option to the command, change the command to open the files in vim

    function vimc {
      if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
        echo "Edit ESP-IDF component"
        echo "  usage $0 [-13] [-c <component_folder>] <component_name>"
        echo "    -1 CMakeList.txt split with .h file or -3 for all vertical"
        echo "    -c <component_folder> Path to component folder"
        exit 1
      fi 
            
      FOLDER=components        
           
      set -- $(getopt -u --options "c:,1,3" -- "$@")
           
      while :; do 
        case "$1" in
          -c)
            FOLDER=$2          
            shift 2
            ;;
          -1)
            POSITION=1         
            shift
            ;;
          -3)
            POSITION=3         
            shift
            ;;
          --)
            shift              
            break
            ;;
          *)
            echo unhandled option $1
            exit 1
            ;;
        esac  
      done
            
      if [ -d $FOLDER ]; then
        if [ -d $FOLDER/$1 ]; then
          if [ "$POSITION" == "1" ]; then
            vim -O -c 'sp $FOLDER/$1/CMakeLists.txt' $FOLDER/$1/include/$1.h $FOLDER/$1/$1.c
          else
            if [ "$POSITION" == "3" ]; then
              vim -O $FOLDER/$1/CMakeLists.txt $FOLDER/$1/include/$1.h $FOLDER/$1/$1.c
            else
              vim -O $FOLDER/$1/include/$1.h $FOLDER/$1/$1.c
            fi
          fi
        else
          echo Component $component does not exist
          exit 1
        fi
            
      else
        echo "Can't find the components folder"
      fi 
    }

    The second part, opening the other components files, was a little more of a challenge. How do you move windows in the VIM command line? Turns out you can use exe "normal" to do it.

    :exe "normal \<C-W>l"

    will "type" <C-W>l (Ctrl+W, L) to move to the window to the right, so you can simply write a command to split, then move to the right, split etc. Below is the final function.

    function vimc {            
      if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then    
        echo "Edit ESP-IDF component"         
        echo "  usage $0 [-13] [-c <component_folder>] <component_name> [<component_name>]"
        echo "    -1 CMakeList.txt split with .h file or -3 for all vertical"
        echo "    -c <component_folder> Path to component folder"            
        return
      fi   
           
      FOLDER=components
      # Key command to move to the window to the right
      MOVE_RIGHT="exe \"normal \\<C-W>l\""
      # Command to split and open the file below the current window
      SPLIT="belowright sp"
           
      set -- $(getopt -u --options "c:,1,3" -- "$@")
           
      while :; do 
        case "$1" in
          -c)
            FOLDER=$2          
            shift 2
            ;;
          -1)
            POSITION=1         
            shift
            ;;
          -3)
            POSITION=3         
            shift
            ;;
          --)
            shift              
            break
            ;;
          *)
            echo unhandled option $1
            exit 1
            ;;
        esac
      done 
           
      if [ "$POSITION" == "1" ] && [ $# -gt 1 ]; then
        echo "Can't use option -1 with multiple components"
        return
      fi   
           
      if [ -d $FOLDER ]; then  
        if [ $# -gt 1 ]; then
          if [ -d $FOLDER/$2 ]; then
            if [ "$POSITION" == "3" ]; then
              COMMAND="-c '$SPLIT $FOLDER/$2/CMakeLists.txt | $MOVE_RIGHT | $SPLIT $FOLDER/$2/include/$2.h | $MOVE_RIGHT | $SPLIT $FOLDER/$2/$2.c'"
            else
              COMMAND="-c '$SPLIT $FOLDER/$2/include/$2.h | $MOVE_RIGHT | $FOLDER/$2/$2.c'"
            fi
          else
            echo Second component $FOLDER/$2 does not exist
            return
          fi
        fi 
           
        if [ -d $FOLDER/$1 ]; then
          if [ "$POSITION" == "1" ]; then
            vim -O -c "sp $FOLDER/$1/CMakeLists.txt" $FOLDER/$1/include/$1.h $FOLDER/$1/$1.c
          else
            if [ "$POSITION" == "3" ]; then
              eval vim -O $COMMAND $FOLDER/$1/CMakeLists.txt $FOLDER/$1/include/$1.h $FOLDER/$1/$1.c
            else
              eval vim -O $COMMAND $FOLDER/$1/include/$1.h $FOLDER/$1/$1.c
            fi
          fi  
        else
          echo Component $FOLDER/$1 does not exist
          return
        fi
           
      else
        echo "Can't find the components folder $FOLDER"
      fi
    } 

    So now I can open the wifi component including it's CMakeList.txt file with

    $ vimc -1 wifi

    or open both the wifi component and the sd component with

    $ vimc -3 wifi sd

    or

    $ vimc wifi sd -3

    if I'm feeling rebelious.

    Now that I have done it, I'm wondering where else I could use similar...

    Close
  • 1/28/2022, 12:00:00 AM

    Parsing Arguments in Bash

    linux

    Making a script parse arugments in Bash took me way too long last time I did it, so here is a nice full example of how to do it using getopt

  • 1/8/2022, 12:00:00 AM

    Where's my bait gone?

    electronicsconservationtrap-watch

    I have recently started trapping some introduced predators around my local area and have had baits and pre-feed disappear with nothing to show for it, so I decided to get sparky and see if I could catch the culprit in the act.

  • 3/26/2021, 1:00:00 PM

    Bathymetric Contours

    gisgeoserveroceans

    Finally got around to creating a SLD style for GeoServer to display bathymetric contour lines using the GEBCO gridded bathymetric data. Here's how.

  • 2/25/2021, 9:00:00 PM

    shm That Cache

    yarndockerdevelopment

    I am often trying to find more space on my hard drives and found today my own docker containers wasting space thanks to ! Here's how I fixed it.

  • 2/2/2021, 9:10:07 PM

    Blob blob blob blob Stayin' Alive Stayin' Alive

    softwarejavascriptdebuggingmemory

    Upon recently trying Deezer again, I found their web app ate all my memory when running in Firefox, so I decided to see if I could find out why. I got as far as memory-file-data/string and Blobs. Here's how.

  • 12/25/2020, 12:13:48 AM

    A new Litter Survey

    softwarelitterlitter-survey

    In a culmination of litter surveys and litter picks, linked data and data exploration, and remoteStorage and ActivityPub, I have created a web-based litter pick/survey app that I hope will allow federated citizen science.

  • 12/13/2020, 6:00:00 PM

    Hoe Stream Trash

    litterpi-trash-camlitter-pick

    My latest litter pick target was Hoe Stream and the White Rose Lane Local Nature Reserve. Here's how it went.

  • 11/24/2020, 6:00:00 PM

    Release the Beast

    softwaregitlabcirelease

    I just created a Gitlab CI job to create a release with information from a CHANGELOG.md file for some of my projects. Here's how I did it.

  • 9/30/2020, 9:00:00 PM

    Gitlab CI Caching

    gitlabcontinuous integration

    I noticed something strange happening during build process during a multi-tasking bug fix. Turns out I was using Gitlab CI's caching incorrectly. I should have been using artifacts. Here's what I saw.

  • 9/21/2020, 6:00:00 PM

    Birthday Trash

    litterpi-trash-cam

    As a birthday treat, I took the day off work to try out my electronerised litter picker. Here's how it went.

  • 9/13/2020, 12:12:13 AM

    Pi Trash Cam

    raspberry pielectronicslitterpi-trash-cam

    In preparation for a day of litter picking, I finally got round to a project idea - attaching a camera to a litter picker to record it all. Here's what I did.

  • 8/25/2020, 9:29:58 PM

    yarn add --dev webdriverio

    first-draftsoftwaretestinggitlab

    I finally started implementing UI testing on first-draft using WebdriverIO. While writing tests was easy, getting the tests running was a little more difficult. Here is how I did it.

  • 8/16/2020, 7:04:44 PM

    Hooray! My new blog is live! Based on Sapper, using MongoDB and eventually ActivityPub and ActivityStreams, it will be my federated posting hub to the world.

    softwareblog
  • 8/9/2020, 5:40:49 PM

    Removing EXIF Data from Photos

    exifphotos

    Creating this new blog, I wanted to make sure there was no metadata data leaking personal information. Here's how I removed all the metadata tags except the ones I wanted from my photos.

  • 8/9/2020, 10:21:41 AM

    tmux List and Reattach

    tmuxbashsoftware

    Using tmux for your terminal multiplexer but want an easy to reattach to a session? Here's a small bash script to do it.

  • 8/8/2020, 2:58:48 PM

    Selectable Shell Examples

    markdownsyntaxcss

    Here's how to help your readers save time by making your post's shell commands easy to select and copy - with a simple CSS property.

  • 8/5/2020, 6:48:38 PM

    Be Dates You

    mongodbdocker

    Making my new blog, I didn't initially set the published dates to be native dates in the database. Here what I did to change them ...and do all the upgrades I needed.

  • 7/8/2020, 4:00:00 PM

    Testing vue components

    softwarevuetestingjavascript

    I recently needed to test that some Vue components were creating the correct HTML. To do this, I decided to create snapshots of Object representations of the rendered HTML.

  • 2/20/2019, 12:00:00 AM

    No More Numbers

    javascripthtml5software

    HTML5 number inputs aren't useful, but tel inputs, have all the power

  • 12/21/2018, 12:00:00 AM

    A Hacker "Hacked" Me

    securityemailgrep

    I decided to look into the extortion emails I have been getting and wrote a small script to extract the bitcoin addresses that have been used.

  • 12/7/2018, 12:00:00 AM

    Mouse Surgery

    pledge to not upgradeelectronics

    As part of my pledge not to upgrade, I decided to repair two of my failing mice instead of replacing them with a brand new model (as tempting as it was). Here's what I did.

  • 10/29/2018, 7:00:00 PM

    Danger Danger, Highly Reactive

    vuereactivegraphingdata
  • 9/11/2018, 7:00:00 AM

    Switching to SSR

    reactssrreact-loader
  • 8/10/2018, 4:00:00 PM

    Clean Docker Registry

    nodedockerconsolejavascript
  • 2/1/2018, 12:00:00 AM

    Testing on the Filesystem

    testingjavascript
  • 1/26/2018, 12:00:00 AM

    Tag You Are

    javascripttags
  • 1/25/2018, 9:00:00 PM

    NaN Got Me

    rubber duck savejavascriptnodejsjson
  • 4/28/2017, 10:25:34 AM

    All our app's tabs are belong to us

    angularjavascriptlocalstoragerxjssessionstorage
  • 2/20/2016, 2:33:19 AM

    Developing NPM modules

    nodejsnpm
  • 2/20/2016, 1:48:13 AM

    Nfa + Nfb or N(f+fa+fb)

    arrayfunctionjavascriptjsperf
  • 10/31/2015, 3:36:29 PM

    Photo Layout

    arrangercssgallery hierarchyhtmljavascriptphotostinymcewordpresssoftware
  • 10/31/2015, 2:33:49 PM

    Browning Pass HideAway Web Site

    cssgallery hierarchyhtmlwordpress
  • 10/17/2015, 4:04:57 PM

    Think Mobile

    mobileweb
  • 10/13/2015, 9:30:59 AM

    Pledge to Refuse and Not Buy Bottled Water

    environmentpledges
  • 2/25/2015, 7:42:33 AM

    Run PHP run!

    maximum execution timephptrial and error
  • 11/26/2014, 6:35:32 AM

    Gallery Hierarchy

    galleryhierarchyphotos
  • 10/3/2014, 7:22:04 AM

    Vim and functions

    functionnavigationtagsvim
  • 9/26/2014, 3:18:53 AM

    I'm making hierarchies

    hierarchical datahierarchyphp
  • 9/4/2014, 1:45:18 PM

    Google Sheets fun

    googlegoogle scriptgoogle sheetsjavascriptsheets
  • 8/13/2014, 3:14:22 AM

    Travel Photos

    photo managementphotostravel photos
  • 8/13/2014, 3:02:22 AM

    Image managment scripts

    photo managementphotos
  • 7/31/2014, 3:43:45 PM

    MeldCE logo

    csshtml5javascriptsvg
  • 4/26/2014, 6:34:09 AM

    MoltenDB

    databasemoltendbmongodbnodejs
  • 10/29/2013, 12:09:07 AM

    The Expensive Side

    house
  • 9/22/2013, 7:00:08 PM

    abcde

    music
  • 7/16/2013, 8:26:10 PM

    Energizer Power Plus Rechargeable Batteries

    gadgets
  • 3/4/2013, 6:27:40 PM

    USAR FOGTeX

    fogtex
  • 2/21/2013, 9:09:54 PM

    Personal Gear Bag

    rescuegear
  • 2/18/2013, 11:10:34 PM

    Geocaching Stamp

    stampgeocaching
  • 4/2/2007, 3:50:02 PM

    Call Record Presenter

    parserpythonsqliteweb
  • 9/25/2004, 9:48:10 AM

    Kimi Ora School

    csshtml
  • 6/25/2004, 8:53:53 AM

    All About Catering Web Site

    csshtml
  • 7/26/2003, 7:52:11 AM

    Quantum Accounting Web Site

    csshtml
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