Using an esieabot

Installing esieabot-os

To install esieabot-os, the operating system of your esieabot which is based on Raspberry Pi OS, you must burn your SD card with the disk image of the system. Be careful, this will erase the content of your SD card. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Install the balenaEtcher software on your computer: https://www.balena.io/etcher/.

  2. Download the file https://esieabot.esiea.fr/os.zip which contains the system disk image. You do not have to unzip it.

  3. Connect the SD card of your esieabot to your computer.

  4. Open the balenaEtcher software.

  5. Click on “flash from file” and select the os.zip file you downloaded earlier.

  6. Then click on “select target” and select your SD card. If it is not recognized, try unplugging it and then plugging it back in. If it is still not recognized, try changing the USB adapter. If it is still not recognized, open your partition manager and check that the SD card is recognized and that a mount point is assigned to it. If the SD card does not appear, ask esieabot support for a new SD card.

  7. Then click on “flash” and wait for the burning to be done. If an error occurs, the burn verification has failed. This is most likely a problem with the SD card and/or SD adapter. You can follow the diagnostic steps in step 6.

  8. Unplug the SD card from your computer and plug it into your esieabot.

  9. Connect the USB power supply (battery or computer) to your esieabot.

First start-up

Your esieabot will perform a cycle of actions during the first startup. This cycle will last several minutes. You must wait until the green LED goes out completely for more than 10 seconds. Once finished, disconnect the power of your esieabot and reconnect the SD card to your computer. If you are on Windows, it will ask you to format the data partition. Of course, refuse. You should normally have access to another smaller partition which is readable by your computer called “boot”. On this “boot” partition, you should have an “esieabot” folder. Go to this folder, then to the “info” folder. You should find 3 .txt files there. You have to copy them all on your computer, you will need them later. Then you can eject the SD card, plug it back into your esieabot and turn it back on.

Connect to the esieabot’s Wi-Fi hotspot

When turned on, your esieabot hosts a Wi-Fi hotspot. You can connect to it to remotely administer your esieabot. To do this, you must first find the name of your esieabot. It can be found in the “hotspot.txt” file that you copied earlier. Then connect your computer to this Wi-Fi network as you would connect to any other network. The password is also in the “hotspot.txt” file. Be careful on Windows, you will be asked to connect with a PIN code and not a key. Be careful to choose the key mode. You should now be connected to the esieabot.

Connect to the esieabot through Wi-Fi

Once you are on the same network as the esieabot, you should be able to open an SSH (Secure SHell) connection. This will give you access to your esieabot’s terminal, just as if you had connected a keyboard and monitor, but remotely. To do this, open a terminal on your computer, regardless of your operating system (cmd or powershell on Windows). Type the following command :

ssh user@address

The user is in the file “pi.txt”. The address is the name of your esieabot or “10.42.0.1”. The password that you will be asked for is also in the “pi.txt” file. You should see an esieabot logo appear. If so, congratulations, you are connected to your esieabot. If not, check that your computer is still connected to your esieabot via Wi-Fi. Warning: the commands you will do on your SSH session are executed on your esieabot, not your computer. So be careful during the rest of the project to differentiate between what happens on your PC and what happens on your esieabot.

Connect to esieabot with a cable

The most reliable (but least convenient) way to open a terminal is to open a serial communication via a USB cable connected between your computer and your esieabot’s “USB” port. Please note that the serial port number assigned to your esieabot will change with each reboot.

Windows

On Windows, before connecting your esieabot, open the Device Manager and look at the “Ports (COM and LPT)” tab. Then plug in your esieabot and notice that a new device appears in the “Ports (COM and LPT)” tab. Note the COM port number of this new device. Install the Putty tool at https://www.putty.org/. On Putty, select “Serial” mode and replace “1” in “COM1” with the COM port number you noted earlier. Click on “Open” and you should have access to a serial terminal.

Linux and macOS

On Linux and macOS you need to install the “screen” tool. To find out the path to your esieabot, type the command ls /dev/tty* before plugging in your esieabot. Note the result of the command. Then plug in your esieabot and repeat the same command. A new device should have appeared, so make a note of its path. Next, run the command sudo screen /dev/ttyUSB0 9600 to open your serial terminal from your computer.

Connect the esieabot to the esiea Wi-Fi network

You are connected to your esieabot but it is not connected to the internet, which will be a problem. So we are going to connect it to the ESIEA Wi-Fi network. For this, an automatic configuration script is available. To use it, type this command in the terminal of your esieabot :

sudo /esieabot/available/official/connect-to-groupe-esiea.sh login mdp

The login is your email address @et.esiea.fr or your last name. The mdp is the password of your ESIEA account. To verify that the connection worked, type the command “ nmcli “. You should see two network connections in green, one “hotspot” which is your Wi-Fi hotspot and “Groupe-esiea”. If this is not the case, wait a few seconds until the connection is made. If it does not, check your password and retype the connection command if necessary. You can do the commands “sudo apt update” and “sudo apt upgrade” to update your esieabot since it is now connected to the internet. If you have successfully connected your esieabot to the internet, your computer connected to the hotspot should have internet. Indeed, your esieabot is relaying the connection via the hotspot. On the result of the “nmcli” command, you should see the IP address of your esieabot on the ESIEA Wi-Fi. It starts with 10.8.x.x. If you ever observe instabilities (very slow commands or frequent disconnections), don’t hesitate to connect in SSH by connecting your computer to the ESIEA network and replacing the address of the SSH command above by the 10.8.x.x address of your esieabot. Instabilities can be normal if everyone turns on their esieabot in the same room due to Wi-Fi frequency range conflicts, no worries.

Connect the esieabot to your personal Wi-Fi network

If you want to work from home or via your mobile connection share for example, you will also need to connect to the internet. To do this, you can type the command sudo nmtui which will open a small connection wizard. You can go to the “Activate connection” menu and choose your personal Wi-Fi network.

Choose which programs are launched at startup

In the folder “/esieabot”, there are several folders of programs. In the “/esieabot/services” folder, you will find the programs that are launched at startup in parallel. You will find the demonstration program there, delete it before continuing your work. To launch your program automatically when your esieabot starts, place your executable in the “/esieabot/services” folder. If you have any problems, the output of your program is readable in “/esieabot/logs”. If you want to stop the current program that was started at boot time, issue the command sudo systemctl stop esieabot-manager. If you want to restart it, issue the command sudo systemctl restart esieabot-manager.

Transfer files to your esieabot

There are 3 possible methods to transfer files to your esieabot.

  1. You can turn off your esieabot and connect its SD card to your computer. You can put all the files you want in the “esieabot” folder. This folder is then accessible on the esieabot on the path “ /esieabot “.

  2. You can connect to the file share of your esieabot on the SMB protocol, the Windows file sharing protocol. To do this, open a file explorer and type in the path “\\esieabot’s-ip” or “\\esieabot’s-name” by hand. You will be asked for a login and a password. They are those of the file “ samba.txt “ that you have previously copied.

  3. You can connect to your esieabot with SFTP. To do this, install a compatible software such as FileZilla. Initiate a new connection to the IP address of your esieabot on port 22. The login and password requested are those of the file “pi.txt” that you have previously copied.

Update your esieabot

To update your esieabot, use the following commands :

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

Note

This operation may take more than 20 minutes.