Wifi Credentials and Claiming Ownership about farmbot_os HOT 2 CLOSED

6. Have an LCD screen with a few buttons hooked up to the RPI with the
   couple of IO pins it has. Using the buttons you could access a menu to
   enter a new SSID and password on the device. For claiming ownership, the
   RPI could launch a request to get the list of farmbot servers. By choosing
   one of the servers, the RPi could receive a code and show it on the LCD
   screen. The user can then use that code (valid for half an hour for
   example) to register on the FarmBot site and claim ownership of the bot.
   From then one, everything can be done using the site.

On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 7:02 AM, Rory Aronson [email protected]
wrote:

This probably does not even belong in this repo, but we can talk about it
here until we figure out a game plan.

When a user gets a bot, it will come with an SD card for the pi with an
image of Raspbian + all the FarmBot software installed on it already.
Ideally the user would simply plug it in and it would start downloading
updates, connect with our web app, and the user could start controlling the
device. But there are a few issues:

1. With a wifi connection, how does the pi know the network SSID and
   password?
2. With a wifi or ethernet connection, how does the user claim ownership
   of the device once it has connected to Meshblu/the web application? Either
   they could find out the device's UUID and token and enter it in the web app
   (like now), or they could give the device a name a password in some way
   that they must also enter into the web app.

Possible solutions:

1. Hook up a monitor and keyboard to the pi and edit files through the
   terminal or do something from the desktop environment. This is just not an
   option in my opinion. Most people don't own external monitors and keyboards
   these days, and it is a total pain to hook them up temporarily, especially
   outside! Also, I think most people would not be able to/are not confident
   enough to use the terminal.

2. Connect to the pi via ethernet directly to a laptop and edit files via
   SSH. This is surprisingly a pain to get working not only form the pi side,
   but from the network configuration on the laptop side as well. I think this
   option is ruled out too.

3. Use a laptop or PC to edit a text file in the boot directory of the
   pi's SD card before plugging it into the pi and booting up. It would
   contain a wifi SSID and password (if needed) and a place to enter in a
   device name and password used to claim ownership of the device from the web
   app. This may be the very easiest as all we need is a script to read that
   text file on bootup, and it is not too difficult for users to do. However,
   it requires an SD or microSD card reader to do. A potential problem is if
   one changes their wifi name or password, then the pi will lose connectivity
   and would need to be hard shutdown by pulling the plug, then the SD card
   text file would need to updated. Not very clean... However, if it lost
   connectivity, the user could just switch back their network settings to
   gain access again, and update the settings remotely via the web app.

4. User writes a text file on a USB stick and plugs it into the pi which
   copies it automatically. Prevents the need for a hard shutdown if the pi
   loses connectivity. There may be issues with USB stick formatting or
   accessing the pi's USB ports (it may be in a tight, waterproof case)

5. A captive portal where the pi serves up a simple webpage where the user
   can enter and read info. On ethernet, the captive portal would activate if
   the FarmBot has no name or password (first boot) and the web page would
   serve up on a certain IP that the user could navigate to from any device's
   web browser as long as they are on the same network. If the device uses a
   wifi dongle, the portal would activate on first boot or when the wifi
   credentials are invalid. In these cases, the device would create its own
   wifi network called 'Configure FarmBot' that the user could connect to with
   any device, enter in the info, then initiate a reboot. This method would
   not work if the device was using a cellular or even satellite connection.

I think 3) is an easy solution for now that supports all modes of
connectivity. 5) would be a more user-friendly layer in the future for wifi
and ethernet connections which will likely be far more common than cellular
connections.

Sorry for the long post. Thoughts or other options I haven't mentioned?

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Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#42.

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7. Use the serial pins on the RPi. This can be linked to a USB/Serial
   convertor. This way, any laptop can easily plugged in the port and be used
   for diagnostic. The RPi software could easily send the status printout and
   provide a menu for setting up, rebooting, ...

8. Add a bluetooth module so smart phones, tablets and laptops can be used
   to sync with the bot. The smart phone/tablet can run an app to read
   diagnostics, manual control, change settings, add a password for security,
   ... basically use it as a tricorder.

On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 12:37 PM, Tim Evers [email protected] wrote:

6. Have an LCD screen with a few buttons hooked up to the RPI with the
   couple of IO pins it has. Using the buttons you could access a menu to
   enter a new SSID and password on the device. For claiming ownership, the
   RPI could launch a request to get the list of farmbot servers. By choosing
   one of the servers, the RPi could receive a code and show it on the LCD
   screen. The user can then use that code (valid for half an hour for
   example) to register on the FarmBot site and claim ownership of the bot.
   From then one, everything can be done using the site.

On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 7:02 AM, Rory Aronson [email protected]
wrote:

This probably does not even belong in this repo, but we can talk about it
here until we figure out a game plan.

When a user gets a bot, it will come with an SD card for the pi with an
image of Raspbian + all the FarmBot software installed on it already.
Ideally the user would simply plug it in and it would start downloading
updates, connect with our web app, and the user could start controlling the
device. But there are a few issues:

1. With a wifi connection, how does the pi know the network SSID and
   password?
2. With a wifi or ethernet connection, how does the user claim ownership
   of the device once it has connected to Meshblu/the web application? Either
   they could find out the device's UUID and token and enter it in the web app
   (like now), or they could give the device a name a password in some way
   that they must also enter into the web app.

Possible solutions:

1. Hook up a monitor and keyboard to the pi and edit files through the
   terminal or do something from the desktop environment. This is just not an
   option in my opinion. Most people don't own external monitors and keyboards
   these days, and it is a total pain to hook them up temporarily, especially
   outside! Also, I think most people would not be able to/are not confident
   enough to use the terminal.

2. Connect to the pi via ethernet directly to a laptop and edit files via
   SSH. This is surprisingly a pain to get working not only form the pi side,
   but from the network configuration on the laptop side as well. I think this
   option is ruled out too.

3. Use a laptop or PC to edit a text file in the boot directory of the
   pi's SD card before plugging it into the pi and booting up. It would
   contain a wifi SSID and password (if needed) and a place to enter in a
   device name and password used to claim ownership of the device from the web
   app. This may be the very easiest as all we need is a script to read that
   text file on bootup, and it is not too difficult for users to do. However,
   it requires an SD or microSD card reader to do. A potential problem is if
   one changes their wifi name or password, then the pi will lose connectivity
   and would need to be hard shutdown by pulling the plug, then the SD card
   text file would need to updated. Not very clean... However, if it lost
   connectivity, the user could just switch back their network settings to
   gain access again, and update the settings remotely via the web app.

4. User writes a text file on a USB stick and plugs it into the pi which
   copies it automatically. Prevents the need for a hard shutdown if the pi
   loses connectivity. There may be issues with USB stick formatting or
   accessing the pi's USB ports (it may be in a tight, waterproof case)

5. A captive portal where the pi serves up a simple webpage where the
   user can enter and read info. On ethernet, the captive portal would
   activate if the FarmBot has no name or password (first boot) and the web
   page would serve up on a certain IP that the user could navigate to from
   any device's web browser as long as they are on the same network. If the
   device uses a wifi dongle, the portal would activate on first boot or when
   the wifi credentials are invalid. In these cases, the device would create
   its own wifi network called 'Configure FarmBot' that the user could connect
   to with any device, enter in the info, then initiate a reboot. This method
   would not work if the device was using a cellular or even satellite
   connection.

I think 3) is an easy solution for now that supports all modes of
connectivity. 5) would be a more user-friendly layer in the future for wifi
and ethernet connections which will likely be far more common than cellular
connections.

Sorry for the long post. Thoughts or other options I haven't mentioned?

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#42.

from farmbot_os.