Release 27.9

This is now starting to roll out - thanks to everyone involved in testing! If things go well we’ll complete the rollout over the next few days.

Release notes are here: http://www.electricimp.com/docs/resources/releases/release27/

…but in summary:

  • Heaps more free memory for most applications: both the efficiency of Squirrel’s RAM usage and the efficiency of the impOS have been improved to give typically ten’s of kB more free memory for Squirrel applications
  • Run code at cold boot: will now run cached squirrel code even if the imp cannot connect to the server on a cold boot. The imp will try to contact the server to verify it has the latest code for up to 10 seconds at boot before running the code anyway - this is to protect against bad code having been loaded onto the imp in error.
  • More aggressive connection maintenance: deals better with more scenarios that could cause an imp to become disconnected.
  • Pulse triggered pulse generator: can be used to generate microsecond-accurate triac dimming controls
  • Improved Android blinkup performance: trilevel blinkup is now more resilient against misbehaving phones.
  • Expanded LED codes: finer-grained detail on connection failures now provided.
  • WiFi scanning API: enables programmatic joining of open networks or indoor geolocation features
  • Improved fixed frequency DAC: audio flag enables popless playback with smooth ramping
  • Higher performance SPI: gapless clock allows elegant driving of WS2811/2812 NeoPixels
  • Phototransistor accessible programmatically for light sensing
  • imp.wakeup now returns a handle so pending wakeups can be cancelled
  • Fixed frequency sampler is now multichannel capable
  • Imps can now sleep for up to 28 days in a single sleep
  • Runtime errors encountered when imp is disconnected from WiFi now reported when the imp reconnects
  • Time to connect generally shorter (better wifi retry strategy)
  • Can now set maximum size of transmit TCP buffer to improve upstream bandwidth
  • New wakereason() will tell you if your code was restarted due to a Squirrel runtime error

Bugs fixed:

  • Many improvements around connection state machine
  • Very high frequency pin transitions no longer cause imp to crash
  • onidle() only fires when server data has been received - no need to lengthen connect times arbitrarily to ensure you can pick up new code.
  • WiFi powersave state is now sticky (can be set when wifi is off)
  • Improved RTC calibration for imp002 modules
  • Many more fixes and improvements

Does hardware.lightlevel() work with Module 002 ?
I keep getting 65535 as value

Is there a way to tie hardware.lightlevel() to an Imp wakeup? That would be pretty handy for battery powered projects like the mailbox project that @JerryW is working on.

maybe I don’t understand, but how do you plan to evaluate hardware.lightlevel() while asleep?

Yeah, I didn’t ask that correctly. My thought process is to connect the phototransistor to a wakeup like pin 1. Seems like that might be easily done on a module, but perhaps not on a card, unless there is a way to tie them together internally.

What is the minimum voltage required to wake the imp on pin 1?

@DolfTraanberg we’ve tested that hardware.lightlevel() works with module 002 in an Amber board. Do you have an equivalent phototransistor?

don’t know. I use the Smartmaker imp002 evaluation kit, but blink-up does work (kind of).
Maybe because I am still on release a9d96b0 - release-27.6 - Fri Nov 15 09:29:21 2013?
Can I buy that Amber board (PCB) somewhere?

I can confirm that hardware.lightlevel() works fine on Release 27.5

@DolfTraanberg I can’t see any related changes between 27.6 and 27.9. How have you connected Vref+?

I think @jwehr had some Amber boards for sale.

Not.
Should I? 8-|

Try connecting Vref+ (ADC reference) to 3v3.

You are my friend. Thanks.
hardware.voltage() works as well now
–edit–
looking at my log at Xively (https://xively.com/feeds/1339461031) I noticed that the imp started reading at 2:30 this morning…
strange

I have two of the Smartmaker imp002 breakouts, and though I haven’t noticed anything odd, there 4 capacitors that also should be in place, if you look at the spec sheet and reference designs. (That aren’t on the breakout) I believe they help stabilize and increase imp performance. I’ll probably pull those modules off and put them on a proper impee at some point.

hi, should the update be automatic? I’ve had a number of Imp001’s update, but not my Imp002?
I’m particularly interested in the hardware.voltage() as I’ve got Vanlg/Vref=2.048V so interested to have it measure the Vcc which is LiFePO4 battery voltage and will gate the rest of the activity.

2013-11-29 19:30:33 UTC-8: [Device] impMac 0c2a690236fd impId 20000c2a690236fd SwVer 0e967a4 - Fri Jul 19 10:04:28 2013
2013-11-29 19:30:33 UTC-8: [Device] ssidMac 88dc96035d86 FreeMem=59K
thanks

Ah. It turns out that hardware.voltage() always measures VDDA/Vref+ and not VDD. Due to an oversight in the hardware designs of both IMP-001 and IMP-002, it is not possible to measure VDD internally if it’s different from Vref+. Sorry about that. Your best bet is to use the circuit someone posted the other day, to measure your battery voltage on a separate pin.

Peter

@neilh it’s a staged rollout; as you quoted your mac address there I’ve forced it for that unit but generally we’ll complete the rollout over (I suspect) the next week barring anything unforeseen happening.

Peter: Bummer on hw voltage, Thanks for the explanation, I was hoping it was a sw issue.

Hugo: Thanks - its upgraded.
I noticed something interesting - but its not an issue for me - at the end of downloading OS code, it looks like imp.getpowersave() is still valid - that is a soft restart. I would have assumed a cold restart with imp.getpowersave() == false.

I have a the beginning of my module - and it didn’t seem to be executed after the OS Upgrade.
`
local wakeReason = hardware.wakereason()
if (false == imp.getpowersave()) {
if (WAKEREASON_TIMER !=wakeReason) {
imp.configure(“WaterDepthImp002”, [], []);
server.log(format(“impMac %s impId %s SwVer %s”,imp.getmacaddress(), hardware.getimpeeid(), imp.getsoftwareversion() ));

`
2013-12-03 08:39:54 UTC-8: [Exit Code] imp restarted, reason: wifi outage
2013-12-03 08:39:54 UTC-8: [Power State] Power state: asleep=>online
2013-12-03 08:39:54 UTC-8: [Status] Downloading new code
2013-12-03 08:39:54 UTC-8: [Status] Downloading new code
2013-12-03 08:39:54 UTC-8: [Status] firmware update triggered
2013-12-03 08:40:14 UTC-8: [Power State] Power state: online=>offline
2013-12-03 08:40:30 UTC-8: [Exit Code] imp OS upgraded
2013-12-03 08:40:30 UTC-8: [Power State] Power state: offline=>online
2013-12-03 08:40:30 UTC-8: [Status] Downloading new code
<<is there a cold or warm code restart here after an imp OS upgrade?>>
2013-12-03 08:40:31 UTC-8: [Device] Vbat=2.060V Temp= 10.5C(0.307 0.3072V 0.308) Depth1=0.410Ft(0.233 0.2336V 0.235) Depth2=0.542Ft(0.244 0.2444V 0.246)
2013-12-03 08:40:31 UTC-8: [Agent] TsPush:(array : 0x7fe80efa1100) field4=10.4573 field3=2.06 field6=0.541921 field5=0.40968 field2=1 field1=1386088830
2013-12-03 08:40:31 UTC-8: [] sleeping until 1386089100000

after a repowering behaved as expected.
2013-12-03 09:13:16 UTC-8: [Status] Device booting
2013-12-03 09:13:16 UTC-8: [Status] Device configured to be "WaterDepthImp002"
2013-12-03 09:13:16 UTC-8: [Device] impMac 0c2a690236fd impId 20000c2a690236fd SwVer 9af2fae - release-27.9 - Mon Nov 25 09:58:12 2013
2013-12-03 09:13:16 UTC-8: [Device] ssidMac 88dc96035d86 FreeMem=77K
2013-12-03 09:13:16 UTC-8: [Device] Vbat=2.058V Temp= 10.3C(0.284 0.3060V 0.310) Depth1=0.411Ft(0.232 0.2337V 0.235) Depth2=0.545Ft(0.243 0.2447V 0.248)
2013-12-03 09:13:16 UTC-8: [Agent] TsPush:(array : 0x7fe80c6d19e0) field4=10.3415 field3=2.058 field6=0.545351 field5=0.411204 field2=1 field1=1386090796
2013-12-03 09:13:16 UTC-8: [] sleeping until 1386090900000
2013-12-03 09:13:16 UTC-8: [Power State] Power state: online=>asleep
2013

I just implemented imp.scanwifinetworks() at the beginning of my wakeup which gave some very nice results
local scanResults = imp.scanwifinetworks(); foreach (idx,val in scanResults) { server.log("SSID="+ scanResults[idx].ssid +" Ch="+scanResults[idx].channel + " rssi="+scanResults[idx].rssi +" Open=" +scanResults[idx].open ); }

Should be a “cold” restart after an OS upgrade. Hmm.

An improm upgrade probably counts as WAKEREASON_TIMER, so your code wouldn’t be executed because the second if is false – not the first. This seems to have confused people, though, so in the future we might invent a new WAKEREASON specifically for improm upgrades.

Peter