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Building & Testing the Firmware

Prerequisites~

You will need the following installed before you can get started:

Note: on Windows 10 you will need to enable UTF-8 from the Regional Settings, to compile the Slovakian translation.

Note: on some Windows system you may also need to run corepack enable for yarn, as mention in the link above.

It is assumed you are familiar with coding, git and using PlatformIO to build firmware binaries.

The included platformio.ini file will build the firmware for an 4M ESP32 board as its default target, including the Web frontend. If you want to customize the build create a pio_local.ini file (there is an example file included). This is useful if you want to upload to a specific port or compile the code with DEBUG flags or change to a different ESP32 platform like an S3.

We recommend using Visual Studio Code to build the firmware with the PlatformIO extension installed.

Testing locally~

WebUI~

The WebUI can be developed and tested in real-time using mock dummy data. This is useful when making changes to the web content files or translation files. To install or update the packages do:

% cd interface
% yarn
% cd mock-api
% yarn

and then from the interface folder run:

% yarn standalone

Make sure you have the latest version of node installed. You need at least 18.20 and can check with node -v. An easy way to switch between different node versions is to use nvm.

This will open a browser window with URL localhost:3000.

The mock data used is all hardcoded in /mock-api/server.js.

Simulating without an ESP32~

You can also run EMS-ESP without an ESP32 using what we call 'standalone'. This will create a native executable that can be run on Windows/Linux/Mac and simulates the EMS-ESP's console. This is ideal for quickly testing and debugging without constantly having to flash an ESP32.

Use the test command to run tests (e.g. MQTT or API) and simulate incoming EMS data.

There are two methods for building the executable, either via PlatformIO or using the associated makefile. In both case you will need the gcc compiler installed. Instructions for installing gcc can be found on https://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/platforms/native.html.

Note there are issues compiling the code on Windows so it's recommended to use WSL2 or a Linux VM.

Using the PlatformIO direct method, run this command:

% pio run -e standalone

This is the same as selecting standalone->General->Build from the Visual Studio PlatformIO menu.

If you prefer to use the Makefile run:

% make run

which will create an executable called emsesp.

The EMS-ESP console will show and from here you can try out the different test commands. test general which will load in a single boiler and a thermostat with a few generic entities.

All the tests are hardcoded in the file test.cpp and can be easily adapted.

Debugging~

To debug from Visual Studio Code and step through the code, peek at variables, put in breakpoints etc. First build the executable using the make method above which will place the .o object files in a build folder, and then invoke the debugger (F5 on Windows).

You can also create a VSC's task in launch.json file to automate this for you, like adding:

    ...
    {
      "name": "Debug ems-esp standalone",
      "type": "cppdbg",
      "request": "launch",
      "program": "${workspaceFolder}/emsesp",
      "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
      "environment": [],
      "miDebuggerPath": "/usr/bin/gdb",
      "MIMode": "gdb",
      "launchCompleteCommand": "exec-run",
      ]
    }
    ...

WSL (building a Linux environment on Windows)~

I recently had to rebuild my Linux WSL on Windows from scratch to build EMS-ESP I thought I'd share the steps I took to get it working.

WSL:~

if you need to remove any old ones use wsl.exe --terminate <dist>

wsl.exe --setdefault <new dist>
wsl -l -v

Setup Linux under WSL:~

sudo apt install unzip
sudo apt install make
sudo apt install g++
sudo apt install python3-venv
sudo apt install nodejs
sudo apt install curl

USB on WSL:~

This is so the USB port is available within VS code.

install https://github.com/dorssel/usbipd-win/releases

from Administrator Powershell:

usbipd list (to find COM port)
usbipd bind -b 1-6
usbipd attach -w -b 1-6

in WSL:

you should see /dev/ttyUSB0

install PlatformIO rules following https://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/core/installation/udev-rules.html to stop the warnings when firmware uploading.

nvm (npm version manager):~

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/master/install.sh | bash

yarn (disable report backs)
yarn config set --home enableTelemetry 0

ncu (to check for package updates)
npm install -g npm-check-updates
ncu -p yarn

bun:~

This is needed for standalone testing.

curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

zsh:~

This is my preferred shell. I extend with Oh-My-zsh and the Powerlevel10k theme.

sudo apt install zsh
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Visual Studio Code:~

Use vscode on Windows, connect to the WSL. First time install all extensions and restart. If you have the settings saved and sync'd it should be very quick.