BOUNTY: Docker image for Particle Cloud

Skills Required: Intermediate Docker/Linux Skills, some familiarity with PlatformIO a plus
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate

Challenges/Thoughts:

The Particle Web IDE uses compilers in the cloud to build sketches. The compilers run from Docker images for each platform that take an input folder (sketch and libraries) and output a .bin file for the cloud to upload to the device. They also output a log file.

The Particle devices (Photon and Core) use this environment with a custom preprocessor and make files to compile. The Oak uses an Arduino compatible core setup and so it can instead use PlatformIO to do the compiling from the command line and handle preprocessing.

Fork https://github.com/spark/buildpack-hal (or whichever image seems correct for this) and modify so that it:

• Downloads and installs PlatformIO and ESP8266 support.
• Downloads the latest OakCore release (its OK if this URL needs to be manually modified in the Docker file when a new release occurs) and installs the core into PlatformIO
• Takes inputs and include libraries and places output and log files per the Particle specs for this/matching the other Particle Docker files.
• Test and provide instructions to test.
• Be available to debug based on feedback from Particle

Bounty

$100 cash or $200 credit or 20 Oaks

If you are sure you can do this, and able to do this quickly - please feel free to respond to this issue and say that you are working on it and when you will complete it, so that others don't waste their time on it. If you are just entertaining the idea/unsure if you can do it, please don't "claim" it until you are sure.

Cash or credit is your choice. Cash to be paid via Paypal. Credit has no expiration but can only be applied to a single order and does not cover shipping (because that is how our shopping cart works, not because we want to be limiting). Oaks reward includes shipping.

You may credit yourself in the files as well, leaving in tact existing licenses and credits.

Legal Stuff: We will choose a winner at our sole discretion. The winner will be the first pull request that submits fully working code meeting the above requirements and following good coding practices, based on the timestamp of the pull request. Bounty will be awarded (or in the case of Oaks, sent) within 48 hours of confirming winner. Cash awards will be made in USD. This is not an offer for hire. All work submitted becomes the property of Digistump LLC to be used at our discretion in compliance with any associated licenses. Void where prohibited by law.

[usmanatron]

Im pretty sure I can do this so I'm going to have a go. I'm aiming to finish by the end of Wednesday but I'll post an update with how it goes :-)

[paulscott56]

I'll give it a shot too. Hopefully I will be able to do it over the weekend

[usmanatron]

Hi guys,
Quick update - I've got PlatformIO installed and I'm DLing the latest OakCore release. I haven't yet installed this into PlatformIO (don't know much about PlatformIO so trying to work it out as I go!)

Still hoping to get it done in the next couple of days :-)

[paulscott56]

Nice! Let me know if I can help. I wasn't able to get free time to do much
here myself....

-- Paul

On Mon, 15 Feb 2016, 01:36 Usman Iqbal notifications@github.com wrote:

Hi guys,
Quick update - I've got PlatformIO installed and I'm DLing the latest
OakCore release. I haven't yet installed this into PlatformIO (don't know
much about PlatformIO so trying to work it out as I go!)

Still hoping to get it done in the next couple of days :-)

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#32 (comment).

[usmanatron]

@paulscott56 , thanks very much for the offer! I'm definitely keen for some help with testing once complete; I haven't used PlatformIO before so it'd be good to confirm it's building something useful!

@digistump , I have a question about the spec. I've installed PlatformIO with ESP8266 support; within that it gives me a number of boards to choose from. Should I be using one of them (which one?) or do I need to create a custom board for the Oak? (I couldn't find anything directly applicable in the latest release code).
If I need to specify my own board and write the config, can you please point me in the direction of the oak specs? Thanks

@usmanatron - the Oak files should be copied in where the ESP8266 files reside, and I think that should allow PlatformIO to support it and show the Oak as a board, its a completely separate core, the reason for installing the ESP files first is to get the support files like the compilers - it may take some tweaking for paths to match and such

[usmanatron]

@digistump , thanks for the clarification - that makes sense. I'm at the point where I have a container with everything installed, so I can just attach to the container and hack away until the paths agree :-).

I should have loads of time this weekend to get it done, fingers crossed!

[usmanatron]

Hi guys,

Good news: I think I've got it working! Though not using PlatformIO...
After looking very carefully at he PlatformIO docs and at what you get after installing the espressif \ ESP8266 platform, I'm pretty convinced that this isn't going to just work without chopping and changing loads of things (in such a way as to make it vy. hard to maintain \ brittle).

I can see that the structure of OakCore closely matches that of the esp8266/Arduino repo, so I've used build instructions for that and ended up using make. I'm at the point where I can actually build a binary! (though I haven't tested it actually works on flashing).

My next job is to write this all up into the Dockerfile and commit. After that I'll get my Oak setup and start testing. I hope using this alternative approach isn't a problem :-)

Usman

@usmanatron - that sounds like a much superior approach! thanks for working at this!

[usmanatron]

@digistump - sorry this has taken so long (work takes up all my time on the weekdays...)

I've managed to put everything together and I have a working prototype! The latest version is available here: https://github.com/usmanatron/buildpack-oak/tree/OakCore-32. When you start the container (see below), it builds the firmware and dumps it into /output with the logs.

At this point, I'd be grateful if you could test the image and the firmware it spits out; I still haven't setup my oak and, more importantly, you'll have a lot more experience using it than me! One important limitation though - the input ino file needs to be named sketch.ino.

I'm planning to fix this along with moving the intermediary files from /output to /cache (Ill possibly do these after this issue is done as they're arguably less of a problem)

Finally, these are the Docker commands I ran to get it working. They'll need updating but otherwise it should "Just Work" (famous last words?!)
Build: docker build --tag=test_auto_wp .
Run: docker run -i -t -v /home/usmanatron/Documents/projects/buildpack-oak-volumes/input:/input -v /home/usmanatron/Documents/projects/buildpack-oak-volumes/output:/output --name test_auto_wp test_auto_wp

If you have any questions \ it doesn't work please let me know!
Usman :-)

[usmanatron]

Good evening @digistump,
I've done the majority of my testing now; as part of this I removed all of my old Docker images and built the image from scratch - all went fine. I've also run the image using a slightly different command to what I gave above (essentially "-d" instead of "-i -t" and renamed the images):

docker build --tag=oak .
docker run -d -v /home/usmanatron/Documents/projects/buildpack-oak-volumes/input:/input -v /home/usmanatron/Documents/projects/buildpack-oak-volumes/output:/output --name oak_runner

This has given me a firmware file which Im now attempting to flash via the Arduino IDE (which I need to install etc.). I'll get back to you regarding how this goes. In the meantime, I'm happy enough with the status of everything to put up a pull request: digistump/buildpack-oak#1

Note that you need to update the Dockerfile for each successive release (the Url and the folder name). Maybe we can fix this when the dust has settled :-)

If you have any questions with how anything has been implemented, please let me know!
Usman

@usmanatron - This is awesome! I apologize for the delay in getting back to you on this. This setup looks great and I'll test and have Particle test ASAP. Please send me an email at support@digistump.com to claim the bounty (and let me know which form you want it in).

As soon as I test I'll get back to you about any changes, but the requirement to update the dockerfile for new releases is fine as they must be manually pushed to Particle anyway.