First experiments with NodeMCU to publish the current settings of my adjustable height working desk to MQTT

README.md

First experiments with NodeMCU to publish the current settings of my adjustable height working desk to MQTT.

NodeMCU can be found here: https://github.com/nodemcu/nodemcu-firmware

Note that you'll need a current version with support for floats (which the ultrasonic sensor library utilizes), I'm using 0.9.5 2015-03-18 with float support myself.

Support for the HC-SR04 sensor in NodeMCU can be found here: https://github.com/sza2/node_hcsr04

I provided my slightly adjusted version which makes measuring a non-blocking afair, allowing for callbacks when the measurement completes.

For uploading the files to the ESP I used nodemcu-uploader. I compiled both hcsr04.lua and sensor.lua with the -c option, hence they are referenced in the source below as hcsr04.lc and sensor.lc.

For prototyping I used an ESP8266-03 Wifi Module Breakout Board by Stephan Limpkin I got myself a couple of weeks back. The HC-SR04 sensor module is connected to it like this:

• VCC -> +5V
• GND -> GND
• Trig -> GPIO2
• Echo -> GPIO0

Together with some mqttwarn magic my desk can now tweet and publish the current measurements to a Google Spreadsheet where I can plot it ;)

---

Files found here:

• hcsr04.lua: lib for reading measurements from HC-SR04 sensor
• sensor.lua: my ESP8266 "firmware" for repeatedly reading the sensor data and publishing it to the mqtt broker
• init.lua: NodeMCU startup file that starts sensor.lua once the node is online
• desk.json.jinja2: Jinja2 template for transforming the current measurements from the desk into a json format (put it into the templates folder in your mqttwarn install dir)
• mqttwarn.ini: excerpts from my mqttwarn configuration showing how I setup publishing to my Google Spreadsheet and my desk's twitter account

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desk.json.jinja2

{% set data = {
    "host": topic,
    "timestamp": _dtiso,
    "measurement": payload
    }
    %}
{{ data | jsonify }}

hcsr04.lua

--
--    Copyright (C) 2014 Tamas Szabo <[email protected]>
--
--    This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
--    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
--    the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
--    (at your option) any later version.
--
--    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
--    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
--    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
--    GNU General Public License for more details.
--
--    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
--    along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
--

-- Originally from https://github.com/sza2/node_hcsr04
--
-- Adjusted by Gina Häußge <[email protected]> to allow reporting of measurements 
-- back via a callback function instead of blocking until measurement has finished.

hcsr04 = {};

function hcsr04.init(pin_trig, pin_echo)
	local self = {}
	self.time_start = 0
	self.time_end = 0
	self.trig = pin_trig or 4
	self.echo = pin_echo or 3
	
	self.callback = nil
	self.measurement = nil
	
	gpio.mode(self.trig, gpio.OUTPUT)
	gpio.mode(self.echo, gpio.INT)

	function self.echo_cb(level)
		if level == 1 then
			self.time_start = tmr.now()
			gpio.trig(self.echo, "down")
		else
			self.time_end = tmr.now()

			time_difference = self.time_end - self.time_start
			if time_difference < 0 then
				self.measurement = -1
			else
				self.measurement = time_difference / 5800
			end

			if (self.callback) then
				self.callback(time_difference, self.measurement)
			end
		end
	end

	function self.measure(callback)
		self.callback = callback
		self.measurement = nil

		gpio.trig(self.echo, "up", self.echo_cb)
		gpio.write(self.trig, gpio.HIGH)
		tmr.delay(100)
		gpio.write(self.trig, gpio.LOW)
	end

	function self.measure_and_return(callback)
		self.measure(callback)
		tmr.delay(100000)
		if self.measurement == nil then
			return -1
		else
			return self.measurement
		end
	end

	function self.measure_and_print(callback)
		print(self.measure_and_return(callback))
	end

	return self
end

init.lua

TIMER_WIFI_CONNECT = 1


tmr.alarm(TIMER_WIFI_CONNECT, 1000, 1, function()
	if wifi.sta.status() == 5 then
		tmr.stop(TIMER_WIFI_CONNECT)
		dofile("sensor.lc")
	end
end)

mqttwarn.ini

### Excerpt for sending the data to my Google Spreadsheet

[config:gss]
username = <my account>
password = <my app password>
targets = {
    'desk' : [ '<spreadsheet id>', '<sheet: od6 for first one>' ]
  }

[config:mqttpub]
targets = {
    'desk' : [ 'home/office/desk_gina/current.json', 0, False ],
  }

[home/office/desk_gina/current]
targets = mqttpub:desk
template = desk.json.jinja2

[home/office/desk_gina/current.json]
targets = gss:desk

### Excerpt for tweeting the current status

[config:twitter]
targets = {
    'fooselsDesk' : ['<consumer key>',
                     '<consumer secret>',
                     '<access token key>',
                     '<access token secret>'
                    ]
  }

[home/office/desk_gina/status]
targets = twitter:fooselsDesk
format = Oh, @foosel is now {payload} (@ {_dthhmm})

sensor.lua

dofile("hcsr04.lc")

BROKER = "<my broker>"
BRPORT = 1883
CLIENTID = "ESP8266-" .. node.chipid()

TOPIC = "home/office/desk_gina"
TOPIC_CURRENT = TOPIC.."/current"
TOPIC_STATUS = TOPIC.."/status"

TIMER_MQTT_CONNECT = 2
TIMER_MEASURING = 6

tablesensor = {}

function tablesensor.init(sitting_height, standing_height)
	local self = {}
	
	self.sitting_height = sitting_height
	self.standing_height = standing_height

	self.standing = false
	self.sitting = false

	self.device = hcsr04.init()

	self.mqtt = mqtt.Client(CLIENTID, 120)

	self.mqtt:on("connect", function(conn)
		print("Connected to MQTT:" .. BROKER .. ":" .. BRPORT .." as " .. CLIENTID)

		-- start measuring
		print("Ready...")
		tmr.alarm(TIMER_MEASURING, 5000, 1, function() self.device.measure(measurement_callback) end)
	end)

	self.mqtt:on("offline", function(conn) 
		print("Offline") 
	end)

	function measurement_sent(measurement)
		-- target hit if target - margin < measurement < target + margin
		local sitting_hit = (measurement > 0) and (measurement <= self.sitting_height)
		local standing_hit = (measurement >= self.standing_height)

		if (sitting_hit) then
			self.standing = false
			if (not self.sitting) then
				self.sitting = true
		
				-- send sitting notification to mqtt broker
				self.mqtt:publish(TOPIC_STATUS, "sitting", 0, 0, function(conn)
					print("Reported sitting")
				end)
			end
		else
			self.sitting = false
			if (standing_hit) then
				if (not self.standing) then
					self.standing = true

					-- send standing notification to mqtt broker
					self.mqtt:publish(TOPIC_STATUS, "standing", 0, 0, function(conn)
						print("Reported standing")
					end)
				end
			else
				self.standing = false
			end
		end
	end

	function measurement_callback(time_spent, measurement)
		-- send current measurement to mqtt broker
		self.mqtt_sending = true
		self.mqtt:publish(TOPIC_CURRENT, measurement, 0, 0, function(conn)
			print("Sent current: "..measurement)
			measurement_sent(measurement)
		end)
	end

	function self.connect()
		self.mqtt:connect(BROKER, BPORT)
	end

	return self
end

sensor = tablesensor.init(0.8, 0.8)
sensor.connect()