Features wish list

[daniel]

Dear all,

We are creating this topic as a wish list for features. Please give us feedback on what you would like to see as part of the firmware in future releases. So far this is what we have on the list based on your requests:

• Wifi AP+STA
• Encryption of Python scripts to protect code.
• bluetooth.get_adv() returns a list of all received advertisements in the FIFO instead of just one.
• Non-blocking Bluetooth API.
• BLE server (peripheral mode).
• Non-blocking options for most peripheral read/write operations (UART, SPI, I2C)

Please let us know your wishes and we'll take note of them. Thanks!

Cheers,
Daniel

[rcolistete]

Voting for "@micropython.native/viper/.asm_xtensa" decorators on PyCom MicroPython, so we can optimize the speed of important code.

[gregcope]

@daniel @seb Another firmware idea;

As Pycom boards are promoting low power, can we reduce radio power; would it be an idea to either;

• Disable all radios at boot (like you can with wifi; pycom.wifi_on_boot(False))
• By default they are all off anyway

[livius]

@daniel said in Features wish list:

Encryption of Python scripts to protect code.

Do you have any info about above feature?

[redimo]

@daniel This is our Code:

from network import Bluetooth
import binascii
import dataStore

class bluetooth:
data = dataStore.DataStore ()
bluetooth = Bluetooth()
bluetooth.init()

def __init__(self,data,):
    #Init Bluetooth and enable Scanning
    self.data = data 
    if not self.bluetooth.isscanning():
        self.bluetooth.start_scan(-1)
  

def scan(self):
    adv =self.bluetooth.get_adv()       
    try: 
        #look if the receved mac is in the data store
         for x in range(0, (self.data.getAnzahlTokens())):                
            if str(binascii.hexlify(adv.mac)) == str(self.data.getnextMac()): 
                    #lay down the RSSI value to the DataStore
                    print('*********************************************')
                    print("Geraete Mac Adresse = {}".format(binascii.hexlify(adv.mac)))
                    print("Geraete Sendestaerke = {}".format(adv.rssi)) 
                    data_stream= str(adv.data)
                    self.data.setRssi(binascii.hexlify(adv.mac), adv.rssi)
                    self.data.setDaten(binascii.hexlify(adv.mac), data_stream.replace("\\", ";"))
                    break
    except:
        pass

We use to look for a certain MAC. Sometimes we get plenty of Results, sometimes we dont....and when we dont, we usually will never get any Data from that WiPy and it will need several restarts before it finds anything again.

[daniel]

@redimo sorry about that. Please explain what is your feature request... You want get_adv() to return a list instead of just one, correct?

Also, that problem that you describe with the 2 WiPy's can you elaborate more? Thanks.

[redimo]

@daniel How far are you with the:
bluetooth.get_adv() returns a list of all received advertisements in the FIFO instead of just one.
?

We are experiencing problems were 2 WiPy 2.0 can be next to each other, but one will NEVER find anything at all whilst the other is constantly reporting found ADVs. Is there any fix for this or schedule? Its kinda worrysome as we've been having this issue for Months and have yet to receive anything from you, even after having e-mail contact with your devs.

[daniel]

@robert-hh we are doing better than that. There will be an auto-program logic that won't require a jumper. This functionality is also possible on Pytrack/Pysense and we will enable it shortly.

[robert-hh]

@daniel For the good of all of us who re-flash frequently:

• a jumper on the Expansion Board to connect GPIO0 (G23) and GND, or the two transistor logic that makes use of the logic of esptool.py for firmware flashing (see wemos D1, Huzzah feather, ...).

[RichardTXD]

@bucknall
Hi and thanks for taking the time.
Yes and no. WDT on the same silicon is a-maybe but I prefer an external WDT. Same for Brown Out Detection (BOD). I think WDT has only just now become available. Not sure on BOD.
Silicon latchup is something I had to deal with on older CPUs and we tackled that by down powering and indeed it was the only way. Typically this happened at about the 0.6 volt VCC level - despite a 90 day run time on batteries, users let the product go flat - but they were an old CPU without BOD or a good POR etc.
I am still of the opinion it would be nice to know what caused a crash. A queue of function calls that can be unraveled and then used to get an idea of where a crash happened. We do this in a legacy product and store it in I2C for later. We'll probably implement that for our application at least during debugging.
Thank you for your attention - Richard

[bucknall]

Hi @RichardTXD, you might want to check out the Watch Dog Timer, which is intended to help resolve the crashing issue you might be concerned with. https://docs.pycom.io/pycom_esp32/library/machine.WDT.html?highlight=watchdog

Let me know if this is what you're after!

[RichardTXD]

@daniel
For me, I need 'survivability'. I really would like to know a crash has happened, the reason, and then be able to recoiver from it instead of going back to REPL.
Crashing is bad, non-recovery and not knowing what caused it is a lot worse.
For boards that are used remote and are really difficult to get back to update firmware etc - anything that makes them more reliable is a huge bonus.
Maybe a flag that causes reset on crash? Maybe more return-cause values from a reset? Maybe a stronger exception mechanism, a global one? Maybe a small list of functions that were executed prior to the crash that would help diagnose the fault?
Yes, I suspect that a crash may recur because the same code may be executed time and again. At least these options would allow some kind of diagnoastic later. PArticularly if the crash returned a list of functions that could be saved to SD on reset.
Thanks - Richard

[BetterAuto]

@daniel said in Features wish list:

@gertjanvanhethof yes, there are plans for this.

Daniel does the team have a road map for OTA? Approximate timeline. In every new firmware announcement that's the first thing I look for :-)

I was grateful to see the WDT fix. Just in time.

Also I second the rssi request.

[livius]

Will be good for developing to have option like save errors to flash
e.g. if we are connected to the board with UART then we can see errors like guru mediation printed.
But when we are not connected by UART we do not know what was the error message
and after reboot we lost any info

Will be good to have option e.g.

machine.SaveErrors=True

and it save errors to flash to file e.g. LastError.log

But i do not know if this is simple to accomplish and if any possible?

[guy]

Must have:

• Encryption of login details on the module - currently I have to hard-code login details (eg. so WiFi on the LoPy can get in to my home network) in plain text. I imagine it's similar situation with any other login details on the device - unless I'm missing something? I can 1-way encrypt, but then can't use the encrypted details to log in to my wifi router.

Should have:

• Remotely update modules (firmware and scripts) via internet, and also suggest a best practice blueprint for doing updates offline (eg. via USB, SD and maybe even BT?)
• Number the pins on the module and the headers on the expansion board the same - very confusing currently

Nice to have:

• Some easy way for end-user to put their wifi login details on to the module (a good example is electric imp), ideally from mobile phone or USB.
• Possibly some way to kill threads when a script exists (currently they seem to linger)

[beyonlo]

@Colateral said in Features wish list:

@daniel BLE multipoint it it MUST.

Yes, that is a very good feature.

[Colateral]

@daniel BLE multipoint it is a MUST.

[daniel]

@gertjanvanhethof yes, there are plans for this.

[gertjanvanhethof]

@daniel One important feature to bring the xxPy devices to a higher enterprise ready plan is to add functionality to do firmware updates and software updates over-the-air.
Are there plans to add this?

[beyonlo]

@Roosted said in Features wish list:

@jasonriedy said in Features wish list:

• Enterprise WPA support

802.11X is the feature i'm really waiting for!
I've seen Wi-Fi marked as 'done' somewhere, but it is not usable in enterprise/educational environments...

For as far as I know 802.11X is supported in the ESP-IDF, so it would 'just' need to be implemented in python - right?

Thanks for steady development pace! :)

I think you are talking about 802.1x, correct?

Thanks.