Omega2+ SPI in Python3

Pavils Jurjans · 16 Dec 2019, 15:15

Ok, so I thought it's a good time to move my project to Python3. It's an APA201 RGB LED strip controller, written in Python.

Official doc https://docs.onion.io/omega2-docs/communicating-with-spi-devices.html encourages to use spidev module. The readme of the official github repo of spidev https://github.com/OnionIoT/python-spidev says that I should install python3-spidev package.

However, if I write opkg install python3-spidev in the command line, all I get is this error:

Unknown package 'python3-spidev'.
Collected errors:
 * opkg_install_cmd: Cannot install package python3-spidev.

What am I missing? Can the python3-spidev package be installed in another way?

P.S. Yes, I did the opkg update, of course.

crispyoz · 16 Dec 2019, 15:28

@Pavils-Jurjans edit your /etc/opkg/distfeeds.conf uncomment lines 2 and 5, then run opkg update then run opkg install python3-spidev

Lazar Demin · 16 Dec 2019, 16:00

@crispyoz python3-spidev is actually an Onion-hosted package
@Pavils-Jurjans which firmware version are you running? As far as I recall, python3-spidev is only available for v0.3.0 and up since it points to the package repo at repo.onioniot.com

Pavils Jurjans · 16 Dec 2019, 16:14

I am running 0.2.2

# oupgrade
> Device Firmware Version: 0.2.2 b200
> Checking latest version online...
url: https://api.onioniot.com/firmware/omega2p/stable
> Repo Firmware Version: 0.2.2 b200
> Comparing version numbers
> Device firmware is up to date!

I am not sure how I can upgrade to v0.3.0, if oupgrade does not propose it. The image repo http://repo.onion.io/omega2/images/ also does not contain any v0.3.0 images.

crispyoz · 16 Dec 2019, 16:22

@Lazar-Demin yes you are are correct. Interestingly unless i run opkg update on a new install of 0.3.2 b222, the package is not found.

Lazar Demin · 16 Dec 2019, 16:31

@Pavils-Jurjans Try using the latest flag with oupgrade: http://docs.onion.io/omega2-docs/using-the-omega-updating.html#upgrading-to-the-latest-version

Also, starting from 0.3.0 we moved the repo to repo.onioniot.com
We haven't done a good job of publicizing that so far. Where can we post about it so that more users are aware of the change?

György Farkas · 6 Feb 2020, 06:58

@Pavils-Jurjans Use this command to upgrade to b233 (the latest img on 2019-12-06)
opkg -l -f

or these commands
cd /tmp
wget http://repo.onioniot.com.s3.amazonaws.com/omega2/images/omega2p-v0.3.2-b233.bin
sysupgrade omega2p-v0.3.2-b233.bin

You can find the newer Omega images here:
http://repo.onioniot.com/omega2/images/

György Farkas · 5 Mar 2020, 16:01

@Lazar-Demin said:

Also, starting from 0.3.0 we moved the repo to repo.onioniot.com
We haven't done a good job of publicizing that so far. Where can we post about it so that more users are aware of the change?

Maybe you should only correct and keep up to date this page:
https://api.onioniot.com/firmware/

~~https://api.onioniot.com/firmware/omega2/latest~~ Done
~~https://api.onioniot.com/firmware/omega2+/latest~~ Done
~~https://api.onioniot.com/firmware/omega2/stable~~ Done
~~https://api.onioniot.com/firmware/omega2+/stable~~ Done

Pavils Jurjans · 16 Dec 2019, 19:45

Ok, I was avoiding the oupgrade -f because of dire warnings about unstable versions.

@Lazar-Demin said in Omega2+ SPI in Python3:

We haven't done a good job of publicizing that so far. Where can we post about it so that more users are aware of the change?

I think this would be a very appropriate place: https://docs.onion.io/omega2-docs/using-the-omega-updating.html. If I prefer to stick with stable firmware version, perhaps I could just update the repo URL.

Lazar Demin · 18 Dec 2019, 19:12

@György-Farkas @Pavils-Jurjans
We've just set b233 to be the stable build for the Omega2 and Omega2+.
And we've updated the documentation to mention the new repo location as well - might take a few hours for those changes to make their way to docs.onion.io

@György-Farkas good idea, perhaps we'll look into making https://api.onioniot.com/firmware/ a place to see the firmware info for all devices

Jonathan Jefferies · 20 Dec 2019, 10:22

Thanks @Lazar-Demin. I recently set up my Omega2+ after not using it for quite a while and was surprised that there was no upgrade available. I looked at https://github.com/OnionIoT/OpenWRT-Packages and it appears that there have been no updates there in nearly a year. I was about to ask if the project had been abandoned, but this conversation answers that.

Lazar Demin · 23 Dec 2019, 15:21

@Jonathan-Jefferies still going strong
thanks for the reminder - I've updated the OpenWRT-Packages repo to set the openwrt-18.06 branch as the default!