New Thingbox!

[The ThingBox]

Hi,

There is a new thingbox upgrading Node-RED to 10.6

Nicolas.

The ThingBox Project - A ready to flash Raspberry Pi image that contains Node-RED and Internet Of Things software for non developers.

Find it at http://TheThingbox.io

[Toshi Bass]

I installed Thingbox a few days ago looked an easy option, and got an email informing me of the new thingbox, what I don't understand is how to upgrade my existing installation, I searched the Thingbox web-site, but I cannot find any instructions, I sent a email to them, but never received a reply, I am getting a bad feeling that up-grading means wipe your sd card and start again,

Anybody any clue ? 

If I have to wipe my sd card to up-grade for sure the sd card wont have Thingbox on the new one. 

Toshi

[Mark Setrem]

Toshi,

Provided Thingbox have followed the recommended way of installing Node-Red, you should be able to upgrade to the latest version of Node-Red by following the upgrade instructions on http://nodered.org/docs/getting-started/upgrading.html.

You could then get all the benefits of the Node-Red upgrades as soon as they are released, rather than waiting in this case almost a month for Thingbox to upgrade their image.

Fingers crossed that Thingbox have followed the recommendation!

[The ThingBox]

And also from the Thingbox documentation:

http://thethingbox.io/docs/backup.html

Notice that starting from this release, we gather all user information in a separate "userdir" folder out from NodeRED.

This helps backuping it. We hope to provide a cloud backup of this folder in a futur release to help the update a little more...

Nicolas.

[Toshi Bass]

Nicolas.

When you say "And also from the Thingbox documentation:" you must think I am stupid I saw this how to  save a work from a previous release and It is important to save the current work before updating But that was not the question, The point is where are the instructions to update Thingbox to the

latest release.

So now I received your email response to my original question how to ......

 
So, you got the answer on the forum.
 Sorry for the delay.

Nicolas.

Well that's great, I guess the answer is : Provided Thingbox have followed the recommended way of installing Node-Red, you should be able to upgrade to the latest version of Node-Red by following the upgrade instructions on http://nodered.org/docs/getting-started/upgrading.html. ... Fingers crossed, 

Must say that fills me with confidence that this is going to work for me (I have no idea of the way Thingbox installed Node-Red)  is this some-Thing I want to be putting my trust in for the future and no way do I want any cloud backup .. so "Goddamnit Barb" the writings on the wall" 4 days in and I am back to the beginning.

Question to anyone, I have saved the flow files :  .flows.json.backup  and  flows.json    as advised on the Thingbox's website I have to files saved to my computer HD (not the raspberry pi with thing box on it) are these files likely to work with node-red if I dump Thingbox and do a normal installation or do I need to make some notes of my efforts to date. and can anyone point me at a foolproof idiots guide to follow for installation of Node Red combined with MQTT node.js and i guess mosquitto (Do I need mosquitto no idea what it does)

Thanks

Toshi

  

[Adam S]

I have node-red and MQTT installed on a default raspbian image.  I'm actually working on documenting it now so I don't have to search all over the net to get it installed again should I ever need to reload my SD image.  It was fairly painless but there were indeed some things to be aware of.  After I get that finished I'll post it here for you (might be in a few hours)

[Toshi Bass]

Hi Adam we meet again, that would be great, I am so pissed with thingbox's attitude, I want to dump it right now, but clearly I will wait until you finished working on your documentation I know it will be to your usual impeccable standard.

Thanks

Toshi  

[Geoffrey Arnold]

Hey Toshi (and Adam),

Sometimes the best documentation is code, and to that end here is a script that automates the installation of Node-RED (along with some common nodes):

     https://github.com/hubofthings/raspberry-pi-recipes/blob/master/scripts/install-node-red

If Node-RED is installed using this script (or by manually executing the equivalent commands), the upgrade procedure would be:

     sudo npm update --global node-red && pm2 restart node-red

This would preserve your flows, credentials, etc.

FWIW, the script is part of a larger "recipe" for doing IoT work on Raspberry Pis.  Since this is scripted you'll know exactly what's being added to your Pi:

     https://github.com/hubofthings/raspberry-pi-recipes/

Hope this helps,

Geoff.

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[Julian Knight]

Adam: Totally off-topic ;) but if you have word, you might have OneNote. That is just the best thing for documenting ... well anything really! I have hundreds of pages of notes from all sorts of subjects, all searchable, easily updated & usable just like a paper notebook but electronic so all backed up and synchronised between all of my machines including mobile devices.

Toshi: A bit harsh on the folk at Thingbox. I think you might be looking for something that they are not offering. Their focus seems to be on simplicity so it isn't surprising that you might not get as many updates as fast as you would like.

On Monday, 27 April 2015 19:49:48 UTC+1, Adam S wrote:

Looks like I had almost everything in scattered word documents, so I just had to assemble it

[Adam S]

I realized my post may have been confusing in the node-RED install section so I modified it a bit

Looks like I had almost everything in scattered word documents, so I just had to assemble it

###############node-RED Install###############
Prerequisites only for Pi2:
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup | sudo bash -
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential python-dev python-rpi.gpio nodejs
sudo npm cache clean

Prerequisites only for Pi (original and +):
wget http://node-arm.herokuapp.com/node_0.10.36_armhf.deb
sudo dpkg -i node_0.10.36_armhf.deb
sudo apt-get install build-essential python-dev python-rpi.gpio

Both (actual nod-RED install):
sudo npm install -g --unsafe-perm  node-red

After install:
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/

node-red/nodes/core/hardware/nrgpio ver 0
Should return 0.5.11 or higher.  If not, run:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install python-dev python-rpi.gpio

Start:
node-red-pi --max-old-space-size=256 (max-old-space-size is the memory usage so if the Pi is more than a node-RED install use 128 here unless you are using a Pi2 then you can safely go to 768)

Start on boot:
http://nodered.org/docs/getting-started/running.html#starting-node-red-on-boot
###############node-RED Install###############

###############MQTT Install###############
wget http://repo.mosquitto.org/debian/mosquitto-repo.gpg.key
sudo apt-key add mosquitto-repo.gpg.key
cd /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
sudo wget http://repo.mosquitto.org/debian/mosquitto-repo.list
sudo apt-get update
apt-get install mosquitto

I'm assuming this is kept up to date, but I honestly do not know.  Should pick up updates when you do apt-get upgrade.
###############MQTT Install###############

###############Temp Sensor###############
sudo nano /boot/config.txt
>Add to bottom: dtoverlay=w1-gpio

cd /usr/local/lib/node_modules/node-red/
sudo npm install node-red-contrib-ds18b20
###############Temp Sensor###############

[Toshi Bass]

Julian

Well your welcome to your opinion but I don't think its harsh, they sent me an email informing me There is a new version of the Thingbox to upgrade to Node-RED 0.10.6 ! they tell on there website how to back up before upgrading, but don't tell anywhere how to upgrade, where's the simplicity in that ? I email them last week and kindly ask how to upgrade but they appeared to wait until someone on this forum give a fingers crossed answer, then respond to my email that I have the answer from this forum, poor carry on if you ask me, , and I wasn't concerned about the timing of when the updates will appear, just how to do a upgrade that wouldn't loose my work, in the back of my mind I had a feeling to upgrade the idea is to re flash the sd card with the new release image, but that's nonsense isn't it, I have other stuff on this sd card I have done besides Thingbox anyway that's my last word on this subject.

Toshi 

[The ThingBox]

Basically, the problem we face is that the Thingbox install is a SDCard write of a binary image that erases any previous contain. 

This should be compared with the upgrade of NodeRED (as described in the Node-RED documentation) which is based on npm and thus preserves any previous work.

BUT. The Thingbox is not a basic Node-RED. It is a set of functionalities (as changing the network name, handling of WiFi, setting a static IP adress...) and a set on nodes specifically

In fact, it is a distrib.

We know this problem, particularly because the Thingbox people target is not in this forum, and is not able to do any npm nor SSH.

In the current release, we already put user data in a separate folder which is a step to a solution to this problem.

The plan we have for the futur, is to give a name/account to any ThingBox and automatically backup userdata to a cloud account (and restore it for the same named thingbox).

Today, user still have to manually backup the user data before writing the binary image again.

Nicolas.

[Adam S]

My opinion is from what I have read here, I never used thingbox and don't plan to, so keep that in mind.

Don't you think that kind of gets away from the main concept of your product though, ease of use?  I can see Toshi's frustration, I wouldn't want to wipe my SD card every time there is an update and certainly do not want my stuff backed up to the cloud.  I only use cloud backup solutions like dropbox for sharing files, there are too many stories of hacking for me to put anything I care about there.  It has been a long running standard for linux programs to use package managers to handle updates, not a nuke and reinstall.  Is there a reason you can't just make an upgrade script to run?  If there was a way to re-image the SD card from the pi itself I don't think this would be a problem but a lot of us have pi's mounted and it is a hassle to get to the SD card every few months, let alone once.  If you get the nuke updates sorted out I may give thingbox a try, I'm all for prepackaged SD images.

[The ThingBox]

Let's consider this direction...

[Geoffrey Arnold]

Following up on this, I just committed a script for updating Node-RED when installed via our recipe:

     https://github.com/hubofthings/raspberry-pi-recipes/blob/master/scripts/update-node-red