Software - JOD Smart Van

Installing JOD SmartVan Distribution on Remote Device

With the hardware assembly completed, we now have a fully functional SmartVanBox. However, on the software side, it currently only has the operating system installed. To enable communication with the SmartVan Mobile App, we need to install the JOD SmartVan Distribution.

The JOD SmartVan Distribution comprises the software required to communicate with the Mobile App and interact with the SmartVanBox hardware. In this section, we'll cover how to install and configure this software.

Short Steps

1. Connect to the Raspberry Pi
2. Install Java, Python, and other software requirements
3. Download and extract JOD SmartVan Distribution
4. Enable venv usage for Python-based firmware
5. Create venv for each Python-based firmware
6. Install JOD SmartVan as a daemon/service

To install the necessary software, we first need to access the Raspberry Pi inside our SmartVanBox using an SSH or Serial connection

Installing Software Requirements

The JOD SmartVan Distribution requires several libraries and tools to function properly. Install all necessary dependencies with the following command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y \
    git curl wget nano \
    openjdk-11-jdk avahi-utils \
    python3 python3-pip python3-venv \
    libcairo2-dev libgirepository1.0-dev dbus-x11

Downloading JOD SmartVan

Next, download and extract the JOD SmartVan distribution file. This file includes the JOD daemon, its configurations, and firmware for communicating with the SmartVanBox hardware.

wget https://github.com/Smart-Van-2-0/com.robypomper.smartvan.jod_smart_van/releases/download/1.0.0/JOD_Smart_Van-1.0.0.tgz
tar -xzf JOD_Smart_Van-1.0.0.tgz
cd JOD_Smart_Van

You are now in the main directory of the JOD SmartVan Distribution (/home/svbox/JOD_Smart_Van).

Initializing the Firmware

We need to configure the distribution and set up Python virtual environments (venv) for the firmware. Uncomment the VENV variable in the configs.sh file and set it to true. Then, initialize the Python venv for each firmware:

cd deps/com.robypomper.smartvan.fw.victron/
python3 -m venv venv; source venv/bin/activate; \
    pip install -r requirements.txt; deactivate; cd -
cd deps/com.robypomper.smartvan.fw.sim7600/
python3 -m venv venv; source venv/bin/activate; \
    pip install -r requirements.txt; deactivate; cd -
cd deps/com.robypomper.smartvan.fw.upspack_v3/
python3 -m venv venv; source venv/bin/activate; \
    pip install -r requirements.txt; deactivate; cd -
cd deps/com.robypomper.smartvan.fw.sensehat/
python3 -m venv venv; source venv/bin/activate; \
    pip install -r requirements.txt; deactivate; cd -
cd deps/com.robypomper.smartvan.fw.ioexp/
python3 -m venv venv; source venv/bin/activate; \
    pip install -r requirements.txt; deactivate; cd -

For each firmware, the commands will:

Create a venv.
Activate the venv.
Install the requirements.
Deactivate the venv.

Installing JOD SmartVan

Now we are ready to install the JOD SmartVan Distribution as a daemon (a background service that starts and stops with the operating system).

bash install.sh

To check if it's running correctly, you can use the state.sh script or view the JOD daemon logs.

bash state.sh
tail -f logs/jospJSL.log

Installation and init system configurations are inherited from the JOD Dist TMPL, and currently it supports following init systems:

• launchd (macOS)
• systemd (Linux)
• wininitsys (Windows)

JOD SmartVan scripts

Among the start.sh and install.sh script, there are other scripts that can be used to manage the JOD Smart Van instance:

Command	Description
Start $ bash start.sh	Start local JOD instance in background mode, logs can be retrieved via tail -f logs/console.log command
Start $ bash start.sh true	Start local JOD instance in foreground mode, user can interact with the instance using the JOD Shell
Stop $ bash stop.sh	Stop local JOD instance, if it's running
State $ bash state.sh	Print the local JOD instance state (obj's id and name, isRunning, PID...)
Install $ bash install.sh	Install local JOD instance as system daemon/service
Uninstall $ bash uninstall.sh	Uninstall local JOD instance as system daemon/service