Extra: Flash it

For advanced groups or when time allows · Three programs over the air, then drive it yourself

For advanced groups or when time allows

This module is not one of the eight steps. Do it once your duo has finished step 8, or when the instructor says there is time. It reflashes your two robots, so it ends by putting remote-control back on them: the scripts of steps 4 to 8 need it.

The problem. A robot runs whatever program was flashed into it last; you replace that program over the radio, from your laptop, without touching the robot.

This module follows the PyDotBot docs, section Deploy and control, then The web UI of the controller guide. Read the workshop differences below first: the docs are written for someone who owns the whole swarm, and today you share a room of 20 robots.

The workshop differences

Skip the docs’ Setup, except dotbot fw fetch. The instructor already flashed the gateway and the sandbox firmware into every robot, and runs the gateway: do not run dotbot device flash, dotbot config init --conn ... or dotbot run gateway.
Always add -c duo.toml right after dotbot swarm. The docs’ dotbot swarm flash spin -ys reaches every robot in the room. Your duo.toml lists your two robots, so a command with it reaches only them.
Always stop before flash. A robot still running a program is left out of the flash, and the flash says No ready device found.
Only remote-control answers. The console pad and your scripts only drive a robot that runs remote-control; lights and spin ignore them. That is why this module ends on remote-control.
Do not start a controller. Use the instructor’s: its console is at http://<instructor-ip>:8000/console/, with the address written on the board.

Your duo.toml

The instructor gives each duo a file named duo.toml. Save it in your dotbot-academy folder and run every command of this module from there. It looks like this:

duo.toml

# One duo's settings for `dotbot swarm -c duo.toml ...` in the extra module, Flash it.
# make_duo_tomls.py writes one per duo; this is what a finished one looks like.

# The instructor's broker, as the duos' laptops reach it on the room's Wi-Fi.
conn = "mqtt://192.168.1.10:1883"

# The swarm id the gateway was flashed with, in hex.
swarm_id = "1234"

# This duo's two robots: FULL 16-hex addresses, comma-separated in one string
# (not a TOML list). Without this line a flash goes to the whole fleet.
# Duo 3, labels A1B2C3 and D4E5F6:
devices = "BC3D3C8A2AA1B2C3,8E1F07C4D9D4E5F6"

devices holds the full 16-character addresses of your two robots, in one string separated by a comma. The last six characters of each are the labels on your robots.

What to do

In a terminal, in your dotbot-academy folder with the environment active:

Download the programs (the docs’ Setup, first line only):
```
dotbot fw fetch
```
Check that you see your two robots, and only them:
```
dotbot swarm -c duo.toml status
```
Two rows, with addresses ending in your labels. Anything else: call the instructor before flashing.
Lights. Stop, then flash and start lights. In -ys, y answers yes to the confirmation and s starts the program once flashed:
```
dotbot swarm -c duo.toml stop
dotbot swarm -c duo.toml flash lights -ys
```
Your two robots’ LEDs cycle through six colors.
Spin. Same two commands, with spin:
```
dotbot swarm -c duo.toml stop
dotbot swarm -c duo.toml flash spin -ys
```
Each robot blinks, spins one way, then back, blinks again and stops. To see it again, start it again:
```
dotbot swarm -c duo.toml start
```

Remote control. Same again, with remote-control:

dotbot swarm -c duo.toml stop
dotbot swarm -c duo.toml flash remote-control -ys

Drive it. Open the instructor’s console, http://<instructor-ip>:8000/console/. Select your robot on the map (the List view shows the addresses), then drag the pad.

You should see

Three programs, one after the other, on your two robots only: colors, a spin, then a robot you drive across the floor from the console’s pad.

Core three flashes and the pad

Do steps 1 to 6 above, in order. If a flash prints No ready device found, run the stop line again, then the flash line.