Friday, April 19, 2024
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Mongoose OS – an IoT firmware development framework

What is Mongoose OS?

Mongoose OS is an Internet of Things Firmware Development Framework available under Apache License Version 2.0. It supports low power, connected microcontrollers such as: ESP32, ESP8266, TI CC3200, STM32. Its purpose is to be a complete environment for prototyping, development and managing connected devices.

Features of Mongoose

MCU support –  STMicro: STM32 F4, L4, F7 | TI: CC3200, CC3220 | Espressif: ESP32, ESP8266

Advanced features – Reliable Over-The-Air update | Secure device provisioning | Remote management

Cloud integrations – AWS IoT, Google IoT | Microsoft Azure, IBM Watson | Private MQTT / REST backends

How It Work

mongoose

mongoose working

mDash and Mobile app

Here You can use two more tools mDash and Mobile app. mDash is an IoT device management. mdash provides many features such as Update Reliable, fail-safe OTA firmware updates, Web UI Online/offline device status and metadata (firmware version, build time, etc), Device twin Device twin / shadow support, compatible with AWS IoT and Azure IoT. Mobile app is Available instantly for iOS, Android, Web. You got notification and control Devices.

How to Use Mongoose OS with ESP8266

1. Download and install mos tool

Mongoose OS uses mos tool for various tasks: building firmware, flashing firmware, managing device, provisioning device on cloud services, and so on.

OS Setup instructions
Windows Create C:\mos folder. Right-click on this mos.exe link, choose “Save link as”, save mos.exe into the C:\mos folder. Double-click on mos.exe to start a Web UI. If it does not start, open command prompt, enter cd c:\mos and then mos --start-webview=false
MacOS First, install brew utility. Then execute the following to start a Web UI:
brew tap cesanta/mos
brew install mos
mos
Ubuntu Linux Note: Linux version starts UI in a browser window.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mongoose-os/mos
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mos
mos
Arch Linux Note: Linux version start UI in a browser window.
git clone https://github.com/cesanta/mos-tool
cd mos-tool/mos/archlinux_pkgbuild/mos-release
makepkg
pacman -U ./mos-*.tar.xz
mos
Generic MacOS/Linux Note: starts UI in a browser window.
curl -fsSL https://mongoose-os.com/downloads/mos/install.sh | /bin/bash
mos

2. Start mos tool

Make sure your device is connected via the USB to your workstation.

Completing previous section should leave you with the mos Web UI running:

3. USB-to-Serial drivers

If you have your device connected via the USB, the UI can still complain about the unavailable ports like this:

The most usual reason for this is a missing USB-to-Serial driver. Below are the links to the driver installation pages. Install the driver, and re-insert your device into the USB.

In a “Choose port” dropdown, at least one port must appear.

4. Create new app

In the UI, select your board from the dropdown menu. Then, press Ctrl-n to create a new app. That will paste the mos clone command into the prompt:

Press Enter. That will clone the demo-js repository as app1. Notice how current directory has changed to app1:

5. Build app firmware

Make sure the board is selected. Type mos build and press Enter. That starts a build process that takes up to a minute to complete. When the command finishes, the built firmware will be located at build/fw.zip. As you can see, we did not make any changes to the app – we’ll do that later.

6. Flash firmware

Make sure the port is selected in the dropdown menu. Type mos flash and press enter. That will flash a built firmware to the device:

When flashing completes, the firmware starts to write logs to the serial console.

7. Configure WiFi

Type command mos wifi WIFI_NETWORK_NAME WIFI_PASSWORD. Use your own network name/password. Press enter. On the serial console, you’ll see how the device reboots after saving new configuration settings, joins the WiFi network, gets the IP configuration, and synchronises time with SNTP server:

8. Add device to the mDash management dashboard

  • Login to the mDash at https://dash.mongoose-os.com/.
  • Click on “Add new device” button. That’ll create a new device.
  • Click on a “Token” link to copy the device’s access token to the clipboard:

  • Go back to the mos tool, type command (change TOKEN to your copied token) and press enter:
    mos config-set dash.enable=true dash.token=TOKEN

Notice that the device started to print messages {"uptime":XX,"on":false} to the serial console. It sends this message to the dashboard.

Click on the “+” sign to expand the shadow. Scroll it down and see how the reported “uptime” metric updates every second. “Uptime” is the amount of time since the last power-on or reboot:

Click on a device name to see a detailed management console for the device: general information, real-time notifications, configuration editor, file editor, device shadow editor, and an RPC service call window.

Harshvardhan Mishra

Hi, I'm Harshvardhan Mishra. Tech enthusiast and IT professional with a B.Tech in IT, PG Diploma in IoT from CDAC, and 6 years of industry experience. Founder of HVM Smart Solutions, blending technology for real-world solutions. As a passionate technical author, I simplify complex concepts for diverse audiences. Let's connect and explore the tech world together! If you want to help support me on my journey, consider sharing my articles, or Buy me a Coffee! Thank you for reading my blog! Happy learning! Linkedin

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