The PAX.express service is used for the delivery of firmware to esp32 paxcounter devices. This is done by using the OTA feature of the ESP32-paxcounter project. Our fork can be found here, which is already setup to use PAX.express to deliver firmware updates. The PAX.express cli can be found here.
Please clone the paxexpress-cli to your filesystem. For installation informations read the README.md.
After installation you can use either ./paxexpress or paxexpress.exe depending of your platform. Substitute the command in the following guide accordingly to your enviroment.
Using auth module of the paxexpress-cli you can use the register command to register to the PAX.express service.
paxexpress auth register
You will need the provided beta key at this step.
After registration you can use the login command to get a 30min token for auth against your account which is stored in your operating system's password store.
paxexpress auth login
When you want to remove your auth informations use.
paxexpress auth logout
PAX.express uses the structure of repositories which contain packages which again have different versions.
At first you should create a repository to store your packages.
paxexpress repository create
You will be asked for a repository and some description.
After setting the name you can use this name to reference the repository in further commands e.g.
paxexpress package create -r YourChoosenRepoName
This command creates a package relative to your repository.
After this steps your read to prepare the upload of your first firmware.
You will need the platformio tools to proced with this guide. You can get those e.g. by installing them with your package manager of choise. How to work with platformio is out of scope of this guide.
Lets shift our focus to the firmware repo here. First you need to make copies of platformio_orig.ini naming it platformio.ini. In this file you can adjust the Board section and comment in your used board.
You also have to create a package on paxexpress by using the cli for the specific boardname. E.g commenting in olimexpoeiso.h you would have to have the package olimexpoeiso on your repository in paxexpress to store the versions for this specific board class.
Use this cli command and set the name of the package to the boardname you choose:
paxexpress package create -r YourChoosenRepoName
Also have a look at platformio section. Here you can choose the default_envs to be ota for uploading to PAX.express or usb for flashing your device localy. In the first step we us local flashing, there for we use the usb default_envs.
Now please make a copy of src/paxcounter_orig.conf and rename it to src/paxcounter.conf.
In this file you configure your paxcounter. Please adjust the values accordingly to your wished configuration. Be aware that you will need to receive rcommands at the later part of this guide. E.g. this can be done by using mqtt and a ethernet port.
Now please make a copy of src/loraconf_sample.h and rename it to src/loraconf.h. Also make a copy of src/ota_sample.conf and rename it to src/ota.conf. In the later file change BINTRAY_USER to your user (not your email you using for login!) on PAX.express, BINTRAY_REPO to your created Repositorys' name and BINTRAY_API_TOKEN to your password.
Also OTA_WIFI_SSID and OTA_WIFI_PASS needs to be set to a network the OTA will downloaded over. BE AWARE THIS WIFI CREDENTAILS WILL BE UPLOADED TO PAXEXPRESS INSIDE THE FIRMWARE AND ARE AVALIBLE PUBLICLY ON THE SERVICE AT THIS POINT.
Now you are ready to flash the firmware on your board by using platformio tools.
pio run -t upload
When you want to upload a version of the firmware for OTA set the
default_envs to be ota in platformio.ini. Now you can use the same commmand to upload it to PAX.express, but you should increment the release_version in platformio.ini under common.
pio run -t upload
Now the rcommand to trigger OTA can be used: [0x09 0x09] via LoRa or CQk= via mqtt
When downgrading versions be aware to earse the flash beforehand
while being on the env usb with
pio run -t erase