Pytrack

Components

Any Pycom board that supports the connection through Wifi
Pycom Pytrack board
Micro USB to USB cable

Setup Your Development Environment

We'll be using Atom as our development environment. You can download the latest version from here. Once you've got it setup, install the Pymakr plugin. Follow the steps in this tutorial to get it setup.

Using Windows 7

Pytrack and Pysense will work out of the box for Windows 8/10/+, Mac OS as well as Linux. If using Windows 7, drivers to support the boards will need to be installed. You can find them here .

Connect to the Board

Before connecting your module to the PyTrack board, you should update the firmware on the PyTrack. Instructions on how to do this can be found here
Look for the reset button on the module (located at a corner of the board, next to the LED)
Locate the USB connector on the PyTrack
Insert the module on the PyTrack with the reset button pointing towards the USB connector. It * should firmly click into place and the pins should now no longer be visible.
Connect the USB port on Pytrack board to the USB port on the computer

Get Device Name

Once you've got it connected to your computer, get the name of your device using one of the following steps:

Linux and Mac OS X

Download and install the FTDI drivers from here. Select the appropriate version for your operating system and architecture.
Open a terminal window and run the command ls /dev/tty*
Look for a device with the name that begins with /dev/tty e.g. /dev/tty.usbmodemPy343431 on MAC or /dev/ttyUSB0/dev/ttyACM0 on Linux.

Warning

For Linux, you may need to run the two commands below. Once you've completed that, reboot your computer. This will add permissions that will allow you to upload a sketch to the board.

sudo usermod -a -G tty ${USER} sudo usermod -a -G dialout ${USER}

Windows

Download and install the FTDI drivers from here. Select the appropriate version for your operating system and architecture.
Open the Windows start menu and search for 'Device Manager'
The COM port for the Pycom device will be listed as 'USB Serial Device' or something similar
Keep note of the COM port (e.g. COM4)

Setup Your Project

Create a new folder for your project. I'm going to call mine pycom-pytrack.
In Atom, go to File > New Window to open a new window.
Add your newly created folder by clicking File > Add Project Folder and navigating to it.
If the Pymakr plugin is not open at the bottom of your Atom window, click on the arrow on the right hand side to open it.
Select Settings > Project Settings. In the address field replace the value with the device name from the step above e.g. /dev/tty.usbmodemPy343431 (Mac OS X), COM3 (Windows), /dev/ttyACM0 (Linux) then save the file.

Add required Libraries

Right click on the folder name in Atom and click Add Folder. Enter lib as the folder name
Right click on the lib folder and click New File. Enter urequests.py as the file name
Click on the file then copy and paste the code from here into that file then save it.
For pytrack, additional libraries must also be added to the lib folder, these can be found here

Publish A Location

In Atom, right click on your project and click New File. Enter boot.py as the filename.
Copy and paste the code below into the file.

from machine import UART import machine import os uart = UART(0, baudrate=115200) os.dupterm(uart) machine.main('main.py')

Right click on your project and click New File. Enter main.py as the filename.
Copy and paste the code below into the file.

from network import WLAN from pytrack import Pytrack import urequests as requests from L76GNSS import L76GNSS import socket import time import pycom py = Pytrack() gps = L76GNSS(py, timeout=30) # Your WiFi network credentials WIFI_SSID = '' WIFI_KEY = '' # Get this from the Wia dashboard DEVICE_SECRET_KEY = 'your-device-secret-key' # Delay between each event DELAY = 30 wlan = WLAN(mode=WLAN.STA) nets = wlan.scan() # Connect to the WiFi network for net in nets: if net.ssid == WIFI_SSID: print('Network found!') wlan.connect(net.ssid, auth=(net.sec, WIFI_KEY), timeout=5000) print('Connecting...') while not wlan.isconnected(): machine.idle() # save power while waiting print('WLAN connection succeeded!') break # Post an Event to the Wia cloud def post_location(latitude, longitude): try: url = "https://api.wia.io/v1/locations" headers = {"Authorization": "Bearer " + DEVICE_SECRET_KEY, "Content-Type": "application/json"} json_data = {"latitude": str(latitude), "longitude": str(longitude)} if json_data is not None: req = requests.post(url=url, headers=headers, json=json_data) if req.status_code is not 200: machine.reset() else: print(json_data) return req.json() else: pass except: pass lat = 53 lng = -6 # main loop while True: # Get coordinates from pytrack coord = gps.coordinates(debug=True) if not coord == (None, None): lat, lng = coord post_location(lat, lng) time.sleep(2)

Replace the following values of the following variables:

WIFI_SSID with your WiFi network name.
WIFI_KEY with your WiFi network password.
DEVICE_SECRET_KEY with your device secret key from earlier (the one that begins with d_sk).

Note: You also need to add pycoproc.py to the lib folder which can be [found here](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pycom/pycom-libraries/master/ /pycoproc/pycoproc.py)

Your folder structure should now look like this:

lib
L76GNSS.py
LIS2HH12.py
pycoproc.py
pytrack.py
urequests.py
boot.py
main.py

Click Upload in the Pymakr plugin at the bottom of your window in Atom and send the code to your Pycom board. Now go to the Wia dashboard and you should see it appearing in your device overview.

GPS Signal Strength

You may need to take your Pytrack outdoors to get a reading for latitude/longitude

If you get "Uploading project (main folder)..." Error

Try updating the firmware. For the development board click here.

For additional firmware for the Pysense/Pytrack board click here.

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