GSoC

Read more about the article Enabling Google App Signing for Android Project

Enabling Google App Signing for Android Project

Signing key management of Android Apps is a hectic procedure and can grow out of hand rather quickly for large organizations with several independent projects. We, at FOSSASIA also had to face similar difficulties in management of individual keys by project maintainers and wanted to gather all these Android Projects under singular key management platform:

To handle the complexities and security aspect of the process, this year Google announced App Signing optional program where Google takes your existing key’s encrypted file and stores it on their servers and asks you to create a new upload key which will be used to sign further updates of the app. It takes the certificates of your new upload key and maps it to the managed private key. Now, whenever there is a new upload of the app, it’s signing certificate is matched with the upload key certificate and after verification, the app is signed by the original private key on the server itself and delivered to the user. The advantage comes where you lose your key, its password or it is compromised. Before App Signing program, if your key got lost, you had to launch your app under a new package name, losing your existing user base. With Google managing your key, if you lose your upload key, then the account owner can request Google to reassign a new upload key as the private key is secure on their servers.

There is no difference in the delivered app from the previous one as it is still finally signed by the original private key as it was before, except that Google also optimizes the app by splitting it into multiple APKs according to hardware, demographic and other factors, resulting in a much smaller app! This blog will take you through the steps in how to enable the program for existing and new apps. A bit of a warning though, for security reasons, opting in the program is permanent and once you do it, it is not possible to back out, so think it through before committing.

For existing apps:

First you need to go to the particular app’s detail section and then into Release Management > App Releases. There you would see the Get Started button for App Signing.

The account owner must first agree to its terms and conditions and once it’s done, a page like this will be presented with information about app signing infrastructure at top.

So, as per the instructions, download the PEPK jar file to encrypt your private key. For this process, you need to have your existing private key and its alias and password. It is fine if you don’t know the key password but store password is needed to generate the encrypted file. Then execute this command in the terminal as written in Step 2 of your Play console:

java -jar pepk.jar –keystore={{keystore_path}} –alias={{alias}} –output={{encrypted_file_output_path}} –encryptionkey=eb10fe8f7c7c9df715022017b00c6471f8ba8170b13049a11e6c09ffe3056a104a3bbe4ac5a955f4ba4fe93fc8cef27558a3eb9d2a529a2092761fb833b656cd48b9de6a

You will have to change the bold text inside curly braces to the correct keystore path, alias and the output file path you want respectively.

Note: The encryption key has been same for me for 3 different Play Store accounts, but might be different for you. So please confirm in Play console first

When you execute the command, it will ask you for the keystore password, and once you enter it, the encrypted file will be generated on the path you specified. You can upload it using the button on console.

After this, you’ll need to generate a new upload key. You can do this using several methods listed here, but for demonstration we’ll be using command line to do so:

keytool -genkey -v -keystore {{keystore_path}} -alias {{alias_name}} -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 -validity 10000

The command will ask you a couple of questions related to the passwords and signing information and then the key will be generated. This will be your public key and be used for further signing of your apps. So keep it and the password secure and handy (even if it is expendable now).

After this step, you need to create a PEM upload certificate for this key, and in order to do so, execute this command:

keytool -export -rfc -keystore {{keystore_path}} -alias {{alias_name}} -file {{upload_certificate.pem}}

After this is executed, it’ll ask you the keystore password, and once you enter it, the PEM file will be generated and you will have to upload it to the Play console.

If everything goes right, your Play console will look something like this:

 

Click enrol and you’re done! Now you can go to App Signing section of the Release Management console and see your app signing and new upload key certificates

 

You can use the SHA1 hash to confirm the keys as to which one corresponds to private and upload if ever in confusion.

For new apps:

For new apps, the process is like a walk in park. You just need to enable the App Signing, and you’ll get an option to continue, opt-out or re-use existing key.

 

If you re-use existing key, the process is finished then and there and an existing key is deployed as the upload key for this app. But if you choose to Continue, then App Signing will be enabled and Google will use an arbitrary key as private key for the app and the first app you upload will get its key registered as the upload key

 

This is the screenshot of the App Signing console when there is no first app uploaded and you can see that it still has an app signing certificate of a key which you did not upload or have access to.

If you want to know more about app signing program, check out these links:

Continue ReadingEnabling Google App Signing for Android Project
Read more about the article Creating an Elementary Oscilloscope in PSLab’s Remote Framework

Creating an Elementary Oscilloscope in PSLab’s Remote Framework

The last couple of blog posts explained how we could put together the versatility of ember components, the visual appeal of jqplot, the flexibility of Python Flask, and the simplicity of Python itself in order to make simple scripts for PSLab that would could be run on a server by a remote client anywhere on the web. We have also seen how callbacks could be assigned to widgets created in these scripts in order to make object oriented applications. In this blog post, we shall see how to assign a capture method to a button, and update a plot with the received data. It will also demonstrate how to use ember-lodash to perform array manipulations.

Specifying the return data type in the callback success routine

For a more instructive write-up on assigning callbacks, please refer to these posts .

Whenever the callback assigned to a button is a function that returns an array of elements, and the target for the resultant data is a plot, the stacking order of the returned array must be specified in order to change its shape to suit the plotting library. The default return data from a capture routine (oscilloscope) is made up of separate arrays for X coordinate and Y coordinate values. Since JQplot requires [X,Y] pairs , we must specify a stacking order of ‘xy’ so that the application knows that it must convert them to pairs (using lodash/zip)  before passing the result to the plot widget. Similarly, different stacking orders for capture2, and capture4 must also be defined.

Creating an action that performs necessary array manipulations and plots the received data

It can be seen from the excerpt below, that if the onSuccess target for a callback is specified to be a plot in the actionDefinition object, then the stacking order is checked, and the returned data is modified accordingly

Relevant excerpt from controllers/user-home.js/runButtonAction

if (actionDefinition.success.type === 'update-plot') {
  if (actionDefinition.success.stacking === 'xy') {
    $.jqplot(actionDefinition.success.target, [zip(...resultValue)]).replot();
  } else if (actionDefinition.success.stacking === 'xyy') {
    $.jqplot(actionDefinition.success.target, [zip(...[resultValue[0], resultValue[1]]), zip(...[resultValue[0], resultValue[2]])]).replot();
  } else if (actionDefinition.success.stacking === 'xyyyy') {
    $.jqplot(actionDefinition.success.target, [zip(...[resultValue[0], resultValue[1]]), zip(...[resultValue[0], resultValue[2]]), zip(...[resultValue[0], resultValue[3]]), zip(...[resultValue[0], resultValue[4]])]).replot();
  } else {
    $.jqplot(actionDefinition.success.target, resultValue).replot();
  }
}

 

With the above framework in place, we can add a plot with the line plt = plot(x, np.sin(x)) , and associate a button with a capture routine that will update its contents with a single line of code: button(‘capture1’,”capture1(‘CH1’,100,10)”,”update-plot”,target=plt)

Final Result

The following script created on the pslab-remote platform makes three buttons and plots, and sets the buttons to invoke capture1, capture2, and capture4 respectively when clicked.

import numpy as np
x=np.linspace(0,2*np.pi,30)
plt = plot(x, np.sin(x))
button('capture 1',"capture1('CH1',100,10)","update-plot",target=plt)

plt2 = plot(x, np.sin(x))
button('capture 2',"capture2(50,10)","update-plot",target=plt2,stacking='xyy')

plt3 = plot(x, np.sin(x))
button('capture 4',"capture4(50,10)","update-plot",target=plt3,stacking='xyyyy')

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resources

 

Continue ReadingCreating an Elementary Oscilloscope in PSLab’s Remote Framework
Read more about the article Export Sensor Data from the PSLab Android App

Export Sensor Data from the PSLab Android App

The PSLab Android App allows users to log data from the sensors connected to the PSLab hardware device. Sensor Data is stored locally but can be exported in various formats. Currently the app supports exporting data in .txt and .csv (comma-separated values) format. Exported data can be used by other users or scientists to study or analyze the data. Data can also be used by other softwares like Python, GNU octave, Matlab to further process it or visualise it in 3D. In this post, we will discuss how to export the locally stored realm data in .txt or .csv format. We will take the data of MPU6050 sensor as an example for understanding how locally logged data is exported.

Query Local Realm Data

We have attached a long click listener to sensor list view that detects which list item is selected. Clicking any sensor from sensor list for slightly longer than usual would result in a dialog popping up with the option to

  • Export Data: Results in exporting data in a format which is selected in App settings
  • Share Data: Shares sensor data with other users or on social media (yet to be implemented)
Source: PSLab Android App

As soon as the Export Data option is selected from the dialog, sensor data of the corresponding sensor is queried. The data model of the sensor and how it’s saved in the local realm database is discussed in the post Sensor Data Logging in the PSLab Android App.

RealmResults<DataMPU6050> results = realm.where(DataMPU6050.class).findAll();

Once we get the required data, we need to write it in .txt or .csv format depending on what the user has selected as a preference in App Settings.

Getting User Preference from App Settings

The format in which the sensor data should be exported is presented to the user as a preference in App Settings. Currently the app supports two formats .txt and .csv.

Source: PSLab Android App
private String format;
SharedPreferences preferences = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(this);
String formatValue = preferences.getString("export_data_format_list", "0");
if ("0".equals(formatValue))
   format = "txt";
else
   format = "csv";

Export Data in .txt Format

To export the sensor data in .txt format, we need to create a .txt file in the external storage. folder variable is a path to PSLab Android folder in the external storage. If the folder doesn’t exist, it will be created.

File folder = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory() + File.separator + "PSLab Android");

After getting reference of the app folder in the external storage, we would create a text file in the PSLab Android folder. As soon as the text file is created, we initialize the FileOutputStream object to write data into the text file. The sensor data that was queried in the previous section is written into the text file just created. Finally after the complete sensor data is written, the stream is closed by stream.close() method.

FileOutputStream stream = null;
File file = new File(folder, "sensorData.txt");
try {
   stream = new FileOutputStream(file);
   for (DataMPU6050 temp : results) {
       stream.write((String.valueOf(temp.getAx()) + " " + temp.getAy() + " " + temp.getAz() + " " +
               temp.getGx() + " " + temp.getGy() + " " + temp.getGz() + " " + temp.getTemperature() + "\n").getBytes());
   }
} catch (IOException e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
   try {
       if (stream != null) {
           stream.close();
       }
   } catch (IOException e) {
       e.printStackTrace();
   }
}

Export Data in .csv Format

Writing data in .csv format is similar to that in .txt format. As CSV stands for Comma Separated Values, which means each data value is separated by “,” (comma). It is similar to an excel sheet. The first row consists of labels that denote the type of value in that particular column. The other rows consist of the sensor data, with each row corresponding to a sample of the sensor data.

File file = new File(folder, "sensorData.csv");
PrintWriter writer;
try {
   writer = new PrintWriter(file);
   StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
   stringBuilder.append("Ax,Ay,Ax,Gx,Gy,Gz,Temperature\n");
   for (DataMPU6050 temp : results) {
       stringBuilder.append(String.valueOf(temp.getAx()));
       stringBuilder.append(',');
       stringBuilder.append(String.valueOf(temp.getAy()));
       stringBuilder.append(',');
       stringBuilder.append(String.valueOf(temp.getAz()));
       stringBuilder.append(',');
       stringBuilder.append(String.valueOf(temp.getGx()));
       stringBuilder.append(',');
       stringBuilder.append(String.valueOf(temp.getGy()));
       stringBuilder.append(',');
       stringBuilder.append(String.valueOf(temp.getGz()));
       stringBuilder.append(',');
       stringBuilder.append(String.valueOf(temp.getTemperature()));
       stringBuilder.append('\n');
   }
   writer.write(stringBuilder.toString());
   writer.close();
} catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
}

Resources

Continue ReadingExport Sensor Data from the PSLab Android App
Read more about the article Coloring Waveforms in PSLab Charts

Coloring Waveforms in PSLab Charts

Charts are used to display set of data in an analytical manner such that an observer can easily come to a conclusion by just looking at it without having to go through all the numerical data sets. Legends are used to differentiate a set of data set from another set. Generally, different colors and different names are used to form a legend in a chart.

MPAndroidChart is an amazing library with the capability of generating different types of graphs in an Android device. In PSLab several user interfaces are implemented using LineCharts to display different waveforms such as readings from channels attached to PSLab device, logic levels etc.

When several data sets are being plotted on the same graph area, legends are used. In PSLab Android application, Oscilloscope supports four different type of waveforms to be plotted on the same graph. Logic Analyzer implements one to four different types of logic level waveforms on the same plot. To identify which is which, legends with different colors can be used rather than just the names. For the legends to have different colors, it should be explicitly set which color should be held by which data set. Otherwise it will use the default color to all the legends making it hard to differentiate data lines when there are more than one data set is plotted.

Assume a data set is generated from a reading taken from a probe attached to PSLab device. The set will be added as an Entry to an array list as follows;

ArrayList<Entry> dataSet = new ArrayList<Entry>();

The next step will be to create a Line Data Set

LineDataSet lineData = new LineDataSet(dataSet, "DataSet 1");

This LineDataSet will contain sample values of the waveform captured by the microprocessor. A LineDataSet object support many methods to alter its look and feel. In order to set a color for the legend, setColor() method will be useful. This method accepts an integer as the color. This method can be accessed as follows;

lineData.setColor(Color.YELLOW);

MPAndroidChart provides different sets of colors under ColorTemplate. This class has several predefined colors with five colors in each color palette are added by the developers of the library and they can be accessed using the following line of code by simply calling the index value of the palette array list.

set1.setColor(ColorTemplate.JOYFUL_COLORS[0]);

Set of color palettes available in the ColorTemplate class are;

  1. LIBERTY_COLORS
  2. JOYFUL_COLORS
  3. PASTEL_COLORS
  4. COLORFUL_COLORS
  5. VORDIPLOM_COLORS
  6. MATERIAL_COLORS

The following demonstrates how the above activities produce a line chart with three different data sets with different colored legends.

This implementation can be used to enhance the readability of the waveforms letting user being able to differentiate between one waveform from another in PSLab Android application.

Resources:

PSLab official web site: https://pslab.fossasia.org/

Continue ReadingColoring Waveforms in PSLab Charts
Read more about the article Performing Diode Clipping and Clamping Experiment in PSLab Android

Performing Diode Clipping and Clamping Experiment in PSLab Android

We can perform experiments like diode clipping and clamping using PSLab Android. A circuit which removes the peak of a waveform is known as a clipper. Diode clipper cuts off the top half or lower half or both top and lower half of the input signal. 

Different types of clipping circuits listed below

Different Clipping Experiments

A clamper circuit adds the positive dc component to the input signal to push it to the positive side. Similarly, a clamper circuit adds the negative dc component to the input signal to push it to the negative side. It basically shifts the input signal without changing the shape of the signal.

Different Clamping Experiments

Apparatus

Diode, Resistance, Capacitor (only for diode clamping), Breadboard, Wires and PSLab

Adding Diode Clipping Experiment support in PSLab Android App

To support Diode Clipping Experiment we require generating a sine wave and a dc component. This can be done using W1 and PV1 pins in PSLab device. Both input and output signals can be read using CH1 and CH2. So, when the Diode Clipping Experiment needs to be performed the following code needs to be implemented

scienceLab.setSine1(5000);
scienceLab.setPV1(//progress of the seekbar);

The signals are recorded using Oscilloscope Activity.

Adding Diode Clamping Experiment support in PSLab Android App

Diode Clamping Experiment was implemented similarly to Diode Clipping Experiment. The following are the screenshots of the experiment.     

The following is a glimpse of Diode Clamping Experiment performed using PSLab device using PSLab Android App.

Resources

  1. Read more about Clipper Circuits –
  2. Read more information about Clamping Circuits –

Continue ReadingPerforming Diode Clipping and Clamping Experiment in PSLab Android
Read more about the article Including a Graph Component in the Remote Access Framework for PSLab

Including a Graph Component in the Remote Access Framework for PSLab

The remote-lab software of the pocket science lab enables users to access their devices remotely via the Internet. It includes an API server designed with Python Flask, and a web-app designed with EmberJS that allows users to access the API and carry out various tasks such as writing and executing Python scripts. In a series of blog posts, various aspects of this framework such as  remote execution of function strings, automatic deployment on various domains, creating and submitting python scripts which will be run on the remote server etc have already been explored.  This blog post deals with the inclusion of a graph component in the webapp that will be invoked when the user utilises the `plot` command in their scripts.

The JQPLOT library is being used for this purpose, and has been found to be quite lightweight and has a vast set of example code .

Task list for enabling the plotting feature
  • Add a plot method to the codeEvaluator module in the API server and allow access to it by adding it to the evalGlobals dictionary
  • Create an EmberJS component for handling plots
    • Create a named div in the template
    • Invoke the Jqplot initializer from the JS file and pass necessary arguments and data to the jqplot instance
  • Add a conditional statement to include the jqplot component whenever a plot subsection is present in the JSON object returned by the API server after executing a script
Adding a plot method to the API server

Thus far, in addition to the functions supported by the sciencelab.py instance of PSLab, users had access to print, print_, and button functions. We shall now add a plot function.

def plot(self,x,y,**kwargs):
self.generatedApp.append({"type":"plot","name":kwargs.get('name','myPlot'),"data":[np.array([x,y]).T.tolist()]})

 

The X,Y datasets provided by the user are stacked in pairs because jqplot requires [x,y] pairs . not separate datasets.

We also need to add this to evalGlobals, so we shall modify the __init__ routine slightly:

self.evalGlobals['plot']=self.plot
Building an Ember component for handling plots

First, well need to install jqplot:   bower install –save jqplot

And this must be followed by including the following files using app.import statements in ember-cli-build.js

  • bower_components/jqplot/jquery.jqplot.min.js
  • bower_components/jqplot/plugins/jqplot.cursor.js
  • bower_components/jqplot/plugins/jqplot.highlighter.js
  • bower_components/jqplot/plugins/jqplot.pointLabels.js
  • bower_components/jqplot/jquery.jqplot.min.css

In addition to the jqplot js and css files, we have also included a couple of plugins we shall use later.

Now we need to set up a new component : ember g component jqplot-graph

Our component will accept an object as an input argument. This object will contain the various configuration options for the plot

Add the following line in templates/components/jqplot-graph.hbs:

 style="solid gray 1px;" id="{{data.name}}">

The JS file for this template must invoke the jqplot function in order to insert a complete plot into the previously defined <div> after it has been created. Therefore, the initialization routine must override the didInsertElement routine of the component.

components/jqplot-graph.js

import Ember from 'ember';

export default Ember.Component.extend({
  didInsertElement () {
    Ember.$.jqplot(this.data.name,this.data.data,{
        title: this.title,

        axes: {
          xaxis: {
            tickInterval: 1,
            rendererOptions: {
            minorTicks: 4
            }
          },
        },
        highlighter: {
          show: true, 
          showLabel: true, 

          tooltipAxes: 'xy',
          sizeAdjust: 9.5 , tooltipLocation : 'ne'
        },				  
        legend: {
          show: true,
          location: 'e',
          rendererOptions: {
            numberColumns: 1,
          }
        },
        cursor:{ 
          show: true,
          zoom:true, 
          showTooltip:false
          } 

    });
  }
});

Our component is now ready to be used , and we must make the necessary changes to user-home.hbs in order to include the plot component if the output JSON of a script executed on the server contains it.

The following excerpt from the results modal shows how the plot component can be inserted

{{#each codeResults as |element|}}
	{{#if (eq element.type 'text')}}
		{{element.value}}<br>
	{{/if}}
	{{#if (eq element.type 'plot')}}
		{{jqplot-graph data=element}}
	{{/if}}
{{/each}}

Most of the other components such as buttons and spans have been removed for clarity. Note that the element object is passed to the jqplot-graph component as an argument so that the component may configure itself accordingly.

In conclusion, the following screencast shows what we have created. A simple plot command creates a fancy plot in the output which includes data point highlighting, and can be easily configured to do a lot more. In the next blog post we shall explore how to use this plot to create a persistent application such as an oscilloscope.

Resources:

 

Continue ReadingIncluding a Graph Component in the Remote Access Framework for PSLab
Read more about the article Sensor Data Logging in the PSLab Android App

Sensor Data Logging in the PSLab Android App

The PSLab Android App allows users to log data from sensors connected to the PSLab hardware device. The Connected sensors should support I2C, SPI communication protocols to communicate with the PSLab device successfully. The only prerequisite is the additional support for the particular sensor plugin in Android App. The user can log data from various sensors and measure parameters like temperature, humidity, acceleration, magnetic field, etc. These parameters are useful in predicting and monitoring the environment and in performing many experiments.

The support for the sensor plugins was added during the porting python communication library code to Java. In this post,  we will discuss how we logged real time sensor data from the PSLab Hardware Device. We used Realm database to store the sensor data locally. We have taken the MPU6050 sensor as an example to understand the complete process of logging sensor data.

Creating Realm Object for MPU6050 Sensor Data

The MPU6050 sensor gives the acceleration and gyroscope readings along the three axes X, Y and Z. So the data object storing the readings of the mpu sensor have variables to store the acceleration and gyroscope readings along all three axes.

public class DataMPU6050 extends RealmObject {

   private double ax, ay, az;
   private double gx, gy, gz;
   private double temperature;

   public DataMPU6050() {  }

   public DataMPU6050(double ax, double ay, double az, double gx, double gy, double gz, double temperature) {
       this.ax = ax;
       this.ay = ay;
       this.az = az;
       this.gx = gx;
       this.gy = gy;
       this.gz = gz;
       this.temperature = temperature;
   }

  // getter and setter for all variables
}

Creating Runnable to Start/Stop Data Logging

To sample the sensor data at 500ms interval, we created a runnable object and passed it to another thread which would prevent lagging of the UI thread. We can start/stop logging by changing the value of the boolean loggingThreadRunning on button click. TaskMPU6050 is an AsyncTask which reads each sample of sensor data from the PSLab device, it gets executed inside a while loop which is controlled by boolean loggingThreadRunning. Thread.sleep(500) pauses the thread for 500ms, this is also one of the reason to transfer the logging to another thread instead of logging the sensor data in UI thread. If such 500ms delays are incorporated in UI thread, app experience won’t be smooth for the users.

Runnable loggingRunnable = new Runnable() {
   @Override
   public void run() {
       try {
           MPU6050 sensorMPU6050 = new MPU6050(i2c);
           while (loggingThreadRunning) {
               TaskMPU6050 taskMPU6050 = new TaskMPU6050(sensorMPU6050);
               taskMPU6050.execute();
              // use lock object to synchronize threads
               Thread.sleep(500);
           }
       } catch (IOException   InterruptedException e) {
           e.printStackTrace();
       }
   }
};

Sampling of Sensor Data

We created an AsyncTask to read each sample of the sensor data from the PSLab device in the background thread. The getRaw() method read raw values from the sensor and returned an ArrayList containing the acceleration and gyro values. After the values were read successfully, they were updated in the data card in the foreground which was visible to the user. This data card acts as a real-time screen for the user. All the samples read are appended to ArrayList mpu6050DataList, when the user clicks on button Save Data, the collected samples are saved to the local realm database.

private ArrayList<DataMPU6050> mpu6050DataList = new ArrayList<>();

private class TaskMPU6050 extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, Void> {

   private MPU6050 sensorMPU6050;
   private ArrayList<Double> dataMPU6050 = new ArrayList<>();

   TaskMPU6050(MPU6050 mpu6050) {
       this.sensorMPU6050 = mpu6050;
   }

   @Override
   protected Void doInBackground(Void... params) {
       try {
           dataMPU6050 = sensorMPU6050.getRaw();
       } catch (IOException e) {
           e.printStackTrace();
       }
       return null;
   }

   @Override
   protected void onPostExecute(Void aVoid) {
       super.onPostExecute(aVoid);
       // update data card TextViews with data read.
       DataMPU6050 tempObject = new DataMPU6050(dataMPU6050.get(0), dataMPU6050.get(1), dataMPU6050.get(2),
               dataMPU6050.get(4), dataMPU6050.get(5), dataMPU6050.get(6), dataMPU6050.get(3));
       mpu6050DataList.add(tempObject);
       synchronized (lock) {
           lock.notify();
       }
   }
}
Source: PSLab Android App

There is an option for Start/Stop Logging, clicking on which will change the value of boolean loggingThreadRunning which stops starts/stops the logging thread.

When the Save Data button is clicked, all the samples of sensor data collected from the  PSLab device till that point are saved to the local realm database.

realm.beginTransaction();
for (DataMPU6050 tempObject : mpu6050DataList) {
   realm.copyToRealm(tempObject);
}
realm.commitTransaction();

Data can also be written asynchronously to the local realm database. For other methods to write to a real database refer write section of Realm docs.

Resources

Continue ReadingSensor Data Logging in the PSLab Android App
Read more about the article Enhancing the Functionality of User Submitted Scripts in the PSLab-remote framework

Enhancing the Functionality of User Submitted Scripts in the PSLab-remote framework

The remote-lab framework of the pocket science lab enables users to access their devices remotely via the internet. Its design involves an API server built with Python-Flask and a webapp that uses EmberJS. This post is the latest in a series of blog posts which have explored and elaborated various aspect of the remote-lab such as designing the API server and testing with Postman, remote execution of function strings, automatic deployment on various domains etc. It also supports creating and submitting python scripts which will be run on the remote server, and the console output relayed to the webapp.

In this post, we shall take a look at how we can extend the functionality by providing support for object oriented code in user submitted scripts.

Let’s take an example of a Python script where the user wishes to create a button which when clicked will read a voltage via the API server, and display the value to the remote user. Clearly, an interpreter that only provides the console output is not enough for this task. We need the interpreter to generate an app structure that also includes callbacks for widgets such as buttons, and JSON objects are an obvious choice for relaying such a structure to the webapp.

In a nutshell, we had earlier created an API method that could execute a python script and return a string output, and now we will modify this method to return a JSON encoded structure which will be parsed by the webapp in order to display an output.

Let’s elaborate this with an example : Example.py

print ('testing')
print ('testing some changes..... ')
print_('highlighted print statement')

 

JSON returned by the API [localhost:8000/runScriptById] , for the above script:

{"Date": "Tue, 01 Aug 2017 21:39:12 GMT", "Filename": "example.py", "Id": 4,
 "result": [
  {"name": "print", "type": "span", "value": "('testing',)"},
  {"name": "print", "type": "span", "value": "('testing some changes..... ',)"},
  {"class": "row well", "name": "print", "type": "span", "value": "highlighted print statement"}
  ],
"status": true}
Screenshot of the EmberJS webapp showing the output rendered with the above JSON

Adding Support for Widgets

In the previous section, we laid the groundwork for a flexible platform. Instead of returning a string, the webapp accepts a JSON object and parses it. We shall now add support for a clickable button which can be associated with a valid PSLab function.

An elementary JS twiddle has been made by Niranjan Rajendran which will help newbies to understand how to render dynamic templates via JSON objects retrieved from APIs. The twiddle uses two API endpoints; one to retrieve the compiled JSON output, and another to act as a voltmeter method which returns a voltage value.

To understand how this works in pslab-remote, consider a one line script called button.py:

button('get voltage',"get_voltage('CH1')")

The objective is to create a button with the text ‘get voltage’ on it , and which when clicked will run the command ‘get_voltage(‘CH1’)’ on the API server, and display the result.

When this script is run on the API server, it returns a JSON object with the following structure:

{"Date": "Tue, 01 Aug 2017 21:39:12 GMT", "Filename": "example.py", "Id": 4,
 "result": [  {"type":"button","name":"button-id0","label":"get_voltage","fetched_value":"","action":{"type":"POST","endpoint":"get_voltage('CH1')","success":{"datapoint":'result',"type":"display_number", "target":"button-id0-label"}}},
  {"name": "button-id0label", "type": "label", "value": ""},
  ],
"status": true}

The above JSON object is parsed by the webapp’s user-home template, and a corresponding button and label are generated. The following section of code from user-home.hbs renders the JSON object

{{#each codeResults as |element|}}
  {{#if (eq element.type 'label')}}
    <label  id="{{element.name}}" class="{{element.class}}">{{element.value}}</label>
  {{/if}}
  {{#if (eq element.type 'button')}}
    <button id="{{element.name}}" {{action 'runButtonAction' element.action}}>{{element.label}}</button>
  {{/if}}
{{/each}}

An action was also associated with the the created button, and this is the “get_voltage(‘CH1’)” string which we had specified in our one line script.

For the concluding section, we shall see how this action is invoked when the button is clicked, and how the returned value is used to update the contents of the label that was generated as part of this button.

Action defined in controllers/user-home.js :

runButtonAction(actionDefinition) {
  if(actionDefinition.type === 'POST') {
    Ember.$.post('/evalFunctionString',{'function':actionDefinition.endpoint},this,"json")
      .then(response => {
        const resultValue = Ember.get(response, actionDefinition.success.datapoint);
        if (actionDefinition.success.type === 'display_number') {
           Ember.$('#' + actionDefinition.success.target).text(resultValue.toFixed(3));
        }
      });
  }
}

The action string is passed to the evalFunctionString endpoint of the API, and the contents are mapped to the display label.

Screencast of the above process
Resources:

Continue ReadingEnhancing the Functionality of User Submitted Scripts in the PSLab-remote framework
Read more about the article Preparing for Automatic Publishing of Android Apps in Play Store

Preparing for Automatic Publishing of Android Apps in Play Store

I spent this week searching through libraries and services which provide a way to publish built apks directly through API so that the repositories for Android apps can trigger publishing automatically after each push on master branch. The projects to be auto-deployed are:

I had eyes on fastlane for a couple of months and it came out to be the best solution for the task. The tool not only allows publishing of APK files, but also Play Store listings, screenshots, and changelogs. And that is only a subset of its capabilities bundled in a subservice supply.

There is a process before getting started to use this service, which I will go through step by step in this blog. The process is also outlined in the README of the supply project.

Enabling API Access

The first step in the process is to enable API access in your Play Store Developer account if you haven’t done so. For that, you have to open the Play Dev Console and go to Settings > Developer Account > API access.

If this is the first time you are opening it, you’ll be presented with a confirmation dialog detailing about the ramifications of the action and if you agree to do so. Read carefully about the terms and click accept if you agree with them. Once you do, you’ll be presented with a setting panel like this:

Creating Service Account

As you can see there is no registered service account here and we need to create one. So, click on CREATE SERVICE ACCOUNT button and this dialog will pop up giving you the instructions on how to do so:

So, open the highlighted link in the new tab and Google API Console will open up, which will look something like this:

Click on Create Service Account and fill in these details:

Account Name: Any name you want

Role: Project > Service Account Actor

And then, select Furnish a new private key and select JSON. Click CREATE.

A new JSON key will be created and downloaded on your device. Keep this secret as anyone with access to it can at least change play store listings of your apps if not upload new apps in place of existing ones (as they are protected by signing keys).

Granting Access

Now return to the Play Console tab (we were there in Figure 2 at the start of Creating Service Account), and click done as you have created the Service Account now. And you should see the created service account listed like this:

Now click on grant access, choose Release Manager from Role dropdown, and select these PERMISSIONS:

Of course you don’t want the fastlane API to access financial data or manage orders. Other than that it is up to you on what to allow or disallow. Same choice with expiry date as we have left it to never expire. Click on ADD USER and you’ll see the Release Manager created in the user list like below:

Now you are ready to use the fastlane service, or any other release management service for that matter.

Using fastlane

Install fastlane by

sudo gem install fastlane

Go to your project folder and run

fastlane supply init

First it will ask the location of the private key JSON file you downloaded, and then the package name of the application you are trying to initialize fastlane for.

Then it will create metadata folder with listing information excluding the images. So you’ll have to download and place the images manually for the first time

After modifying the listing, images or APK, run the command:

fastlane supply run

That’s it. Your app along with the store listing has been updated!

This is a very brief introduction to the capabilities of the supply service. All interactive options can be supplied via command line arguments, certain parts of the metadata can be omitted and alpha beta management along with release rollout can be done in steps! Make sure to check out the links below:

Continue ReadingPreparing for Automatic Publishing of Android Apps in Play Store
Read more about the article Fascinating Experiments with PSLab

Fascinating Experiments with PSLab

PSLab can be extensively used in a variety of experiments ranging from the traditional electrical and electronics experiments to a number of innovative experiments. The PSLab desktop app and the Android app have all the essential features that are needed to perform the experiments. In addition to that there is a large collection of built-in experiments in both these experiments.

This blog is an extension to the blog post mentioned here. This blog lists some of the basic electrical and electronics experiments which are based on the same principles which are mentioned in the previous blog. In addition to that, some interesting and innovative experiments where PSLab can be used are also listed here. The experiments mentioned here require some prerequisite knowledge of electronic elements and basic circuit building. (The links mentioned at the end of the blog will be helpful in this case)

Op-Amp as an Inverting and a Non-Inverting Amplifier

There are two methods of doing this experiment. PSLab already has a built-in experiment dedicated to inverting and non-inverting amplification of op-amps. In the Android App, just navigate to Saved Experiments -> Electronics Experiments -> Op-Amp Circuits -> Inverting/ Non-Inverting. In case of the Desktop app, select Electronics Experiments from the main drop-down at the top of the window and select the Inverting/Non-inverting op-amp experiment.

This experiment can also performed using the basic features of PSLab. The only advantage of this methodology is that it allows much more tweaking of values to observe the Op-Amp behaviour in greater detail. However, the built-in experiment is good enough for most of the cases.

  • Construct the above circuits on a breadboard.
  • For the amplifier, connect the terminals of CH1 and GND of PSLab on the input side i.e. next to Vi and the terminals of CH2 and GND on the output side i.e next to Vo.
  • Usually, an Op-Amp like LM741 have a set of pins, one dedicated for the inverting input and the other dedicated for the non-inverting input. It is recommended to consult the datasheet of the Op-Amp IC used in order to get the pin number with which the input has to be connected.
  • The terminals of W1 and GND are also connected on the input side and they are used to generate a sine wave.
  • The resistors displayed in the figure have the values R1 = 10k and R2 = 51k. Resistance values other than these can also be considered. The gain of the op-amp would depend on the ratio of R2/R1, so it is better to consider values of R2 which are significantly larger than R1 in order to see the gain properly.
  • Use the PSLab Desktop App and open the Waveform Generator in Control. Set the wave type of W1 to Sine and set the frequency at 1 kHz and magnitude to 0.1 V. Then go ahead and open the Oscilloscope.
  • CH1 would display the input waveform and CH2 will display the output waveform and the plots can be observed.
  • If the input is connected to the inverting pin of the op-amp, the output obtained will be amplified and will have a phase difference of 90o with the input waveform whereas when the non-inverting pin is selected, the output is just amplified and no such phase difference is observed.
  • Note: Take proper care while connecting the V+ and V- pins of the op-amp, else the op-amp will be damaged.

Diode as an Integrator and Differentiator

An integrator in measurement and control applications is an element whose output signal is the time integral of its input signal. It accumulates the input quantity over a defined time to produce a representative output.

Integration is an important part of many engineering and scientific applications. Mechanical integrators are the oldest application, and are still used in such as metering of water flow or electric power. Electronic analogue integrators are the basis of analog computers and charge amplifiers. Integration is also performed by digital computing algorithms.

In electronics, a differentiator is a circuit that is designed such that the output of the circuit is approximately directly proportional to the rate of change (the time derivative) of the input. An active differentiator includes some form of amplifier. A passive differentiator circuit is made of only resistors and capacitors.

  • Construct the above circuits on a breadboard.
  • For both the circuits, connect the terminals of CH1 and GND of PSLab on the input side i.e. next to input voltage source and the terminals of CH2 and GND on the output side i.e next to Vo.
  • Ensure that the inverting and the non-inverting terminals of the op-amp are connected correctly. Check for the +/- signs in the diagram. ‘+’ corresponds to non-inverting and ‘-’ corresponds to inverting.
  • The terminals of W1 and GND are also connected on the input side and they are used to generate a sine wave.
  • The resistors displayed in the figure have the values R1 = 10k and R2 = 51k. Resistance values other than these can also be considered. The gain of the op-amp would depend on the ratio of R2/R1, so it is better to consider values of R2 which are significantly larger than R1 in order to see the gain properly.
  • Use the PSLab Desktop App and open the Waveform Generator in Control. Set the wave type of W1 to Sine and set the frequency at 1 kHz and magnitude to 5V (10V peak to peak). Then go ahead and open the Oscilloscope.
  • CH1 would display the input waveform and CH2 will display the output waveform and the plots can be observed.
  • If all the connections are made properly and the values of the parameters are set properly, then the waveform obtained should be as shown below.

Performing experiments involving ICs (Digital circuits)

The experiments mentioned so far including the ones mentioned in the previous blog post involved analog circuits and so they required features like the arbitrary waveform generator. However, digital circuits work using discrete values only. PSLab has the features needed to perform digital experiments which mainly involve the use of a square wave generator with a variable duty cycle.

PSLab board has dedicated pins named SQR1, SQR2, SQR3 and SQR4. The options for configuring these pins is present under the Advanced Control section in the Desktop app and in the Android app Applications->Control->Advanced. The options include selecting the pins which we want to use for digital outputs and then configuring the frequency and duty cycle of the square wave generated from that particular pin.

Innovative Experiments using PSLab

PSLab has quite a good number of interesting built-in experiments. These experiments can be found in the dropdown list at the top in the Desktop App and under the Saved Experiments header in the Android App. The built-in experiments come bundled with good quality documentation having circuit diagrams and detailed procedure to perform the experiments.

Some of the interesting experiments include:

  • Lemon Cell Experiment: In this experiment, the internal resistance and the voltage supplied by the lemon cell are measured.

 

  • Sound Beats: In acoustics, a beat is an interference pattern between two sounds of slightly different frequencies, perceived as a periodic variation in volume whose rate is the difference of the two frequencies.

 

  • When tuning instruments that can produce sustained tones, beats can readily be recognized. Tuning two tones to a unison will present a peculiar effect: when the two tones are close in pitch but not identical, the difference in frequency generates the beating.
  • This experiment requires producing two waves together of different frequencies and connecting them to the same oscilloscope channel. The pattern observed is shown below.

References:

  1. The previous blog on experiments using PSLab – https://blog.fossasia.org/electronics-experiments-with-pslab/
  2. More about op-amps and their characteristics – http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/opamp/opamp_1.html
  3. Read more about differential and integrator circuits – https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/semiconductors/chpt-8/differentiator-integrator-circuits/
  4. Experiments involving digital circuits for reference – http://web.iitd.ac.in/~shouri/eep201/experiments.php

Continue ReadingFascinating Experiments with PSLab