Update Request for VS Code PlatformIO tutorial

[psupine (Mark Jeffree)]

I’ve been away a while and am now trying to setup the a fresh dev environment for:

MacOS + VS Code + Platform IO + RAK4631 + RUI3

I’ve previously used the Arduino environment because I couldn’t get the Platform IO thing working. I’d hoped that after a break of a year it might have been easier this time, but I’m still stuck, possibly with more dead links than before.

I have worked my way very carefully through the Platform IO setup tutorial. I think my issue is getting the board support packages into the right place. The tutorial refers to a python patch script that I’ve since read only works to update existing BSPs. Looking at the script, I don’t understand what it’s trying to do with the “. ./” referenced destination directories, because they don’t have any agreement to the default directory structure under “/Users/me/.platformio”

@beegee, would you please take a look at the setup platformIO tutorial and verify it is up to date. Alternatively, could you point me to another run sheet to work my way through.

Many thanks

Edit: typos

[beegee (Bernd Giesecke)]

The python script works and the tutorial is still up-to-date.
But I can’t test on MacOS, I do not have any Apple device.

But installation should be similar on MacOS, I just don’t know where PlatformIO is installed.

You need to install the nRF52 platform in PIO first.
AND
you need to have an application compiled. Only after a compilation the complete platform+package is installed.

You place the unzipped files into a folder RAK_PATCH into the PlatformIO installation directory:

You open a terminal in the RAK-PATCH folder

Run the patch python ./rak_patch.py

There might be errors for platforms you haven’t installed. You can ignore them.

If that doesn’t work, you can patch the platform and package manually:

You need to install the nRF52 platform in PIO first.
AND
you need to have an application compiled. Only after a compilation the complete platform+package is installed.

(1) Copy .platfomio ==> RAK_PATCH ==> packages ==> framework-arduinoadafruitnrf52 to .platformio ==> packages ==> framework-arduinoadafruitnrf52
ALLOW OVERWRITES

(1) Copy .platfomio ==> RAK_PATCH ==> platforms ==> nordicnrf52 to .platformio ==> platforms ==> framework-nordicnrf52
ALLOW OVERWRITES

[psupine (Mark Jeffree)]

I believe I did all those steps. The first indication of the process going off the rails was when I ran the python script.

% python rak_patch.py
Patching RAK4631
Could not find ../platforms/nordicnrf52/boards
Patching RAK11200
Could not find ../platforms/espressif32/boards
Patching RAK11310
Could not find ../platforms/raspberrypi/boards
Patch done, check output if successful

The .platformio directory is by default directly under /User/me. This is where I unpacked the ZIP file.

% pwd
/Users/markjeffree/.platformio

 % ls -la
total 2584
drwxr-xr-x  13 markjeffree  staff      416 20 May 15:24 .
drwxr-x---+ 40 markjeffree  staff     1280 20 May 19:37 ..
drwxr-xr-x   6 markjeffree  staff      192 20 May 15:32 .cache
-rw-r--r--@  1 markjeffree  staff  1065058 20 May 10:29 RAK_PATCH.zip
-rw-r--r--@  1 markjeffree  staff   236954  6 Sep  2021 Update RAK WisBlock modules in PlatformIO platforms and packages.pdf
-rw-r--r--   1 markjeffree  staff      259 20 May 13:39 appstate.json
-rw-r--r--   1 markjeffree  staff       90 20 May 13:50 homestate.json
drwxr-xr-x  15 markjeffree  staff      480 20 May 13:50 packages
drwxr-xr-x   8 markjeffree  staff      256 20 May 10:19 penv
drwxr-xr-x   6 markjeffree  staff      192 20 May 13:47 platforms
drwxr-xr-x   9 markjeffree  staff      288 20 May 10:19 python3
-rw-r--r--@  1 markjeffree  staff     3111 20 May 15:24 rak_patch.py
-rw-r--r--@  1 markjeffree  staff     3111 20 May 15:03 rak_patch.py.backup

The double dot slash (which doesn’t render well) ". . / " prefix on the destination directories in the script would seem to point nowhere useful, since it’s effectively trying to find a user called “platforms”. I’m happy to patch the python patch script, but I’m not completely clear on what it’s trying to do.

Ahh. I think I need another layer of directory under the .platformio directory. Stand by …

[psupine (Mark Jeffree)]

Further along than before:

% python rak_patch.py 
Patching RAK4631
Patched RAK4631
Patching RAK11200
Patched RAK11200
Patching RAK11310
File not found.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/markjeffree/.platformio/RAK_PATCH/rak_patch.py", line 66, in <module>
    copy_files_ext(src_dir1, src_dir2, src_dir3, dest_dir1, dest_dir2, dest_dir3, "RAK11310")
  File "/Users/markjeffree/.platformio/RAK_PATCH/rak_patch.py", line 27, in copy_files_ext
    shutil.copyfile(src_3+"/Print.h", dest_3+"/Print.h")
  File "/Users/markjeffree/.rye/py/[email protected]/lib/python3.12/shutil.py", line 262, in copyfile
    with open(dst, 'wb') as fdst:
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '../packages/framework-arduino-mbed/cores/arduino/api/Print.h'

Since I only care about the RAK4631, I could step off at this point, but would you like me to keep trying to test the macOS case?

[beegee (Bernd Giesecke)]

You seem not to have the RP2040 platform installed, so the error message is normal.

Glad you got it to work.