Antenna WiFi Indicator Stop/Start, syslog printing every 10s?

GoPiGo
1

Is the GoPiGo3 Antenna Wifi Indicator stopping, starting, and printing in the syslog every 10 seconds?

Aug  9 06:26:30 Carl systemd[1]: Started Antenna Wifi Indicator.
Aug  9 06:26:30 Carl systemd[1]: Stopped Antenna Wifi Indicator.
Aug  9 06:26:30 Carl systemd[1]: antenna_wifi.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Aug  9 06:26:20 Carl bash[14650]: WIFI6586
Aug  9 06:26:20 Carl systemd[1]: Started Antenna Wifi Indicator.
Aug  9 06:26:20 Carl systemd[1]: Stopped Antenna Wifi Indicator.
Aug  9 06:26:20 Carl systemd[1]: antenna_wifi.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Aug  9 06:26:10 Carl bash[14628]: WIFI6586
Aug  9 06:26:10 Carl systemd[1]: Started Antenna Wifi Indicator.
Aug  9 06:26:10 Carl systemd[1]: Stopped Antenna Wifi Indicator.
Aug  9 06:26:10 Carl systemd[1]: antenna_wifi.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Aug  9 06:26:00 Carl bash[14605]: WIFI6586
Aug  9 06:26:00 Carl systemd[1]: Started Antenna Wifi Indicator.
Aug  9 06:26:00 Carl systemd[1]: Stopped Antenna Wifi Indicator.
Aug  9 06:26:00 Carl systemd[1]: antenna_wifi.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Aug  9 06:25:49 Carl bash[14583]: WIFI6586
2

Pretty much. It checks every 10 seconds whether it’s still connected to wifi.
That’s the purpose of the antenna, to give feedback on the connection status.

1 Like
3

Thanks.

I learned a lot about the GoPiGo3, RaspianForRobots/Linux services and system logs from this investigation:

== To see the Antenna WiFi Indicator executions that turn the light on if WiFi is active:

tac /var/log/syslog | less

Aug  9 06:26:30 Carl systemd[1]: Started Antenna Wifi Indicator.

== To see the status of the service:

sudo systemctl status antenna_wifi:
â—Ź antenna_wifi.service - Antenna Wifi Indicator
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/antenna_wifi.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: activating (auto-restart) since Sat 2019-08-10 15:07:57 EDT; 8s ago
  Process: 14157 ExecStart=/bin/bash /home/pi/Dexter/GoPiGo3/Install/antenna_wifi.sh (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 14157 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

where it is: /home/pi/Dexter/GoPiGo3/Install/antenna_wifi.service

what it does: runs /home/pi/Dexter/GoPiGo3/Install/antenna_wifi.sh every 10s

  • which tests if WiFi connected, runs this to light LED:
    • python -c “import gopigo3;GPG=gopigo3.GoPiGo3();GPG.set_led(GPG.LED_WIFI,15,3,0)”

=====

WARNING - (to any following this thread): PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!

== To stop wifi antenna indicator service (to control the LED):

sudo systemctl stop antenna_wifi

== To turn the LED off:
(To conserve up to 15mA at 9.6v which is up to 15 minutes of idle “playtime”)

python -c “import gopigo3;GPG=gopigo3.GoPiGo3();GPG.set_led(GPG.LED_WIFI,0,0,0)”

== To turn the LED on to bright white (with the service stopped):
python -c “import gopigo3;GPG=gopigo3.GoPiGo3();GPG.set_led(GPG.LED_WIFI,255,255,255)”

== To restart the wifi indicator service again:
sudo systemctl start antenna_wifi

Example application: For a robot in a dark room, wanting to use OpenCV with the standard PiCamera (no illuminators) , the robot can

  • stop the antenna_wifi service,
  • turn on both Eyes and the WIFI_LED to bright white,
  • take a capture,
  • then turn off the EYES and
  • restart the antenna_wifi service.
4

you’re spot on! Good detective work!

1 Like