Sufficient IoT Hub Part 1: Make a Greedy Snake Game

Introduction

The Sufficient IoT Hub is a Linux system-in-package with a dual-core 64-bit ARM A7 processor running at 1GHz and 128MB of DDR3. This is an IoT-only device that includes LoRa, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. We created a dedicated Sufficient IoT OS for it (Linux 5.4.61 Kernel, Debian 10), which also includes a CLI application and web UI to operate onboard resources directly. So that even if the user has no programming experience, they can efficiently operate PWM, I2C, SPI, LoRa, and other protocols to develop whatever they desire.

I will try to do a series of projects to comprehensively explain its functions. This is the first project to demonstrate how to get started by running the Snake game on the RGB panel.

Quick Start

By following the Quick Start Document. Download the newest Sufficient IoT Hub TF card image.

Format TF card via SD Card Formatter.

Use the Disk Imager tool to burn the image into your TF card (TF card needs at least 2G capacity, an 8G TF card is recommended).

Take the SD card you just burned and insert it into the Sufficient IoT Hub. Refer to the Sufficient IoT Hub pin map, and connect UART to the computer via a USB-UART Bridge.

Open a serial port monitor on your computer.

For Mac, you can use the screen mbed screen tools:

screen /dev/cu.usbserial-xxx 115200

For Windows, Putty is highly recommended.

Now, the preparation work has been completed. If everything is normal, you can see the system startup information on the serial port monitor.

Configuration

Wi-Fi

Set Wi-Fi automatic connection during each bootup.

wpa_passphrase SSID Password > /etc/wpa_supplicant/user_wifi.conf

reboot

Ethernet

Use this command to enable the ethernet connection.

udhcpc -i eth0

SSH

The Sufficient IoT OS already has SSH installed and allows root login. Default login password is 123456

Running the Greedy Snake Game

RGB Panel

The RGB panel is a specially designed extension board for Sufficient IoT Hub. It included 8 * 8 SK6812 RGB matrix, 4 Grove sockets, and wired some important pins. We can use it to do some interesting things.

The source code of greedy snake is written in C language and has been uploaded to GitHub. This project also can be an example to know how software in the operating system interacts with hardware.

git clone https://github.com/HelTecAutomation/Sufficient-IoT-Joy.git
cd Sufficient-IoT-Joy/snake
make clean && make

After the compilation is completed, an executable file main will be generated. Use the following instructions to execute it. Control the snake via 'W', 'A', 'S', and 'D'.

./main

Enjoy.