Part 1: Your First Standalone Network

Owned by Thomas Watteyne
Last updated: Feb 06, 2018
2 min read

Goal

Build your very first network, understand how the LEDs indicate the state of the motes, issue simple CLI commands on the manager, understand the use of the netid.

The Setup

In this part, you will run your motes and manager as a completely standalone network. That is, you will neither connect your network to the cloud, nor connect your motes to other managers.

You will interact with both your manager and one of your motes over their "Command Line Interface" (CLI) by connecting them to your computer with a USB cable.

LEDs Activity During Join

Note well

Depending on the model of mote you have, you might need to close the LED_EN jumper, or press and hold the status button.


  • Switch on your manager. What LED is ON?

    Answer 33.1.1


  • Switch on your mote. What sequence of LED patterns do you see?

    Answer 33.1.2


Crash Course 33.1.1 (given by your instructor)

 What exactly is happening when the nodes are joining the network?

  • Switch on all your motes

Serial Ports Madness, Oh My!

  • Connect a USB cable between your computer and your manager. Open your Device Manager (if you're on Windows) and write down the serial ports that have appeared.
  • Write down the serial port numbers in the table below

Answer 33.1.3


manager
first serial port<your answer here>
second serial port<your answer here>
third serial port<your answer here>
fourth serial port<your answer here>

Crash Course 33.1.2 (given by your instructor)

Why 4 serial ports, and which one do I use?

CLI Commands on the Manager

  • Open the serial terminal program you installed (PuTTY, TeraTerm, ...) and connect to the third serial port of your manager, at 9600 baud.

What just happened?

You just connected to the "Command Line Interface" (CLI) of the manager! You can now type commands and read responses.

  • Type the following to log into the manager as a user:

    login user

List the motes

  • Type the following command (sm stands for "show motes"):

    sm

  • What is the list of motes in your network?

    Answer 33.1.4


  • Compare that to the labels on your motes. Make sure they correspond.

Show the manager's statistics

  • Type the following command:

    show stat

  • What is the reliability of your network?

    Answer 33.1.5


  • What is the stability of your network?

    Answer 33.1.6


  • What is the average latency of your network?

    Answer 33.1.7


Crash Course 33.1.3 (given by your instructor)

Definition of reliability, stability, latency.

Ping a mote

  • Type the following command:

    ping 2

  • How long did mote 2 take to respond? This is called the "Round Trip Time" (RTT) of your network.

    Answer 33.1.8


Retrieve the manager's netid

  • Type the following command (minfo stands for "mote information"):

    minfo

  • What is the netid of your manager?

    Answer 33.1.9


Crash Course 33.1.4 (given by your instructor)

What is the netid, and what is it used for?

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