SIMOC Live installation for the WBA - overthesun/simoc-sam GitHub Wiki

This page describes how to install SIMOC Live on the sensor array that you should have already received as a habitat participating in the WBA.

The installation should take less than half an hour (depending on your Internet speed and how fast your SD card and reader are).

Preparation

Before you start:

  • Determine if you have a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 or Raspberry Pi Zero:
    • Most of you should have a Raspberry Pi Zero 2. The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 has a black square SiP and a silver WiFi module, whereas the Raspberry Pi Zero only has a black square SiP. The model name is also written at the bottom.
  • Download the ISO image:
  • Download the Raspberry Pi Imager and install it

Image selection

After installing the Raspberry Pi Imager, open it and select:

  • Raspberry Pi Device: RASPBERRY PI ZERO 2 W (or RASPBERRY PI ZERO if you have that)
  • Operating System: select Use custom at the bottom of the list and then the image you downloaded (wba.iso)
  • Storage: select the SD card
    • The SD card should have at least 16GB of storage to ensure proper installation and operation of SIMOC Live.

Customization

After clicking on the NEXT button, select EDIT SETTINGS.

In the General tab:

  • Set hostname:
    • enter habnameN where habname should match the name of your habitat, be all lowercase without spaces or symbols, and end with a number (e.g. sam1, lunares1, mdrs1, etc.)
    • if you only have an array, use the number 1 (e.g. sam1), if you have multiple arrays use 1, 2, etc. (e.g. sam1, sam2, etc.)
  • Set username and password:
    • the username must be pi
    • you can pick any password
  • Configure wireless LAN:
    • enter the SSID and Password of the WiFi network in your hab
    • this will allow the sensor arrays to send data to our servers
  • Set locale settings:
    • enter the Time zone that matches your location
    • enter us as keyboard layout

Note: write down the hostname and password you used. You might need these later.

In the Services tab:

  • Check "Enable SSH"
  • Select "Use password authentication"

Note: enabling SSH with password authentication will allow remote access to the sensor array. If you leave the default password or if you pick a weak password, you risk exposing the sensor array and other machines in your network to attacks. Pick a strong password in the "Set username and password", and write it down. If needed, you might be asked to share it with the SIMOC team so that we can access the sensor array remotely to perform checks and maintenance. If you would rather use the public-key authentication and/or if you have any security-related concerns about the configuration, contact the SIMOC team.

Click on SAVE, and then YES.

Burning the image

When asked if you sure you want to continue, click on YES. This will erase all the contents of the SD card and burn the image you selected (wba.iso).

SD Card installation

Once it's done, you can click on CONTINUE and then remove the SD card.

Insert the SD Card in the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 and then power it on. If you did everything correctly, it will start collecting data and transmitting them to mission control.

You can now send an email to the SIMOC team with the hostname you used so that we can let you know if we are receiving your data and enable your dashboard.

If you have any issues or questions you can contact the SIMOC team via email or ask on the SIMOC Discord.

Troubleshooting

Pinging the array

  • Check if you can ping the sensor array. If you used e.g. sam1 as hostname, try: 
    ping sam1.local
  • If the ping fails, you can try to find the IP of the sensor array from your router administration page and ping that -- sometimes it takes a bit before the hostname is recognized.
  • If the sensor array doesn't show up in your router administration page, you might have entered the wrong SSID/password

Accessing the local SIMOC Live dashboard

  • If you can ping the sensor array, you can try to access the local dashboard by opening a browser on a PC connected to the same network and navigating to http://ip-of-the-array/ (use the IP that you saw when you pinged the sensor array).

Connecting to the array

  • If you can ping the array, you can try to SSH into it by doing: 
    ssh [email protected]
    or 
    ssh pi@ip-of-the-array
  • Once you are in, you can try the following command to see if there are any issues: 
    sam services-info
  • The command will report any issue and give you commands you can execute to inspect the logs.