Skip to content

80. deployment: android server

Jump to bottom
Marco Sillano edited this page Jun 7, 2023 · 1 revision

deployment: android server

In production, the tuyaDEAMON must run in a dedicated HW server 24/7.

You can choose between many options.

I like, for my dedicated servers that work 24/7, to use a Tv Box. Why? They are small, ready to use, with a good case, and require little power (5V, 2A) easily upgradable to UPS. For tuyaDAEMON I used the rooted model H96 MAX 3318 (Android 10.0 Smart TV Box Rockchip RK3318 4GB RAM 32GB ROM BT4.0 USB3.0 2.4G 5G Dual WIFI 3D 4K HDR Media Player). For less than USD 35, you get the model 4GB/32GB, what more? Maybe you wanna use a Raspberry? You can, we live in a free world.

H96-MAX

In setup, I use a mouse and keyboard via USB dongle, then I control it from my main PC.

The required SW:

Continue the installation as usual..

Of course, I use my main Windows PC as a development environment. Updating the remote is easy: I open 2 node-red windows on the screen (local and remote) and export the flows to the clipboard from the PC then import them on the server.

2022 update

I found myself in the position of needing another 24/7 TuyaDAEMON server for the beach house, for a typically domotic application: control of energy consumption and management of solar panels, management of air conditioners, and garden watering. The goal is to get a professional look, as I will use the TV screen in the living room, with small applications on the phone for the most frequent commands. Graphs and statistics via a cloud or via WEB server with dynamic DSN no_ip. The tuyaDAEMON autostart is mandatory for this server.

The starting HW is an X88 PRO Android 11, 4GB RAM 32GB ROM with a mini keyboard included (€ 43.99).

First of all I installed (download the APK file, then open the FileBrowse APP, and go to Download dir and click and install the APK file):

a) MacroDroid from APKpure, to make the start automatic and for the management of shortcuts.

b) Termux 118 (Android 7+) from f-droid. The next 119 version should be compatible from Android 5+. For more info see Termux-installazione.

c) ftpd installed inside Termux. Using the instructions I installed the FTP as service. In short:

          pkg update
          pkg upgrade
          pkg install busybox termux-services   
            - restart (Android 'Settings', then 'Device preference', then 'About', then 'Reboot').
            - fire Termux
          sv-enable ftpd
          sv up ftpd

Note on the keyboard: The small keyboard works well, except for some keys (CR, '/', '-' etc.) in some contexts. Instead of trying to fix it, I used a mix of HW keyboard and the on-screen virtual keyboard, smooth and quick enough to accomplish the required task.

SFPT: You can install also a safer SFTP, I don't install it because I use FTP only in the development phase.

Test with an FTP client at port: 8021, name: root, password: none, dir: /data/data/com.termux (on Windows I use WinSCP).

You can get access to internal storage (see here) and you can remotely edit any Termux file, setup a WEB application, create scripts, etc. as if everything were local. Note for Windows users: take care to use the 'Unix' line terminator (only 'LF') when you edit remote script files, else you get garbled messages 'File not found' etc... I use, on Windows, WinSCP + external editor Notepad++.

To enable Shared and External storage (sdcard, download, etc...), do:

          termux-setup-storage

Verify that you can access shared storage ls ~/storage/shared. If the test fails, see the workaround for Android 11 here.

d) utils required by LAMP installation:

          pkg install git bc  ncurses-utils

e) LAMP The complete instructions are here. In short:

          git clone https://github.com/mayTermux/lampTermux
          cd lampTermux
          ./install.sh

This will install:

         - Apache     v. 8.1          <top-box-IP>:8080
         - MariaDB    v. 2:10.9       <top-box-IP>:3306
         - PHP        v. 8.1
         - PHPMyAdmin v. 5.1.3        <top-box-IP>:8080\phpmyadmin

and the utility lamp. Run lamp to enable the services.

Follow the instructions to activate the first user with a password (e.g. 'root'/'root', as required by PHPMyAdmin) in MariaDB (after more users can be managed with PHPMyAdmin). In short:

            mysql -u $(whoami)  
               // try also:  mysql -u root
            MariaDB [(none)]> use mysql;
            MariaDB [(mysql)]> set password for 'root'@'localhost' = password('root');
            MariaDB [(mysql)]> exit;

Verify that everything is working: I had to edit the phpmyadmin/config.inc.ph file, see the Troubleshooting.

f) node-red: before installation, the following packages are suggested:

            pkg install clang make python pkg-config

The instruction to install node-red on Android can be found in the node-red site. In summary:

             pkg install coreutils nano nodejs
             npm i -g --unsafe-perm node-red
             node-red -p:<port>

g) I added also a little script (using nano) in ~/ (aka /data/data/com.termux/files/home): gored.sh, only one line

             #!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/sh
             node-red -p:2022

and I made the file executable: I use this to run node-red from terminal

             chmod 700 gored.sh
             ./gored.sh

h) Autostart

h.1) At device boot, to start Termux: I make a macro ('gotermux') in MacroDroid:

             Trigger: 'Device Boot'
             Actions:
                     - Wait for 1 second
                     - Launch Termux

h.2) The services ftpd, httpd, mysqld, if enabled, will start automatically.

h.3) To start node-red:

  • I created a file ~/.profile that contains one line (see here):

            termux-wake-lock

  • I created a file ~/.bashrc (see here):

           #!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/sh
       node-red  -p 2022

h.4) More (optional):

  • PAW Server from paw-android.fun2code.de, a web server with extensions for Android ... (see also termux-API): it might be useful.

  • A simple Android launcher (Apex from APKpure) to manage the overall look and feel in production.

  • A backup can be done via FTP, or see here: this is my backup.sh file (very slow):

          #!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/sh
      tar -czfv ~/storage/dcim/termux-backup.tar.gz -C /data/data/com.termux/files ./home ./usr

and this is restore.sh:

         #!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/sh
         tar -xzf  ~/storage/dcim/termux-backup.tar.gz -C /data/data/com.termux/files --recursive-unlink --preserve-permissions

TuyaDEAMON installation

Then I opened, on the development PC, two node-red windows: one local, the other connected to the Android server (in my case: http://192.168.100.100:2022):

  1. Looking at the local list of installed nodes (manage palette|Nodes) I installed the same nodes in node-red on Android (manage palette|Install). Here my actual list for the full tuyaDAEMON:

          node-red-contrib-aedes
      node-red-contrib-config      
      node-red-contrib-jsontimer   
      node-red-contrib-looptimer-advanced
      node-red-contrib-play-audio
      node-red-contrib-rtl_433
      node-red-contrib-timerswitch
      node-red-contrib-tuya-smart-device
      node-red-contrib-ui-led
      node-red-dashboard
      node-red-node-base64
      node-red-node-mysql
      node-red-node-serialport (*)

(*) note: Due to an issue in node-serialport this node doesn't work in Android, only in Windows and Linux. See also node-serialport on Termux (Linux on Android).

  1. Locally I opened the 'CORE' flow, then I did the Export|current flow|Copy to clipboard command.
  2. In node-red on Android I used Import Nodes|Paste flow json, executed paste, and chose new flow.

Last I used the Deploy command and tuyaDAEMON started working on the Android server. Driven by the error messages I had to:

  1. Update GLOBAL.remotemap (Node '* Global CORE config') with the URLs of the new server.
  2. Change GLOBAL.instance_name to the new name.
  3. Update name/password for access to MariaDB (values are not copied from local by node-red for security) in 'MySQLdatabase configuration nodes'.
  4. Used a sql file and PHPMyAdmin to create the required DataBase tables.

Now I can continue the custom configuration of the tuyaDEAMON server by eliminating the devices that are not needed in the new server, updating alldevices, and copying other modules (core_TRIGGER, core_MQTT...).

Enjoy.

devices

Watchdog02 (custom)

Clone this wiki locally