IOTP arduino

[pbmthomas]

I'll start by saying that I'm a total noob when it comes to Arduino.

I've just built the iotp (arduino version) and have compiled and uploaded the Gutenbird sketch. I've got a problem in that it never prints out a tweet even when I know that the watched source has been tweeting!

Watching the serial output all seems fine:
"Initializing Ethernet...OK
Polling time server...OK
Current time: 1390597803
Last ID: 1
Connecting to server...OK
Issuing HTTP request...OK
Awaiting results (if any)...OK
Processing results...
Done.
Pausing..."

The LED light flashes approptiated. The printer prints its test page when both buttons are pressed. I've also run the printer test sketch and got a printout of all the different fonts with bar code and adafruit logo.

I've set up the twitter side of things exactly as in the tutorial, and double checked that my alterations to the Gutenbird programme are fine.

So, all of the individual bits seem to work, but it's not actually giving me any tweets!

Anyone able to help?

[pburgess]

Twitter threw us for a loop just a few days ago. They've changed their system to require SSL (secure sockets) on all transactions, something that's way beyond the scope of what a regular Arduino can handle.

We don't have a workaround for this yet. It might require using a proxy service. Or switching to an Arduino Yun. Or something else. We don't have a specific plan of attack nor an ETA yet.

This doesn't affect the Raspberry Pi version, which handles SSL just fine.

[pbmthomas]

Ah, I see.

It looks like this change was announced 6 weeks ago but you're still selling the printer with this as a highlighted use in the tutorial linked to the product page.

Perhaps you should change this and update the product info with a clear disclaimer to avoid others from feeling mislead into purchasing this product (like I do).

Had you done so when the change was announced, I'd have bought the pi version!

[uktechguy]

We don't have a workaround for this yet. It might require using a proxy service. Or switching to an Arduino Yun. Or something else. We don't have a specific plan of attack nor an ETA yet.

Mine worked perfectly until the change and is now pretty useless for the intended task. Is it really beyond the power of an Arduino to sort out the SSL problem? I assume this is the source of the problem as imposed by Twitter - https://dev.twitter.com/discussions/24239

I agree with pbmthomas that you should have some sort of clear warning to prospective purchasers. As it currently stands, the product does not do what it is intended to do.

I realise that this is not the fault of Adafruit but really feel that there should be more effort made to get it working on the Arduino without recourse to a proxy or changing to a Yun - if it really is not possible, then the product should not be advertised/sold in its current form.

Swapping the Ethernet arduino for a Yun might be a good way forward as it would also give the option of wireless connectivity. I have not seen a standlone Yun SSL solution for Twitter - only one using Temboo as a proxy at https://www.temboo.com/arduino/read-a-tweet

It seems from another topic in this forum that things are not perfect for Raspberry pi users either at the moment.

Hope to hear more soon!

[pbmthomas]

Some reasonably regular updates as to progress getting around this would be appreciated.

If twitter is impossible on the uno, then perhaps an alternative program could be provided? One that works from an email account or an rss feed? As I'd planned to organise the twitter feed with IFTTT anyway, either of these solutions would work for me. The available alternative, IOT assistant, relies on heroku which is a level of complexity beyond that which I'm keen on.

Anyway, looking forward to being able to do something with it. At the moment it's a pretty box with a pleasantly fluctuating led.

[uktechguy]

The available alternative, IOT assistant, relies on heroku which is a level of complexity beyond that which I'm keen on.

Ooohh - not seen that before - think I'll give it a go and see what happens - looks a steep learning curve for someone (like me) who has not tried it before but nothing ventured - nothing gained!

[pbmthomas]

Let me know how you get on. I spent a few hours trying to get it running but encountered endless heroku/git errors so I gave up. I don't think it can be used as a live twitter printer either.

[adafruit]

Hi thanks for the note, we're not active Twitter developers (it worked until now!) so didn't notice that they switched to SSL-only until they rolled out the permanent change and you posted about it.

If the IoTP arduino is useless to you now, email support@adafruit for a refund. There are tons of other projects people have built with essentially the same hardware mix (poetry printers, maze generators, fortune cookies, funny receipts are among some of the once that might be found via google) so you may be able to recycle it We hope to have a clear-text twitter seach gateway at some point to help solve this problem for microcontroller users but there's no ETA and we haven't started it yet! We've discontinued the item until then.

[heidiangove]

Hi there,

I hadn't connected my IOTP for a few months and tried to boot her up last night with no joy. I've tried upgrading the sketch as per the updated adafruit instructions. All I get is the previously working unit flashing the green LED power button. The serial monitor can connect via http but the monitor outputs "pause" and the twitter printer doesn't output data.

I'm using an arduino uno and an ethernet shield. I assume it's useless because of the above thread info from adafruit. Can someone from adafruit confirm that UNO's with a shield still won't work with a twitter printer?

[pburgess]

Confirmed. The Arduino-based IotP cannot interoperate with the current Twitter API. No software workaround is possible within the constraints of the Arduino alone.

[Deeko]

Just a heads up to anyone interested. I have the original source from here: https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-Tweet-Receipt working with a few changes. I substituted the Twitter api for Tweetledee library http://chrissimpkins.github.io/tweetledee/ which you host and returns json similarly formatted to Twitter, it also handles all the oauth stuff so you can remove all the sha1 code. A few things to note: there is no since_id parameter in the library so you will need to do your own tweet id (lastId) checking, and a few tweaks to the json parsing.

Delighted I got this little printer to work in the end!

Deeko

[uktechguy]

Do you have a complete sketch available with the adjustments/tweaks (less your Twitter auth of course!)

I was just about to remove the printer from my home office as it has not worked this year despite some attempts using third party sites to handle OAUTH so I gave up.

Very please to hear that there is some light on the horizon!

[Deeko]

Of course, here it is: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/101 ... rd_mod.zip. Don't worry about the Twitter auth as those details are actually stored in the Tweetledee library on the server. This is just my first quick hack at it (first time tinkering with C), but it works for pulling and printing one tweet per api call.

Let me know how you get on!

cheers
Deeko

[uktechguy]

Let me know how you get on!

Deeko

Excellent - I will - Many thanks.