Connecting multiple devices (wireless)

Archive
1

I have a project in mind for connecting multiple NETMF devices together over Ethernet/WiFi that allows either the PC or any of the devices with ad-hoc WiFi available to act as the main server issuing commands and controlling data flow.

My original idea was to open a UDP socket on a specific port and let command set logic determine the roll and identity of any newly joining device. For example if a device can act as host it will first send a message RequestHost and if another device is already acting as server it will respond with a deny command. Otherwise the device will assume the host role. Similar logic goes into assigning device IDs where the device sends a RequestJoin and the server responds with OK/Deny and the ID if appropriate.

A key issue here is I will have devices running 4.1 and other devices running 4.2. My rather simple attempt of bind to UDP port and start broadcasting a predefined device ID seems to fail miserably.

Socket.Send blows up on 4.1 and doing a SendTo with either the Remote or Local EndPoint doesn’t seem to get me anywhere either. 4.2 sends without exception but I can’t be sure it’s getting through at the moment bc the only device I have w/ WiFi is 4.1 (uses OLD WiFi so I can’t use 4.2 as it’s been removed from that version) and I only have a single Ethernet port available to plug a 4.2 device into.

Ideas, suggestions, wonderful working pieces of code?

2

The answer is:

UDP works just fine BUT in 4.1 you must do a RecieveFrom whereas in 4.2 you can get away with just doing a Receive. Same goes with SendTo/Send.

So basically, it works now.

Prepare yourself for a self-clustering network of NETMF devices!!!

3

Rock on, Skew! I would be psyched to help once you’ve got some alpha code ready.

4

NETMF processing farm :slight_smile:

5

Yup I’ve got several things planned. Each device can list off its capabilities to the others and I have some 60+ commands on the list so far including:

File IO operations
Running SBASIC (and returning results)
Shelling a NETMF application
Getting/Setting RAM data
Running SQLite (and returning records/results)
Managing service exposed pins (Read/Write/SetPulse)
Send/Broadcast message
Join/Leave

etc.

6

Eric,

I’ll definitely send you something this weekend. Best thing is to have more than one NETMF device with networking but you can also work it with a single device and one or more PCs. Here’s the checklist for this weekend’s release to you:

  1. First server capable (user settings per device) device to boot takes server status
  2. New server requests are refused (device requesting to be server will instead request to be client)
  3. Devices joining are assigned ID #s and given a list of all currently connected devices
  4. All currently connected devices get a message about new devices
  5. Servers can be forced to stop serving, a new device will take over automatically
  6. A client can be told to take over as server (client can refuse if not set to allow server mode)
  7. All File IO (send, receive, navigate, delete, create, rename, copy, move)
  8. DateTime can be set by any device
  9. Random numbers can be generated
  10. Seeds for random numbers can be assigned
  11. Devices can leave network
  12. Connected devices are notified of device leaving
  13. Can broadcast message to any or all connected device(s)

That’s the list, about half is already done; I may or may not have more come the weekend push.