Upgrade 3.7 to 4

Peer support for Air Manager desktop users

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F8UPC
Posts: 66
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2020 12:09 am

Upgrade 3.7 to 4

#1 Post by F8UPC »

Hello,
Today I received the update offer for AM v4.
I am currently in 3.7beta under GNU/Linux
I would like to know how the update is going exactly.

My dashboard contains a lot of connections with an Arduino.
For each instrument I had to set the Arduino, the usb channel, the Pin.
That's over 200 settings in all.

When saving via Creat / Edit a panel made in the left Panel tab, if we restore it, we lose all this information.
We can export, import, then recreate in Panel from that of Creat / Edit as shown in the video here:
https://siminnovations.com/forums/viewt ... f=7&t=4045
But we lose all connection information.
Is no way for me to do all that again for the moment.

I don't really need the v4 update because it won't bring me much more, especially since I have to pay again (30 €).
Nonetheless, I'm ready to make the effort, if only to help development, but only if there is a real update solution, without tinkering.

So I come back to my question: how exactly does the upgrade go under GNU / Linux?
Are all the program files overwritten and we keep the settings? How ?
Can we go back in the event of a problem?

Thank you in advance for the answer
Carl

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Corjan
Posts: 2936
Joined: Thu Nov 19, 2015 9:04 am

Re: Upgrade 3.7 to 4

#2 Post by Corjan »

Hi,


All user data is stored by Air Manager in this folder:
~/Air Manager/
~/Air Manager BETA/

Depending if you are running the official or BETA version.

When updating from AM 3.7 BETA to AM 4.0 official, you can simply copy the contents of those folders.
Air Manager is backwards compatible, meaning that newer versions of Air Manager can handle user data of older versions.

I would recommend making a backup of the folder before hand, just in case.
But like you said, there migth not be a need to update. We will keep supporting AM 3.7, but note that new instruments are only added to AM 4.0 from this point.


Corjan

F8UPC
Posts: 66
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2020 12:09 am

Re: Upgrade 3.7 to 4

#3 Post by F8UPC »

Thank you for that answer.
I'm using 3.7 (Beta 28)

You tell me to just copy the contents of these folders.
Can you please give me a precise procedure?

I currently have two files:
- Air Manager 3_7
- Air Manager BETA

What does the update contain, how many files?

From there, do I have to put my folders aside, install the new version and copy the contents of the old folders into them?
It would seem odd to me because the program files probably don't need to be kept.

Or I overwrite my two folders with the new ones, but suddenly I'll keep the folder names "3_7" or "BETA".

So if you can explain something clear and detailed step by step, that would probably be useful to other users like me as well.

thanks in advance
Carl

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Ralph
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Re: Upgrade 3.7 to 4

#4 Post by Ralph »

You're talking about the beta and the release version, you cannot combine those. So the first question is: what is your goal?

F8UPC
Posts: 66
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2020 12:09 am

Re: Upgrade 3.7 to 4

#5 Post by F8UPC »

My goal is simple.
I am using version 3.7 (Beta 28) because 3.6 did not work under GNU / Linux (Curl_openssl problem). You therefore suggested that I switch to 3.7.
I would like to migrate to version 4 with a procedure allowing me to keep all the settings of my panel as indicated in my previous post.

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Sling
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Re: Upgrade 3.7 to 4

#6 Post by Sling »

First up I did not know that 3.7 still had a BETA. Is this correct?

Secondly may I suggest a longer term solution for this because it will happen again when the next update comes. If you have custom hardware that is only for your use don’t used named hardware but directly code the hardware id’s. Doing it this way means you can import and export as you please and all the settings are fixed in code.

I don’t recommend this when sharing an instrument with the community that has built in hardware support. For this application named hardware is much better because it enables any user to select there own board and pins without delving into the code.

Tony

F8UPC
Posts: 66
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2020 12:09 am

Re: Upgrade 3.7 to 4

#7 Post by F8UPC »

When I start AM, I can see on top "Air Manager - Usage Personnel 3.7 (BETA 28)
so I suppose it's the version in use.

About your longer term solution it's THE idea !
I didn't kwnow I can do that.

If I understand well, for exemple in this control I have to check "Arduino Mega", "Canal B" and "Pin D35" :

Image

Tell me if I'm good :
- I import my panel from Panel in Creat/Edit
- I add the code of each instrument with the informations (Arduino, Canal, Pin)
- I import the panel updated again from Creat/Edit to Panel in a new Panel

At this point in the new panel, the combo boxes will be filled as in the picture above or it will works with empty boxes ?

I build my panel 2 years ago, the same for the AM code. I need to I need to get back to it seriously.
Do you have an example somewhere of custom hardware code ?

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Corjan
Posts: 2936
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Re: Upgrade 3.7 to 4

#8 Post by Corjan »

Hi,


You don't have to do anything in Air Manager in order to migrate to AM 4.0.

Like I said before, copy the contents of your '~/Air Manager BETA' folder into '~/Air Manager' folder.
Make sure that Air Manager is not running. If you start Air Manager 4.0 it should have all your settings/panels/instruments the way you had them in your current version.


Corjan

F8UPC
Posts: 66
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2020 12:09 am

Re: Upgrade 3.7 to 4

#9 Post by F8UPC »

Thanks Corjan
I bought version 4 and updated as you told me everything is working fine.
I am still interested in an answer to my previous message in order to be able to make a backup of my panel which would embed all the settings of the arduino.

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Sling
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Re: Upgrade 3.7 to 4

#10 Post by Sling »

F8UPC wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 2:01 pm About your longer term solution it's THE idea !
I didn't know I can do that.
Yes. Please see the wiki API pages for details.

F8UPC wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 2:01 pm Tell me if I'm good :
- I import my panel from Panel in Creat/Edit
- I add the code of each instrument with the informations (Arduino, Canal, Pin)
- I import the panel updated again from Creat/Edit to Panel in a new Panel

At this point in the new panel, the combo boxes will be filled as in the picture above or it will works with empty boxes ?

No, not quite. You can make the modifications to the instrument code before or after you do the import. It really does not matter. See next answer for how to do it.
You will not get any boxes to fill in because the hardware allocation is already done in the code.


F8UPC wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 2:01 pm Do you have an example somewhere of custom hardware code ?

Everywhere in your code where you use this format to specify your hardware.

Code: Select all

--Create a new 3 position switch
hw_switch_add("wiper", 3, switch_callback)
You replace it with this format. Refer to the wiki for the details for each hardware type but they are all pretty similar.

Code: Select all

--Bind to Arduino UNO, channel A, Pins 7, 8 and 9
hw_switch_add("ARDUINO_UNO_A_D7", "ARDUINO_UNO_A_D8", "ARDUINO_UNO_A_D9", switch_callback)

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