Debugging

There are multiple options to debug your application. One option is the controller’s status page. It shows the state of all inputs and outputs, you could manipulate the outputs as well.

Another option is to send some debug messages to your serial console / terminal program. Therefore you need to change your code, but debug output is more effective.

Arduino Serial

The Arduino environment implements two simple functions to send some output using the serial console. Serial.print prints the argument, Serial.printlnprints the argument followed by a CR/LF. If you like to format your output, printf is much more feasible.

stdout & printf

printf sends stdout to the serial console. So you could just use printf commands to get some formatted output. Please keep in mind, the serial console is a buffered device. printf(“Hello world”); doesn’t show the string immediatly. The data is transferred using fflush( stdout ); or by writing a new line /n.

SWARM_LOPGx

The ftSwarm firmware has its own logging functions. You can also use these to debug your model. There are 5 debugging functions available:

• SWARM_LOG_INFO Writes an [INFO] message.
• SWARM_LOG_WARN Writes a [WARNING] message.
• SWARM_LOG_WAIT Writes a [WAITING] message and sets the LEDs to blue—waiting for hardware.
• SWARM_LOG_ERROR Writes an [ERROR] message and sets the LEDs to red—error.
• SWARM_LOG_FATAL Writes a [FATAL] message including the filename and the source code line. All motors are stopped and program execution is halted. The LEDs are set to pink.

SWARM_LOG_INFO(“SWARM_LOG_INFO works like printf. %d*%d=%s”, 6, 7, “forty-two”);

Output:
[INFO] SWARM_LOG_INFO works like printf. 6*7=forty-two

ESP_LOGx

You could use espressif’s logging macro ESP_LOGx. Using the Arduino IDE, you could set the logging level during compile time Tools\Core Debug Level. At PlatformIO you set the debug level in your projects ini-file: build_flags = -DCORE_DEBUG_LEVEL=5

#include <ftSwarm.h>
#include <esp_log.h>

void setup(  ) {

	Serial.begin( 115200 );
	ftSwarm.begin();
	
	int p1 = 17;
	int p2 = 42;
	
	// Serial
	Serial.print("p1=");   Serial.print(p1);
	Serial.print(", p2="); Serial.println(p2);
	
	// printf
	printf( "p1=%d p2=%s\n", p1, p2 );

	// debug message
	ESP_LOGD( "MYTAG", "p1=%d p2=%s", p1, p2 );
	
	// error message
	ESP_LOGE( "MYTAG", "unexpected behaviour" );

}

void loop() {}