05-27-2022, 05:03 PM
Sorry I don't have an update yet, I ended up touching lots this update so have a bunch of lose ends I need to tie up, I'll try to not do this again. Hoping to get a bunch done this weekend and have it ready next week.
One thing I've done is setup a VPS for the app. Right now I'm using my hosting for the website but a while ago I was in the control panel and they added a new web stat system so I checked it out and was surprised how many visitors the website was getting as my normal stats certainly didn't show all that, then it dawned on me it's from the auto update check as that pings the website every couple hours for each user. That's probably not good for my website so it'll start checking the VPS instead. I'm also very interested to know how many people are using the app so I'm adding a one time registration as it's easy now with the VPS. After registration a configuration file on the Pi will have a registration code that it'll look for to see if it's registered, this will be based off the Pi serial number. I'm doing it like this so it doesn't need to connect to the server every time it starts up, only for registration. I'll also add a button on the settings page "I'm not using app anymore" so I might know if someone gave up. This will help tell me how stable or unstable the program is, right now I don't know how many have tried it or who has abandoned it and why. Based on the hits to the website I think quite a few are using it but it's impossible to know so this will be very valuable info.
What got me down the VPS path though was I've always wanted to have a method for users to explore the app before buying. I think if I can do a good job (still lots to go first) people will log in and say ship me one, at least some might lol. I was thinking of setting up a Pi for people to access but it sounds like that's not a good idea using my personal internet connection so it would require a 2nd internet but obviously that's not feasible. Then I started thinking if the app runs on Linux why wouldn't it run on any Linux system other than a Pi so as the VPS only costs $1 a month which is amazing I order one to see what would happen. I installed Debian 11 ran the install script for the app and low and behold it works. Now anyone can go to a subdomain of robo-tank.ca and have secure access. :)
This also means the app should run on any Raspberry Pi clone such as the Banana Pi which would be awesome, I spent some time looking up alternative boards as the Pi shortage isn't going away any time soon and there's a lot of them, I think I came up with 4 other boards that have the same pinout and form factor so I expect they will plug into the controller and work just as well, once the app is closer to ready I'll get some to test out.
So yeah I'm quiet but things are slowly happening, I know a lot of above has nothing to do with feature set but it's all important on my side. Now that's it's possible outsiders can have access and if I find people are actually running it these will push me even more to get it done.
One thing I've done is setup a VPS for the app. Right now I'm using my hosting for the website but a while ago I was in the control panel and they added a new web stat system so I checked it out and was surprised how many visitors the website was getting as my normal stats certainly didn't show all that, then it dawned on me it's from the auto update check as that pings the website every couple hours for each user. That's probably not good for my website so it'll start checking the VPS instead. I'm also very interested to know how many people are using the app so I'm adding a one time registration as it's easy now with the VPS. After registration a configuration file on the Pi will have a registration code that it'll look for to see if it's registered, this will be based off the Pi serial number. I'm doing it like this so it doesn't need to connect to the server every time it starts up, only for registration. I'll also add a button on the settings page "I'm not using app anymore" so I might know if someone gave up. This will help tell me how stable or unstable the program is, right now I don't know how many have tried it or who has abandoned it and why. Based on the hits to the website I think quite a few are using it but it's impossible to know so this will be very valuable info.
What got me down the VPS path though was I've always wanted to have a method for users to explore the app before buying. I think if I can do a good job (still lots to go first) people will log in and say ship me one, at least some might lol. I was thinking of setting up a Pi for people to access but it sounds like that's not a good idea using my personal internet connection so it would require a 2nd internet but obviously that's not feasible. Then I started thinking if the app runs on Linux why wouldn't it run on any Linux system other than a Pi so as the VPS only costs $1 a month which is amazing I order one to see what would happen. I installed Debian 11 ran the install script for the app and low and behold it works. Now anyone can go to a subdomain of robo-tank.ca and have secure access. :)
This also means the app should run on any Raspberry Pi clone such as the Banana Pi which would be awesome, I spent some time looking up alternative boards as the Pi shortage isn't going away any time soon and there's a lot of them, I think I came up with 4 other boards that have the same pinout and form factor so I expect they will plug into the controller and work just as well, once the app is closer to ready I'll get some to test out.
So yeah I'm quiet but things are slowly happening, I know a lot of above has nothing to do with feature set but it's all important on my side. Now that's it's possible outsiders can have access and if I find people are actually running it these will push me even more to get it done.
