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  1. Using Prosody with a HTTP Reverse Proxy

    It's been a while since I first installed prosody on Agayon.be. I use it to experiments with my bots, to keep contact with the XMPP community and discover new cool stuffs to do. Recently I struggled a bit because I wanted to hide the prosody small HTTP server behind my Proxy. For various reasons, I still use Apache 2.4 and I could not get it to work with prosody. I mostly use the HTTP server for bosh authentication with Converse.js and with the http_upload module. When the 5281 port was accessible and Prosody handled the requests directly on the internet it worked well. But when I followed the documentation to use a proxy, it stopped working. All my PUT requests got a 404 error. I tested my setup with Slixmpp and the http_upload example.

    Here is my configuration before the fix:

    Prosody

    Main config

    [...]
    https_ports = { 5281 }
    https_interfaces = {  "127.0.0.1", "::1" }
    trusted_proxies = { "127.0.0.1", "::1"}
    [...]
    

    VirtualHost

    [...]
    Component "upload.example.com" "http_upload"
           http_max_content_size = 10485760
           http_external_url = "https://upload.example.com/"
    [...]
    

    Apache VirtualHost

    [...]
    ProxyPass / http://localhost:5280/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:5280/
    [...]
    

    Logs

    Client

    [...]
    Client:
    DEBUG    SEND: <iq id="23efd54cf4b2487386852e800f2ea411" to="upload.example.com" type="get"><request xmlns="urn:xmpp:http:upload:0" filename="robot.png" size="118037" content-type="image/png" /></iq>
    DEBUG    RECV: <iq type="result" id="23efd54cf4b2487386852e800f2ea411" from="upload.example.com" to="test@example.com/test"><slot xmlns="urn:xmpp:http:upload:0"><get url="https://upload.example.com/upload/au5rOiUMomJbDI3q/robot.png" /><put url="https://upload.example.com/upload/au5rOiUMomJbDI3q/robot.png" /></slot></iq>
    ERROR    Could not upload file: 404 (<!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>404 Not Found</title>
    example.com
    [...]
    

    Server

    [...]
    Mar 21 10:02:42 c2s5586c8e88960 debug   Received[c2s]: <iq id='23efd54cf4b2487386852e800f2ea411' type='get' to='upload.example.com'>
    Mar 21 10:02:42 c2s5586c8e88960 debug   Given upload slot "au5rOiUMomJbDI3q/robot.png"
    Mar 21 10:02:42 c2s5586c8e88960 debug   Sending[c2s]: <iq type='result' id='23efd54cf4b2487386852e800f2ea411' from='upload.example.com' to='memo@agayon.be/test'>
    Mar 21 10:02:42 socket  debug   server.lua: accepted new client connection from ::1:49436 to 5280
    Mar 21 10:02:42 http.server debug   Firing event: PUT /upload/au5rOiUMomJbDI3q/robot.png
    Mar 21 10:02:42 http.server debug   Firing event: PUT localhost/upload/au5rOiUMomJbDI3q/robot.png
    

    What is important to see is the second event:

    PUT localhost/upload/au5rOiUMomJbDI3q/robot.png
    

    on a working configuration it is

    PUT upload.example.com/upload/au5rOiUMomJbDI3q/robot.png
    

    The fix

    After a small discussion with Link Mauve from JabberFr, he suggested me to use setup the proxy to tell him to force its headers:

    Apache

        [...]
        RequestHeader set Host "upload.example.com"
        ProxyPreserveHost On
        ProxyPass / http://localhost:5280/
        ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:5280/
        [...]
    

    Nginx

    [...]
    proxy_set_header Host "upload.example.com";
    [...]
    

    Two small lines and now it is working as expected :-).

    Links

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  2. New Converse plugin: Verify HTTP requests with XMPP

    Converse is a JavaScript XMPP client that can be run in a web browser. Unfortunately, it does not support the XMPP extension (XEP) that allows to verify HTTP Requests via XMPP (XMPP): XEP-0070. So I decided to code a small plugin to provide this functionality.

    This article follows the serie about this XEP:

    screenshot

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  3. The rise of the machine

    Hurrah !

    After months of work on the Agayon, I can present some significant improvements ! This article is a little bit longer than the previous ones but it worth the read!

    Software updates !

    During the past few weeks, the code base of the Agayon has been updated. I forked my own project, r1d2 to update it. The new repository is named r1d3. I hesitated a long time before forking it. As the hardware base of the Agayon completely changed, I preferred to change the code name to maintain coherence between hardware and software.

    The update aims to provide

    • Python 3 support only
    • OpenCV 4 support for
      • Face recognition
      • Sign tracking
      • Face/hand detection and tracking
    • Better XMPP ad hoc support
    • I2C support
    • Hardware switches support.

    XMPP Ad hoc commands

    As I made tests with SLeekXMPP to control the bot, I observed some problems with Gajim. The Ad-Hoc extension allows one to send commands to an XMPP bot. R1D3 displays the following menus and submenus (in french):

    menu1 menu2 menu3

    When I try to use the "execute" button, SleekXMPP start a new session and Gajim complains that the session identifier has changed. I reported the problem to SleekXMPP and its fork SliXMPP. The XMPP community is great and Maxime Buquet responded quickly. To quote him, there are two problems (see the bug report for the whole explanations):

    • Slixmpp shouldn't assume execute is the start of a command
    • I don't see a place in the XEP that says that next or execute can be equivalent to complete. What to do?

    He sent an email on the "Standards" mailing list and some responses followed. It seems difficult to fix the protocol at the moment without breaking compatibility. Maxime proposed a patch to fix Slixmpp and it should work on SleekXMPP. For now, I just don't use the "Execute" button as "Forward" does the job. The depreciation of the "Execute action" is actually discussed.

    New hardware !

    The Agayon has now 8 LEDs and 6 switches. They are placed on a control panel.

    The LEDs aim to provide status information

    • 5V power (orange)
    • Pi powered up (green)
    • I2C on the Arduino (green)
    • I2C + serial on the Pi (green)
    • Serial communication (green, Arduino)
    • Video capture (red)
    • Internet connection (blue)
    • LIDAR mapping (red)

    The switches aim to provide

    • Power on (12V) (Ebay)
    • Start R1D3 (MCHobby)
    • On/Off Demo mode (Arduino) (Ebay)
    • On/Off Power down (Pi) (Ebay
    • Emergency stop (cut Arduino power) (Ebay)
    • Movie recording (Pi)

    In addition, the following hardware are also mounted to provide information and input/output. I2C addresses are displayed (0Xxx)

    The documentation of the SHT71 explains why the sensor has no I2C adress.

    The serial interface of the SHT7x is optimized for sensor readout and effective power consumption. The sensor cannot be addressed by I2C protocol, however, the sensor can be connected to an I2C bus without interference with other devices connected to the bus. Microcontroller must switch between protocols.

    One ground to rule them all

    I have been advised to use an epoxy base coated with a copper layer. The aim is to connect it to the negative pole of the battery. It is really useful because it decrease the wiring. The perfboards are fixed on metallics spacer bars to avoid shortcuts.

    plate1

    I2C Scans

    I²C is a bus communication that allows multiple device to communicate with each other.

    I2C devices are recognized by the Arduino (5V) and the Raspberry PI (3.3V) with the help of a level shifter.

    I've used the I2C scanner provided by the Arduino documentation.

    Arduino

    Scanning...
    I2C device found at address 0x1D  !
    I2C device found at address 0x20  !
    I2C device found at address 0x6B  !
    I2C device found at address 0x70  !
    done
    

    Raspberry PI

    user$ i2cdetect -y 1
         0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  a  b  c  d  e  f
    00:          -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
    10: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 1d -- --
    20: 20 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
    30: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
    40: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
    50: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
    60: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 6b -- -- -- --
    70: 70 -- -- -- -- -- -- --
    

    Gallery

    "Scaffolding" with hot glue

    During the past few months, my best friend has been my hot glue gun. I was skeptical at first but really much effective and fun. I used it to insulate some connectors. In Liège, we would say "mettre une noquette de colle" which translates to "put a knob of glue".

    glue1 glue3

    capot2 capot3

    Evolution of the frame

    full_base connection_base_capot

    complete_1

    complete_3 complete_4

    • A : Battery
    • B : Level shifter between Arduino (5V) and Raspberry Pi (3.3V)
    • C : Arduino Mega
    • D : Power lines and I2C (12V, 5 V, 3.3V, SDA 5V, SCL 5V, SDA 3.3V, SCL 3.3V)
    • E : Raspberry Pi (in his case)
    • F : Buttons and their pull down (3.3V or 5V depending on the GPIO)
    • G : LEDs

    New (old) Oscilloscope

    One of my colleague has been cleaning his lab, and he asked me if I was interested to have an old 20 MHz oscilloscope. I gladly accepted. It is a 34 years old Circuitmate 9020 (bought in 1985). I will use it for I2C debugging and visualization. oscillo

    Conclusion

    The hardware is almost done. I am happy to have a nice reliable base. I hope to be able to drive it with my smartphone soon. I will continue the programming to add the mapping functionality and a nice demo mode.

    Stay tuned !

    smile

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