Further development of the MMM-Swipe module

[nowis]

Hey,
I tried to use the MMM-Swipe module some month ago, but without any success. No I finally had time to look over it and figured out a way to use the HC-SR04 sensors without sudo. So far the module recognizes if you out your hand in front of a sensor, but I haven’t tried to calibrate a nice “swipe” gesture, yet.
I would be up to develop the module further, including a switch page functionality.
Since I took the one from mochman as a starting base, I would ask him if it’s ok if i fork or link to his page in a new repo.
So if you guys want, I will try to upload my module soon (after cleaning up a little bit).

[c.keen]

Hi,
@nowis: That sounds great!

Maybe you can also take a look at the module shbatm created. I don’t know what the status of the module is he developed but he wrote that it is up to 90% ready to use.

Although I have no clue about programming I think it should be possible to use the MMM-Swipe module in connection to the MMM-Pages from edward-shen. He also uses some kind of input (skywriter) to give commands to the pages module to switch pages.
But for daily use I would prefer the HCSR-04 sensors.

[nowis]

I will have a look at both modules sometime the next week. Will keep you updated.

[StefanMe]

That would be awesome!

Thanks! I also would donate it if it works later! Because i really want this feature!

[nowis]

Hey,
I got the module up and running. I forked shbatm’s module and changed the method of how to detect a swipe. It is not perfect, yet, but it works for me.
There is still more work to do, but I thought I will share it with you already, so you can try it. It works with the MMM-Pages module.
I will continue working on it the next days. Feel free to share your experience with me, as well as ideas for improvements.
It took me a while to “learn” the right technique to swipe. I put my hand in front of one sensors (try to make form a flat surface with your hand), stay there for about 400ms (sounds weird, sorry) and then swipe from there over the other sensor. Just practice a little bit. The swipe detection is not trivial.

Here is the link, have fun! https://github.com/Simon089/MMM-Swipe

[richland007]

@nowis

Hi there i followed your instructions step by step and got everything installed from your fork for MMM-Swipe, however when i add the MMM-Swipe config parameters to the MM’s config.js file and start the Magic Mirror i get a blank screen and nothing else .
Only after ctr-alt-del and manually killing the MagicMirror instance (ctrl+q does nothing in this case) i am able to get back to Rpi’s desktop.
After inspecting the MagicMirror npm start messages i found out that MMM-Swipe and some error with math-statistics module (i do not have a MagicMirror math statistics module) being unavailable that seems to be the culprit of it all, it also seems that the math statistic’s module is a node.js package of MMM-Swipe.
If i go back to MagicMirrors nonfig.js and comment out the MMM-Swipe module everything works just fine with my MagicMirror … what do you think it is happening??
Does it have anything to do with maybe the physical sensors?? They are wired just as they are supposed to according to the schematics but maybe they are not working?!?!?!
I am unable to give it an answer by myself so any help will be greatly appreciated
Thank you in advance
Denis

[AxLed]

@richland007
i had the same error on a rpi1 B, here is a solution that worked for me:
Change into MagicMirror/modules/MMM-Swipe

npm install math-statistics –save

After that i got an new error like
Error: Module version mismatch. Expected 48, got 50)
Solution for this:
Change into MagicMirror/modules/MMM-Swipe
Rebuild module for the correct elecron version

npm rebuild --runtime=electron --target=$(../../node_modules/electron/cli.js --version) --disturl=https://atom.io/download/atom-shell --build-from-source

Regards
Axled

[nowis]

Hi @richland007,

could you figure out a solution with the help of @AxLed by now? If not, let me know and I will try to help you. I should definitely put the math-statistics module in the package.json, sorry for that.
Edit: I just saw I removed it from the dependencies at some point, that was a mistake.
About the error with electron: Here and there I get the error after adding submodules, but I’m still not sure when and how… When I have time I should check this, but it’s probably a problem with more than just my module.

I hope this helps,

Simon

[richland007]

@nowis Sorry for the late reply i did figure out the math statistic on my own “…the power of research on the internet” :)
and also a simple npm install fixes “… the got 53 and expected 48 issue”

Everything on my end is working nicely i got no errors on my Magic Mirror and i have a lot of modules… however i can’t test the MMM-Swipe …granted it is not installed in the exact position where it is going to ultimately be. Mirror’s Raspi is still on my desk hooked to the monitor, wired though with the sonic sensors… cause i just got done with the programming part and have not started with the physical built of the mirror yet but i had a couple of question regarding the wiring of the two sonic sensors!!

Are both of the trigger pins for both sensors connected to the same Rpi GPIO?? How can i test if my hand movement can move the pages?? I have tried but nothing happens the module on the software side has no errors but i don’t know if it works!!

How far apart should the centers of the 2 sensor pairs be from each other ultimately on the mirror frame??

Any help will be greatly appreciated
thank you
Denis

[nowis]

@richland007: I’m glad you could figure a solution for your problems.
Ragarding your questions: Yes, both trigger pins are connected to one RPi GPIO pin. It works fine for me.
There are two ways for testing your movements:

1. In the module-config, set a position: this will display “waiting for movement …” and will change to “Swipe Left” or “Swipe Right” for 2 seconds, if a movement is recognized.
2. More precise method: In the module config, set “verbose” to true. This will print to the console (see attached image). The first line means where a potential swipe started. The next two rows give you the measured distanced used to detect a swipe. So far this does not mean we detected a swipe! Only if there is a line “----> Swipe Left” or “----> Swipe Right” a swipe is detected. This output helps you to figure out how fast do move your hand. Sometimes the sensors get noise and try to therefore try to detect a swipe. In this case you won’t see the last line, which means we do not recognize the false positive.

The centers of sensors are 20cm apart from each other. In general you can mount them just as you like, since you can configure the swipe-speed

I hope this helps! Just let me know if you need any further help.