@Skorpionbird looks like a breaking change in onoff.js module…

latest fs has started enforcing callback on async operations.

onoff write needs to be fixed like read

Gpio.prototype.read = function (callback) {
  fs.read(this.valueFd, this.readBuffer, 0, 1, 0, function (err, bytes, buf) {
    if (typeof callback === 'function') {
      if (err) {
        return callback(err);
      }

      callback(null, buf[0] === ONE[0] ? 1 : 0);
    }
  });
};

current write

Gpio.prototype.write = function (value, callback) {
  var writeBuffer = value === 1 ? ONE : ZERO;
  fs.write(this.valueFd, writeBuffer, 0, writeBuffer.length, 0, callback);
};

try editing MagicMirror/node_modules/onoff/onoff.js
and changing the Gpio.prototype.write (line 200)
to this

Gpio.prototype.write = function (value, callback) {
  var writeBuffer = value === 1 ? ONE : ZERO;
  fs.write(this.valueFd, writeBuffer, 0, writeBuffer.length, 0, function (err, bytes, buf) {
    if (typeof callback === 'function') {
      if (err) {
        return callback(err);
      }

      callback(null, bytes, buf);
    }
  });
};

I have submitted issue 150 to the onoff module on github

@nhpunch yes if you send it that way

this.sendSocketNotification(“BUTTON_PUSHED”,this._isPushed)

@nhpunch said in How to use the 'node_helper', 'serialport':

   if(this._isPushed==false)

where is _isPushed defined or set?

i know it is in module_name.js, but node_helper cannot see it…

you should send that as the payload on button_pressed message

@Skorpionbird did u npm install in the MagicMirror folder, and in each module that has a package.json?

@nhpunch said in How to use the 'node_helper', 'serialport':

https://github.com/nhpunch/sohard

Ok, the fundamental problem is what happens in getDom()…

until getDom() returns this modules contribution to the single web page… that content is NOT IN the DOM… It is just in memory in your module.

so the jquery $(button) will not work. ($ means document.) and the content is NOT IN the document… (yet)

SO, you could change to use the non jquery

button.addEventListener('click', ()=> {
   	
   	//$(button).on("click", function(){
   		if(self.hidden){
   		//	$(overlay).fadeIn(1000);
   		//	$(button).fadeTo(1000, 0.3);
   		//	$(text).html('OFF');
                               Log.log("button pushed 'on' ")
   			self.hidden = false;  
   			self._isPushed = false;
   		}else{
   		//	$(overlay).fadeOut(1000);
   		//	$(button).fadeTo(1000, 1);  
   		//	$(text).html('ON');
                               Log.log("button pushed 'off' ")
   			self.hidden = true;
   			self._isPushed = true;
   		}
   	});
   	return wrapper;

but… all the data elements button, overlay and text will be long gone by the time the button is pushed.
so you will have to redesign finding them again (document.getElementByID()… or something, a different jquery selector.)

OR

you can push the jquery code off into a timeout handler (wait a second or 2)…
but you will still have to redesign how to find the button… as its data element on the stack of getDom() will be long gone.

think of getDom() as a person taking notes… they write it down on their notepad.
then LATER they edit a big document and add their text…

until they complete that task, you can search thru the big document all u want, the text will NOT be there…

when I used the sample above, the button responded…

u know you can open the developers window (npm start dev) and select the console window,
and messages from the module_name.js will show there

message from the node_helper will appear in the terminal window where u issued npm start dev & (note the & at the end to allow the prompt to come back)…

@nhpunch sure. Make a GitHub repo, and let me know

@Cr4z33 how does the module play audio? I had an alexa module that used mpg321, which wasn’t installed… so it never made any sound

looks like the awesome alex debug says to test play with

omxplayer -o alsa myAudioFile.mp3

https://github.com/dolanmiu/MMM-awesome-alexa/blob/master/docs/audio-setup.md

now that the author has one lined the source, it is hard to help as much…

@StefanMe you would have to have a bluetooth output device on your mirror, that can be the ‘speaker’

https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/bluetooth-audio-raspberry-pi-3/

@nhpunch this.sendSocketNotification(…,…)

from the doc

this.sendSocketNotification(notification, payload)

notification String - The notification identifier.
payload AnyType - Optional. A notification payload.

If you want to send a notification to the node_helper, use the sendSocketNotification(notification, payload). Only the node_helper of this module will receive the socket notification.

Example:

this.sendSocketNotification('SET_CONFIG', this.config);

you’ll see in the sample that this is used twice… once by the module_name.js to send the config over to the node_helper and once by the node_helper to send a new text string to the module_name.js to display

its also used in your module, from the first post above

  start: function () {
    Log.info("Starting module: " + this.name);
    this.sendSocketNotification('CONFIG', this.config)
  },

@sdetweil you make up your own messages…

so, you have a push button on the screen (done by module_name,js)… when push button,
send button name and 1 to node helper… when it gets 1, it uses serial port to send to arduino.

when u let up on button , you send 0…

write out what you WANT the system to do… (design)

then implement THAT design