Raspberry Pi and Ethereum: The Epilogue

This tutorial is part of a series of articles introduced here.

In part 6, we finalized the configuration of the private blockchain. We sent ether between our nodes and verified that the database is properly synchronised.

NB: It is important that what we mean by “private Ethereum blockchain” in this context has absolutely nothing to do with the “private blockchain” championed by Hyperledger, Eris/Monax, or the recently announced Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. These are different codebases with different client applications, so they correspond to different implementations of a different set of concepts. They are private in the sense that they limit who has access to their chain. They are also called permissioned blockchains, and to be perfectly transparent, we wish they were not even called blockchains at all. In this series of articles, what we call “private blockchain” is a private instance of the Ethereum implementation. Same code base, same client application, different network identifier and genesis block. In other words, what we will come to create in this series is a chain with the same rules as the main chain, the same consensus algorithm too, but a different root block. This will become clearer in part 3. For more information about the 3-layer model and differences between concepts, implementations and instances, you can also watch our Devoxx talk and read this article.

So far, we only worked with pure software. In this final part, we will connect our blockchain with the physical world and connect some wires.

The goal of this tutorial is to check whether you are allowed to use a service. By using a button and two LEDs (green and red), we will be able to check the Smart Contract (SmartToken) to retrieve the number of tokens assigned to the user account (identified by its address).

To complete this tutorial, we will use the following solutions:

• Hardware: A breadboard, 2 LEDs (green and red), a button, 4 resistors (2 x 220Ω, 1kΩ, 10kΩ), some wires
• Software: Node.js and two packages (Web3 and OnOff)

The sample was inspired by the post available here.

It’s time to build some electronics.

Step 1 – Start with some electronics

Before you proceed, ensure your RPi is turned off.

The goal is to connect a LED to the GPIO17 port of the RPi.

The schematic is the following:

Here below you can see the breadboard that shows how to physically connect the electronic parts:

The GPIO17 port (port 11) is linked to the anode pin (positive) of the led.

The cathode pin (negative) of the led is connected to the resistor which is linked to the GND port (port 6) of the RPi.

Ensure to respect the polarity of the LED (check here).

When you have finished, you can power on the RPi.

Step 2 – Connect to your RPi

Use the SSH command to connect to your RPi as illustrated here below:

computer$ ssh pi@192.168.1.31

computer$ cd ~/ChainSkills/miner1
computer$ ./startminer1.sh

Start the miner #2:

computer$ cd ~/ChainSkills/miner2
computer$ ./startminer2.sh

Start the RPi node:

pi$ cd ~/ChainSkills/node
pi$ ./starnode.sh

Step 4 – Prepare the RPi

This step describes all the operations to perform on your RPi in order to set up all the pieces of software.

Step 4.1 – Install Node.js

We will use Node.js to run the script that interacts with the Smart Contract.

To install Node.js 7.x on your RPi, please follow the instructions illustrated here below:

pi$ curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_7.x | sudo -E bash -
pi$ sudo apt-get install nodejs

pi$ node -v
v7.4.0

pi$ npm -v
4.0.5

Step 4.2 – Install Git

Git will be required for the installation of Web3:

pi$ sudo apt-get install git

Step 4.3 – Prepare the project folder

pi$ mkdir -p ~/Projects/ChainSkills/SmartToken

Step 4.4 – Install Web3 module

pi$ cd ~/Projects/ChainSkills/SmartToken
pi$ npm install web3@0.20.1

pi$ cd ~/Projects/ChainSkills/SmartToken
pi$ npm install onoff

Step 5 – Create the client application

Let’s create a JS script the called “smart_token.js“.

This script will be used to:

1. Interact with the Smart Contract
2. Interact with RPi

Create the file “smart_token.js”:

pi$ cd ~/Projects/ChainSkills/SmartToken
pi$ nano smart_token.js

Copy and paste the following code:

// Interaction with GPIO
var Gpio = require('onoff').Gpio

// Interaction with Ethereum
var Web3 = require('web3')
var web3 = new Web3()

// connect to the local node
web3.setProvider(new web3.providers.HttpProvider('http://localhost:8042'))

// The contract that we are going to interact with
var contractAddress = '0xe1d76d2bffc600333248343f7a1d144edaef29a2'

// Define the ABI (Application Binary Interface)
var ABI = JSON.parse('[{"constant":false,"inputs":[{"name":"recipient","type":"address"},{"name":"value","type":"uint256"}],"name":"depositToken","outputs":[{"name":"success","type":"bool"}],"payable":false,"type":"function"},{"constant":true,"inputs":[{"name":"recipient","type":"address"}],"name":"getTokens","outputs":[{"name":"value","type":"uint256"}],"payable":false,"type":"function"},{"constant":false,"inputs":[{"name":"recipient","type":"address"},{"name":"value","type":"uint256"}],"name":"withdrawToken","outputs":[{"name":"success","type":"bool"}],"payable":false,"type":"function"},{"anonymous":false,"inputs":[{"indexed":false,"name":"status","type":"uint256"}],"name":"OnStatusChanged","type":"event"},{"anonymous":false,"inputs":[{"indexed":true,"name":"_from","type":"address"},{"indexed":false,"name":"_value","type":"uint256"}],"name":"OnValueChanged","type":"event"}]')

// contract object
var contract = web3.eth.contract(ABI).at(contractAddress)

// components connected to the RPi
var greenLed = new Gpio(14, 'out')
var redLed = new Gpio(15, 'out')
var button = new Gpio(18, 'in', 'rising')



// display initial state
showStatus()



// watch event on the button
button.watch(function (err, value) {
 if (err) {
 throw err
 }

showStatus()
})



// wait for an event triggered on the Smart Contract
var onValueChanged = contract.OnValueChanged({_from: web3.eth.coinbase});

onValueChanged.watch(function(error, result) {
 if (!error) {
 showStatus()
 }
})



// power the LED according the value of the token
function showStatus() {
 
 // retrieve the value of the token
 var token = contract.getTokens(web3.eth.coinbase)

// display the LED according the value of the token
 if (token > 0) {
 // Green: you have enough token
 redLed.writeSync(0)
 greenLed.writeSync(1)
 } else {
 // Red: not enough token
 greenLed.writeSync(0)
 redLed.writeSync(1)
 }

}



// release process
process.on('SIGINT', function () {
 greenLed.unexport()
 redLed.unexport()
 button.unexport()
})

This script has to be changed according to your environment.

First, change the value of the variable “contractAddress” with the address of the contract deployed on your private blockchain (see part 6).

Then, provide the ABI of your SmartContract (see part 6) by replacing the content of the variable “ABI“.

Step 6 – Run the client application

Run the client application:

pi$ node smart_token.js

The client application will wait for a change to occur on the Smart Contract.

Step 7 – Test the application

Test your application using Mist by depositing tokens to the coinbase address of the Pi node.

You should see the appropriate LED displayed according the remaining amount of token.

You can also press the button to get the number of tokens.

Summary

Congratulations!

You have successfully completed this series of tutorials.

Of course, this is just a glimpse of what you can do with Ethereum but you had the opportunity to experiment some part of this technology.

Now, it’s up to you to move forward with the journey and to imagine other kinds of Smart Contracts and how to link them with IoT devices.

Shameless plug

Now that you are done with this series, we just wanted to let you know that we are currently preparing a full-blown online training about the development of distributed applications on Ethereum and we are looking for your feedback to figure out what you would like to see in this training. If you want to help us, you can take a few minutes to answer a survey here.

And if you just want us to keep you informed when the full online training program will be available, you can register to our mailing list on beta.chainskills.com.

Said Eloudrhiri