Powering off via UI while using a Mausberry Circuit

caver01

@cyperghost I will post it later when I am back to my Pi.

cyperghost

@caver01 I will be online in a few hours again. At work I asked a colleague (circuit designer) how this issue can be solved. It's possible to switch the event just via a transistor - but I forget which type ... I think N-type, but you need some resistors (at lease one at base) and best a diode (for current switchbacks) the make sure switch behaviour.

On the other hand he said, that the optical-mosfet is also a nice method to trigger that and it's really fail safe as the circuits are isolated.

Then I asked the method with the reset trigger... Clear answer: NO! A reset is a reset as you don't know what there really happens. It can be named as "emergency exit" if the µc is trapped but never should be used as regular switch.

caver01

@cyperghost I am glad you confirmed the transistor idea. I was actually going to try that first based on other things I have read. I believe I need to use an NPN transistor, and I have a bunch of them collected from old hardware. Here is an example where someone is using a transistor to trigger a button press for a camera trigger. The SSR is suggested first, but someone concludes that a transistor method would be adequate.

Most discussions elsewhere online regarding this topic mention the use of the opto-coupler SSR as a safer method, as it isolates both sides and you don't have to worry about linking the grounds. However, I am not that worried about isolation, and I won't have to buy anything to try it.

I didn't get a chance to lookup my python script last night. I will post something soon, and I will definitely try the transistor trick.

cyperghost

@caver01 Thank you for the linked document with the transistor. As you use the same potential there should be no drawbacks with connecting the Pie and the mausberry.

As said, the SSR is the easiest method at all.

caver01

@cyperghost The only risk I see with the transistor here is if the momentary button wired to the Mausberry is not connected to ground on one of its poles. Maybe even that does not matter, but the diagrams I have seen including the one linked above has the emitter connected to ground that is common to both the switch and the Pi. I may look at the Mausberry circuit closely to see if I can trace one of the button terminals to ground. If not, I may just try it anyway.

cyperghost

@caver01 Well take a voltmeter and measure switch pins against ground. I hope that there are 3.3V ;)

caver01

@cyperghost Good idea!

caver01

@cyperghost well, that NPN transistor totally worked!

First, I modified my mausberry script by adding another variable for GPIOpin3 which I set to 18.
Then, I added two more echo lines to export the pin and to set its direction to OUT:

#!/bin/bash

# need to call this from /etc/rc.local

# End Emulationstation if condition of running binary is true (v1.59)
# v1.0 07/21/17 by cyperghost - Inital run 
# v1.1 07/22/17 - Added chown command to set right user permission for creating es-shutdown // cyperghost
# v1.2 07/23/17 - Some small improvments, easier to maintain, removed echo, removed else branch // cyperghost
# v1.5 07/27/17 - Great step to exit ES even if emulators is running by runcommand.sh are started // meleu
# v1.55 07/29/17 - all kudos go to @meleu for his alltime genious RegEx hack! // meleu
# v1.56 07/30/17 - All emulators will be detected. // meleu
# v1.58 08/02/17 - generel method: Use PPID to detect child PIDs now (ScummVM fix) // cyperghost
# v1.59 08/03/17 - nothing new, just polishing the code // meleu
# I just checked with SSH command - it saved my metadata! Maybe you need to extend sleeptimer!
# greetings @pjft for his famous favorits and @meleu for his RegEx sniplets and his constant help! 

#this is the GPIO pin connected to the lead on switch labeled OUT
GPIOpin1=23

#this is the GPIO pin connected to the lead on switch labeled IN
GPIOpin2=24

#this is the GPIO pin connected to the 1k-ohm resistor, leading to the base of NPN transistor (emitter and collector to power switch poles)
GPIOpin3=18

echo "$GPIOpin1" > /sys/class/gpio/export
echo "in" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio$GPIOpin1/direction
echo "$GPIOpin2" > /sys/class/gpio/export
echo "out" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio$GPIOpin2/direction
echo "1" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio$GPIOpin2/value
echo "$GPIOpin3" > /sys/class/gpio/export
echo "out" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio$GPIOpin3/direction


while true; do
    power="$(cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio$GPIOpin1/value)"
    if [[ "$power" == 0 ]]; then
        sleep 1
    else
        emucall="$(sed -n 4p /dev/shm/runcommand.info | tr -d '\\"' | tr '^$[]*.()|+?{}' '.')"
        if [[ -n "$emucall" ]]; then
            emupid="$(pgrep -f "$emucall")" 
            pkill -P "$emupid"
            kill "$emupid"
            sleep 4
        fi    

        espid="$(pgrep -f "/opt/retropie/supplementary/.*/emulationstation([^.]|$)")"
        if [[ -n "$espid" ]]; then
            touch /tmp/es-shutdown && chown pi:pi /tmp/es-shutdown
            kill "$espid"
            exit
        fi
        # End Emulationstation if condition of running binary is true

        sudo poweroff
    fi
done

Finally, I added the line:
echo "1" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio18/value to the emulationstation.sh in place of the sudo poweroff in
that file.

I soldered up two components, an NPN transistor and a 1k-ohm resistor. The resistor goes on the middle pin of the transistor, and the outside pins go in parallel to the power switch connected to the mausberry. Then, on the opposite end of the resistor, I connected this to GPIO18 as specified in my updated script.

Now, when I select SHUTDOWN in the ES menu, it completely powers off.

Thanks for all of your help!

caver01

I am going to create a new thread for working on the Python version of the BASH script. I think that makes more sense than burying it here.

meleu

@caver01 said in Powering off via UI while using a Mausberry Circuit:

Finally, I added the line:
echo "1" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio18/value to the emulationstation.sh in place of the sudo poweroff in
that file.

I see a problem here. This line will be lost after the next EmulationStation update you do on your system.

cyperghost

@caver01
Wow that's cool ;) Nice approach ....

As @meleu already said.... on next update the script gots lost. Therefore I would modify the MB shutdown script and set the echo 1 command, before the exit command... maybe with a sleep 0.5. The side effect is, that the mausberry is only shutting down, if the emulationstation binary is running (cause of the if-clause)

@meleu I finished GQ ;)
@meleu What do you think about this shutdown-script here? It should be quicker than the original one.

caver01

@meleu Yes, it will. but what can I do?

@cyperghost I don't see how changing the mausberry script will help with the soft shutdown in ES. meleu is saying that after the update, my ES will lose the custom shutdown I setup which triggers GPIOpin18. No matter what happens, ES updates will always revert to the normal shutdown, while I need it to trigger the pin. Nothing in the mausberry script will fix that. I will have to keep updating emulationstation.sh.

cyperghost

@caver01 ~~No, you set the echo 1 in your mausberry between before the exit command~~ sorry thats wrong!

        espid="$(pgrep -f "/opt/retropie/supplementary/.*/emulationstation([^.]|$)")"
        if [[ -n "$espid" ]]; then
            touch /tmp/es-shutdown && chown pi:pi /tmp/es-shutdown
            kill "$espid"
            # Set here your echo command + && sleep 0.5
            exit
        fi
        # End Emulationstation if condition of running binary is true

meleu

@meleu I finished GQ ;)

Nice! Let's move to Snake Rattle 'n Roll. I'll just try to make some score for Time Pilot (MAME ROW #51).

@meleu What do you think about this shutdown-script here? It should be quicker than the original one.

Good catch at that logic! :-)

@caver01 said in Powering off via UI while using a Mausberry Circuit:

@meleu Yes, it will. but what can I do?

Hold on a little. I'm taking a look into a nice way to do it. ;-)

caver01

@cyperghost Oh, does ES leave a trace in /tmp that a shutdown has been requested by the UI? That's clever. So the MB script will initiate shutdown if the button is pressed, and it will do the echo to the transistor if shutdown is requested by ES. Correct?

Wait a sec, I still don't follow. I need to trigger the transistor when a shutdown is requested from within ES using the UI. I need to do this instead of a soft shutdown, otherwise, the MB circuit won't know that the shutdown has occurred.

cyperghost

@caver01 sorry edited this
maybe @meleu gots a solution ... i know only the emulationstation path

EDIT:
Yes... for restart system, shutdown system and restart ES there are temp files named by the usecase

and that's the way to prove ;) within the mausberry... you're right ;)
My first attempt does not work as the loop is only triggered if the MB-button is pressed. But as it checks some file you can use this via [[ -f /tmp/es-shutdown ]] to do some things ;) I guess to use this check into the power = 0, do loop and to set power = 1... this will end the loop and the shutdown is initiated.

But let @meleu look into... ;) He knows the system much better

cyperghost

@caver01 @meleu

I think the extended "mausberry" script with 3 GPIOs will look like this --> https://ghostbin.com/paste/5f8t6
But it may happen that ES deletes the tmp file BEFORE the mausberry script will catch it (During the 1s sleep) - That's nasty ;)

I think @meleu will introduce the inotify thing now as it acts as an "interrupt for filesystems" ;)

meleu

@caver01 said in Powering off via UI while using a Mausberry Circuit:

@meleu Yes, it will. but what can I do?

Try this solution here: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/12895/ensuring-es-gracefully-finish-and-save-metadata-in-every-system-shutdown

Let me know if you find some problem. ;-)

caver01

@meleu This is cool, and I am going to try setting up the service as it greatly simplifies the Muasberry script (or any shutdown button technology for that matter). However, I don't believe it will satisfy the problem identified in the original post here.

The issue is that the Mausberry circuit does not notice that the shutdown has occurred unless it was triggered by the hardwired button. So, selecting QUIT, and SHUTDOWN in ES leaves the circuit still powered ON, and subsequently, the Pi is in low-power sleep mode. Worse, the MB circuit is now stuck thinking it is ON, and won't cut power to the Pi.

If you trigger the shutdown with the wired power button, the circuit starts paying attention to the GPIO IN pin that you have configured in the mausberry script. Once that drops, it cuts power. But, crucially, it seems to ignore that pin until it detects a short on its wired hardware button/switch.

So far, the only way to get around this problem for me has been to hook into the ES shutdown command and send a signal to another GPIO pin which in turn triggers a transistor wired in parallel with the mausberry switch. Instead of actually shutting down, this makes the mausberry circuit think I just pressed the physical button. It then triggers its GPIO OUT pin, which the mausberry script is watching, does the safe shutdown, and the circuit is now 'listening' for GPIO IN to drop --then it cuts power completely.

It's a clever circuit, and your new service will help simplify things for this and similar solutions, but the locked up circuit after software-triggered shutdown remains.

caver01

@meleu So, now I am thinking that I can simply add my echo command to your service which should give the circuit a 'tap on the shoulder' and get it to start watching for the Pi to do down. Is that your thinking too?