SteamLink

Installation

SteamLink is best installed in a Python virtual environment. It requires python version 3.6 or better, and the python pip module.

1. Create en environment (for example 'sl') for SteamLink $ python3 -m venv sl
2. Activate the new environment $ . sl/bin/activate
3. Install (or upgrade) SteamLink from pypi $ pip3 install --upgrade steamlink. Alternatively, if you have cloned the githup repository, you can install SteamLink with $ python3 setup.py install from the checked out working directory.

Steamlink will run with configuration defaults, if you don't specify a config file. You can create a default config file with the command

$ steamlink --createconfig

It will create steamlink.yaml in your home directory. You can use the -c <filename> option to specify different name and/or location, both for creating and for running steamlink. Use the -h flag for help on available command options.

After editing the config you can start steamlink with

$ steamlink

You will see a couple of start-up messages and afer a momemt, you should be able to got to http://steamlink.local:5050/.

Pip installs a sample Steamlink "Node" in your bin/ directory. It also runs in a Python virtual environment, so open a second terminal session, activate the environment with

$ . sl/bin/activate and then run

$ python bin/pynode-example.py.

On the SteamLink Dashboard webpage, you will now see that a Mesh was created. Click on it, and you will find PyNode401 in the list of Nodes. Click on the PyNode401 line and you see the packets the node has sent to the central store. You can send packets to the PyNode401 via the "Send To Node" input field. Your pynode-example program will exit if you send it "go offline".

TODO: running as a service

Configuration

The default configuration file is steamlink.yaml in the user's home directory. Override with the -c option.

General

• mqtt_broker - null for external broker or section name n this config file for the internal broker definition. Default mqtt_broker. See MQTT Broker below.

• ping_timeout - websocket keep-alive timeout

Steam

• id - id of the top level entry, default 0
• name -
• description -
• namespace - usually /sl

tests

Named sub-sections and paramaters for simple package injections tests. See -T command line option

Console

The console section defines the built-in web console.

• host, port - http server
• shutdown_timeout - wait time before shutdown if web clients are connectd
• namspace - usually /sl, should match namespace in the[general] section
• prefix -
• minupdateinterval - Number of seconds between item updates
• index - full path to the root web page
• ssl_certificate - tbd.
• ssl_key - tbd.

MQTT

The MQTT section defines the MQTT client cconnection.

• clientid -

• username -

• password -

• server -

• port -

• ssl_certificate -

• prefix - MQTT topic prefix

• data - MQTT suffix for data messages

• control - MQTT suffix for control messages

MQTT Broker

Steamlink uses an MQTT broker for internal processing and for delivery of data traffic from and to network nodes. A built-in MQTT broker is used by default, the mqtt_broker entry in the [general] section will point to the configuration section for the internal broker. If you want to use an external MQTT broker, set mqtt_broker to blank. The client connection pararamters to your broker are define in the [mqtt] section.

Operation

Node states

State	Off/Online	comment
INITIAL	-	loaded from config, has not seen live data
ONLINE	on	node signed on
OFFLINE	off	node signed off with no indication of restart time
SLEEPING	off	node signed off with intention to return
TRANSMITTING	on	node is transmitting data but we did not see a sign-on in this session
OVERDUE	off	no data from node longer than maximum sleep time
OK	on	node set status

Packet counters

fieldname	comment
packets_sent	number of packets transmitted since node started
packets_received	number of packets node received since start
packets_resent	number of packets that were resent because of missing ACKs
packets_dropped	number of packets that were not transmitted because of buffer full, crc failure, or invalid or unknown destination
packets_missed	number of packets that the node should have received but never saw

Other packet info

fieldname	comment
last_node_restart_ts	timestamp of last time node restarted
last_packet_rx_ts	timestamp of last packet received
last_packet_tx_ts	timestamp of last packet transmitted
via	list of SLIDs the last packet was router via