Quick Tips Before You Start Working on IOT Project

Recently me and my team has completed an IOT project where we done GPRS Thermal printer integration with POS and Mobile App. We faced certain issues in project but later on we completed it successfully. Here I am sharing some quick tips before you start working on IOT project.

Readers who are new to the concept of IOT, please read my blog here on IOT.

IOT and IOT Examples, Read here.

1) Understand your IOT device and configure it

As we know IOT is all about connecting machine to Internet. For that you must understand the device and it's configurations. Most of the devices comes with user manual so it would be easy but still sometimes manuals are difficult to understand. For example in our case printer was manufactured in China so we got manuals with some Chinese languages so we had to figure out how it works and do some manual testings to connect printer to internet and get it working. Also you must understand the protocol on which device will work. For example most of the devices use Http protocol but some also work on socket. As per you web server and web services you have to decide protocol to be used.

2) Strictly follow protocol of Device.

This is again and important thing for IOT project. All the devices have some protocol to receive data and to get data back from device. You must follow that. If you don't, then your device will not work properly.

For example in our case if we have to send some data to printer we have to follow following syntax.

"&!*1Order*Item1*Item2#";

So here 1 stands for printer action

if it's 0 that means printer will just print the order and it will be accepted by default.

1 means printer will print it and user have to take action to accept or reject.

So in this case we thought 1 is the serial number so ignored it and printer stopped working.

So it's very important to strictly follow this syntax of devices because IOT devices are very strict in terms of syntax.

3) Have Patience, It will work for sure...

When you are working with hardwares and software together it's always difficult and time consuming. You have to deal with protocols and manual of devices to make it working and for that you should have patience. Also it's testing and development is not easy. First you write some code and trigger some events and then you check if that's working with device or not. So it really needs patience. Do not get frustrated and bang the device. Have patience and keep on working on it. It will work for sure. 

How To Fix Code 28 Errors in Windows

Today I was called to fix windows again. There was a problem in connecting to internet in windows PC as drivers were not installed for ethernet controller. So I fixed it. I never liked fixing windows, no programmers likes it. I published blog about this few days back. You can read it from following link.

5 Things Programmers Don't Do or Hate to Do

But anyways, I was called to fix it so I fixed it. In this blog I am going to explain how to solve Code 28 error

The drivers for this device are not installed. (Code 28)

When I checked ethernet device, it was showing above error. So first I tired to update driver by let windows automatically search for it but it did not give any result. Tried updating windows also but it didn't work. So finally I had to do all the process manually. First of all to identify which driver you will need download and install following software.

Driver Easy

This software has vast database of drivers so it can find required driver for you very easily. Install the software and scan your computer with it. It will show you device driver software for it and will download it. If you are luck this software will automatically install it but I was not lucky. I am never lucky when I have to fix the things. So again I have to do manual process. Here are steps. This software will show you folder where it has downloaded device driver so keep that folder open, we will need it in later step.

1) Go to Device Manager from Control Panel and click on Ethernet controller.

2) Click on Update Driver, it will show you following screen

3) Select the second option "Browse my computer for driver software". Once you click on second option, it will show you following screen.

4) Click on Have Disk in above screen and it will show you following screen.

5) Click on Browse and go to folder where Driver Easy has downloaded your device driver. From that folder select .inf file and it will start driver installation.

Once the driver is installed it will show you success message. After that just restart your PC to make sure device driver installed successfully. In my case issue was solved after restart and internet connection was working. Hopefully it will solve your problem as well.