Acuparse RaspberryPi Direct Connection Guide¶

This is a community provided guide moved into the docs from the Wiki. It was designed to help you with installing Acuparse on a RaspberryPi when using an Access or SmartHUB directly connected to the Pi.

What is a RaspberryPi¶

RaspberryPi's are a small single-board microcomputer, that is fairly inexpensive (most kits are under 40USD) and are powerful enough to run Acuparse sufficiently. The OS used in this document will be Raspbian Bullseye (a version of Debian Linux).

The two current versions of RaspberryPi that are available are the RaspberryPi Zero W (RPi0W) and the RaspberryPi 3 ( RPi3). While the RPi0W will work, it's not recommended for performance reasons and limited ports (a single MicroUSB port and built-in WiFi). The RPi3 performs very well, and also provides 4 standard USB 2.0 ports and a built-in 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port and WiFi.

Overview of the setup¶

Parts List¶

• RaspberryPi 3
• MicroUSB power supply (2.1A or higher, a powered USB hub can also work)
• Case (Optional but recommended)
• MicroSD card (16GB or 32GB, Class 10 recommended)
• MicroSD to SD card adapter
• USB Ethernet adapter (optional if you want a wired connection to your router instead of WiFi)

Note: MicroSD cards are not created equal. Choose a fast performing card to use with Acuparse. It does a large amount of reading and writing! See microSD Card Benchmarks for assistance selecting the right MicroSD card.

In addition to the above parts, you will need an Acurite SmartHub or Acurite Access, and a computer with an SD card reader (either built-in or a USB adapter. This is for the initial set up of the MicroSD card).

NOTE: RPi3 kits can be purchased from sites such as Amazon that include the Pi, power supply, case, and even MicroSD card. Here are some example Amazon links for the items above:

• RaspberryPi 3 Kit - Includes Pi, Power Supply, and Case
• 32 GB MicroSD with SD adapter
• USB Ethernet Adapter - This is optional if you want a wired connection to your router instead of WiFi

If you decide to use a Pi Zero W instead of a Pi 3 (not recommended as noted above), then you will have to have a MicroUSB Ethernet Adapter like this to connect your SmartHub / Access as described in this project.

Hardware set up description¶

The SmartHub or Access will be connected directly to the RPi3 via an ethernet cable to the RPI3's built-in ethernet port. The RPi3 will then connect to your local LAN either via the built-in WiFi, or via a wired ethernet cable to your router using a USB Ethernet adapter. The RPi3 will be "headless" (i.e. no monitor, keyboard, or mouse attached) in this setup.

Installation¶

Install Raspbian Buster onto the MicroSD¶

Follow this guide for setting up your MicroSD card: How to Install or Upgrade to Raspbian Bullseye . The Buster install directions are still valid for the Bullseye release. Use the Light image for your installation. When completing your wpa_supplicant file, add a new line with scan_ssid=1 that is between the ssid= and psk= lines .

If you are going to connect your Pi directly with a wired network cable (not using WiFi), then you can skip the wpa_supplicant file creation altogether. Also, if you are using a Windows computer to connect to your Pi, you will need to Download PuTTY for the terminal program to access it via SSH. For most modern PC's you will choose the 64bit MSI Windows Installer, and then double click / run the downloaded file to install PuTTY.

Pi networking setup¶

Now we need to do some setup of the networking on the Pi. In a terminal window connected to your Pi, do the following command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y install dnsmasq iptables-persistent

A couple of screens will come up during the iptables-persistent part of the install. Choose "No" (use the tab key to select the NO option) on each of these and hit enter to confirm.

At this point, make sure your SmartHub / Access is powered on and connected to your Pi via a network cable to the built-in ethernet port. Also, if you are going to use a wired connection for your LAN, make sure the ethernet adapter is connected to your Pi and a network cable is connected and attached to your local network.

Now, we need to determine the network adapter names. Run the following command on your Pi:

ip addr

Look at the left-most column for the names of your adapters. Wired network adapters will have names similar to eth0 and eth1. WiFi will have a name similar to wlan0. (NOTE: Depending on initial configuration, sometimes the names will be longer and include the MAC address for the device). In our set up, eth0 will be the built-in network port on our Pi and where we will plug in the SmartHub or Access. If you are using WiFi to connect to your LAN, then wlan0 will be for your LAN connection. If you are using an ethernet adapter, then that should be like eth1 for your LAN connection.

Now issue the following commands:

sudo mv /etc/dnsmasq.conf /etc/dnsmasq.conf.orig  
sudo nano /etc/dnsmasq.conf

This will put you into a new file you are creating. Now copy and paste the following:

no-resolv
server=8.8.8.8 # Use Google DNS
interface=eth0 # Use interface eth0  
no-dhcp-interface=wlan0
dhcp-range=eth0,192.168.6.50,192.168.6.100,255.255.255.0,24h # IP range and lease time

If you're using wired LAN, change the 4th line to:

no-dhcp-interface=eth1

Hit Ctrl-X to exit and choose Y and hit enter on the file name that comes up.

Now do the following:

sudo nano /etc/dhcpcd.conf

Go to the bottom of the file and add the following lines. You will want to make sure that the first two static lines, match your LAN address for your router. If your router is not 192.168.1.1 you will need to change both of those lines so that the address of your Pi and your Router address are in the same subnet (usually 192.168.0.x or 192.168.1.x for most routers). Also, if you are using a wired network adapter then change the line with wlan0 to eth1. Don't change the static IP under the eth0 line (this is setting up a new network for the Acurite Hub device). Then Ctrl-X to save your changes.

# Home LAN  
interface wlan0 # Change to eth1 if using wired adapter  
static ip_address=192.168.1.70 # Set the Pi IP address  
static routers=192.168.1.1 # Your router's IP
#
# SmartHub / Access network  
interface eth0
static ip_address=192.168.6.1/24

Now we need to edit the hosts file:

sudo nano /etc/hosts

At the bottom of the hosts file add the line for whichever Acurite device you are using:

192.168.1.70   hubapi.myacurite.com # If you are using a SmartHub  
192.168.1.70   atlasapi.myacurite.com # If you are using an Access

NOTE that the IP needs to match what you set for the Pi IP address in the dhcpcd.conf file previously.

Now run the following commands (if you are using a wired connection for your LAN, change wlan0 to eth1 in the 4th and 6th command:

sudo iptables -F  
sudo iptables -X  
sudo iptables -t nat -F  
sudo iptables -A FORWARD -o wlan0 -i eth0 -s 192.168.0.0/24 -m conntrack --ctstate NEW -j ACCEPT  
sudo iptables -A FORWARD -m conntrack --ctstate ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o wlan0 -j MASQUERADE
sudo netfilter-persistent save

At this point, the editing and network configuration is all complete. To make sure there are no issues, do the following commands:

sudo systemctl restart networking.service
sudo systemctl restart dnsmasq

If there are no errors, reboot your Pi as follows:

sudo reboot now

Wait a minute or two for the Pi to reboot. Now when you ssh to it, you will be connecting to the static IP you set up for it (in the above edits, it would have been 192.168.1.70 unless you changed this).

Acuparse Installation¶

Run the following commands:

cd ~  
curl -O https://gitlab.com/acuparse/installer/-/raw/master/install && sudo bash install | tee ~/acuparse.log

If that fails, try:

wget https://gitlab.com/acuparse/installer/-/raw/master/install && sudo bash install | tee ~/acuparse.log

You will be prompted through the installation for passwords and such. As long as there are no errors after the installation completes, you will need to open a browser to point to your Pi's address (example: http://192.168.1.70). Then follow the prompts to complete the setup of your Acuparse environment.

Additional Information¶

This doc is somewhat outdated and needs to be tested/updated with newer OS releases. As such, the details provided below should SUPERSEDE any configuration above. This doc will be updated in a future release with the correct process.

For eth0, you need to edit the /etc/dhcpcd.conf file and put an entry in like the following (Replace the 192.168.86.1 address with your router address):

interface eth0
static ip_address=192.168.6.1/24
static domain_name_servers=192.168.86.1 8.8.8.8

And the second is to modify the kernel parameters:

In the /etc/sysctl.conf file uncomment the ip_forward line for ipv4 to make it persistent across reboots:

net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

You can change that and either run echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward or sudo sysctl -p to enable it.

If you're using bullseye, the legacy eth0 or eth1 names will go away and you'll see interface names starting with enx########## where the ## is replaced with the mac address. Those names can be used, or you can put in a link file in /etc/systemc/network with a number prefix such as 10-network.link that looks like:

[Match]
MACAddress=XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

[Link]
Name=eth0