Pico W running sluggish

[ebolisa]

Hi,

I made my own LED panel composed of several ws2812b in a 7 seg style to display time and temp.
The code runs well for several hours than comes to a sluggish speed.

What I've done:

Using asyncio to eliminate blocking codes.
Using a task to read city's temp and store it into a variable every 30 minutes.
Using a task to get epoch every 3 hrs and update the RTC.
Using collect() to recycle as much memory as possible.
Using the main loop to display time and a non blocking code (while (time.time() - start_time) > max_loop_time:) to display the temperature.
When requesting temperature and time data, return is used if an error or no data is returned so the tasks wont halt.
I'm trying, at the moment, to count the delay in the time display routine so that, when the code recovers from being sluggish, resets the device but it's not the route I want to take.
The same fashion code is running fine on other types of LED display.
I'm at a total lost since no errors are caught.

So, I appreciate any help or indication I can get.
TIA

[GM-Script-Writer-62850]

would need to see some code in use... could be something simple like you used sleep(milliseconds) and what you got was sleep(seconds) so sleep tales 1000 times longer than expected

tried offloading some stuff to the second core?

this is how i do that

async def unblock(func, *args, **kwargs):#https://github.com/peterhinch/micropython-async/blob/master/v3/docs/THREADING.md#4-taming-blocking-functions
	def wrap(func, message, args, kwargs):
		message.set(func(*args, **kwargs))  # Run the blocking function.
	msg = Message()
	_thread.start_new_thread(wrap, (func, msg, args, kwargs))
	msg=await msg
	return msg

then in my loop i will do this:

data=await unblock(readSensors,sensors)

def readSensors(sensors):
	# everything involved in reading slow DHT22 sensors and formatting the output 

---

Using a task to get epoch every 3 hrs and update the RTC.

There is a better way, try using the ntptime lib, in my testing sometimes it does not work and errors... see mountain of code below...

Though i went out of my way to make a very robust way to set the time with a backup method, though dealing time zones and DST are a PITA...

my backup method takes advantage of my pico asking my server for it's config as it send the current time with it just in case ntptime fails me

sleep = uasyncio.sleep_ms

async def setTime(loop=0):
	#ntptime.settime() failure: [Errno 110] ETIMEDOUT
	#ntptime.settime() failure: overflow converting long int to machine word
	print('Attempt to set time:',1+loop)
	try:
		if loop<5:
			d=time.time()-debug.poweron.time
			ntptime.settime()
			debug.poweron.time=time.time()-d
			logging.clock.method="accurate"
		else:
			# if it did not work the second time it is not going to in my testing
			print("Failed to set time; Waiting 15 seconds")
			await sleep(15)
			if logging.clock.time_delta:
				# If I do not have this by now something is very wrong
				# WiFi is working, therefore my server is up and has configured settings
				print("Setting clock using low precision method")
				from machine import RTC
				d=time.time()-debug.poweron.time
				t=time.gmtime(time.time()+logging.clock.time_delta)
				RTC().datetime((t[0], t[1], t[2], t[6], t[3], t[4], t[5], 0))
				debug.poweron.time=time.time()-d
				print("Result:",debugData(time.time()))
				logging.clock.method="low precision"
			else:
				# So lets get this strait:
				# The server's Guest OS (pfsense) has assigned a IP to us over WiFi
				# The server host is unreachable
				# How is that even possible???
				print("Rebooting in 15 seconds, failed to set clock")
				await sleep(15)
				from machine import reset
				reset()
		logging.clock.sync=time.time()
	except OverflowError:
		# it is not going to work
		print("overflow error; settime is borked")
		await setTime(9001)
	except OSError:
		print("ntptime.settime() failure")
		if loop>0:
			# Not expecting more than 1 failure, maybe waiting will help?
			await sleep(10)
		await setTime(loop+1)
#END setTime()

i also run a modded time lib

#!/usr/bin/python3
import time as TIME
class time:
	class tz:
		hr=0
		sec=0
		ms=0
		ns=0
		def set(tz):
			time.tz.hr=int(tz)
			time.tz.sec=time.tz.hr*3600
			time.tz.ms=time.tz.sec*1000
			time.tz.ns=time.tz.ms*1000000
	class dst:
		start=0
		end=0
		offset=3600
	gmtime=TIME.gmtime
	def localtime(t=0):
		if not t:
			t=time.time()
		if time.dst.start <= t <= time.dst.end:
			t+=time.dst.offset
		t+=time.tz.sec
		t=time.gmtime(t)
		return t
	mktime=TIME.mktime
	sleep=TIME.sleep
	sleep_ms=TIME.sleep_ms
	ticks_us=TIME.ticks_us
	ticks_cpu=TIME.ticks_cpu
	ticks_add=TIME.ticks_add
	ticks_diff=TIME.ticks_diff
	time=TIME.time
	def time_ms():
		return round(time.time_ns()/1000000)
	time_ns=TIME.time_ns
	def format_time(t=0):# local time in US format
		if not t:
			t=time.time()
		t=time.localtime(t)
		#return str(t[2])+"/"+str(t[1])+"/"+str(t[0])+" "+str(t[3])+":"+str(t[4])+":"+str(t[5]) # D/M/Y H:M:S
		date=str(t[1])+'/'+str(t[2])+'/'+str(t[0])
		date+=', '
		if t[3]>=12:
			date+=str(t[3]-(0 if t[3] == 12 else 12))
			m=" PM"
		else:
			date+=str(12 if t[3] == 0 else t[3])
			m=" AM"
		date+=':'
		if t[4]<10:
			date+='0'
		date+=str(t[4])
		date+=':'
		if t[5]<10:
			date+='0'
		date+=str(t[5])
		date+=m
		return date

then i deal with DST

async def getDST():
	def long_sleep(seconds):
		# uasyncio.sleep(sec); sec*1000 must be under the 32bit limit of 2,147,483,647
		while seconds > 2000000:
			await uasyncio.sleep(2000000)
			seconds -= 2000000
		await uasyncio.sleep(seconds)

	await long_sleep(config.dst_update-time.time())
	while True:
		if not GPIO.wlan.isconnected():
			logging.wlan_error("WiFi down: Delay getDST()")
			await sleep(1000)
			continue
		r=await urequest.get(config.remote_url+"?dst")
		c=await r.content
		if r.status_code != 200:
			logging.http_error(r.status_code,c)
			await sleep(10000)
			continue
		data=json_decode(c)
		await r.close()
		time.dst.start=data['start']
		time.dst.end=data['end']
		config.dst_update=data['update']

		await long_sleep(data['update']-time.time()-86400) #Dec 31 at 2AM (compensate for clock drift)
		await long_sleep(data['update']-time.time()) #Jan 1 at 2AM
#END getDST()

here is the PHP i run on my sever to report DST to the PICO

function getDST(){
        $timeZone = new DateTimeZone('America/New_York');
        $trans = $timeZone->getTransitions(strtotime('first day of January this year'));
        return (object)array(
                "start" => $trans[1]["ts"],
                "end" => $trans[2]["ts"],
                "update" => strtotime('first day of January next year')+7201// 2AM
        );
}
if(isset($_GET['dst'])){
        header('Content-type: application/json');
        echo json_encode(getDST());
}

[ebolisa]

Thank you! I didn't post my code as it spreads over few files. One of them contains codes to turn on leds to match physical numbers.
As for the ntptime, I also had problems in the past so, I get the epoch from one of these sites: http://ebolisa.net/mytime.php http://date.jsontest.com (being the first one my own) and then convert it to my local time basically, the same way you're doing with your time lib.
Here's my the time sync:

async def syc_time():
    while True:
        getTime()
        await asyncio.sleep(60*60) # Sleep for 1 hour

def getTime():
    global epoch, datetime_string
    
    (year, month, day, weekday, hours, minutes, seconds,
     subseconds) = rtc.datetime()
    dprint("UTC before synchronization):",(year,
                                            month,
                                            day,
                                            hours,
                                            minutes,
                                            seconds)
        )

    url = "http://ebolisa.net/mytime.php"
    dprint('Retrieving epoch...')
    try:
        r = ure.get(url)
        time.sleep_ms(500)
        epoch = int(r.text)
        r.close()
#             url = 'http://date.jsontest.com'
#             r = urequests.get(url)
#             data = r.json()
#             r.close()
#             epoch = int(data['milliseconds_since_epoch'] / 1000)
#             r.close()
#             print(epoch  
        tm = time.gmtime(epoch)
        rtc.datetime((tm[0], tm[1], tm[2], tm[6] + 1, tm[3], tm[4], tm[5], 0))
        
        HHMarch   = time.mktime((tm[0],3 ,(31-(int(5*tm[0]/4+4))%7),1,0,0,0,0,0)) #Time of March change to CEST
        HHOctober = time.mktime((tm[0],10,(31-(int(5*tm[0]/4+1))%7),1,0,0,0,0,0)) #Time of October change to CET
                        
        if epoch < HHMarch :                # we are before last sunday of march
            cet=time.localtime(epoch+3600) # CET:  UTC+1H
        elif epoch < HHOctober :            # we are before last sunday of october
            cet=time.localtime(epoch+7200) # CEST: UTC+2H
        else:                             # we are after last sunday of october
            cet=time.localtime(epoch+3600) # CET:  UTC+1H
                        
        rtc.datetime((cet[0], cet[1], cet[2], cet[6] + 1, cet[3], cet[4], cet[5], 0))
        dprint ("UTC after synchronization:  %d/%d/%d - %d:%d:%d" % (cet[0:6]))

        year = cet[0]
        month = cet[1]
        day = cet[2]
        hours = cet[3]
        minutes = cet[4]
        seconds = cet[5]
        weekday = cet[6]

        rtc.datetime((year, month, day, weekday, hours, minutes, seconds, 0))
        datetime_string = str(day)+'/'+str(month)+'/'+str(year)+' '+ str(hours) + ':' + str(minutes)
    
    except Exception as err:
        dprint(f'GetTime connection Error: {err}')
        log_err(datetime_string,str(err))
        return

[GM-Script-Writer-62850]

your getTime() function is blocking code

there is a uasyncio version of urequest: here is the one i have saved: https://pastebin.com/CwvKUBys (i think i patched a bug in it)

no idea why you are using time.sleep_ms(500) there, are you just killing time?

[ebolisa]

your getTime() function is blocking code

there is a uasyncio version of urequest: here is the one i have saved: https://pastebin.com/CwvKUBys (i think i patched a bug in it)

no idea why you are using time.sleep_ms(500) there, are you just killing time?

Thanks, will fix it.