snOS is a multi-threaded events and service framework with IoT in mind for embedded systems. I created snOS because I found myself constantly writing the boilerplate for IoT systems for several projects to do the same thing over and over. I decided to write a decent version with more connectivity features. This project will develop and progress along with my other projects using it.

snOS is intended to run on the barest of the bare microcontroller environments and architectures. snOS is optimized for having low-powered bare-metal microcontrollers communicate in a network by sending packets of data to and from eachother. These packets have the ability to interrupt and raise event flags and trigger thread executions on a remote system also running snOS.

Setting up snOS for you environment is as simple as writing a couple of port subroutines.

Layer 1: The Physical Layer

    |--------|                           |--------|
    |   uC   |<----/SERIAL HARDWARE/---->|   uC   |                           
    |--------|             ^             |--------|
                           |
                           |------------> ...other controllers

In this layer of setup the controllers are connected via a serial (UART/USART at configurable baudrate) connection (wireless or wired). This can be as simple as connecting the common ground, RX, and TX pins together on a network. In the wired case, electrical considerations like line impedance must be considered by the user. Consider switching to a wireless setup like the XBee or BTLE, which can both be used on serial UART line. snOS can also be used in a singular mode where it is the only present node in a network. This mode is useful for having the controller run a simple multi-threaded soft-timed operating system for simple data aggregation and everyday microcomputer tasks.

Layer 2: The Bare Metal Bootloader

Required: snOS doesn't require much setup from the user, but a couple of port functions must be written before hand. -- todo: write timer documentation --

Optional: For the optional networking capabilities of snOS, a serial driver is required. A non-interrupt or interrupt driven UART/USART driver must be written and tested to be working on that architecture before loading on snOS. The required functions created to communicate over serial must include:

1. A single byte receiving function with the following prototype: uint8_t receive_byte(void);
2. A signle byte transmit function with the following prototype: void send_byte(uint8_t byte);

snOS thrives in a mult-sensor network environment. These sensors must of course be configured to work for a given device. The drivers for these sensors must be written, tested, and confirmed to be working in a bare-metal single-threaded control-loop environment before loading snOS onto the board.

Layer 3: The snOS Layer

Once the initializing bootloading functions that load the system drivers (interrupts, serial, and sensors) are called, a sequence of snOS calls must be executed in the following order:

1. snos_initialize() -- initializes the data structures used by snOS

2. snOSError snos_new_task(snOSError (*task_handler)(void), snOSTaskRunType process_type) -- creates a new "task" A task is simply a thread entry function. Tasks should be small, not really on hard timing, use static memory to retain any data that must be preserved. The prototype of a task is as follows: snOSError task_handler_name(void);

   The process_type parameter allows you to either have the task:

   1. RUN_FOREVER - runs the task as often as possible over and over in the main control loop of the processor
   2. RUN_ONCE - run the task just once; probably an initialization. Note: this disallows a packet to request this task
   3. RUN_ON_REQUEST - only runs the task when the task is requested either from an external process (received packet), or by another thread task.

   The number of tasks on a system is only limited by the memory of the microcontroller snOS is running on, so repeat this step as desired.

3. (optional -- required if using snOS Connect - the sensor node component) From within a task handler function definition, call: snos_connect_initialize_channel(snOSTask *handler,uint8_t (*packet_byte_receiver)(void),void (*packet_byte_transmitter)(uint8_t)); handler - the task handler pointer returned by snos_task_id() packet_byte_receiver/packet_byte_transmitter - a pointer to the serial byte receive/transmit function defined in Layer 2

   Then call snos_connect_start()

4. After setting up the snOS layer, simply call: snos_start() The system will now begin snOS and remain in this mode until reset or externally exited.

snOS Connect is the networking arm of this project that allows the embedded system running snOS to connect to other sensor nodes and to other networks like the Internet. Using snOS Connect is optional, but it is really what makes snOS a useful abstraction on an embedded system. To use this feature, a serial link must be physically established between two or more sensor nodes. A common baudrate on the UART/USART channel must be established between all nodes. As long as the correct snOS port functions have been written, the systems can now communicate and trigger events on eachother with out further hardware or port setup.

A task handler is written with the RUN FOREVER process type option to simply check the status of a sensor.

On Controller 1:

snOSError check_light_sensor(void) {
    uint16_t light_value = 0;
    
    static snOSTransceiver *light_com_channel = NULL;
    
    light_com_channel = snos_connect_initialize_channel(snos_task_id() , &(serial_get_byte), &(serial_send_byte());
    
    light_value = get_light_value(); // get_light_value() is a user-defined function to interface with a hardware light sensor
    
    if (light_value < MINIMUM_LIGHT_THRESHOLD) {
        snos_connect_send_packet(light_com_channel, TURN_ON_LIGHT_PACKET, TURN_ON_LIGHT_PACKET_SIZE);
    }
    
    return snOS_SUCCESS;
}

void main (void) {
    initialize_light_sensor();
    initialize_uart_driver(DEFAULT_BAUDRATE);
    
    snos_initialize();
    
    if (snos_new_task(&check_light_sensor, RUN_FOREVER) != snOS_SUCCESS) {
        while(1); // hang on error
    }
    
    snos_connect_start();
    snos_start();
    
    for(;;) {
        // do nothing
    }
}

On Controller 2:

snOSError turn_on_led(void) {
    static bool init = false;
    static snOSTransceiver *led_com_channel = NULL;
    light_com_channel = snos_connect_initialize_channel(snos_task_id() , &(serial_get_byte), &(serial_send_byte());
    
    if (init) {
        led_on(); // turns on an external LED
    }
    
    init = true;
    return snOS_SUCCESS;
}

void main (void) {
    initialize_leds();
    initialize_uart_driver(DEFAULT_BAUDRATE);
    
    snos_initialize();
    
    if (snos_new_task(&turn_on_led, RUN_ON_REQUEST) != snOS_SUCCESS) {
        while(1); // hang on error
    }
    
    snos_connect_start();
    snos_start();
    
    for(;;) {
        // do nothing
    }
}

Now when a significant light event is triggered on controller 1, a packet is formed and sent to controller 2. The packet will then be internally process on controller 2, and the turn_on_led task will be executed on controller 2. The LED attatched to controller 2 will then turn on.

                    |-----------------|                    |-------------------|
                    |   CONTROLLER 1  |<-----(PACKET)----->|   CONTROLLER 2    |                           
    Light Sensor--->| SENSOR TRIGGERS |                    |  PACKET RECEIVED  |
                    |   EVENT FROM    |                    | TRIGGERS A THREAD |---(Turn On)-->LED
                    |   ITS HANDLER   |                    |    TO EXECUTE     |
                    |-----------------|                    |-------------------|

I have successfully used snOS on:

Atmel AVR Atmega 328P - I will provide the complete port soon in this repository

- (in progress) test multi-node network with several threads and test collisions
- test on the MEGA
- test on a PIC32
- time thread switching
- time packet trigger switching
- measure memory usage in RAM/ROM
- (in development) create an embedded linux client that can aggregate snOS network data to push to the cloud

If you'd like to contribuate a change to this project:

1. Fork this project to your account.
2. Create a branch for the change you intend to make.
3. Make your changes to your fork.
4. Send a pull request from your fork’s branch to our master branch.

GNU GPLv3.

snOS was created by Sargis S Yonan in 2017