Running multiple FreeMASTER PC application instances

[nicolas_salazar]

Hi, 

I think it is possible but just to check before trying it in the lab (corona times):

Has anyone tried running multiple instances of the FreeMASTER PC application on the same PC in such a way that each of them can communicate via serial with one embedded board running the FreeMASTER v2 driver?

What limitations did you find?

I'm planning to do so with 6 embedded boards. 

Regards,

Nicolas S.

[MichalH · Accepted solution]

Dear Nicolas,

yes this should be possible. Each FreeMASTER will connect using a different serial port to a different board, so there is going to be no conflict. 

There is even an option to create a dashboard page in HTML/JavaScript which will be able to collect data from all running instances and display them in a single page. 

• In case of JSON-RPC interface, each instance needs to be started with different JSON-RPC server port. Use /rpcs N command-line option when running the FreeMASTER.
• When using ActiveX/COM+ interface, you can leverage a special "MultiMaster" object which is able to manage all running instances too.

Let me know if you face any issues when running multiple instances or if you need more details on the JSON-RPC or ActiveX/COM+ control API.

Regards,
Michal

[Ahmed_Abd_El-Hafez]

Dear MichaIH,

Can you please tell me how to create one single dashboard in html and java script that can collect data from all  the multiple freemaster instances and control all connected boards? 

[MichalH]

Dear Ahmed, 

you are writing to a already "solved" thread. It might be better to start a new one, so we can track the resolution. Also please describe if you focus an ActiveX or JSON-RPC communication between the JScript and FreeMASTER and if you have any prior experience with creating a dashboards.

Thanks,
Michal

[Ahmed_Abd_El-Hafez]

OK, I will start a new thread.

[UserTetraWise]

Dear MichalH,

Thank you for your support in this community. I have a question hope you can answer it.

I am using FreeMaster Lite and wanted to connect and communicate with JSON-RPC on multiple boards. I tried recently on this and got this response message before closing

"Uncaught Exception
Service name is already in use on the network "

Could you guide is there anyway to open multiple FreeMaster Lite server instances. Thank you.

Best Regards,

Gohith

[iulian_stan]

Hi Gohith,

Your issue is most likely cased by the "bonjour" service. This services are registered with unique name that make then identifiable on the network. Please update you configurations ("bonjour" property) such that each FreeMASTER Lite instances uses a unique name.

Note: "bonjour" is not a mandatory property. You can remove it in which case FreeMASTER Lite will not try to register any "bonjour" service and there won't any conflicts.

Hope this helps,
Iulian

[UserTetraWise]

Hello Iulian Stan,

Thank you very much for your quick response, It saved time and worked. Have a great week ahead.

Best Regards,

Gohith

[nicolas_salazar]

Hi Michal,

Thanks for your reply. I confirm that it is possible to connect to several instances of the FreeMASTER PC app through different serial ports in a single PC. I had the chance to do it with 6 embedded boards and run some manual tests on them.

I will definitely look into creating a common dashboard based on JSON-RPC for automating my tests. Can you suggest an application note/resource for getting started?

Regards,

Nicolas. 

[MichalH]

Dear Nicolas,

to get some introduction on the JSON-RPC interfacing to FreeMASTER, please take a look at two video trainings at our training portal. Just enter "freemaster JSON-RPC" as a search term. One video targets the FreeMASTER desktop application, the other targets the FreeMASTER Lite service. Both should give you some general understanding of FreeMASTERs interfacing from 3rd party applications.

The FreeMASTER installation contains a User Guide with JSON-RPC API reference and also some basic code examples.

Also, plese note that FreeMASTER 3.1 is going to be released soon and it provides additional options for 3rd party NodeJS/JavaScript applications to connect to FreeMASTER.

Thank you for using FreeMASTER.

Regards,
Michal