rdm-card-reader/LAUNCH.md

LAUNCH.md — starting the app, and why it fails on this host

TL;DR

This host (development, x86_64) has no card reader attached. Failure is expected and correct. To see the app work without hardware, use --demo:

.venv/bin/python -m rdm_card_reader --demo

To see the reader path end-to-end without hardware, drive a pseudo-terminal pretending to be an RDM6300 — see Testing the reader path without a reader below.

---

Quick start

Build the virtualenv once, from the wheels bundled in the source tree — no network needed:

python3 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/pip install --no-index \
    --find-links src/rdm_card_reader/wheels rdm6300 pyserial
echo "$PWD/src" > "$(.venv/bin/python -c \
    'import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_paths()["purelib"])')/rdm_card_reader_src.pth"

For the status LED, add gpiozero colorzero to the same pip install line.

Then, from the project root:

.venv/bin/python -m rdm_card_reader --demo           # simulate a card, no hardware
.venv/bin/python -m rdm_card_reader --list-ports     # what serial ports exist
.venv/bin/python -m rdm_card_reader                  # real reader (fails here)
.venv/bin/python -m rdm_card_reader --serve          # HTTP bridge for a web page

That is the whole install: the runtime libraries come from the bundled wheels and src/ is on the path via the .pth file. pip install . also works, but only with network — it builds the project. See Troubleshooting below.

---

Troubleshooting install

"Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement setuptools>=68"

Seen when running deploy/install.sh on a Pi with no internet, at the "Building the virtual environment" step:

ERROR: Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement setuptools>=68
       (from versions: none)
ERROR: No matching distribution found for setuptools>=68

Cause: pip install . builds the project. pip creates an isolated build environment and downloads the build backend (setuptools) into it — even though the runtime libraries are already sitting in the wheel directory. With no network that download cannot happen.

It is not a problem with the bundled wheels, and not a Python version mismatch. Two separate confusions produce a similar-looking error:

Situation	Error
Build isolation, no network	Could not find a version ... setuptools>=68
--no-build-isolation, and setuptools absent	Cannot import 'setuptools.build_meta'

Note that Python 3.12+ venvs no longer include setuptools, so the second case is increasingly common.

Fix: the current install.sh avoids the build entirely — it installs the bundled runtime wheels and puts src/ on the path with a .pth file. If you are on an older copy, update it (git pull) or run these by hand on the Pi:

python3 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/pip install --no-index \
    --find-links src/rdm_card_reader/wheels rdm6300 pyserial
SITE=$(.venv/bin/python -c 'import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_paths()["purelib"])')
echo "$PWD/src" > "$SITE/rdm_card_reader_src.pth"
.venv/bin/python -m rdm_card_reader --demo     # verify, no hardware needed

No build step, no network, and the same result.

"Could not create the virtualenv"

On Debian and Raspberry Pi OS, python3 -m venv needs the python3-venv package:

sudo apt-get install python3-venv

apt-get failing on the first step

apt-get update and apt-get install need the network. The installer now treats both as best-effort and continues, because a device typically already has python3. If they fail and something really is missing, install it while online and re-run.

---

What happens on this host, and why

--list-ports works fine

$ .venv/bin/python -m rdm_card_reader --list-ports --verbose-ports
Candidate serial ports (tried in this order):
   OK  /dev/ttyS0
   --- /dev/ttyAMA0
   --- /dev/ttyUSB0
   --- /dev/ttyACM0

Identified serial ports (best candidate first):
   [score   5] /dev/ttyS0  ::  n/a
       by-id     : (none)
       by-path   : (none)
       location  : (unknown)
       usb id    : (not USB)
       driver    : (unknown)

Two things to read from this:

• OK /dev/ttyS0 — the device node exists, but existence is not proof of a working reader. This container has a UART node with no hardware behind it.
• score 5 and (not USB) — nothing here looks like a USB-serial adapter. A real reader scores 60–100 and shows a chip name (CH340, FT232R, …).

Starting the reader fails

$ .venv/bin/python -m rdm_card_reader
-> Opening /dev/ttyS0 ...
-> Opening /dev/ttyAMA0 ...
-> Opening /dev/ttyUSB0 ...
-> Opening /dev/ttyACM0 ...
   x /dev/ttyS0: Could not configure port: (5, 'Input/output error')
   x /dev/ttyAMA0: device not found
   x /dev/ttyUSB0: device not found
   x /dev/ttyACM0: device not found

x Could not open any serial port. Check:
   1. the reader is connected (rdm-card-reader --list-ports)
   2. UART is enabled: sudo raspi-config -> Interface Options -> Serial
   3. the user is in dialout: sudo usermod -aG dialout $USER

This is the correct outcome. Note the distinct error for /dev/ttyS0: Input/output error (errno 5) means the node exists but the underlying hardware does not answer — different from device not found for the ports that do not exist at all. The app reports which is which rather than a generic failure.

--autodetect also fails, as designed

With no USB adapter present there is nothing to autodetect, so it falls through to the default port order and fails the same way. Crucially, it refuses to guess when several adapters are present (exit 3) — picking the wrong reader means authenticating the wrong person, so ambiguity is an error rather than a coin flip.

--demo works, because it touches no hardware

$ .venv/bin/python -m rdm_card_reader --demo --demo-count 1
Demo mode - no hardware is used, values are simulated.

----------------------------------------------------------
 CARD INSERTED - 2026-10-01 15:53:10
    id        : 439041101   (0x1A2B3C4D)
    type      : 0x0F
    checksum  : 79
    valid     : True
    port      : demo
----------------------------------------------------------
 CARD REMOVED  - 2026-10-01 15:53:11  id: 439041101 (0x1A2B3C4D)

Demo finished.

--demo needs neither the hardware nor the rdm6300 library, so it is the fastest way to confirm the build is sane.

---

How the app starts

flowchart TD
    A["rdm-card-reader<br/>(console script → cli:main)"] --> B{which mode?}
    B -->|--list-ports| P["print ports, exit 0"]
    B -->|--demo| D["simulated cards, no hardware"]
    B -->|--serve or plain| C["1. ensure libraries"]
    C --> C1{"rdm6300 importable?"}
    C1 -->|yes| E
    C1 -->|no| C2["install from bundled wheels<br/>(--no-index, SHA256 verified)"]
    C2 --> C3["reload_library()<br/>re-import rdm6300"]
    C3 -->|still missing| X2["exit 2"]
    C3 -->|ok| E["2. resolve the serial port"]
    E --> E1{"--port given?"}
    E1 -->|yes| E2["match it; refuse if ambiguous<br/>→ exit 3"]
    E1 -->|no| E3["--autodetect: only a single USB adapter<br/>else fall back to default order"]
    E2 --> F
    E3 --> F["3. open the port"]
    F -->|all ports fail| X1["exit 1"]
    F --> G["4. reader.start() — blocking read loop"]
    G --> H{"mode"}
    H -->|plain| I["print each card event"]
    H -->|--serve| J["latch the tap in the EventHub"]
    J --> K["HTTP server on 127.0.0.1:8765"]
    K --> L["web page polls /api/card<br/>and claims it once"]

The numbered stages, and where each lives:

#	Stage	Code	On failure
1	Ensure rdm6300 + pyserial	bootstrap.ensure_dependencies()	exit 2
2	Resolve which serial port	ports.resolve()	exit 1 (none), exit 3 (ambiguous)
3	Open the port	reader.open_reader()	exit 1
4	Read frames forever	rdm6300.BaseReader.start()	—
5	Publish events	card.format_event() or bridge.EventHub	—

Stages 1 and 2 are deliberately fail-fast and loud. A reader that starts up having silently picked the wrong port, or without its library, is worse than one that refuses to start — the first failure mode is invisible until someone authenticates as the wrong person.

Stage 1 in detail: dependency install

The rdm6300 and pyserial wheels are shipped inside the package (rdm_card_reader/wheels/), so this works on a device with no internet:

Reader library not found - checking dependencies...
Missing reader dependencies: rdm6300
Using the wheels bundled with this package:
   .../site-packages/rdm_card_reader/wheels
Installing from .../rdm_card_reader/wheels
Dependencies ready: rdm6300

Nothing is installed when the libraries are already importable, so a normal start does no network work and no pip call at all. The install uses --no-index and verifies SHA256SUMS first; a wheel that fails its checksum is refused rather than installed.

reload_library() matters here: the module-level import rdm6300 already ran and failed at process start, so without re-importing, a successful install would still look like a missing library.

Stage 4 in detail: reading is not polling

The reader loop blocks on serial reads and the library calls back when it assembles a valid frame. Nothing here polls. The web page polls (or subscribes to SSE) — a different thing, and worth keeping straight.

A card is reported on insert and again on removal; the library de-duplicates repeated reads while the card sits on the antenna, so you do not get a stream of repeats. Removal is detected by a --heartbeat (default 0.5s) of silence.

---

Exit codes

Code	Meaning	Seen on this host?
0	Ran normally, or stopped with Ctrl+C	with --demo, --list-ports
1	No serial port could be opened	yes — this is the expected result here
2	rdm6300 missing and could not be installed	only if offline and wheels tampered
3	Port selector matched several adapters (refused to guess)	needs 2+ adapters

When testing with a pipe, remember head closes the pipe early and the shell then reports 128+SIGPIPE. Redirect to a file instead if you want the real code: … > out.txt 2>&1; echo $?

---

When a reader is attached

On the Raspberry Pi the same command should end with a ready line rather than an error:

-> Using /dev/rdm-reader (matched /dev/serial/by-id/usb-1a86_USB_Serial-if00-port0)
   OK reader on /dev/rdm-reader ; bridge on http://127.0.0.1:8765 (mode: login)

Then compare this host against the Pi:

	this host (development)	Raspberry Pi with reader
Architecture	x86_64	armv7l / aarch64
Reader	none	RDM6300 on USB-serial or UART
/dev/ttyUSB*	absent	present
--list-ports score	5, (not USB)	60–100, e.g. CH340 1a86:7523
/dev/rdm-reader	absent	udev symlink
Serial access group	n/a	user must be in dialout
Expected rdm-card-reader	exit 1	stays running

For a real device, deploy/install.sh sets all of this up:

sudo ./deploy/install.sh --origin https://your.web.app
journalctl -u rdm-card-reader -f
curl http://127.0.0.1:8765/api/card     # tap a card first

The installer needs no internet: the runtime libraries ship inside the source tree (src/rdm_card_reader/wheels/).

Copying the project to the Pi

install.sh resolves its source directory from its own location, so copy the whole tree (including src/ — that is where the wheels live) and run it from there:

# from this machine
scp -r rdm-card-reader pi@192.168.0.123:~/Desktop/

# on the Pi
cd ~/Desktop/rdm-card-reader
sudo ./deploy/install.sh --origin https://your.web.app

If you transferred only a subset of the tree, --dir can point the install somewhere else, but src/ must be present or the wheels will be missing.

---

Testing the reader path without a reader

Because the app talks plain serial, a pseudo-terminal is enough to exercise the whole chain: write real RDM6300 frames into a PTY and watch the printed events.

To hand-feed a single frame yourself:

import os, pty, struct, subprocess, sys, time

def frame(value, card_type=0x0F):
    id_bytes = struct.pack(">I", value)
    checksum = card_type
    for b in id_bytes:
        checksum ^= b
    return (bytes([card_type]) + id_bytes + bytes([checksum])).hex().upper().encode()

master, slave = pty.openpty()
port = os.ttyname(slave)
proc = subprocess.Popen([sys.executable, "-u", "-m", "rdm_card_reader", "--port", port])
time.sleep(2)                       # let the child open the port FIRST
os.write(master, b"\x02" + frame(0x00C4A0B5) + b"\x03")
time.sleep(1)
proc.terminate()

Two traps worth knowing, both of which cost me a debugging cycle:

• Send the frame after the child has opened the port. A PTY buffers, so frames written too early are discarded and it looks like a reader bug.
• Read the child's stdout from a thread. With text-mode buffered pipes, select() will not report the data even though it is there.

Frame layout, since it is easy to get wrong: the 12 hex nibbles are type, id, checksum, and the checksum is the XOR of the type byte and all four id bytes — not the id bytes alone.