spaxel/PROGRESS.md

Spaxel Implementation Progress

Phase 1 — Foundation

Goal: Bare-minimum loop from ESP32 to browser. Zero-config with passive radar and mDNS from day one.

Status

Item	Status	Notes
ESP32 firmware skeleton	Done	See iteration 2 below
Passive radar support	Done	BSSID filter in csi.c
BLE scanning	Done	Core 0 concurrent with WiFi
Mothership WebSocket ingestion	Done	See iteration 1 below
Dashboard skeleton	Done	See iteration 3 below
Docker packaging	Done	See iteration 4 below

Iteration Log

Iteration 4 — 2026-03-26

Completed: Docker packaging

Implemented container deployment with:

• Dockerfile: Multi-stage build for minimal production image

  • Stage 1: golang:1.23-bookworm builder with module caching
  • Stage 2: distroless/static-debian12:nonroot runtime (no shell, runs as UID 65532)
  • CGO_ENABLED=0 build (pure-Go SQLite compatible)
  • Dashboard static files copied to /dashboard/
  • Firmware directory as volume mount point (/firmware/)
  • Built-in healthcheck via wget

• docker-compose.yml: Production-ready orchestration

  • network_mode: host for mDNS multicast discovery (required for ESP32 nodes)
  • Volume mounts: spaxel-data for persistence, ./firmware for OTA binaries
  • Environment variables: TZ, mDNS config, optional MQTT
  • Resource limits: 512m RAM, 2 CPUs (scalable to 1g for 16+ nodes)
  • 35s stop_grace_period for graceful shutdown
  • Ulimits: 4096/8192 file descriptors for node connections
  • Traefik labels (disabled by default, enable for TLS/proxy)

• Supporting files:

  • VERSION — 0.1.0 for image tagging
  • .dockerignore — Excludes docs, build artifacts, IDE files

Key design decisions:

• Host networking is REQUIRED for mDNS — Docker bridge blocks multicast 224.0.0.251
• distroless image minimizes attack surface (no shell, no package manager)
• Firmware binaries not bundled — users mount their own /firmware volume
• Traefik labels included but disabled — enable for production TLS

Files created:

Dockerfile
docker-compose.yml
VERSION
.dockerignore

Phase 1 Status: COMPLETE

All Phase 1 items implemented:

• ✅ ESP32 firmware skeleton
• ✅ Passive radar support
• ✅ BLE scanning
• ✅ Mothership WebSocket ingestion
• ✅ Dashboard skeleton
• ✅ Docker packaging

Next: Phase 2 — Signal Processing (baseline, deltaRMS, Fresnel zones)

Iteration 3 — 2026-03-26

Completed: Dashboard skeleton with 3D visualization

Implemented the web dashboard in vanilla JS + Three.js with:

• Static file structure: dashboard/ directory with HTML/JS

  • index.html — Dark theme UI with status bar, node/link panels, amplitude chart
  • js/app.js — Main application (~350 lines)

• 3D Scene (Three.js):

  • Ground grid (10×10m, 20 divisions)
  • OrbitControls for pan/zoom/rotate with damping
  • Axes helper for orientation
  • Responsive canvas with devicePixelRatio support
  • FPS counter in status bar

• WebSocket connection (/ws/dashboard):

  • Auto-reconnect with 3s backoff
  • JSON message handling for state, node events, link events
  • Binary CSI frame parsing (24-byte header + I/Q payload)
  • Connection status indicator (green/red dot)

• Node/Link panels:

  • Live list of connected nodes with MAC, firmware, chip
  • Active links with node:peer MAC pairs
  • Click-to-select for amplitude chart display

• Amplitude chart (Canvas 2D):

  • 64-bar visualization of subcarrier amplitudes
  • Real-time update from selected link's CSI frames
  • Color gradient based on amplitude intensity
  • Channel and RSSI display overlay

• Dashboard package (Go):

  • internal/dashboard/hub.go — Hub for client management and broadcasting
  • internal/dashboard/server.go — WebSocket handler with ping/pong keepalive
  • internal/dashboard/hub_test.go — 5 tests for hub operations
  • IngestionState interface for querying node/link state
  • CSIBroadcaster interface implementation

• Main.go updates:

  • Static file serving with SPA fallback
  • Dashboard WebSocket endpoint at /ws/dashboard
  • Auto-discovery of dashboard directory
  • Wiring between ingestion and dashboard packages

Dependencies used (frontend):

• Three.js r128 (CDN)
• OrbitControls (CDN)

Tests: 5 new tests for dashboard hub. All 27 tests pass.

Files created:

dashboard/
├── index.html
└── js/
    └── app.js

mothership/internal/dashboard/
├── hub.go
├── hub_test.go
└── server.go

Remaining for Phase 1:

• Docker packaging

Iteration 2 — 2026-03-26

Completed: ESP32-S3 firmware skeleton

Implemented the full ESP32 firmware in ESP-IDF C with:

• Project structure: Standard ESP-IDF layout with firmware/ root

  • Top-level CMakeLists.txt, sdkconfig.defaults, partitions.csv (factory + OTA slots)
  • main/ component with 5 source modules

• State machine (main.c): 7-state node lifecycle

  • BOOT → WIFI_CONNECTING → MOTHERSHIP_DISCOVERY → CONNECTED
  • Degraded states: WIFI_LOST, MOTHERSHIP_UNAVAILABLE, CAPTIVE_PORTAL
  • Exponential backoff on WiFi failures (1s → 30s max)
  • 10-failure threshold before captive portal

• WiFi module (wifi.c/h):

  • STA connection with exponential backoff
  • mDNS discovery for _spaxel._tcp.local with fallback to cached IP
  • Captive portal AP mode (spaxel-XXXX) with HTTP config page
  • Event-driven connection state via FreeRTOS event group

• WebSocket client (websocket.c/h):

  • Bidirectional communication on single connection
  • Binary CSI frame transmission (24-byte header + I/Q payload)
  • JSON message handling: hello, health, ble, ota_status upstream
  • Downstream command parsing: role, config, ota, reboot, identify, reject
  • OTA download task with progress reporting and automatic reboot

• CSI capture (csi.c/h):

  • WiFi promiscuous mode with CSI callback
  • Queue-based processing (32-frame buffer)
  • Passive mode BSSID filtering for radar
  • On-device amplitude variance tracking for motion hints (Welford's algorithm)
  • TX task for active probing

• BLE scanner (ble.c/h):

  • Passive BLE scanning on Core 0 (concurrent with WiFi)
  • Device cache (60 entries) with name and manufacturer data parsing
  • 5-second reporting interval via WebSocket
  • GAP event handling for advertisement processing

• NVS persistence: Full schema with 15 keys

  • WiFi credentials, node ID/token, mothership config
  • Role/rate persistence for degraded mode operation
  • Schema versioning for migration support

Files created:

firmware/
├── CMakeLists.txt
├── sdkconfig.defaults
├── partitions.csv
└── main/
    ├── CMakeLists.txt
    ├── spaxel.h
    ├── main.c
    ├── wifi.h / wifi.c
    ├── websocket.h / websocket.c
    ├── csi.h / csi.c
    └── ble.h / ble.c

Remaining for Phase 1:

• Dashboard skeleton (HTML/JS + Three.js)
• Docker packaging

Iteration 1 — 2026-03-26

Completed: Mothership WebSocket ingestion server

Implemented the core ingestion server in Go with:

• Module structure: mothership/ with cmd/mothership/ entrypoint and internal/ingestion/ package
• WebSocket endpoint: /ws/node accepts bidirectional connections from ESP32 nodes
• Binary frame parsing: 24-byte header + variable payload, per spec in plan.md
  • Validation: min/max length, payload size match, channel validity (1-14), subcarrier limit (128)
  • Malformed frame tracking with warn/close thresholds (100/1000 per minute)
• JSON message handling: Parses hello, health, ble, motion_hint, ota_status
• Per-link ring buffers: 256-sample circular buffers keyed by nodeMAC:peerMAC
• Connection lifecycle: Node registration via hello, ping/pong keepalive (30s/60s), graceful shutdown
• mDNS advertisement: _spaxel._tcp.local via github.com/hashicorp/mdns
• Role/config push: Sends initial rx role and 20 Hz config on connect
• Health endpoint: GET /healthz returns {"status":"ok","version":"..."}

Dependencies used:

• github.com/go-chi/chi — HTTP routing
• github.com/gorilla/websocket — WebSocket server
• github.com/hashicorp/mdns — mDNS advertisement

Tests: 22 tests covering frame parsing, JSON messages, and ring buffer operations. All pass.

Files created:

mothership/
├── cmd/mothership/main.go
├── go.mod
├── go.sum
└── internal/ingestion/
    ├── frame.go
    ├── frame_test.go
    ├── message.go
    ├── message_test.go
    ├── ring.go
    ├── ring_test.go
    └── server.go