SmartPi Testing & Deployment

Testing Suite Overview

The SmartPi Assistant includes a comprehensive automated testing suite to verify all system components function correctly. The test suite covers device firmware, bridge server, and end-to-end integration testing.

Test Philosophy

Our testing approach follows a bottom-up strategy, starting with the hardware endpoints and progressively testing higher-level abstractions:

Device Level — Test Raspberry Pi Pico W HTTP endpoints directly
Bridge Level — Verify MCP bridge server functionality
Integration Level — Test n8n workflow and LLM integration
System Level — Validate complete end-to-end data flow

Test Scripts

🔌 test_pico_endpoint.py

Purpose: Tests the Raspberry Pi Pico W device endpoints directly

What it tests:

Device network reachability
Status endpoint (/status)
Message posting (single and batch)
Theme variations (calendar, email, weather, slack, neutral)
Priority sorting (urgent, important, normal)
Message text wrapping for 64×64 display
Queue clearing (/clear)
Error handling and timeout behavior

Requirements:

SmartPi device powered on and connected to WiFi
Python 3.8+ with requests library
Correct device IP address

Usage:

# Install requirements
pip install requests

# Update IP in script (default: 192.168.1.100)
python test_pico_endpoint.py

# Or pass IP as argument
python test_pico_endpoint.py 192.168.1.230

Expected Output:

SmartPi Pico W Endpoint Test Suite
Device URL: http://192.168.1.100
Note: Watch the SmartPi display during tests

Testing: Device Reachability
✓ Device is reachable at http://192.168.1.100

Testing: Single Message
✓ Single message posted successfully
⚠ Check SmartPi display to verify message appears

Testing: Batch Messages
✓ Batch of 3 messages posted successfully

Testing: Theme Variations
✓ All 5 themes tested successfully

Testing: Priority Sorting
✓ Messages sorted by priority correctly

...

Total: 9/9 tests passed
All tests passed! ✓

🌉 test_bridge.py

Purpose: Tests the MCP Bridge Server functionality

What it tests:

Bridge server health and availability
MCP manifest endpoint (/.well-known/mcp.json)
MCP tool calls (push_messages, get_status, clear_queue)
Direct push endpoint (/push)
Error handling and retry logic
Connection to SmartPi device

Requirements:

Bridge server must be running (python smartpi_mcp_server.py)
Python 3.8+ with requests library
SmartPi device accessible from bridge

Usage:

# Install requirements
pip install requests

# Run tests (default: http://localhost:5055)
python test_bridge.py

# Test bridge at different URL
python test_bridge.py http://192.168.1.50:5055

Expected Output:

Testing: Bridge Health Check
✓ Bridge is healthy
  Bridge: online
  Device: http://192.168.1.100 (reachable)

Testing: MCP Manifest Endpoint
✓ Manifest returned successfully
  Tools available: 3

Testing: MCP Tool: push_messages
✓ Messages pushed successfully
  Message count: 2
  Device response: ok

Testing: Direct Push Endpoint
✓ Direct push successful

...

Total: 7/7 tests passed
All tests passed! ✓

💻 test_smartpi.sh

Purpose: Quick shell script for manual testing

What it does:

Checks device status
Sends test message
Sends themed messages (calendar, email, weather)
Uses curl for simple HTTP testing

Requirements:

curl command available
python3 for JSON pretty-printing
SmartPi device accessible

Usage:

# Update PICO_IP in script first
./test_smartpi.sh

# Or edit inline
PICO_IP="192.168.1.100:5000" bash test_smartpi.sh

System Setup & Configuration

Prerequisites

Hardware: Assembled SmartPi with Raspberry Pi Pico W, LED matrix, and power supply
Network: WiFi network with DHCP (for Pico W)
Software: Python 3.8+, pip, git
Accounts: n8n Cloud account (or self-hosted n8n), Google Gemini API key

Configuration Steps

Device Setup

Flash CircuitPython firmware to Pico W and configure WiFi credentials in secrets.py

secrets = {
  "ssid": "YourWiFi",
  "password": "password"
}

Bridge Server

Install dependencies and configure environment variables

pip install -r requirements.txt

# Create .env file
SMARTPI_DEVICE_URL=http://192.168.1.100

Network Tunnel

Start ngrok tunnel for cloud-to-local communication

ngrok http 5055

# Note the https URL
# e.g. https://abc123.ngrok-free.app

n8n Workflow

Import workflow and configure HTTP Request node with ngrok URL

# In n8n HTTP Request node:
URL: https://abc123.ngrok-free.app/mcp
Method: POST

Testing Strategy

Test components in this order to isolate issues efficiently:

Recommended Testing Order

Device First — Verify Pico W is responsive
python test_pico_endpoint.py 192.168.1.100
Bridge Second — Test bridge can communicate with device
python test_bridge.py
n8n Third — Execute workflow manually in n8n UI
- Check execution logs for errors
- Verify HTTP Request node returns 200 OK
Full System Last — Schedule workflow and verify automated execution
- Wait for scheduled execution
- Check SmartPi display updates
- Verify message rotation every 5 seconds

Troubleshooting Guide

Device Test Failures

Error	Cause	Solution
"Cannot connect to device"	Network connectivity issue	• Verify device is powered on • Check WiFi connection via serial console • Ping device: `ping 192.168.1.100` • Verify IP address is correct
"Connection timed out"	Slow network or device	• Increase `TEST_TIMEOUT` value in script • Check WiFi signal strength • Verify HTTP server is running on Pico
"Messages not displaying"	Display hardware or firmware issue	• Check serial console for errors • Verify CircuitPython is running • Check LED matrix connections • Test with simple color fill program

Bridge Test Failures

Error	Cause	Solution
"Cannot connect to bridge"	Bridge server not running	• Check if bridge is running: `ps aux \| grep smartpi` • Verify port 5055 is open: `lsof -i :5055` • Start bridge: `python smartpi_mcp_server.py`
"Device unreachable"	Bridge can't reach Pico	• Check `SMARTPI_DEVICE_URL` in `.env` file • Test direct connection: `curl http://192.168.1.100/status` • Verify both bridge and device are on same network
"Tool calls fail"	JSON format or payload issue	• Check bridge logs for details • Verify JSON payload format • Test with direct push endpoint first

Production Deployment

Running as a Service

For production deployments, run the bridge server as a systemd service:

# Create service file: /etc/systemd/system/smartpi-bridge.service
[Unit]
Description=SmartPi MCP Bridge Server
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=pi
WorkingDirectory=/home/pi/smartpi
Environment="PATH=/home/pi/smartpi/venv/bin"
ExecStart=/home/pi/smartpi/venv/bin/python smartpi_mcp_server.py
Restart=always
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable smartpi-bridge
sudo systemctl start smartpi-bridge

# Check status
sudo systemctl status smartpi-bridge

Continuous Monitoring

Set up automated testing to monitor system health:

#!/bin/bash
# monitor.sh - Run tests periodically

while true; do
    echo "=== Test run at $(date) ===" >> test_results.log
    python test_pico_endpoint.py 192.168.1.100 >> test_results.log 2>&1
    python test_bridge.py >> test_results.log 2>&1
    
    # Alert on failure
    if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
        echo "Tests failed!" | mail -s "SmartPi Alert" your@email.com
    fi
    
    sleep 3600  # Run every hour
done

Backup and Recovery

Important Files to Backup

code.py — Pico W firmware
secrets.py — WiFi credentials
.env — Bridge configuration
n8n-workflow.json — Workflow export
Bridge server code and dependencies

Backup command:

tar -czf smartpi-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz \
    code.py secrets.py .env n8n-workflow.json \
    smartpi_mcp_server.py requirements.txt

Performance Testing

Load Testing

Test device behavior under concurrent requests:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import requests
import time
import concurrent.futures

PICO_URL = "http://192.168.1.100"

def send_message(i):
    payload = {
        "messages": [{"text": f"Load test {i}", "theme": "neutral"}]
    }
    try:
        response = requests.post(
            f"{PICO_URL}/messages", 
            json=payload, 
            timeout=5
        )
        return response.status_code == 200
    except:
        return False

# Send 100 requests with 10 concurrent workers
with concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=10) as executor:
    results = list(executor.map(send_message, range(100)))
    
success_rate = sum(results) / len(results) * 100
print(f"Success rate: {success_rate:.1f}%")
print(f"Failed requests: {len(results) - sum(results)}")

Performance Metrics

Component	Metric	Typical Value
SmartPi Device	Response Time	< 100ms
SmartPi Device	Display Refresh Rate	60 FPS
MCP Bridge	Latency (local)	< 50ms
Google Gemini LLM	Summarization Time	~2 seconds
End-to-End	Workflow to Display	3-5 seconds
Message Rotation	Interval	5 seconds

Additional Resources

Documentation Links

Complete README.md — Full project documentation
Software Architecture — Detailed system design
Hardware Design — PCB and component details
Test Suite README — Testing documentation

SmartPi Testing & Deployment

Testing Suite Overview

Test Philosophy

Test Scripts

🔌 test_pico_endpoint.py

What it tests:

Requirements:

Usage:

Expected Output:

🌉 test_bridge.py

What it tests:

Requirements:

Usage:

Expected Output:

💻 test_smartpi.sh

What it does:

Requirements:

Usage:

System Setup & Configuration

Prerequisites

Configuration Steps

Device Setup

Bridge Server

Network Tunnel

n8n Workflow

Testing Strategy

Recommended Testing Order

Troubleshooting Guide

Device Test Failures

Bridge Test Failures

Production Deployment

Running as a Service

Continuous Monitoring

Backup and Recovery

Important Files to Backup

Performance Testing

Load Testing

Performance Metrics

Additional Resources

Documentation Links

External Resources