Elodin Smoke-Test & Fake-Data Setup

How to bring up an Elodin database and push data into it without real hardware, so you can verify the Elodin side of the pipeline and inspect data in the editor.

The standalone "groundstation GUI" (groundstation/ground_station_elodin_gui.py) and the send_fake_pt / test_fsw_simulator helpers referenced by older versions of this guide are no longer part of the tree. The supported fake-data path today is the board simulator → daq_bridge → Elodin stack and the web GUI.

Option A — Full fake-data stack (recommended)

Brings up Elodin DB, daq_bridge, the board simulator, and the web backend/GUI:

cd /path/to/STAR/daq-server
./deploy/startup/start_fake_data_stack.sh

Pipeline: sim/board_simulator.py → UDP :5006 → build/bin/daq_bridge → Elodin DB (:2240) → backend → web UI. The simulator emits DiabloAvionics-format heartbeats and sensor data, so the whole server path exercises real parsing, routing, and calibration.

For the full dev stack (all services in tmux) with the simulator enabled:

USE_SIM=1 ./deploy/startup/start_tmux_dev.sh

Option B — Just an Elodin DB

To stand up only the database (e.g. to point the editor or an ad-hoc client at it):

cd /path/to/STAR/daq-server
./test/test_elodin_groundstation.sh 2240 test_groundstation

This:

• starts elodin-db on port 2240,
• creates the database at ~/.local/share/elodin/test_groundstation,
• runs until Ctrl+C.

Arguments are <db_port> <db_name> (defaults 2240 / test_groundstation).

Inspecting data in the Elodin editor

elodin editor ~/.local/share/elodin/test_groundstation
# or, for the fake-data stack DB:
elodin editor ~/.local/share/elodin/daq_fake

In the editor you can watch the per-board, per-channel tables update live (PT1.CH3, PT1_Cal.CH3, ACT4.CH5, …; see web-gui/DATA_FLOW.md for the entity/packet-ID scheme), and query historical data.

Validation checklist

• Sensor data flowing: with the fake stack running, raw and calibrated PT tables grow with increasing timestamps in the editor, and the web UI plots update.
• Calibration: *_Cal.* tables populate, confirming calibration_service is reading RAW and writing CALIBRATED.
• Commands: state transitions from the UI reach boards via the sequencer's TCP control path (see ACTUATOR_PIPELINE_AND_TMUX.md).

Debugging

# Is the DB up?
ps aux | grep elodin-db
ss -tuln | grep 2240
 
# Does the DB dir exist?
ls -la ~/.local/share/elodin/
 
# Stack logs (fake-data stack writes to /tmp)
tail -f /tmp/elodin_fake.log /tmp/daq_fake.log

If sensor data is not appearing, confirm the board simulator is running and the daq_bridge is bound to :5006; see ADC_AND_ELODIN_DIAGNOSTICS.md.

See also

• web-gui/DATA_FLOW.md — full data-flow architecture and packet IDs.
• ADC_AND_ELODIN_DIAGNOSTICS.md — diagnosing data that doesn't reach Elodin.
• Elodin documentation: https://elodin.dev