Re: Reconnecting to mysql connector

[Noam Parness]

Here's another update:
I ran into problems last night again. The arduino stopped suddenly when I went to look at it - perhaps it got a static zap when I discharged myself to a piece of metal connected to the common ground pin (on my breadboard). I might need a diode between the Arduino and the common ground, and then another tie between the common ground and a "good" ground (like the case of the PC).

I restarted the Arduino, and then tested unplugging the Ethernet cable. It went into a crazy loop where it kept printing "Be" over and over again (probably the start of one of my "Begin" debugging prints). I had to reset it again. I moved the network cable from my rotuer to my switch, and it ran for a a short while before hanging again (in the wait_for_client() function). I moved it back to the router, and it ran for the whole night (stopping mysteriously at about 10:00 this morning - but I won't know more until I get home tonight).

I can't test code on the Arduino today from work, but I can try to see if changes to the code and libraries will at least compile.

I found a suggestion to add the line "client.setTimeout(500);" after my "Ethernet.begin(mac....)" line, but that doesn't compile (it complains that "'client' wasn't declared in this scope"). I added the line "EthernetClient client;" between the two lines, and that compiled, but I'm wondering what will happen since mysql.h also contains the "EthernetClient client;" line.

I tried putting the "client.setTiemout(500);" into the mysql.h, right after the "EthernetClient client" line, but it doesn't want to compile there, complaining "ISO C++ forbids declaration of 'client' with no type".

Next, I tried putting it into mysql.cpp, right after "connected = client.connect(server, port);" This compiled without complaining, but I can't test if that helps anything until I get home this evening.

If this doesn't help, I don't know what else I can try.

The program cycles every 10 seconds (collecting the data, sending it over serial to two other slave units to display, and also sending to the DB). Ideally, I would like to check that it has an Ethernet connection and reconnect if it doesn't), and then that it can reach the MySQL server (and reconnect if it can't) before I try to write to the database. If either reconnect fails, I want it to just skip writing to the database, and try again on the net cycle. That way, the slave units will keep functioning, even if the logging part is broken.
The main unit doesn't get any confirmation from the slave units - the communication is one-way. That's really what I want for the database, too - but I don't that isn't easily done.