Weed Harvester Operations Manual

01 — Before You Start

What you need on the machine

Everything below is required to build and run the app from source. Items marked optional are only needed for specific features.

Hardware you'll need

Two physical items are specific to this project and worth having in hand before you start: the battery pack assembly and the RS485-to-USB adapter that bridges it to the laptop running the app.

Battery packs — the two LiFePO4 packs (Battery 1 & Battery 2) with their BMS wiring harness and balance-lead connectors.

RS485-to-USB adapter — plugs into a free USB port; the green screw-terminal block is where the battery's A/B communication lines connect.

02 — Installation

From a fresh clone to a running app

This is the exact sequence; each step depends on the one before it.

1

Clone the repository

Pick a working folder and pull the source down.

cmd

git clone https://github.com/Xovai/NP-X-NParks-control-panel.git
cd NP-X-NParks-control-panel

2

Install dependencies

The project has two package.json files: the repo root and App/. Install both.

cmd

npm install && cd App && npm install && cd ..

Note

serialport (the Battery page's RS485 connection) is a native module. If the app throws a module version-mismatch error on launch, rebuild it against Electron's Node version: cd App && npx electron-builder install-app-deps

3

Set the admin password

The app can only be closed by entering an admin password; it's read from an environment file that isn't checked into git, so you set it once per machine.

cmd

cd App
copy .env.example .env
# then open .env and set:
ADMIN_PASSWORD=your-chosen-password

Warn

Skip this and the app still launches, but the exit dialog will reject every password; you'll see a console warning on startup as a reminder. There's no other way out of the kiosk window.

4

Launch the application

The launcher starts the background weather/camera services, then the Electron app itself. If you'd rather not use the terminal, open the App folder in File Explorer and double-click start-app directly:

cmd

start-app.bat

App/ folder — start-app is the Windows Batch File; double-click it to launch.

Windows will show an unknown publisher warning the first time; this is expected for an unsigned internal tool. Click Run to continue.

03 — First Run & Login

Signing in

The app opens full-screen on the login page. Enter the standard operator credentials:

This is separate from the admin exit password configured in App/.env; login gets you into the app, and the exit password is only asked when closing it. On success you land on the Home dashboard.

The login screen, as it appears full-screen on launch.

After correct credentials, the button switches to Access Granted and redirects to Home.

04 — The Five Pages

What's in the sidebar

Navigate between pages from the left sidebar at any time; it also has a collapse toggle for a wider working view.

The sidebar is a shared component loaded into every page, so the navigation stays identical everywhere.

Home arranges the map, camera placeholder, location, and orientation panels in a responsive grid.

05 — GPS & Routing

Map, position & waypoints

The map fills the page; a floating panel on the right shows live GPS coordinates and holds the controls.

Map controls

• + / − — zoom in and out.
• The round crosshair button, bottom-left of the map, centers and zooms to your current GPS fix.
• Before a live fix arrives (or right after restarting), the map shows the last known position as a dimmed marker instead of a blank view, and swaps to the live position automatically once GPS re-acquires.

Adding waypoints

Three ways to place a waypoint, all in the Waypoint Manager card:

• By coordinates — type a name, latitude and longitude, then Add Waypoint.
• At your current position — optionally type a name, then Current Location.
• By clicking the map — type a name first (it's used for the next pin you drop), click Place Waypoint to arm it, then click anywhere on the map.

Every waypoint pin can be dragged directly on the map to fine-tune its position, and clicking a waypoint in the list (not its ×) re-centers the map on it. Waypoints persist automatically between sessions; nothing to save manually.

Online vs. offline map

By default the map uses OneMap and needs internet access. With Offline Map Fallback enabled in Settings (section 07), the app switches automatically to a locally stored map the moment it detects no internet connection, and switches back once connectivity returns; no action needed on this page either way.

06 — Battery (BMS)

Connecting to the battery hardware

This page talks directly to the battery management system over RS485; there is no separate bridge application to run first.

What's on screen

Use the Battery 1 / Battery 2 tabs to switch which pack the panels are showing; both are polled in the background regardless of which tab is active.

Cross-checking with the manufacturer's tool

If a reading looks wrong, it helps to verify it independently with BMS Tool, the battery manufacturer's own Windows diagnostic utility, connected to the same RS485 line. It shows the same registers the app reads, per battery, addressed individually:

BMS Tool, Battery 1 (Addr_01): total voltage, SOC, per-cell voltage grid, and temperatures.

BMS Tool, Battery 2 (Addr_02): same layout, second pack.

07 — Settings

Configuring the system

Four groups, top to bottom:

Serial Connection

COM Port, Baud Rate, and Update Rate — reference fields for the connected serial hardware.

Camera

Camera 1 IP — reserved for the IP camera feed (not yet active, see section 10).

Map

• Dark Mode Map — switches the online OneMap tiles to their night theme.
• Offline Map Fallback — enables automatic switching to the local offline map when there's no internet (see section 08 to install the map data it needs). The status line underneath shows whether that data is currently installed.

System & Alerts

Test Alarm plays the alert sound to confirm audio output is working.

08 — Offline Map Data

Enabling the offline fallback map

The offline map needs a local tile package that isn't included by default. The quickest way to get one:

09 — Closing the App

Exiting the kiosk window

The window has no title bar and won't close on its own; this is deliberate, so the app can't be dismissed accidentally while the boat is operating. Use the in-app exit control and enter the admin password configured in App/.env (section 02, step 3). An incorrect password shows an Access Denied dialog and the window stays open.

What you'll see if you try to close the window without the admin password.

10 — Troubleshooting

Common issues

"Access Denied" every time you try to close the app

App/.env either doesn't exist or ADMIN_PASSWORD is unset. Check the terminal the app was launched from for a startup warning, then redo section 02 step 3.

Battery page won't connect / times out

• Confirm the RS485 adapter's COM port in Windows Device Manager and re-select it with Refresh.
• Confirm the baud rate matches the hardware (default 9600).
• If the app fails to start at all with a native-module error, run the electron-builder install-app-deps command from section 02 step 2.

Settings shows "No offline map data installed yet"

The .mbtiles file described in section 08 isn't in place, or the app hasn't been restarted since adding it.

Camera page is blank

Expected for now; the camera proxy service is a placeholder and no live feed is wired up yet. This is tracked as in-progress, not a fault in your setup.

Weather figures on Home don't update

The weather dashboard reads from a local Flask service that isn't started by default outside of start-app.bat. See README.md in the repo root for running weatherdata.py and server.py directly.

Case study: only one battery is detected

11 — Quick Reference

Defaults & key locations

Credentials & hardware defaults

Key files

12 — Field Deployment & Network Test

Wireless coverage at Eco Lake

Before relying on a live camera feed on the water, the wireless link that will carry it was tested on site at Eco Lake, Singapore Botanic Gardens (Bukit Timah Core), across nine points around the lake.

Network layout

One router paired with two long-range 5GHz access points covers the lake from opposite shores; the IP camera connects to the router over a direct LAN cable, and every other client, including the test laptop, joins over Wi-Fi.

Router + camera in one hut facing the lake; AP1 and AP2 extend coverage to the far shore.

The nine test locations ringing the lake, plus the Router+AP1 and AP2 mounting points.

Methodology

At each of the nine locations, the same sequence was repeated:

Results