REPOSITORY DESCRIPTION

This repository contains a pure python client library for Elitech data loggers (see Supported devices for a detailed list).

The information on the communication protocol used by Elitech data loggers (using the USB HID interface) has been obtained by reverse engineering the official Windows software using Ghidra (with an unpublished custom plugin to disassemble CIL).

FEATURES

python-elitech can be used in two ways:

• Using the embedded CLI (Command Line Interface) from a Linux shell, see Usage
• As a library of a larger application, see the documentation (yet to be done)

It supports the following operations:

• Locating supported Elitech devices
• Getting parameters
• Setting parameters
• Downloading recorded data

REQUIREMENTS

Supported devices

The following Elitech devices are supported. The software relies on the USB vendor and product identifiers, as listed in the second and third colums of the following table, to identify supported devices. Currently, python-elitech has only been tested on an RC-5+, as indicated in the last column of the below table.

Name	Vendor Id	Product Id	udev	Tested
Elitech RC-51	0x04d8	0x0033	Yes	No
Elitech RC-51H	0x04d8	0x0133	Yes	No
Elitech RC-5+	0x04d8	0x3005	Yes	Yes
Elitech RC-55	0x04d8	0x0037	Yes	No
Elitech TemLog 20	0x04d8	0x1014	Yes	No
Elitech TemLog 20H	0x04d8	0x1114	Yes	No
Elitech RC-18	0x04d8	0x0012	Yes	No
Elitech RC-19	0x04d8	0x0013	Yes	No
Elitech ST5	0x04d8	0x1005	Yes	No
Elitech LogEt 6	0x0416	0x3006	Yes	No
Elitech LogEt 8	0x0416	0x4008	Yes	No
Elitech LogEt 8 Life Science	0x0416	0x4308	Yes	No
Elitech LogEt 8 Food	0x0416	0x3008	Yes	No
Elitech MSL-51	0x04d8	0x2033	Yes	No
Elitech MSL-51H	0x04d8	0x2133	Yes	No
Elitech LogEt 1	0x0416	0x0001	Yes	No
Elitech LogEt 1TH	0x0416	0x0101	Yes	No
Elitech LogEt 1Bio	0x0416	0x0201	Yes	No
	0x04d8	0xF564	Yes	No
	0x0416	0x3A01	Yes	No
	0x464d	0x0402	No	No

If your device is not in this list:

• Either it is an Elitech device of the previous generation, which used an USB to serial chip: This is supported under linux by the project elitech-datareader,
• Or it is a newer device for which partial support is possible. You can test at your own risks (As stated in Licensing information, I do not guarantee anything, your device may even be damaged).

Supported Platforms

Due to the use of the \dev and \sys trees, this software will run only under Linux.

USAGE

Installation

After you downloaded python-elitech, no further installation steps are required as the (lightweight) dependences are provided as submodules for simplicity.

Nevertheless, it is highly recommended that you add the rules to udev. This can be done by simply copying (as root) this file to /etc/udev/rules.d (or any other place that is recommended for local admin configuration by your distribution). The priority of the rules can be adjusted by changing the numeric part of the file name. I used priority 60, as it seemed to be fine on my system.

These rules will change the group of the Elitech HID devices, detected using the vendor identifiers (for details see the fourth column of the table of Supported devices), in the /dev tree to dialout group (instead of root). The dialout group seemed fine on my system, but any other existing group can be chosen by editing the file. This will enable a stadard user, provided he is a member of the dialout group, to access the device.

CLI

The CLI interface can be invoked using python elitech [command] in the project root directory (which contains this README).

Help

Available commands can be listed using

$ python elitech help

Embedded help on a command can be obtained using

$ python elitech help [command]

Devices

The list of supported devices can be obtained with

$ python elitech devices list

Parameters

The list of supported parameters (with their meaning) can be obtained with

$ python elitech parameters list

To get the current values for given parameters from a device, use

$ python elitech --device [/dev/path] parameters get [parameter-name]

where /dev/path stands for the path to the HID device. Similarly, a parameter can be set into a device using

$ python elitech --device [/dev/path] parameters set [parameter-name] [value]

Multiple parameters or multiple parameter/value pairs can be get or set in a single command.

Notice that the device-time is read-only and the device time is effectively set by setting the configuration-time parameter. This can simply be done with

$ python elitech --device [/dev/path] parameters get configuration-time "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')"

Records

The records can be read through the HID interface using

$ python elitech --device [/dev/path] record get [recordSlice]

For instance, to get all the records currently in the device memory, use

$ python elitech --device [/dev/path] record get 1:

Address

For debugging purposes (for example, to configure an unsupported parameter, or give a parameter an unsupported value), the configuration can directly be accessed by address. To get the current values in a given address range, use

$ python elitech --device [/dev/path] parameters get [addressRange]

To set new values in a given address range, use

$ python elitech --device [/dev/path] parameters get [addressRange] [value ...]

PLANNED DEVELOPMENTS

Of course, I plan to implement support for the parameters which are not yet accessible easily. I also plan to implement the parameter address change depending on device type and protocol version number.

The following new functionalities may be implemented in the future:

• Better message format
• New output formats for the returned data

Suggestions are, of course, welcome, but I remind you that this is only a hobby project, consequently, do not expect any "professional grade" support from me.

LICENSING INFORMATION

python-elitech is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

python-elitech is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with python-elitech. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/