Pi Switch

Pi Switch is a library for controlling 315/433MHz remote power outlet sockets.

This library is a port of the Arduino rc-switch library for the Raspberry Pi and the Python Programming Language.

Credits

Thanks to Gordon Henderson for WiringPi and the rc-switch team for the effort for developing such cool libraries!

Installation

We need to install the following dependencies:

• wiringPi
• python boost
• python-dev header files
• python-pip

Install wiring pi:

git clone git://git.drogon.net/wiringPi

cd wiringPi
./build

In a next step please update your Raspberry Pi:

sudo apt-get update

Install python boost, python header files and python-pip:

sudo apt-get install python-dev libboost-python-dev python-pip

Finally, we install pi_switch using pip:

sudo pip install pi_switch

Building from source

Please check that all dependencies are installed. See section Installation.

git clone https://github.com/lexruee/pi-switch-python.git

cd pi-switch-python

Testing

If you just want to test it run the build command:

sudo python setup.py build

Change the directory:

cd build/lib.linux-armv6l-2.7

Run python and import pi_switch:

sudo python

Installation

Install it:

sudo python setup.py install

Usage

Known devices that seem to work are listed on the rc-switch wiki.

Pi Switch uses the wiringPi library and the wiringPi pin mapping.

Example:

WiringPi Pin 0 <=> BCM GPIO17 <=> Header Pin 11

Programs that use pi_switch must be run with sudo.

send.py

send.py is a python program to switch power sockets on or off.

It takes the following arguments:

• command: -c
• type: -t
• settings: -s

The command argument must be either on or off. Type must be A, B, C or D. Settings must be a comma separated list which specifies the family code, group code, address code, channel number or device number.

For more details about the switch types see the rc-switch wiki page.

#switch type A:
sudo python send.py -c off -t A -s 11001,01000 -p 0

#switch type B:
sudo python send.py -c off -t B -s 1,3 -p 0

#switch type C:
sudo python send.py -c off -t C -s a,1,1 -p 0

#switch type D:
sudo python send.py -c off -t D -s A,1 -p 0

Example program

""" A program that toggles three light switches """
import time
import pi_switch

def create_switch(addr, channel):
  """creates a switch of type B"""
  switch = pi_switch.RCSwitchB(addr, channel)
  switch.enableTransmit(0) # use WiringPi pin 0 <=> GPIO17
  return switch


def toggle(switch):
  """toggles a switch on and off"""
  switch.switchOn()
  time.sleep(1)
  switch.switchOff()
  time.sleep(1)


switches = [[1,1],[1,2],[1,3]]
switches = [ create_switch(p,q) for (p,q) in switches ]

while True:
  for switch in switches:
    toggle(switch)

RCSwitchSender

The RCSwitchSender class provides low level methods to send binary or tri-state strings.

For more details see the rc-switch wiki.

Send binary string

import pi_switch
sender = pi_switch.RCSwitchSender()
sender.enableTransmit(0) # use WiringPi pin 0
sender.send("01001000001010000000010100000000")

Send tri-state string

import pi_switch
sender = pi_switch.RCSwitchSender()
sender.enableTransmit(0) # use WiringPi pin 0
sender.sendTriState("0FFF0FFFFFF1") # switch on
sender.sendTriState("0FFF0FFFFFF0") # switch off

RCSwitchSender setter methods

The default settings of the RCSwitchSender can be changed by means of the following setter methods:

• setProtocol(num)
• setPulseLength(num)
• setRepeatTransmit(num)

Switch Types

There are 4 kind of switch types according to the rc-switch wiki page.

• Type A - 10 pole DIP switches
• Type B - Two rotary/sliding switches
• Type C - Intertechno
• Type D

Switch Type A

NOTE: NOT tested!

import pi_switch

# DIP switches 1..5 where "1" = on and "0" = off,
# if all DIP switches are on it's "11111"
first = "11111"

# DIP switches 6..10 (A..E) where "1" = on and "0" = off,
# if all DIP switches are on it's "11111"
second = "11111"

switch = pi_switch.RCSwitchA(first, second)
switch.enableTransmit(0) # use WiringPi pin 0 <=> GPIO17

switch.switchOn()
switch.switchOff()

Switch Type B

NOTE: Tested and works!

import pi_switch

address_group = 1 # Address group (1..4)
channel = 2 # Channel (1..4)

switch = pi_switch.RCSwitchB(address_group, channel)
switch.enableTransmit(0) # use WiringPi pin 0 <=> GPIO17

switch.switchOn()
switch.switchOff()

Switch Type C

NOTE: Not tested!

import pi_switch

family_code = "a" # Familycode (a..f)
group = 1 # Number of group (1..4)
device = 1 # Number of device (1..4)

switch = pi_switch.RCSwitchC(family_code, group, device) #address group 1, channel 2
switch.enableTransmit(0) # use WiringPi pin 0 <=> GPIO17

switch.switchOn()
switch.switchOff()

Switch Type D

NOTE: Not tested!

import pi_switch

group = "A" # Code of the switch group (A,B,C,D)
device = 1 # Number of the switch itself (1..3)

switch = pi_switch.RCSwitchD(group, device) #address group 1, channel 2
switch.enableTransmit(0) # use WiringPi pin 0 <=> GPIO17

switch.switchOn()
switch.switchOff()

Contributing

Please feel free to contribute or to improve this library (Codebase, Documentation etc.). I'm not an expert in this field. I'm just the guy who wrote the glue to port the library for the Python Programming Language :-).

1. Fork it ( https://github.com/[my-github-username]/pi-switch-python/fork )
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create a new Pull Request

Disclaimer

I'm not responsible for any hardware damages or other accidents.

You use this library at your own risk.