BlinkStick 0.5.0

Python package to control BlinkStick USB devices.

BlinkStick Python interface to control devices connected to the computer.

What is BlinkStick? It’s a DIY USB RGB LED device. More info about it here:

http://www.blinkstick.com

Requirements

• Python

• BlinkStick pip module

• Libusb for Mac OSX

Requirements Installation

Linux

Install requirement for websocket-client package:

sudo apt-get install python-dev

Note: Replace python-dev with python2.7-dev if you are installing on Raspberry Pi.

Install pip (Python package management software):

sudo apt-get install python-pip

Mac OS X

Install libusb with homebrew:

sudo brew install libusb

Install pip

sudo easy_install pip

BlinkStick package Installation

Install blinkstick Python package with pip:

sudo pip install blinkstick

Description

Together with the Python module an additional command line tool is installed to control BlinkSticks. Use the following command to see all available options:

blinkstick -h

Usage: blinkstick [options]

Options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -i, --info            display BlinkStick info
  -s SERIAL, --serial=SERIAL
                        select device by serial number. If unspecified, action
                        will be performed on all BlinkSticks.
  --inverse             control BlinkSticks in inverse mode
  --set-color=COLOR     set the color for the device. The value can either be
                        a named color, hex value, 'random' or 'off'.
                        CSS color names are defined
                        http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-color/ e.g. red, green,
                        blue.Specify color using hexadecimal color value e.g.
                        '#FF3366'
  --duration=DURATION   Set duration of transition in milliseconds (use with
                        --morph and --pulse).
  --delay=DELAY         Set time in milliseconds to light LED for (use with
                        --blink).
  --repeats=REPEATS     Number of repetitions (use with --blink and --pulse).
  --blink               Blink LED (requires --set-color, and optionally
                        --delay)
  --pulse               Pulse LED (requires --set-color, and optionally
                        --duration).
  --morph               Morph to specified color (requires --set-color, and
                        optionally --duration).
  --set-infoblock1=INFOBLOCK1
                        set the first info block for the device.
  --set-infoblock2=INFOBLOCK2
                        set the second info block for the device.
  --cpu-usage           Use BlinkStick to display CPU usage.
  --connect=ACCESS_CODE
                        Connect to blinkstick.com and control the device
                        remotely.
  -v, --verbose         Display debug output
  --add-udev-rule       Add udev rule to access BlinkSticks without root
                        permissions. Must be run as root.

Command Line Examples

Set random color all BlinkSticks:

blinkstick --set-color random

Set blue color for the blinkstick with serial number BS000001-1.0:

blinkstick --serial BS000001-1.0 --set-color blue

Blink red color twice

blinkstick --set-color red --blink --repeats 2

Blink pulse green color three times

blinkstick --set-color green --pulse --repeats 2

Morph to red, green and blue

blinkstick --set-color red --morph
blinkstick --set-color gree --morph
blinkstick --set-color blue --morph

Connect to blinkstick.com with access_code available on the device details page:

blinkstick --connect access_code

Use BlinkStick to display CPU usage:

blinkstick --cpu-usage

Code Examples

Code examples are available in the wiki:

https://github.com/arvydas/blinkstick-python/wiki

Permission problems

If the script returns with an error

Access denied (insufficient permissions)

You can either run the script with sudo, for example:

sudo blinkstick --set-color random

Or you can add a udev rule to allow any user to access the device without root permissions with this single command.

sudo blinkstick --add-udev-rule

There is also another equivalent command that does exactly the same thing:

echo "SUBSYSTEM==\"usb\", ATTR{idVendor}==\"20a0\", ATTR{idProduct}==\"41e5\", MODE:=\"0666\"" | sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/85-blinkstick.rules

Reboot computer after you have added the command and all users will have permissions to access the device without the need of root permissions.

Maintainers

• Arvydas Juskevicius - http://twitter.com/arvydev

• Rob Berwick - http://twitter.com/robberwick