airpixel 0.5.2

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Control Your NeoPixels with Python via UDP.

NeoPixels require a microcontroler to be programmed. This makes prototyping slow, as you need to compile and upload your code to the microcontroler. To circumvent this problem, this library uses a static program on a networking enabled microcontroler. The microcontroler reads messages from UDP, deserializes them into color values and shows them on the LEDs.

On a separate device, the python client can be used to establish a connection,serialize the color values, and send them to the microcontroller.

The arduino sketch provided in the repo was tested on a ESP2866-01 microcontroler.

Restrictions

Most of the restrictions are down to the arduino sketch. If you make changes to fit your needs please consider contributing to this project.

The code is currently only tested:

• with an ESP2866-01

• with RGBW (4 colors) NeoPixels

• on a (simple) local home network

Client Installation

Airpixel requires python 3.6 or higher. You can install the python client from PyPi with:

$ pip install airpixel

Server Installation

The sketch depends on NeoPixelBus which can be installed through the arduino library manager.

Rename the config_template.h to config.h and fill in your WIFI name and password, and the number of LEDs on your strip. For a slight performance boost you may turn off the debug mode. However this should not be necesarry in general.

The NeoPixels must be connected to the RDX0/GPIO3 pin. Unfortunately this cannot be configured.

If everything works correctly (and debug mode is enabled in the config.h) you should be able to see some output in your serial monitor:

SETUP
WiFi connected.
ADVERTISING...
ADVERTISING...
ADVERTISING...
    ...

Usage

First you will have to create a client and connect to your ESP2866:

>>> from airpixel.client import AirClient, Pixel
>>> client = AirClient(50000, 50001, 60)
>>> client.connect()

AirClient takes the port number of the server (configurable in config.h and 50000 by default), the port number you want to use on your machine (chose any UDP port you want here), and the number of LEDs on your device (in this example 60)

Once you are connected you can start sending data to your ESP2866:

>>> frame = [Pixel(1, 1, 1) for _ in range(60)]
>>> client.set_frame(frame)
>>> client.show()

If everything works correctly, that should make your NeoPixels white.

Development

This project comes with a Pipfile that can be used with Pipenv.

Follow the instructions on the pipenv website to install pipenv. Then run:

$ pipenv install -d

This will create a virtualenv and install all the development dependencies. The airpixel package will also be installed in edit mode.

While there is a requirements.txt file, this is currently only used in CI.