btzen 0.3.0

BTZen - library to asynchronously access Bluetooth devices

BTZen is a library to asynchronously access Bluetooth devices using Python
language. It provides simple API over complex D-Bus Bluez interface.

Features
========

The main features of BTZen are

1. Connect and access multiple Bluetooth devices in parallel with Python
asynchronous coroutines.
2. GATT notification interface integrated into main API of the library.
3. Automatic reconnections to devices with a connection manager.
4. Access to serial devices implementing Stollmann (Telit) protocol.
5. Support for devices partially following the Bluetooth specification
like SensorTag (CC2650STK).
6. Support for Bluez managed interfaces of devices, i.e. battery level.

The library can be used with any Bluetooth Smart device. It was tested with

1. SensorTag (CC2650STK) to read temperature, pressure, humidity, light,
accelerometer data and state of the buttons.
2. Mi Smart Scale to read weight data.
3. OSTC dive computer to read serial device data using Stollmann (Telit)
protocol.

The library is tested with default `asyncio` event loop and its drop-in
replacement `uvloop https://github.com/MagicStack/uvloop`_. Use of
`uvloop` increases performance of the library.

The scripts in `scripts` directory demonstrate reading data from various
devices.

NOTE: The first version of SensorTag (CC2541DK) is not supported at the
moment. If you still own the device and would like it to be supported,
please raise an issue at

https://github.com/wrobell/btzen/issues

Installation
============
Use `pip` to install BTZen library (Cython needs to be installed first),
for example

pip install --user cython
pip install --user btzen

BTZen uses experimental API of Bluez adapter interface to connect to
Bluetooth devices. The `bluetoothd` daemon has to be started with
`-E` option. This can be permanently achieved by copying
`/usr/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service` file into
`/etc/systemd/system/` directory and by modifying the `ExecStart` line.

Connection Management
=====================
BTZen uses `ConnectDevice` method of Bluez adapter interface to discover
and connect to Bluetooth devices. MAC address of a device needs to be known
in order to connect.

BTZen connection manager allows to connect and disconnect Bluetooth devices
without restarting of an application. If an application is reading data
from multiple Bluetooth devices, the application can continue working if,
for example, a sensor requires battery change.

Please note

- when trying to connect to a device using BTZen library, do not start scan
with other programs, i.e. `bluetoothctl`
- if a device is disconnected with an external program, the external program
has to be used to reconnect

Obtaining MAC Address
=====================
If Bluetooth device MAC address is not known

1. Start `bluetoothctl`.
2. Start scan.
3. Save discovered MAC address.
4. Remove device with `remove` command of `bluetoothctl`.
5. Start BTZen based application using the discovered MAC address.

Performance
===========
The library enables programmers to communicate with mutliple devices in
parallel without using threads. This avoids context switching of threads
and minimizes memory requirements, which makes BTZen more efficient than
other, similar libraries. To keep the library as fast as possible, the
Cython is used to access Bluez D-Bus API. BTZen can be used with `uvloop`
for even more increased performance of an application.

Support for GATT notification interface allows efficient use of Bluetooth
devices. For example, data from sensors like accelerometers can be read
only when sensor wakes up and transmits data after sensor has been moved.
This limits amount of transferred data and avoids draining battery of the
sensor, which will happen if data is polled at regular, short intervals.

Requirements
============
BTZen library requires the following software components

- Python 3.7
- bluez 5.50
- `sd-bus` (part of `systemd`)
- Cython 0.29

License
=======
BTZen library is licensed under terms of GPL license, version 3, see
`COPYING <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html>`_ file for details.