pymetawear 0.9.1

Python client for connecting to MbientLab's MetaWear boards

PyMetaWear is a community developed Python SDK started by Henrik Blidh . MbientLab does not provide support for this SDK.

Python package for connecting to and using MbientLab’s MetaWear boards.

Capabilities and Limitations

PyMetaWear was previously a wrapper around the MetaWear C++ API, providing a more Pythonic interface. In version 0.9.0 it instead becomes a wrapper around MetaWear’s official Python SDK, doing the very same thing. The official SDK handles the actual board connections and communication while PyMetaWear aims to remove the low level feeling of interacting with the MetaWear board.

Limitations

• Reading data over longer periods of time. Many users have reported disconnection problems when trying to use PyMetaWear for long periods.

Installation

Due to a dependency on gattlib, a Python BLE package that is poorly maintained, MbientLab has forked it and ships a patched version with its Python SDK. This makes installation of PyMetaWear require some additional work:

$ pip install git+https://github.com/mbientlab/pygattlib.git@master#egg=gattlib
$ pip install metawear
$ pip install pymetawear

Documentation

Available in the Github pages of this repository.

Basic Usage

The MetaWear client can be used in two ways: either as Pythonic convenience class for handling a MetaWear board or as a simple communication client governed by the libmetawear C++ library.

Creating a client, and thus also setting up a Bluetooth connection to the MetaWear board, is equal for both the two usage profiles:

from pymetawear.client import MetaWearClient
c = MetaWearClient('DD:3A:7D:4D:56:F0')

An example: blinking with the LED lights can be done like this with the convenience methods:

pattern = c.led.load_preset_pattern('blink', repeat_count=10)
c.led.write_pattern(pattern, 'g')
c.led.play()

or like this using the raw libmetawear shared library:

from ctypes import byref
from pymetawear import libmetawear
from mbientlab.metawear.cbindings import LedColor, LedPreset

pattern = Led.Pattern(repeat_count=10)
libmetawear.mbl_mw_led_load_preset_pattern(byref(pattern), LedPreset.BLINK)
libmetawear.mbl_mw_led_write_pattern(c.board, byref(pattern), LedColor.GREEN)
libmetawear.mbl_mw_led_play(c.board)

Actual addresses to your MetaWear board can be found by scanning, either directly with hcitool lescan or with the included discover_devices method:

from pymetawear.discover import discover_devices
out = discover_devices()
print out
[(u'DD:3A:7D:4D:56:F0', u'MetaWear'), (u'FF:50:35:82:3B:5A', u'MetaWear')]

See the examples folder for more examples on how to use the libmetawear library with this client.

Modules

All functionality of the MetaWear C++ API is able to be used using the PyMetaWear client, and some of the modules have had convenience methods added to simplify the use of them. Below are two list, one of modules which have had their convenience methods written and one of modules that are awaiting such focus.

Completed Modules	Partial Modules	Unimplemented Modules
Accelerometer	GPIO	NeoPixel
Gyroscope		Color Detector
Haptic		Humidity
Switch		iBeacon
LED		I2C
Barometer
Magnetometer
Temperature
Settings
Ambient Light