smbus2 is a drop-in replacement for smbus-cffi/smbus-python in pure Python
Project description
smbus2
A drop-in replacement for smbus-cffi/smbus-python in pure Python
Introduction
smbus2 is (yet another) pure Python implementation of the python-smbus package.
It was designed from the ground up with two goals in mind:
It should be a drop-in replacement of smbus. The syntax shall be the same.
Use the inherent i2c structs and unions to a greater extent than other pure Python implementations like pysmbus does. By doing so, it will be more feature complete and easier to extend.
Currently supported features are:
Get i2c capabilities (I2C_FUNCS)
read_byte
write_byte
read_byte_data
write_byte_data
read_word_data
write_word_data
read_i2c_block_data
write_i2c_block_data
i2c_rdwr - combined write/read transactions with repeated start
It is developed on Python 2.7 but works without any modifications in Python 3.X too.
SMBus code examples
smbus2 installs next to smbus as the package, so it’s not really a 100% replacement. You must change the module name.
Example 1a: Read a byte
from smbus2 import SMBus
# Open i2c bus 1 and read one byte from address 80, offset 0
bus = SMBus(1)
b = bus.read_byte_data(80, 0)
print(b)
bus.close()
Example 1b: Read a byte using ‘with’
This is the very same example but safer to use since the smbus will be closed automatically when exiting the with block.
from smbus2 import SMBusWrapper
with SMBusWrapper(1) as bus:
b = bus.read_byte_data(80, 0)
print(b)
Example 2: Read a block of data
You can read up to 32 bytes at once.
from smbus2 import SMBusWrapper
with SMBusWrapper(1) as bus:
# Read a block of 16 bytes from address 80, offset 0
block = bus.read_i2c_block_data(80, 0, 16)
# Returned value is a list of 16 bytes
print(block)
Example 3: Write a byte
from smbus2 import SMBusWrapper
with SMBusWrapper(1) as bus:
# Write a byte to address 80, offset 0
data = 45
bus.write_byte_data(80, 0, data)
Example 4: Write a block of data
It is possible to write 32 bytes at the time, but I have found that error-prone. Write less and add a delay in between if you run into trouble.
from smbus2 import SMBusWrapper
with SMBusWrapper(1) as bus:
# Write a block of 8 bytes to address 80 from offset 0
data = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
bus.write_i2c_block_data(80, 0, data)
I2C
Starting with v0.2, the smbus2 library also has support for combined read and write transactions. i2c_rdwr is not really a SMBus feature but comes in handy when the master needs to:
1. read or write bulks of data larger than SMBus’ 32 bytes limit. 1. write some data and then read from the slave with a repeated start and no stop bit between.
Each operation is represented by a i2c_msg message object.
Example 5: Single i2c_rdwr
from smbus2 import SMBus, ic_msg
with SMBusWrapper(1) as bus:
# Read 64 bytes from address 80
msg = i2c_msg.read(80, 64)
bus.i2c_rdwr(msg)
# Write some bytes to address 80
msg = i2c_msg.write(80, [65, 66, 67, 68])
bus.i2c_rdwr(msg)
Example 6: Dual i2c_rdwr
To perform dual operations just add more i2c_msg instances to the bus call:
from smbus2 import SMBus, ic_msg
# Single transaction writing two bytes then read two at address 80
write = i2c_msg.write(80, [40, 50])
read = i2c_msg.read(80, 2)
with SMBusWrapper(1) as bus:
bus.i2c_rdwr(write, read)
Example 7: Access i2c_msg data
All data is contained in the i2c_msg instances. Here are some data access alternatives.
# 1: Convert message content to list
msg = i2c.write(60, [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10])
data = list(msg) # data = [1, 2, 3, ...]
print(len(data)) # => 10
# 2: i2c_msg is iterable
for value in msg:
print(value)
# 3: Through i2c_msg properties
for k in range(msg.len):
print(msg.buf[k])
Installation instructions
smbus2 is pure Python code and requires no compilation. Installation is easy:
python setup.py install
Or just use pip
pip install smbus2
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