A python script that polls a sensor and pubishes changes in its state to MQTT and/or REST as well as reacting to commands sent to it (MQTT RPi.GPIO support only for now). It currently supports Raspberry Pi GPIO pins through WebIOPi or RPi.GPIO, Bluetooth device scanning, and Dash button press detection.

This script depends on the paho library for MQTT, the webiopi library or the RPi.GPIO for GPIO, python-bluez for Bluetooth, and scapy for Dash button support. The install.sh in the config folder lists all the commands necessary to install dependencies, link the current folder to /opt and set it up to start as a service. It has the scripts and commands for both upstart and systemd.

If running on a Raspberry Pi and using the GPIO sensors it must be run as root or running as a user who is a member of the gpio group if your image has /dev/gpiomem with appropriate permissions.

The config folder contains an install.sh as described above, sensorReporter start script for upstart systems (e.g raspbian wheezy), and a service file for systemd type systems (e.g raspbian jessey, Ubuntu 15+). The install script will install dependencies using using apt-get and pip and copy and enable the start script to init.d or /systemd/system and enalbe it so sensorReporter will start as a service during boot. You must edit the script to match your system.

The main folder has a default.ini with configuration parametersi examples and the Python script itself.

The install.sh expects there to be a .ini file that matches your hostname. It will create a symbolic link to sensorReporter.ini which the service start scripts expect.

If you place or link the script somewhere other than /opt/sensorReporter you need to update the sensorReporter start script or sensorReporter.service with the correct path.

The configuration file contains one or more Sensor sections which specify thier Type, the MQTT/REST destination to report or subscribe to, reporting type (MQTT or REST), sensor and actuator specific info (e.g. pin, BT address, etc.).

The Logging section allows one to specify where the scripts log file is saved, its max size, and maximum number of old log files to save.

The REST section is where one specifies the biggining portion of the URL for the REST API.

The MQTT section is where one specifies the user, password, host, and port, for the MQTT Broker. The Topic item in this section is a topic the script listens to report the state of the pins on command. One also defines a Last Will and Testament topic and message so other servers can monitor whether this script is running. Finally there is an option for turning on TLS in the connection to the MQTT Broker. It will look for the certificates in ./certs/ca.cert.

To run the script manually:

sudo python sensorReporter sensorReporter.ini

If it has been installed, run:

sudo service sensorReporter start

or

sudo systemctl start sensorReporter

There are three types of behaviors.

1. Certain sensors require polling. The Bluetooth and WebIOPi GPIO sensors will poll for the current state one per configured poll period. If the state of the sensor has changed the new state is published to the configured MQTT/REST destination.

2. Other sensors are event driven and do not require polling. The Dash sensor is and example. These sensors will receive events and report them instead of requiring polling. To turn off polling in the config file a Poll = -1 is used.

3. Finally, Actuators subscribe to some communication desintaion (MQTT is currently only supported) and perform some action when commanded. The rpiGPIOActuator is an example of an Actuator that will toggle or set the configured pin upon receipt of a message.

Upon receipt of any message on the incoming destination configured in the MQTT section, the script will publish the current state of all configured polling sensors (sensors with a polling period > 0) on their respective destinations immediately.

The script is configured to respond properly to term signals (e.g. <ctrl>-c) so it behaves nicely when run as a service (currently broken when using Dash).

To discover the address of your Bluetooth device (e.g. a phone), put it in pairing mode, run inquiry.py and record the address next to the name of your device. Use this address in the .ini file for your Bluetooth scanning sensors.

inquiry.py is part of the pybluez project and can be found at https://code.google.com/p/pybluez/source/browse/examples/simple/inquiry.py

When a configured device is detected it will report "ON" to the destination. "OFF" is reported when the device is no longer detected.

To discover the address of your Dash button, there is a getMac.py script in the config folder that will run for a short time and print the MAC address of any device that issues an ARP request while it is running. Run the script and then press the button and it will print that button's address.

Upon receiving your Dash button, follow the configuration steps up to the point where it asks you to choose a product. Close the setup app at this point and whenever you press the button the request will fail (i.e. you won't order anything) but it will be able to join your network and issue the ARP request we use to tell when it is pressed.

The code and approach to using Dash is inspired from the example found at https://medium.com/@edwardbenson/how-i-hacked-amazon-s-5-wifi-button-to-track-baby-data-794214b0bdd8#.kxt3lt5rh

When a Dash button press is detected "Pressed" is sent to the destination.

The pin number is the BMC number for the pin, not the board number. If the current state of the pin is LOW "CLOSED" is sent to the destination. If it is HIGH "OPEN" is sent to the destination.

The pin number is the BMC number for the pin, not the board number. If the current state of the pin is LOW "CLOSED" is sent to the destination. If it is HIGH "OPEN" is sent to the desitnation.

NOTE: Work is in progress to convert this script to no longer require polling.

The pin number is the BMX number for the pin, not the board number. The script initialzes the pin to HIGH (appears to avoid the pin being set when the script starts up. Upon receipt of a message, if Toggle is set to True the pin is set to HIGH and half a second later set to LOW. If Toggle = False the pin is set to LOW if the received message is "ON" and HIGH otherwise.

NOTE: Work is in progress to make the HIGH/LOW behavior more flexible to support a wider range of applications.