A custom HomeKit accessory with Python

Hi 👋,

In this short article I want to showcase how I implemented a custom HomeKit accessory with python.

My Home Assistant’s SD card died ðŸŠĶ a few days ago and the support for GPIO based sensors will be removed in newer releases. This makes it unsuitable for my needs, while giving me the perfect opportunity to try other things.

To continue monitoring temperature and humidity in my home I’ve built a custom HomeKit accessory with HAP Python.

The Sensor

A BME680 air quality sensor is used to monitor temperature and humidity. It is connected to the PI according to the following diagram:

The communication with the Pi is done using the I2C protocol. If you want to use I2C in your own setup, it has to be enabled using raspi-config, as it doesn’t come enabled by default.

# Execute
sudo raspi-config
# Then select Interfacing options->I2C and enable it.

Connection can be tested with the following command:

sudo apt-get install build-essential libi2c-dev i2c-tools python-dev libffi-dev git
/usr/sbin/i2cdetect -y 1
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ i2cdetect -y 1
     0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  a  b  c  d  e  f
00:                         -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
10: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
20: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
30: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
40: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
50: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
60: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
70: -- -- -- -- -- -- 76 -- 

It will output the address that the sensor is using, in our case the 0x76 I2C address.

The Code for the Accessory

You can browse the full code for the accessory and bme680 sensor in my git repo.

To run the program, clone the repository and ensure that you’re running it under the pi user, otherwise you will need to change some things.

cd /home/pi && git clone git@github.com:dnutiu/bme680-homekit.git && cd bme680-homekit
sudo apt-get install libavahi-compat-libdnssd-dev
pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Verify that the program works by running python3 main.py. Running it the first time will prompt you to add the accessory to the Home app. If you miss this step you can repeat it by deleting the accessory.state file located in pi’s home directory and by running the program again.

After you’ve verified that it works, you can setup a systemd service to run the accessory’s python script when the PI boots

Copy the bme680-homekit.service to /etc/systemd/system and check that the service is running.

sudo cp bme680-homekit.service /etc/systemd/system
sudo systemctl status bme680-homekit

If you want to run this under another user rather than the pi, you’ll need to tweak the bme680-homekit.service file.

Congratulations for making it this far! 🎉

You can browse more code examples in the HAP-Python repository.

Thanks for reading and have fun! ðŸ‘Đ‍ðŸ’ŧðŸ‘Ļ‍ðŸ’ŧ ⚙ïļ

BME680 Home Assistant Integration

Hi 👋,

In this short article I will highlight how to use the BME680 Home Assistant integration with a BME680 Sensor.

Please note that I’m running Home Assistant core on Raspbian OS.

Raspberry Pi Setup

Before connecting the sensor, you will need to enable the I2C interface on your Raspberry Pi and install some additional tools that are useful for debugging.

To enable the I2C interface execute:

sudo raspi-config

Then go to Interfacing options->I2C and select yes.

Next, install the following packages:

sudo apt-get install build-essential libi2c-dev i2c-tools python-dev libffi-dev

Sensor Setup

The first step is to buy the sensor, get one with headers already soldered if you can otherwise, you’ll need to solder them.

I got mine from Pimoroni and I’ve never was disappointed by them, they deliver to EU.

BME680 sensor. Pimoroni screen capture 2022-01-16

Next depending on which headers you’ve chosen; you will need four male-to-female jumper wires to connect the BME680 to the Raspberry Pi.

To connect the sensor to the Raspberry PI, refer to the following diagram:

You will need to connect the wires to the following buses:

  • Sensor Power -> Raspberry PI 3.3V
  • Sensor GND -> Raspberry PI GND
  • Sensor SCL -> Raspberry PI SCL
  • Sensor SDA -> Raspberry PI SDA

Check that the sensor is detected using the following command on the Raspberry Pi.

/usr/sbin/i2cdetect -y 1

You should get an ouput like this:

0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  a  b  c  d  e  f
00:          -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
10: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
20: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
30: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 3c -- -- --
40: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
50: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
60: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
70: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 76

The sensor’s I2C address can be 0x76 or 0x77. According to the above output, the sensor address in our case is 0x76, keep this in mind.

Home Assistant Setup

Add your homeassistant user to the I2C group by running:

sudo addgroup homeassistant i2c

Next, open configuration.yaml and modify the sensor and homeassistant.customize sections according to:

Don’t forget to replace i2c_address : 0x76 with your i2c address if it’s different.

homeassistant:
  name: HomeKit NucuLabs
  unit_system: metric
  time_zone: Europe/Bucharest
  customize:
    sensor.bme680_sensor_temperature:
      icon: mdi:thermometer
      friendly_name: Temperature
    sensor.bme680_sensor_humidity:
      icon: mdi:water
      friendly_name: Humidity
      device_class: humidity
      unit_of_measurement: "%"
    sensor.bme680_sensor_pressure:
      icon: mdi:gauge
      friendly_name: Pressure
    sensor.bme680_sensor_air_quality:
      icon: mdi:blur
      friendly_name: Air Quality
      device_class: pm25
      unit_of_measurement: "%"

sensor:
  - platform: bme680
    i2c_address: 0x76
    monitored_conditions:
      - temperature
      - humidity
      - pressure
      - gas
      - airquality

Reboot the device after you’ve modified configuration.yaml by running sudo reboot.

Note: The customize section sensor.bme680_sensor_air_quality sets the device class of BME680 air quality measurement to pm25, but this isn’t a pm25 measurement, it’s a proprietary algorithm according BME680 Datasheet. High values indicate good air quality while low values indicate low air quality. On the other hand, in pm25 measurements high values indicate bad air quality and low values good air quality.

This is a hack and it’s up to you if you want to keep it. If you don’t set the device class to pm25 then the measurement won’t be visible in Apple Homekit because Homekit is not aware of this kind of measurement. If you know any other way of making it visible in Homekit let me know. 😀

After home assistant reboots, the following entities should be available in the Lovelace UI:

Thanks for reading! ðŸŧ

Home automation with Home Assistant on Raspberry PI – Getting Started

Hi 👋

The purpose of this article is to get you started quickly with a Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi. It’s a simple walkthrough on how to install Home Assistant and configure it so it will boot with your PI.

I will use my old Raspberry PI V3 board.

Flashing the Raspberry PI OS

You will need a microSD card of reasonable size, I’m using a 16GB one and a USB Adapter to connect it with my PC.

Head over to Raspberry Pi OS website and download your preferred image, for my Home Assistant I’ve chosen Raspberry Pi OS with desktop and recommended software. After the download is completed, unzip the file and prepare to flash it.

To flash the OS image on the SD card I will use a program called balenaEtcher.

Download it, select your OS image, select the SD card, and hit flash.

After SD card flashing finishes, it is time to setup the Wi-Fi connection. If you’re using an ethernet cable you can skip this step, however, remember to enable SSH.

Setting up the Wi-Fi and enabling SSH

Unplug the SD card from the computer and plug it back. You should see two new drives D: and E:

  1. Open your favorite text editor and create an empty file called ssh in drive E:. This will enable SSH access.
  2. Create a new file called wpa_supplicant.conf using your text editor and paste the following contents in it:
country=us
update_config=1
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant

network={
   scan_ssid=1
   ssid="YOUR_WIFI_SSID"
   psk="YOUR_WIFI_PASSWORD"
}

Don’t forget to replace YOUR_WIFI_SSID and YOUR_WIFI_PASSWORD with the corresponding values regarding your Wi-Fi network.

Eject the SD card from your computer and plug it into the PI. At boot, the PI should automatically connect to your Wi-Fi network.

Installing Home Assistant Core

Find your Raspberry PI’s IP address and connect to it via ssh. You can run the command ssh pi@192.168.0.XXX. The password for the pi user should be raspberry.

After getting a shell, follow the instructions for installing Home Assistant from the official website.

Ensure that you run each command on its own line. Don’t directly copy the entire code block, copy each line individually.

Starting Home Assistant on boot

If you can access the Home Assistant web GUI using http://192.168.0.XXX:8123 then the next step would be to create a new systemd service so that some assistant starts at boot. Please replace XXX with your Raspberry PI’s IP address.

To create a new service:

  1. Start a new shell on the Raspberry or ensure that you’re using the pi user. We will execute commands with sudo.
  2. Use sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/hass.service to create a new file and paste the following contents into it:
[Unit]
Description=HomeAssistant Service
After=network.target

[Service]
User=homeassistant
WorkingDirectory=/home/homeassistant
Environment="PATH=$PATH:/srv/homeassistant/bin"
ExecStart=/srv/homeassistant/bin/hass

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Stop hass command if it’s running and enables the service by executing:

sudo systemctl start hass.service
sudo systemctl enable hass.service
sudo systemctl status hass.service

If the service is running normally, everything is set up. You can safely reboot your PI and the Home Assistant service will run after boot.

Configuring Home Assistant

When visiting the Home Assistant’s web interface for the first time, you will be prompted to create a new user. You may also download the Home Assistant application for your mobile device if you wish to track things like battery, storage, steps, location and so on, in Home Assistant.

In future articles I will show you how to configure the BME680 enviromental sensor and how to activate the Apple Homekit integration. Until then, have fun exploring Home Assistant docs.

Things to do further:

Unattended Upgrades – Enable unattended upgrades for your Raspbian OS. Ensures that your OS’s is always patched and up to date.

UFW – Secure your Home Assistant server with the uncomplicated firewall.

Change default passwords or disable SSH login via password.

Thanks for reading and happy automations! 📚

Arduino Simple Simon Says

This article is a re-post, the original one is on another website.

Introduction

I started this project some time ago in order to get familiar with Arduino.

I will provide you the code and the wiring instructions if you have all the components ready it should not take more than 30 minutes. This is also the first time I am writing a guide on Hackster, if you think I’m wrong on some aspects or if you think it can be improved, please leave feedback in the comment section.

Demo

Wiring Instructions

I use 1k pulldown resistors for the buttons, 100-ohm resistor for the Piezzo Buzzer and 330-ohm resistors for the LEDs. Start by putting on the buttons and the LEDs first, then add the resistors and finally add the jumper wires.

The following pins on the Arduino are used:

/* Pin settings */ 
static const int Game::MICROPHONE_PIN       = 12; 
static const int Game::BLUE_PIN             = 11; 
static const int Game::RED_PIN              = 10; 
static const int Game::GREEN_PIN            = 9; 
static const int Game::YELLOW_PIN           = 8; 
static const int Game::BLUE_BUTTON_PIN      = 7; 
static const int Game::RED_BUTTON_PIN       = 6; 
static const int Game::GREEN_BUTTON_PIN     = 5; 
static const int Game::YELLOW_BUTTON_PIN    = 4; 

You can then customize the tone frequencies or the level seed. In the setup function: randomSeed(0);

If you replace 0 with 1 then all the levels will be randomized, if you change it back to 0 then the game will play like before the change. In the video I also added a reset button which connects the Arduino’s RST pin to GND.

Code

The code is written in C++, and it uses classes, if you see this for the first time, do not be afraid, they are like containers for functions and variables. If you want to learn more search for a C++ tutorial on classes.

/*
 * Author: Denis Cosmin
 * Date: 19.09.2016
 * Name: Simon Says
 * 
 * To add a reset button connect: reset -> button <- pulldown resistor ground.
 * The buttons have 1k pulldown resitors.
 * The leds have a 220 ohm resistor.
 * 
 * Will use the following numbers for colors, pins and notes
 * 0 - Yellow
 * 1 - Green
 * 2 - Red
 * 3 - Blue
 * 
 */

/*
 * The game class, handles everything.
 */
class Game {
    private:
      int debounce(int last, int buttonPin);
      void playNote(int note, int noteSpeed) const;
      void flashLed(int led, int flashSpeed) const;
    public:
      static const int RED_PIN;
      static const int BLUE_PIN;
      static const int GREEN_PIN;
      static const int YELLOW_PIN;
      static const int MICROPHONE_PIN;
      static const int RED_BUTTON_PIN;
      static const int BLUE_BUTTON_PIN;
      static const int GREEN_BUTTON_PIN;
      static const int YELLOW_BUTTON_PIN;
      static const int RED_TONE;
      static const int BLUE_TONE;
      static const int GREEN_TONE;
      static const int YELLOW_TONE;
      static const int GAMEOVER_TONE;
      int gameLevel[200];
      int gameSpeed;
      int lastButtonValue;
      int currentLevel;
      int gameIsOver;
      double gameDifficulty;
      enum color { YELLOW, GREEN, RED, BLUE };
    public:
    Game();
    Game(int);
    void playLevel();
    int userInput();
    int gameOver();
    int getNote(int note) const;
    int pinToColorCode(int);
    int colorCodeToPin(int);
    int readButton(int buttonPin);
};

/* Pin settings */
static const int Game::MICROPHONE_PIN       = 12;
static const int Game::BLUE_PIN             = 11;
static const int Game::RED_PIN              = 10;
static const int Game::GREEN_PIN            = 9;
static const int Game::YELLOW_PIN           = 8;
static const int Game::BLUE_BUTTON_PIN      = 7;
static const int Game::RED_BUTTON_PIN       = 6;
static const int Game::GREEN_BUTTON_PIN     = 5;
static const int Game::YELLOW_BUTTON_PIN    = 4;
/* Tone frequencies */
static const int Game::RED_TONE             = 200;
static const int Game::BLUE_TONE            = 400;
static const int Game::YELLOW_TONE          = 600;
static const int Game::GREEN_TONE           = 800;
static const int Game::GAMEOVER_TONE        = 1000;

// Construct and initialize the Game object.
Game::Game(int difficulty) : gameSpeed(1000), lastButtonValue(-1), currentLevel(0), gameDifficulty(difficulty), gameIsOver(0) {
    Serial.print("Constructing game object with difficulty: ");
    Serial.println(difficulty);
    pinMode(Game::MICROPHONE_PIN, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(Game::BLUE_PIN, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(Game::RED_PIN, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(Game::GREEN_PIN, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(Game::YELLOW_PIN, OUTPUT);
}

Game::Game() : gameSpeed(1000), lastButtonValue(-1), currentLevel(0), gameDifficulty(10), gameIsOver(0) {
    Serial.println("Constructing game object");
    pinMode(Game::MICROPHONE_PIN, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(Game::BLUE_PIN, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(Game::RED_PIN, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(Game::GREEN_PIN, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(Game::YELLOW_PIN, OUTPUT);
}

/*
 * Makes sure the button is pressed only once.
 */
int Game::debounce(int last, int buttonPin) {
      int current = digitalRead(buttonPin);
      if (last != current)
      {
        delay(5);
        current = digitalRead(buttonPin);
      }
      return current;
}

/*
 * Plays a note. 
 * Receives the button number and plays the corresponding note.
 */
void Game::playNote(int note, int noteSpeed) const {
    Serial.print("playNote: Playing note: ");
    Serial.print(note);
    Serial.print(" with speed: ");
    Serial.println(noteSpeed);
    
    note = Game::getNote(note);
    
    tone(Game::MICROPHONE_PIN, note, noteSpeed);  
}

/*
 * Returns the corresponding color code based on pin.
 */
int Game::colorCodeToPin(int value) {
    int ret_val = -1;
   
    switch(value) {
      case RED:
          ret_val = Game::RED_PIN;
          break;
      case GREEN:
          ret_val = Game::GREEN_PIN;
          break;
      case BLUE:
          ret_val = Game::BLUE_PIN;
          break;
      case YELLOW:
          ret_val = Game::YELLOW_PIN;
          break;
      default:
        Serial.println("colorCodeToPin: Invalid value!");
        delay(1000);
        exit(0);
    }

    return ret_val;
}

/*
 * Converts the button pin to a color code.
 */
int Game::pinToColorCode(int value) {
    int ret_val = -1;
    switch(value) {
        case Game::RED_BUTTON_PIN:
            ret_val = RED;
            break;
        case Game::GREEN_BUTTON_PIN:
            ret_val = GREEN;
            break;
        case Game::BLUE_BUTTON_PIN:
            ret_val = BLUE;
            break;
        case Game::YELLOW_BUTTON_PIN:
            ret_val = YELLOW;
            break;
        default:
          Serial.println("pinToColorCode: Invalid value!");
          delay(1000);
          exit(0);
    }

    return ret_val;
}

/*
 * The the corresponding note based on the color code it receives.
 */
int Game::getNote(int note) const {
    int return_value = -1;
    switch(note) {
      case YELLOW:
          return_value = Game::YELLOW_TONE;
          break;
      case GREEN:
          return_value = Game::GREEN_TONE;
          break;
      case RED:
          return_value = Game::RED_TONE;
          break;
      case BLUE:
          return_value = Game::BLUE_TONE;
          break;
      case 4:
          return_value = Game::GAMEOVER_TONE;
          break;        
      default:
        Serial.println("playNote: Error! Invalid note!");
        delay(1000);
        exit(0);
    }
    return return_value;
}

/*
 * Flashes a led. Receives the led code and sets it to the corresponding pin.
 */
void Game::flashLed(int led, int flashSpeed) const {
    Serial.print("flashLed: Flashing LED: ");
    Serial.print(led);
    Serial.print(" with speed: ");
    Serial.println(flashSpeed);

    led = Game::colorCodeToPin(led);

    digitalWrite(led, HIGH);
    delay(flashSpeed);
    digitalWrite(led, LOW);
}

/*
 * Plays the next level.
 */
void Game::playLevel() {
  Serial.print("playLevel: Playing on level: ");
  Serial.println(Game::currentLevel);
  Game::gameLevel[Game::currentLevel] = random(0, 4); // Create a random move every time. 0 to 4 exclusive.
  ++Game::currentLevel;
  int nextDificulty = Game::gameDifficulty * Game::currentLevel;
  if (Game::gameSpeed - nextDificulty >= 10) {
    Game::gameSpeed -= nextDificulty; // decrease the speed;
  }
  
  // Play all the moves
  for (int i = 0; i < Game::currentLevel; ++i) {
      Game::playNote(Game::gameLevel[i], Game::gameSpeed);
      Game::flashLed(Game::gameLevel[i], Game::gameSpeed);
  }
}

/*
 * Reads the button value and returns the following codes:
 * 0 - Yellow 1 - Green 2 - Red 3 - Blue
 */
int Game::readButton(int buttonPin) {
    int currentButtonValue = Game::debounce(Game::lastButtonValue, buttonPin);
    int return_value = -1;
    if (lastButtonValue == LOW && currentButtonValue > LOW) {
        return_value = Game::pinToColorCode(buttonPin);
    }
    Game::lastButtonValue = currentButtonValue;
    if (return_value >= 0) {
      Serial.print("readButton: Received signal from button number: ");
      Serial.println(return_value);
    }
    return return_value;
}

int Game::gameOver() {
    Serial.println("game_is_over: Checking if game is over!");
    if (Game::gameIsOver) {
      Serial.println("game_is_over: Game is over!");
    }
    return Game::gameIsOver;
}

/*
 * Gets the user button presses and checks them to see if they're good.
 */
int Game::userInput() {
    for (int i = 0; i < Game::currentLevel; ++i) {
      Serial.println("userInput: User is pressing.");
      int buttonPressed = -1;
      while(true) {
          buttonPressed = readButton(Game::RED_BUTTON_PIN);
          if (buttonPressed != -1) { break; }
          buttonPressed = readButton(Game::GREEN_BUTTON_PIN);
          if (buttonPressed != -1) { break; }
          buttonPressed = readButton(Game::YELLOW_BUTTON_PIN);
          if (buttonPressed != -1) { break; }
          buttonPressed = readButton(Game::BLUE_BUTTON_PIN);
          if (buttonPressed != -1) { break; }
      }

      if (buttonPressed != gameLevel[i]) {
          Game::playNote(4, 100); // game over note, and game over note speed.
          Game::flashLed(buttonPressed, 1000);
          return 0;
      }
      Game::playNote(buttonPressed, Game::gameSpeed);
      Game::flashLed(buttonPressed, Game::gameSpeed);
    }
    delay(500);
    return 1;
}

Game g(50); //  Constructs the game object.
void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  randomSeed(0);
}

void loop() {
  if (g.gameOver()) { 
    delay(1000); // Wait for serial to finish printing.
    /*
      On Arduino exit(0) disables the interrupts
      and goes in an infinite loop.
      On your PC exit(0) closes the program and
      tries to clean up resources.
    */
    exit(0);
  }
    g.playLevel();
    if (g.userInput() == 0) {
        g.gameIsOver = 1;
    }
}

Improving the Project

Feel free to improve this project however you like, you could perhaps use Arduino MKR1000 and make a wireless Simon Says game? That would be cool.