I'm developing a product where it shows information about stuff, the product involves a raspberry pi which automatically runs a python program on boot. When it's the users first time using this product they will have to set it up (log into their account etc.). I'd like it for the IOS app to recognize that the product is nearby and allow the user to enter the necessary data (WiFi information, login credentials, etc.) for that product through the app on their phone.
Basically, what I'm trying to ask is that is there any way where I can exchange data between my IOS app and my python program, running on my raspberry pi? I can't do anything through databases since there would be no way of knowing which device needs to connect to what, so I'm guessing something like Bluetooth, just to send the first bits of data (like Wifi information) to get the two linked?
MORE INFO:
An example would be setting up a device like Alexa, how does Alexa connect to your devices to obtain Wifi information so that it can do everything else by itself?
Thanks, Nathan.
If you want to prototype a solution quickly, try Blynk. I've managed to do this type of link using NodeJS and a Raspberry Pi with Blynk previously but their web page suggests you could also use Python or MicroPython. The downside is that, beyond doing basic UI elements, you need to pay for it.
Another approach is to set up a WiFi access point with a web-based system that supports configuration. An example of a device that does this is the open source energy monitor. It might be the case that you can look at how they set up their AP and web server as it is all open source.
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I am trying to create a python program that takes input of what homework assignments I have and stores all of that information so that I can send a notification to my phone when assignments are coming up. I want to be able to give input from my phone throughout the day and cant seem to find a way to interact with my script on my computer from my phone. Any ideas? Ps: if you know a way that I can send notifications to my phone that would also be cool.
It looks like you should create a classic client/server architecture. This is quite a big task. Your program running on your Windows computer acts as a server waiting for client (mobile application) requests. I propose to create a widely used REST API service using e.g. the Flask framework (server side) and use the Retrofit framework for the Android application.
Remember that when using the application on the Internet, you will have to ensure the availability of the server.
To send notifications from the server to the app, use Firebase Cloud Messaging
The project I am working on involves two hardware video encoders and decoders communicating through a device called Mikrohard.
The problem is that there is a lot of devices in this configuration
each one of which has its own web-host hosting a simple web page where you can edit the configurations of the device.
the official way to access the configurations is very tedious on field as it requires the user to connect each device by Ethernet to his laptop which takes a considerable amount of time.
The proposed solution was to place a router and connect all devices to it, then connecting a raspberry pi that is hosting a configuration web-page.
The web-page will include buttons that when pressed will send the packet to each one of the devices on the network .
then users can simply connect to the raspberry pi that is acting as an access point
and access the web-page.
I tried using CORS to allow raspberry-pi page to embed all devices pages into itself
but I soon realized I can’t unless other devices allow cross origin access.
so I am thinking about reverse engineering what packets are sent to each device on its own web-page then try crafting that packet .
though this looks very tedious and will take a long time.
I would like to know whats your opinions or if you have a better idea
Automation of Smart Home devices
To verify smart home devices like end-to-end (from mobile App to smart home devices).
what are the automation framework you suggests.
Mobile App - developed Appium with python and Robot
Product - REST
API calls. Smart Devices - Verification of lights ON/OFF, color
change, etc
Can you please suggest or add any better methods to verify end-to-end.
EG: Image comparison, any other method.
Actually it depends on two things:
1- How the devices are calling each other. And whats is the main controller.
2- Whats you purpose of testing? Testing the devices themselves or testing the functionality of the control panel and softwares?
About CP and softwares:
If the system using API > Of course api-testing is required
If there are a panel and you can access it with browser> Using selenium for desktop and chromedriver for mobile browser
If there are a mobile app, using Appium
etc.
For the system itself, it is completely another field and responsibility of the electronic and robot engineers. And depends on hardwares. But the general way is I/O checking. Means that engineers check the input signal with device actions and vice-versa.
Hope this helps.
What I am trying to do is a quite basic task: to send event triggers from different services to Raspberry pi and do some tasks when these triggers are received, in other words to make "home automation".
I searched for many websites and links but all projects about ifttt and raspberry pi do the reverse job: raspberry pi posts a web request and another service receives this trigger and does something.
There are some projects to receive requests from google assistant on raspberry pi but google assistant posts a request which contains https://raspberry_ip_address:port/bla_bla which works locally, but I want to send request from my phone even if it is not connected to my home wi-fi.
I found that ProtaOS on rpi works for these tasks and there are some projects with node-red but I don't want to use both of these solutions, I want to write python code on my own.
Is there any api or library for getting requests from maker ifttt trigger events for Python?
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
If i understood your question correctly, You want to trigger something with your phone and then on raspi you will excecute something with that trigger generated from phone or any other device.
One way of doing this is to use an external api like thinkspeak or ifttt, for that you have to continiously read a particular field which your trigger will change
check this
Another way can be making your own api and using it both from your services to post data and your raspi to read data. Python Flask ia a very simple framework for building web api. For hosting there are many free services like heroku, pythonanywhere.
Flask 101 and Free Hosting!!!
Another way is to host your trigger listener in your raspi and port forward your raspi IP with Ngrok or any other services of such kind.Ngrok
Comment below if you have any other specific query.
Keep Hacking :)
There are a number of solutions I use in this scenario, depending on what the problem is and how frequently I need to push requests to the Pi. Here is my portfolio:
Get a 3G module like SIM900: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aihasd-Quad-Band-Development-Wireless-Raspberry/dp/B01IBGDDVM/. This will allow you to receive SMS in real time and receive instructions with a push from your phone. I like this option for remote sensing and homes with a weak or unstable internet connection.
continuous calls to a server to check for updates (a method you sound familiar with). This works well if Wifi is good and data is cheap.
Web sockets: this allows a continuous connection to be kept open between Raspberry Pi and server, though it requires a stable and continuous connection. https://www.jaredwolff.com/raspberry-pi-getting-interactive-with-your-server-using-websockets/
I'm looking for a bit of web development advice. I'm fairly new to the area but I'm sure there are some gurus out there willing to part with some wisdom.
Objective: I'm interested in controlling a Python application on my computer from my personal web hosted site. I know, this question has been asked several times before but in each case the requirements were a bit different from my own. To reduce the length of this post I'll summarize my objective in a few bullet points:
Personal site is hosted by a web hosting company
Site uses HTML, PHP, MySQL, Python and JavaScript, the majority of everything is coded by me from the ground up
An application that is coded in Python will run on a PC within my home and will communicate with an Arduino board
The app will receive commands from the internet to control actuation via the Arduino, and will transmit sensor data back to the site (such as temperature)
Looking for the communication to be bi-directional, fast and secure
Securing the connection between site and Python app would be most ideal
I'm not looking to connect to the Python application directly, the web server must serve as the 'middle man'
So far I've considered HTTP Post and HTML forms, using sockets (Python app would run as a web server), an IRC bot and reading/writing to a text file stored on the web server.
I was also hoping to have a way to communicate with the Python app without needing to refresh the webpage, perhaps using AJAX or JavaScipt? Maybe with Flash?
Is there something I'm not considering? I feel like I'm missing something. Thanks in advance for the advice!
Just thinking out loud for how I would start out with this. First, regarding the website itself, you can just use what's easiest to you, or to the environment you're in. For example, a basic PHP page will do just fine, but if you can get a site running in Python as well, I'd prefer using the same language all over.
That said, I'm not sure why you would need to use a hosted website? Given that you're already forced to have a externally accessible PC at home for the communication, why not run a webserver on that directly (Apache, Nginx, or even something like CherryPy should do)? That webserver can then communicate with the python process that is running to control your Arduino (by using e.g. Python's xmlrpclib). If you would run things via the hosting company, you would still need some process that can handle external requests securely... something a webserver is quite good at. Just running it yourself gives you all the freedom you want, and simplifies things by lessening the number of components in your solution.
The updates on your site I'd keep quite basic: commands you want to run can be handled in the request handlers of the webserver by just calling the relevant (xmlrpclib) calls. Dynamically updating the page is best done by some AJAX calls I reckon. Based on your story, these updates are easily put in a JSON object, suitable for periodically updating only the relevant segments of your page.