BlinkStick Python interface to control devices connected to the computer.
What is BlinkStick? It's a smart USB LED pixel. More info about it here:
Resources
Requirements
- Python
- BlinkStick pip module
- Libusb for Mac OSX
Requirements Installation
Linux
Install pip (Python package management software):
sudo apt-get install python-pip
Mac OS X
Install libusb with homebrew:
brew install libusb
Install pip
sudo easy_install pip
Known Errors
ValueError: No backend available
This means that the Python usb module cannot find your installation of libusb.
It seems to be an issue when you have homebrew installed somewhere that is
not expected.
It can be mitigated with
sudo ln -s `brew --prefix`/lib/libusb-* /usr/local/lib/
Microsoft Windows
- Download and install Python 2.7.9 or any later version
- During the installation, make sure you select "Add python.exe to Path" to install on local hard drive
Python 2.7.9 and later already comes with pip making it very easy to install BlinkStick Python package on Windows.
BlinkStick package Installation
Linux and Mac OS X
Install blinkstick Python package with pip:
sudo pip install blinkstick
Microsoft Windows
Open commandline environment by using Win+R keyboard shortcut and typing in:
cmd
Assuming that Python was installed into C:\Python27 folder, type in the following into the command window:
C:\Python27\Scripts\pip.exe install blinkstick
Command line tool
Together with the Python module an additional command line tool is installed to control BlinkSticks.
blinkstick --pulse red
You can find more details about command line tool options and usage examples in the wiki.
Permission problems in Linux and Mac OS X
If the script returns with an error
Access denied (insufficient permissions)
You can either run the script with sudo, for example:
sudo blinkstick --set-color random
Or you can add a udev rule to allow any user to access the device without root permissions with this single command.
sudo blinkstick --add-udev-rule
There is also another equivalent command that does exactly the same thing:
echo "SUBSYSTEM==\"usb\", ATTR{idVendor}==\"20a0\", ATTR{idProduct}==\"41e5\", MODE:=\"0666\"" | sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/85-blinkstick.rules
Reboot computer after you have added the command and all users will have permissions to access the device without the need of root permissions.
Maintainers
- Arvydas Juskevicius - http://twitter.com/arvydev
- Rob Berwick - http://twitter.com/robberwick