Party!

photo – futursonic

It’s that time of year, when we all go to a lot of Holiday parties.  This evening I’ll be attending one – and I’ve decided to bring along Indigo, one of the three new battery-powered Lights.  I’ve written a small Python script that has connected a series of different apps to her tactile switch.  (Yes, the Light has a tactile switch in the front of its central opening.)

It’s not very complicated, and references the locations of specific programs in the file system – something that is not advisable and will be discouraged in release software, but was quick, dirty, and effective.  Here’s the code:

#!/usr/bin/python
#
# Make the Light act like... a fun party device!
#
# Poll the tactile switch, when pressed, run a command.
# When pressed again, turn it off.  Go on to next command.
#
import subprocess, time, os

switch_gpio = """/sys/class/gpio/gpio0/value"""

ons = ["""/srv/http/cgi-bin/candle &""", """/srv/http/cgi-bin/flame &""",  """/srv/http/cgi-bin/sweep &""",
		"""/srv/http/cgi-bin/supersweep &""", """/srv/http/cgi-bin/placcel &""" ]
offs = ["""sudo killall candle; batsignal""", """sudo killall flame; batsignal""", """sudo killall sweep; batsignal""",
		"""sudo killall supersweep; batsignal""", """sudo killall placcel; batsignal""" ]

cmd_location = 0
MAX_CMD = 4

def read_switch():
	try:
		val = subprocess.check_output(["cat", switch_gpio])
	except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
		print "CalledProcessError!"
		return False
	if val[:1] == "1":
		return False
	else:
		return True

def change_state(new_state):
	global cmd_location, MAX_CMD
	if (new_state):
		os.system(ons[cmd_location])
	else:
		os.system(offs[cmd_location])
		cmd_location = cmd_location + 1
		if (cmd_location > MAX_CMD):
			cmd_location = 0

if __name__ == '__main__':
	print cmd_location
	curr_state = False
	flip_flop = False
	while 1:
		switch_state = read_switch()
		#print switch_state
		if (curr_state == False) and (switch_state == True):
			if (flip_flop):
				flip_flop = False
			else:
				flip_flop = True
			change_state(flip_flop)
		curr_state = switch_state
		time.sleep(.1)