Blinkt MQTT

Support
1

I am wanting to get a Blinkt to flash in a specific continuous pattern depending on a message received over MQTT.

Is there a simple way that I am missing in Python to get it to run the appropriate pattern in the background and free up the on_message function to listen for other commands? I am just trying to avoid threads if at all possible…

I would post code, but mine is effectively just the example code from the paho_mqtt/blinkt example at the moment.

Ta!
Dan

2

You should use a single global variable in which to store the pattern you want to play, then change it in on_message by using global current_pattern and then setting it as normal depending upon your message.

Now, replace client.loop_forever() with:

client.loop_start()

try:
    while True:
        if current_pattern == "mongoose":
            # Do the mongoose pattern!
except KeyboardInterrupt:
    client.loop_stop()

(Note: this will use a thread, but it’s not one you have to worry about :D )

You will probably want to use time.time() to delta time your pattern sequencing, so you don’t block your while loop. There are quite a few ways of doing that, which we could approach once you’ve got the first step up and running if you like :D

3

Ahhh, thanks for that. I didn’t know about loop_start() - that’s useful!

I only started playing this morning so the pattern is pretty basic - just solid colours fading in and out in a series of loops. I do need to get other patterns cooked up pretty soon though because it’s going to end up on the wall of my classroom in a couple of weeks and if I learnt anything from my unicorn hat experience last year, it’s that teenagers are fixated by shiny colours!