ouimeaux

ouimeaux is a Python interface to Belkin WeMo devices. It uses gevent for async I/O and requests for communication with the devices. It also provides a minimal command-line interface for discovery and switch toggling.

Contents

• Python API
  • Environment
  • Devices
  • Events
  • Switches
  • Motions
  • Device Cache
  • Configuration
• Command Line
• Installation
  • Windows
• Changelog
  • Release 0.3 (May 25, 2013)
  • Release 0.2 (April 21, 2013)
  • Release 0.1 (February 2, 2013)

Python API

Environment

The main interface is presented by an Environment, which optionally accepts functions called when a Switch or Motion device is identified:

>>> from ouimeaux.environment import Environment
>>>
>>> def on_switch(switch):
...     print "Switch found!", switch.name
...
>>> def on_motion(motion):
...     print "Motion found!", switch.motion
...
>>> env = Environment(on_switch, on_motion)

Start up the server to listen for responses to the discovery broadcast:

>>> env.start()

Discovery of all WeMo devices in an environment is then straightforward; simply pass the length of time (in seconds) you want discovery to run:

>>> env.discover(seconds=3)
Switch found! Living Room

During that time, the Environment will continually broadcast search requests and parse responses. At any point, you can see the names of discovered devices:

>>> env.list_switches()
['Living Room', 'TV Room', 'Front Closet']
>>> env.list_motions()
['Front Hallway']

Devices can be retrieved by using get_switch and get_motion methods:

>>> switch = env.get_switch('TV Room')
>>> switch
<WeMo Switch "TV Room">

Devices

All devices have an explain() method, which will print out a list of all available services, as well as the actions and arguments to those actions on each service:

>>> switch.explain()

basicevent
----------
  SetSmartDevInfo(SmartDevURL)
  SetServerEnvironment(ServerEnvironmentType, TurnServerEnvironment, ServerEnvironment)
  GetDeviceId()
  GetRuleOverrideStatus(RuleOverrideStatus)
  GetIconURL(URL)
  SetBinaryState(BinaryState)
...

Services and actions are available via simple attribute access. Calling actions returns a dictionary of return values:

>>> switch.basicevent.SetBinaryState(BinaryState=0)
{'BinaryState': 0}

Events

By default, ouimeaux subscribes to property change events on discovered devices (this can be disabled by passing with_subscribers=False to the Environment constructor). You can register callbacks that will be called when switches and motions change state (on/off, or motion detected):

>>> def on_motion(value):
...     print "Motion detected!"
...
>>> env.get_motion('Front Hallway').register_listeners(on_motion)
>>> env.wait()

Note the use of Environment.wait() to give control to the event loop for events to be detected.

Switches

Switches have three shortcut methods defined: get_state, on and off.

Motions

Motions have one shortcut method defined: get_state.

Device Cache

By default, device results are cached on the filesystem for quicker initialization. This can be disabled by passing with_cache=False to the Environment constructor. On a related note, if you want to use the cache exclusively, you can pass with_discovery=False to the Environment constructor to disable M-SEARCH requests.

Configuration

A configuration file in YAML format will be created at ~/.wemo/config.yml:

# ip:port to bind to when receiving responses from discovery.
# The default is first DNS resolution of local host, port 54321
#
# bind: 10.1.2.3:9090

# Whether to use a device cache (stored at ~/.wemo/cache)
#
# cache: false

aliases:
# Shortcuts to longer device names. Uncommenting the following
# line will allow you to execute 'wemo switch lr on' instead of
# 'wemo switch "Living Room Lights" on'
#
#    lr: Living Room Lights

Command Line

The wemo script will discover devices in your environment and turn switches on and off. To list devices:

$ wemo list

Default is to search for 5 seconds; you can pass --timeout to change that.

To turn a switch on and off, you first have to know the name. Then:

$ wemo switch "TV Room" on
$ wemo switch "TV Room" off

Or, you can toggle the device:

$ wemo switch "TV Room" toggle

The wemo script will obey configured settings; they can also be overridden on the command line:

--no-cache

Disable the device cache

--bind IP:PORT

Bind to this host and port when listening for responses

Aliases configured in the file will be accessible on the command line as well:

aliases:
    tv: TV Room Lights

$ wemo switch tv on

Installation

Windows

ouimeaux requires gevent version 1.0rc2 or higher. If you don't have the ability to compile gevent and greenlet (a sub-dependency) locally, you can find and download the binary installers for these packages here:

• gevent: https://github.com/SiteSupport/gevent/downloads
• greenlet: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/greenlet

Changelog

Release 0.3 (May 25, 2013)

• Fixed #4: Added ability to specify ip:port for discovery server binding. Removed documentation describing need to disable SSDP service on Windows.
• Fixed #5: Added device cache for faster results.
• Added configuration file.
• Added ability to configure aliases for devices to avoid quoting strings on the command line.
• Added 'toggle' command to command line switch control.

Release 0.2 (April 21, 2013)

• Fixed #1: Added ability to subscribe to motion and switch state change events.
• Added Windows installation details to README (patch by brianpeiris)
• Cleaned up UDP server lifecycle so rediscovery doesn't try to start it back up.

Release 0.1 (February 2, 2013)

• Initial release.