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BBM Python Mates Controller Library

Introduction

This library is developed to easily control Breadboard Mates modules from any computer that can run Python and connects with a BBM display module using a BBM Programmer or similar. This is based on the Python Mates Controller library. Therefore, all methods are directly derived from it.

Supported Devices

This library is developed for Python3 and designed to be used with any operating system as long as it is supported by the pyserial library and the BBM display module is connected using a BBM Programmer.

Installation

This library can be installed from the Python Packaging Index (PyPI) by running the command:

pip3 install bbm-mates-controller

Constructors

This section serves to provide brief discussion about the constructors that can be used to initialize the library.

MatesController(portName, resetFunction, debugStream, debugFileLength)

Constructs all the necessary attributes associated with an instance of a Mates Controller Object.

Parameters Type Description
portName str the name of the port to be opened. Example: /dev/ttyUSB0 for Linux
debugStream
(optional)		 io.TextIOWrapper text file object to write debugging code to, supply of none will result in no debugging. Ex. sys.stdout, open('log.txt', 'r+')
debugFileLength
(optional)		 int determines the extent of debug history kept with respect to lines in a file, given a circular log. O indicates full history kept with no circular logging. Users must be careful here to manage storage space effectively

Note

If a debug file is specified, it should be opened using either 'w+' or 'r+' before running the begin() function of this library.

Example 
# Creates a new instance named 'mates' which utilizes: 
#  - COM10 as the serial port
#  - with no reset function and no output stream
MatesController mates = MatesController("COM10") 

# Creates a new instance named 'mates' which utilizes: 
#  - COM7 as the serial port
#  - output_file as debug file stream
#  - debugFileLength of zero indicating no circular logging
MatesController mates = MatesController("COM7", debugStream=output_file, debugFileLength=0)

Methods

All methods are carried over from Python Mates Controller library instance.