Shell - API Bindings¶

Requirements¶

• Python 3.4 or newer

Installation¶

There are two ways to install the Shell bindings: from our APT repository for Debian based Linux distributions or by manually copying the files to the correct location. But can also be used without installation.

sudo apt install tinkerforge-shell

/usr/local/bin/

C:\Python\Scripts\

@"C:\Python\python.exe" "C:\Python\Scripts\tinkerforge" %*

. /etc/bash_completion

Testing an Example¶

To test a Shell example Brick Daemon and Brick Viewer have to be installed first. Brick Daemon acts as a proxy between the USB interface of the Bricks and the API bindings. Brick Viewer connects to Brick Daemon and helps to figure out basic information about the connected Bricks and Bricklets.

All examples are meant for typical Unix shells such as Bash. They will work on Linux and macOS as they are. There are Bash ports for Windows that allow to run the examples unmodified, too.

As an example let's test the configuration example for the Stepper Brick. For this copy the example-configuration.sh file from the examples/brick/stepper/ folder into a new folder:

example_project/
 -> example-configuration.sh

If you did not install the bindings then you have to copy the tinkerforge file to the example_project/ folder too:

example_project/
 -> tinkerforge
 -> example-configuration.sh

To make the example find the non-installed tinkerforge file all occurrences of the tinkerforge command in the example-configuration.sh file have to be replaced by ./tinkerforge.

The example starts with a comment about changing the network address using the --host and --port option if it differs from localhost:4223. If the Stepper Brick is connected locally to USB then localhost and 4223 is correct.

# connects to localhost:4223 by default, use --host and --port to change it

To control a Stepper Brick that can be found at host foobar and port 5678 the examples has to be changed as follows: each occurrence of the tinkerforge command has to be replaced by this:

tinkerforge --host foobar --port 5678

The UID value has to be changed to the UID of the connected Stepper Brick, which you can figure out using Brick Viewer:

uid=XXYYZZ # Change XXYYZZ to the UID of your Stepper Brick

Now you're ready to test this example:

./example-configuration.sh

API Reference and Examples¶

Links to the API reference for the IP Connection, Bricks and Bricklets as well as the examples from the ZIP file of the bindings are listed in the following table. Further project descriptions can be found in the Kits section.