https://github.com/todbot/blink1-tool
Command-line tools and C library for blink(1) USB RGB LED
https://github.com/todbot/blink1-tool
blink1 hid led rgb usb
Last synced: 10 months ago
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Command-line tools and C library for blink(1) USB RGB LED
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/todbot/blink1-tool
- Owner: todbot
- License: other
- Created: 2018-04-07T03:27:42.000Z (about 8 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2025-03-04T02:21:36.000Z (over 1 year ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-03-31T07:07:19.137Z (about 1 year ago)
- Topics: blink1, hid, led, rgb, usb
- Language: C
- Homepage: https://blink1.thingm.com/
- Size: 78.2 MB
- Stars: 87
- Watchers: 5
- Forks: 17
- Open Issues: 12
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE.txt
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
# Command-line Tools and C library for blink(1) USB RGB LED
[](https://github.com/todbot/blink1-tool/actions?query=workflow%3Alinux)
[](https://github.com/todbot/blink1-tool/actions?query=workflow%3Amacos)
[](https://github.com/todbot/blink1-tool/actions?query=workflow%3Awindows)
This is an official collection of C/C++ commandline tools for controlling
the [blink1 USB RGB LED](https://blink1.thingm.com/).
This code lives at https://github.com/todbot/blink1-tool.
For pre-built binaries, see the [Releases page](https://github.com/todbot/blink1-tool/releases).
The current tools are:
- `blink1-tool` -- command-line tool for controlling blink(1)
- `blink1control-tool` -- blink1-tool for use with Blink1Control (uses HTTP REST API)
- `blink1-tiny-server` -- ([README](server/README.md)) Simple HTTP API server to control blink1, uses blink1-lib
- `blink1-lib` -- C library for controlling blink(1)
- `blink1-mini-tool` -- commandline tool using libusb-0.1 and minimal deps
- `blink1raw` -- small example commandline tool using Linux hidraw
Type `make help` for a full list.
Also see in this directory:
- `scripts` -- examples shell scripts using blink1-tool
## Supported platforms
Supported platforms for `blink1-tool` and `blink1-lib`:
- Mac OS X 10.6.8, 10.7+
- Windows XP+ (built with MinGW & MSYS)
- Linux (most all, primary development on Ubuntu)
- FreeBSD 8.2+
- Raspberry Pi (Raspian)
- BeagleBone (Ubuntu)
- OpenWRT / DD-WRT
- ... just about anything else with Gnu Make & a C-compiler
In general, the `blink1-tool` builds as a static binary where possible,
eliminating the need for shared library dependencies on the target.
However, static builds can be problematic for some systems with different
libusb implementations, so doing `make EXEFLAGS=` will generally build a non-static version.
## OS-specific Notes
### Linux (including Raspberry Pi)
To use blink(1) as a non-root user, udev rules must be installed.
On Debian-like systems (Ubuntu, Raspian), these udev rules are installed with:
```
sudo cp 51-blink1.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/51-blink1.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload
sudo udevadm trigger
```
### Building from source
In general you can do:
```
git clone https://github.com/todbot/blink1-tool
cd blink1-tool
make
```
On Linux you will need to install [some requirements](#linux-debian-flavored-including-raspberry-pi) beforehand.
If your OS is not detected automatically, you can force it with something like:
```
OS=linux make
```
To see the supported platforms, please consult the [Makefile](./Makefile)
### Build variants
There are two primary USB libraries that `blink1-tool` can be built for:
- `USBLIB_TYPE=HIDAPI` -- Uses the feature-rich cross-platform `hidapi` library (default)
- `USBLIB_TYPE=HIDDATA` -- Uses a simple, cross-platform `hiddata` library (included)
For Linux, there are to HIDAPI_TYPEs you can choose from:
- `HIDAPI_TYPE=HIDRAW` -- Uses standard `hidraw` kernel API for HID devices (default)
- `HIDAPI_TYPE=LIBUSB` -- Uses lower-level `libusb` commands (good for older Linuxes)
To compile for a particular `USBLIB_TYPE` or `HIDAPI_TYPE`, specify them when buildling:
```
HIDAPI_TYPE=LIBUSB make
```
## OS-specific prerequisites for compiling
If you have the ability to compile programs on your system,
you may already have everything you need to compile `blink1-tool`.
### Linux (Debian-flavored, including Raspberry Pi)
- In a terminal, install pre-reqs and build:
- `sudo apt-get install libudev-dev pkg-config build-essential`
- `sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev` (optional, only for libusb variant)
- `cd blink1-tool`
- `make`
- `HIDAPI_TYPE=libusb make` (if you instead you want libusb version)
### FreeBSD
- Install pre-reqs and build:
- `sudo pkg install gmake gcc git libiconv`
- `cd blink1-tool`
- `gmake`
- `sudo ./blink1-tool --red --flash 3`
- If you'd like `devd` support, see the `devd-51-blink1.conf` file.
### MacOS
- Xcode
- In Terminal, setup Xcode and build:
- `xcode-select --install`
- `cd blink1-tool`
- `make`
### Windows
- Install Visual Studio 2017 or 2019
- Install MSYS2: https://www.msys2.org/
- In MSYS2 bash shell:
- `pacman -S base-devel make git zip unzip mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc`
- `export PATH=${PATH}:/c/msys64/mingw64/bin`
- `export PATH=${PATH}:"/c/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0/VC/bin"`
- `export PATH=${PATH}:'/c/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio/2019/BuildTools/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.29.30133/bin/Hostx64/x64'"`
- `make`
### Other OSes
See the blink1-tool/Makefile for details
## Using blink1-lib in your C/C++ project
See Makefile for your platform
## Docker and blink(1)
[this may be out of date after the repo move]
To build the image from the `Dockerfile`
- `docker build -t robtec/blink1 .`
Running the container
- `docker run -d --privileged robtec/blink1`
Note the `--privileged` tag, docker needs this to access the hosts USB controllers
Docker resources
- [Install Guide](https://docs.docker.com/installation/)
- [Run Command](https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/run/)
- [Ubuntu Dockerfile](https://github.com/todbot/blink1-tool/blob/master/Dockerfile-ubuntu)