Software / Brick Daemon (brickd)

Brick Daemon (brickd)¶

The Brick Daemon is a daemon (or service on Windows) that acts as a bridge between the Bricks/Bricklets and the API bindings for the different programming languages.

The daemon routes data between the USB connections and TCP/IP sockets. When using the API bindings a TCP/IP connection to the daemon is established. This concepts allows the creation of bindings for almost every language without any dependencies. Therefore it is possible to program Bricks and Bricklets from embedded devices that only support specific languages, such as smart phones.

Additionally it is possible to separate the machine running the Brick Daemon from the machine running the user code. This allows e.g. a Brick connected to a PC to be controlled from a smart phone or over the Internet from another PC.

Installation¶

Logging¶

By default Brick Daemon logs messages about information, warnings and errors. This includes basic information about USB hotplug and TCP/IP connections.

Linux and macOS: Log messages are written to:
```
/var/log/brickd.log
```
Windows: Log messages are written to a log file called brickd.log in the Brick Daemon data directory:
- Windows XP:
```
C:\Documents und Settings\All Users\Application Data\Tinkerforge\Brickd\brickd.log
```
- Windows Vista or newer:
```
C:\ProgramData\Tinkerforge\Brickd\brickd.log
```
You can use the logviewer.exe tool (part of the brickd installation) to view this log file. The tool also includes a Live Log view.

If the default logging configuration has not enough details to debug a problem then there is the debug level log. This is not enable by default because it drastically increases the mount of log messages and can have an impact on the packet routing performance of brickd.

Windows: The logviewer.exe tool includes a Live Log view that can be switched to debug level.

Configuration¶

The Brick Daemon configuration is stored in a file using a key-value format:

Windows: The configuration file is called brickd.ini and stored in the Brick Daemon data directory:
- Windows XP:
```
C:\Documents und Settings\All Users\Application Data\Tinkerforge\Brickd\brickd.ini
```
- Windows Vista or newer:
```
C:\ProgramData\Tinkerforge\Brickd\brickd.ini
```
You can use the logviewer.exe tool (part of the brickd installation) to edit this config file.
Linux and macOS: The configuration file is called brickd.conf and stored in:
```
/etc/brickd.conf
```

After changing the configuration file Brick Daemon has to be restarted to pick up the changes:

Linux (systemd):
```
sudo systemctl restart brickd
```
Linux (SysVinit):
```
sudo /etc/init.d/brickd restart
```
Windows: You can use the logviewer.exe tool (part of the brickd installation) to restart the Brick Daemon service.

macOS:

sudo launchctl stop com.tinkerforge.brickd
sudo launchctl start com.tinkerforge.brickd

If there are errors in the configuration file then Brick Daemon will report them in the log.

WebSockets¶

WebSockets are supported since Brick Daemon version 2.1.0 , but disabled by default. To enable it you have to configure the WebSocket port in the Brick Daemon configuration file.

The WebSocket port option has listen.websocket_port as key. An value of 0 or removing the listen.websocket_port key disables the WebSocket support. Here is the WebSocket part of an example configuration using the recommended value 4280 as WebSocket port:

listen.websocket_port = 4280

Afterwards Brick Daemon has to be restarted to pick up the configuration change. Now the browser version of the JavaScript bindings can connect to Brick Daemon and control Bricks and Bricklets.

Note

As WebSockets basically allow any website in your browser to connect to your Bricks and Bricklets we recommended that you use authentication in combination with WebSockets.

Authentication¶

Authentication is supported since Brick Daemon version 2.1.0, but disabled by default. To enable it you have to configure an authentication secret in the Brick Daemon configuration file.

The authentication secret can be 64 ASCII characters long and has authentication.secret as key. An empty value or removing the authentication.secret key disables authentication. Here is the authentication part of an example configuration using My Authentication Secret! as secret:

authentication.secret = My Authentication Secret!

Afterwards Brick Daemon has to be restarted to pick up the configuration change. Now every TCP/IP connection to the Brick Daemon has to prove that it knows the authentication secret before normal communication can occur. See the authentication tutorial for more information.

Checking Installed Version¶

Since Brick Daemon version 1.0.8 you can check which Brick Daemon is currently installed with the --version commandline argument:

Linux:
```
brickd --version
```

Windows XP:

"C:\Program Files\Tinkerforge\Brickd\brickd.exe" --version

Windows Vista or newer:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Tinkerforge\Brickd\brickd.exe" --version

macOS (until Brick Daemon 2.2.1):

/usr/libexec/brickd.app/Contents/MacOS/brickd --version

macOS (since Brick Daemon 2.2.2):

/usr/local/libexec/brickd.app/Contents/MacOS/brickd --version