Ruby - Dual Relay Bricklet

This is the description of the Ruby API bindings for the Dual Relay Bricklet. General information and technical specifications for the Dual Relay Bricklet are summarized in its hardware description.

An installation guide for the Ruby API bindings is part of their general description.

Examples

The example code below is Public Domain (CC0 1.0).

Simple

Download (example_simple.rb)

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#!/usr/bin/env ruby
# -*- ruby encoding: utf-8 -*-

require 'tinkerforge/ip_connection'
require 'tinkerforge/bricklet_dual_relay'

include Tinkerforge

HOST = 'localhost'
PORT = 4223
UID = 'XYZ' # Change XYZ to the UID of your Dual Relay Bricklet

ipcon = IPConnection.new # Create IP connection
dr = BrickletDualRelay.new UID, ipcon # Create device object

ipcon.connect HOST, PORT # Connect to brickd
# Don't use device before ipcon is connected

# Turn relays alternating on/off 10 times with 1 second delay
for _ in 0..4
  sleep 1
  dr.set_state true, false
  sleep 1
  dr.set_state false, true
end

puts 'Press key to exit'
$stdin.gets
ipcon.disconnect

API

All functions listed below are thread-safe.

Basic Functions

BrickletDualRelay::new(uid, ipcon) → dual_relay
Parameters:
  • uid – Type: str
  • ipcon – Type: IPConnection
Returns:
  • dual_relay – Type: BrickletDualRelay

Creates an object with the unique device ID uid:

dual_relay = BrickletDualRelay.new 'YOUR_DEVICE_UID', ipcon

This object can then be used after the IP Connection is connected.

BrickletDualRelay#set_state(relay1, relay2) → nil
Parameters:
  • relay1 – Type: bool, Default: false
  • relay2 – Type: bool, Default: false

Sets the state of the relays, true means on and false means off. For example: (true, false) turns relay 1 on and relay 2 off.

If you just want to set one of the relays and don't know the current state of the other relay, you can get the state with #get_state or you can use #set_selected_state.

All running monoflop timers will be aborted if this function is called.

BrickletDualRelay#get_state → [bool, bool]
Return Array:
  • 0: relay1 – Type: bool, Default: false
  • 1: relay2 – Type: bool, Default: false

Returns the state of the relays, true means on and false means off.

Advanced Functions

BrickletDualRelay#set_monoflop(relay, state, time) → nil
Parameters:
  • relay – Type: int, Range: [1 to 2]
  • state – Type: bool
  • time – Type: int, Unit: 1 ms, Range: [0 to 232 - 1]

The first parameter can be 1 or 2 (relay 1 or relay 2). The second parameter is the desired state of the relay (true means on and false means off). The third parameter indicates the time that the relay should hold the state.

If this function is called with the parameters (1, true, 1500): Relay 1 will turn on and in 1.5s it will turn off again.

A monoflop can be used as a failsafe mechanism. For example: Lets assume you have a RS485 bus and a Dual Relay Bricklet connected to one of the slave stacks. You can now call this function every second, with a time parameter of two seconds. The relay will be on all the time. If now the RS485 connection is lost, the relay will turn off in at most two seconds.

BrickletDualRelay#get_monoflop(relay) → [bool, int, int]
Parameters:
  • relay – Type: int, Range: [1 to 2]
Return Array:
  • 0: state – Type: bool
  • 1: time – Type: int, Unit: 1 ms, Range: [0 to 232 - 1]
  • 2: time_remaining – Type: int, Unit: 1 ms, Range: [0 to 232 - 1]

Returns (for the given relay) the current state and the time as set by #set_monoflop as well as the remaining time until the state flips.

If the timer is not running currently, the remaining time will be returned as 0.

BrickletDualRelay#set_selected_state(relay, state) → nil
Parameters:
  • relay – Type: int, Range: [1 to 2]
  • state – Type: bool

Sets the state of the selected relay (1 or 2), true means on and false means off.

A running monoflop timer for the selected relay will be aborted if this function is called.

The other relay remains untouched.

BrickletDualRelay#get_identity → [str, str, chr, [int, ...], [int, ...], int]
Return Array:
  • 0: uid – Type: str, Length: up to 8
  • 1: connected_uid – Type: str, Length: up to 8
  • 2: position – Type: chr, Range: ['a' to 'h', 'z']
  • 3: hardware_version – Type: [int, ...], Length: 3
    • 0: major – Type: int, Range: [0 to 255]
    • 1: minor – Type: int, Range: [0 to 255]
    • 2: revision – Type: int, Range: [0 to 255]
  • 4: firmware_version – Type: [int, ...], Length: 3
    • 0: major – Type: int, Range: [0 to 255]
    • 1: minor – Type: int, Range: [0 to 255]
    • 2: revision – Type: int, Range: [0 to 255]
  • 5: device_identifier – Type: int, Range: [0 to 216 - 1]

Returns the UID, the UID where the Bricklet is connected to, the position, the hardware and firmware version as well as the device identifier.

The position can be 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g' or 'h' (Bricklet Port). A Bricklet connected to an Isolator Bricklet is always at position 'z'.

The device identifier numbers can be found here. There is also a constant for the device identifier of this Bricklet.

Callback Configuration Functions

BrickletDualRelay#register_callback(callback_id) { |param [, ...]| block } → nil
Parameters:
  • callback_id – Type: int

Registers the given block with the given callback_id.

The available callback IDs with corresponding function signatures are listed below.

Callbacks

Callbacks can be registered to receive time critical or recurring data from the device. The registration is done with the #register_callback function of the device object. The first parameter is the callback ID and the second parameter is a block:

dual_relay.register_callback BrickletDualRelay::CALLBACK_EXAMPLE, do |param|
  puts "#{param}"
end

The available constants with inherent number and type of parameters are described below.

Note

Using callbacks for recurring events is always preferred compared to using getters. It will use less USB bandwidth and the latency will be a lot better, since there is no round trip time.

BrickletDualRelay::CALLBACK_MONOFLOP_DONE
Callback Parameters:
  • relay – Type: int, Range: [1 to 2]
  • state – Type: bool

This callback is triggered whenever a monoflop timer reaches 0. The parameter contain the relay (1 or 2) and the current state of the relay (the state after the monoflop).

Virtual Functions

Virtual functions don't communicate with the device itself, but operate only on the API bindings device object. They can be called without the corresponding IP Connection object being connected.

BrickletDualRelay#get_api_version → [int, ...]
Return Array:
  • 0: api_version – Type: [int, ...], Length: 3
    • 0: major – Type: int, Range: [0 to 255]
    • 1: minor – Type: int, Range: [0 to 255]
    • 2: revision – Type: int, Range: [0 to 255]

Returns the version of the API definition implemented by this API bindings. This is neither the release version of this API bindings nor does it tell you anything about the represented Brick or Bricklet.

BrickletDualRelay#get_response_expected(function_id) → bool
Parameters:
  • function_id – Type: int, Range: See constants
Returns:
  • response_expected – Type: bool

Returns the response expected flag for the function specified by the function ID parameter. It is true if the function is expected to send a response, false otherwise.

For getter functions this is enabled by default and cannot be disabled, because those functions will always send a response. For callback configuration functions it is enabled by default too, but can be disabled by #set_response_expected. For setter functions it is disabled by default and can be enabled.

Enabling the response expected flag for a setter function allows to detect timeouts and other error conditions calls of this setter as well. The device will then send a response for this purpose. If this flag is disabled for a setter function then no response is sent and errors are silently ignored, because they cannot be detected.

The following constants are available for this function:

For function_id:

  • BrickletDualRelay::FUNCTION_SET_STATE = 1
  • BrickletDualRelay::FUNCTION_SET_MONOFLOP = 3
  • BrickletDualRelay::FUNCTION_SET_SELECTED_STATE = 6
BrickletDualRelay#set_response_expected(function_id, response_expected) → nil
Parameters:
  • function_id – Type: int, Range: See constants
  • response_expected – Type: bool

Changes the response expected flag of the function specified by the function ID parameter. This flag can only be changed for setter (default value: false) and callback configuration functions (default value: true). For getter functions it is always enabled.

Enabling the response expected flag for a setter function allows to detect timeouts and other error conditions calls of this setter as well. The device will then send a response for this purpose. If this flag is disabled for a setter function then no response is sent and errors are silently ignored, because they cannot be detected.

The following constants are available for this function:

For function_id:

  • BrickletDualRelay::FUNCTION_SET_STATE = 1
  • BrickletDualRelay::FUNCTION_SET_MONOFLOP = 3
  • BrickletDualRelay::FUNCTION_SET_SELECTED_STATE = 6
BrickletDualRelay#set_response_expected_all(response_expected) → nil
Parameters:
  • response_expected – Type: bool

Changes the response expected flag for all setter and callback configuration functions of this device at once.

Constants

BrickletDualRelay::DEVICE_IDENTIFIER

This constant is used to identify a Dual Relay Bricklet.

The #get_identity() function and the IPConnection::CALLBACK_ENUMERATE callback of the IP Connection have a device_identifier parameter to specify the Brick's or Bricklet's type.

BrickletDualRelay::DEVICE_DISPLAY_NAME

This constant represents the human readable name of a Dual Relay Bricklet.