Software / API Bindings / C# / API Reference and Examples / Bricklets (Discontinued) / Remote Switch Bricklet

C# - Remote Switch Bricklet¶

This is the description of the C# API bindings for the Remote Switch Bricklet. General information and technical specifications for the Remote Switch Bricklet are summarized in its hardware description.

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

Examples¶

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

Switch Socket¶

Download (ExampleSwitchSocket.cs)

using System;
using Tinkerforge;

class Example
{
    private static string HOST = "localhost";
    private static int PORT = 4223;
    private static string UID = "XYZ"; // Change XYZ to the UID of your Remote Switch Bricklet

    static void Main()
    {
        IPConnection ipcon = new IPConnection(); // Create IP connection
        BrickletRemoteSwitch rs = new BrickletRemoteSwitch(UID, ipcon); // Create device object

        ipcon.Connect(HOST, PORT); // Connect to brickd
        // Don't use device before ipcon is connected

        // Switch on a type A socket with house code 17 and receiver code 1.
        // House code 17 is 10001 in binary (least-significant bit first)
        // and means that the DIP switches 1 and 5 are on and 2-4 are off.
        // Receiver code 1 is 10000 in binary (least-significant bit first)
        // and means that the DIP switch A is on and B-E are off.
        rs.SwitchSocketA(17, 1, BrickletRemoteSwitch.SWITCH_TO_ON);

        Console.WriteLine("Press enter to exit");
        Console.ReadLine();
        ipcon.Disconnect();
    }
}

API¶

Generally, every method of the C# bindings that returns a value can throw a Tinkerforge.TimeoutException. This exception gets thrown if the device did not respond. If a cable based connection is used, it is unlikely that this exception gets thrown (assuming nobody plugs the device out). However, if a wireless connection is used, timeouts will occur if the distance to the device gets too big.

Since C# does not support multiple return values directly, we use the out keyword to return multiple values from a method.

The namespace for all Brick/Bricklet bindings and the IPConnection is Tinkerforge.*.

All methods listed below are thread-safe.

Basic Functions¶

class BrickletRemoteSwitch(string uid, IPConnection ipcon)¶

Parameters:	uid – Type: string ipcon – Type: IPConnection
Returns:	remoteSwitch – Type: BrickletRemoteSwitch

Creates an object with the unique device ID uid:

BrickletRemoteSwitch remoteSwitch = new BrickletRemoteSwitch("YOUR_DEVICE_UID", ipcon);

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

void BrickletRemoteSwitch.SwitchSocket(byte houseCode, byte receiverCode, byte switchTo)¶

Parameters:	houseCode – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 31] receiverCode – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 31] switchTo – Type: byte, Range: See constants

This function is deprecated, use SwitchSocketA() instead.

The following constants are available for this function:

For switchTo:

BrickletRemoteSwitch.SWITCH_TO_OFF = 0
BrickletRemoteSwitch.SWITCH_TO_ON = 1

byte BrickletRemoteSwitch.GetSwitchingState()¶

Returns:	state – Type: byte, Range: See constants

Returns the current switching state. If the current state is busy, the Bricklet is currently sending a code to switch a socket. It will not accept any requests to switch sockets until the state changes to ready.

How long the switching takes is dependent on the number of repeats, see SetRepeats().

The following constants are available for this function:

For state:

BrickletRemoteSwitch.SWITCHING_STATE_READY = 0
BrickletRemoteSwitch.SWITCHING_STATE_BUSY = 1

void BrickletRemoteSwitch.SwitchSocketA(byte houseCode, byte receiverCode, byte switchTo)¶

Parameters:	houseCode – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 31] receiverCode – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 31] switchTo – Type: byte, Range: See constants

To switch a type A socket you have to give the house code, receiver code and the state (on or off) you want to switch to.

A detailed description on how you can figure out the house and receiver code can be found here.

The following constants are available for this function:

For switchTo:

BrickletRemoteSwitch.SWITCH_TO_OFF = 0
BrickletRemoteSwitch.SWITCH_TO_ON = 1

New in version 2.0.1 (Plugin).

void BrickletRemoteSwitch.SwitchSocketB(long address, byte unit, byte switchTo)¶

Parameters:	address – Type: long, Range: [0 to 2²⁶ - 1] unit – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 15, 255] switchTo – Type: byte, Range: See constants

To switch a type B socket you have to give the address, unit and the state (on or off) you want to switch to.

To switch all devices with the same address use 255 for the unit.

A detailed description on how you can teach a socket the address and unit can be found here.

The following constants are available for this function:

For switchTo:

BrickletRemoteSwitch.SWITCH_TO_OFF = 0
BrickletRemoteSwitch.SWITCH_TO_ON = 1

New in version 2.0.1 (Plugin).

void BrickletRemoteSwitch.DimSocketB(long address, byte unit, byte dimValue)¶

Parameters:	address – Type: long, Range: [0 to 2²⁶ - 1] unit – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 15, 255] dimValue – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 255]

To control a type B dimmer you have to give the address, unit and the dim value you want to set the dimmer to.

A detailed description on how you can teach a dimmer the address and unit can be found here.

New in version 2.0.1 (Plugin).

void BrickletRemoteSwitch.SwitchSocketC(char systemCode, byte deviceCode, byte switchTo)¶

Parameters:	systemCode – Type: char, Range: ['A' to 'P'] deviceCode – Type: byte, Range: [1 to 16] switchTo – Type: byte, Range: See constants

To switch a type C socket you have to give the system code, device code and the state (on or off) you want to switch to.

A detailed description on how you can figure out the system and device code can be found here.

The following constants are available for this function:

For switchTo:

BrickletRemoteSwitch.SWITCH_TO_OFF = 0
BrickletRemoteSwitch.SWITCH_TO_ON = 1

New in version 2.0.1 (Plugin).

Advanced Functions¶

void BrickletRemoteSwitch.SetRepeats(byte repeats)¶

Parameters:	repeats – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 255], Default: 5

Sets the number of times the code is sent when one of the switch socket functions is called. The repeats basically correspond to the amount of time that a button of the remote is pressed.

Some dimmers are controlled by the length of a button pressed, this can be simulated by increasing the repeats.

byte BrickletRemoteSwitch.GetRepeats()¶

Returns:	repeats – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 255], Default: 5

Returns the number of repeats as set by SetRepeats().

void BrickletRemoteSwitch.GetIdentity(out string uid, out string connectedUid, out char position, out byte[] hardwareVersion, out byte[] firmwareVersion, out int deviceIdentifier)¶

Output Parameters:

Output Parameters:	uid – Type: string, Length: up to 8 connectedUid – Type: string, Length: up to 8 position – Type: char, Range: ['a' to 'h', 'z'] hardwareVersion – Type: byte[], Length: 3 0: major – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 255] 1: minor – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 255] 2: revision – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 255] firmwareVersion – Type: byte[], Length: 3 0: major – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 255] 1: minor – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 255] 2: revision – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 255] deviceIdentifier – Type: int, Range: [0 to 2¹⁶ - 1]

uid – Type: string, Length: up to 8
connectedUid – Type: string, Length: up to 8
position – Type: char, Range: ['a' to 'h', 'z']
hardwareVersion – Type: byte[], Length: 3

0: major – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 255]
1: minor – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 255]
2: revision – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 255]

firmwareVersion – Type: byte[], Length: 3

0: major – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 255]
1: minor – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 255]
2: revision – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 255]

deviceIdentifier – 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.

Callbacks¶

Callbacks can be registered to receive time critical or recurring data from the device. The registration is done by appending your callback handler to the corresponding event:

void MyCallback(BrickletRemoteSwitch sender, int value)
{
    System.Console.WriteLine("Value: " + value);
}

remoteSwitch.ExampleCallback += MyCallback;

The available events 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.

event BrickletRemoteSwitch.SwitchingDoneCallback(BrickletRemoteSwitch sender)¶

Callback Parameters:	sender – Type: BrickletRemoteSwitch

This callback is triggered whenever the switching state changes from busy to ready, see GetSwitchingState().

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.

byte[] BrickletRemoteSwitch.GetAPIVersion()¶

Output Parameters:	apiVersion – Type: byte[], Length: 3 0: major – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 255] 1: minor – Type: byte, Range: [0 to 255] 2: revision – Type: byte, 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.

bool BrickletRemoteSwitch.GetResponseExpected(byte functionId)¶

Parameters:	functionId – Type: byte, Range: See constants
Returns:	responseExpected – 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 SetResponseExpected(). 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 functionId:

BrickletRemoteSwitch.FUNCTION_SWITCH_SOCKET = 1
BrickletRemoteSwitch.FUNCTION_SET_REPEATS = 4
BrickletRemoteSwitch.FUNCTION_SWITCH_SOCKET_A = 6
BrickletRemoteSwitch.FUNCTION_SWITCH_SOCKET_B = 7
BrickletRemoteSwitch.FUNCTION_DIM_SOCKET_B = 8
BrickletRemoteSwitch.FUNCTION_SWITCH_SOCKET_C = 9

void BrickletRemoteSwitch.SetResponseExpected(byte functionId, bool responseExpected)¶

Parameters:	functionId – Type: byte, Range: See constants responseExpected – 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.

The following constants are available for this function:

For functionId:

BrickletRemoteSwitch.FUNCTION_SWITCH_SOCKET = 1
BrickletRemoteSwitch.FUNCTION_SET_REPEATS = 4
BrickletRemoteSwitch.FUNCTION_SWITCH_SOCKET_A = 6
BrickletRemoteSwitch.FUNCTION_SWITCH_SOCKET_B = 7
BrickletRemoteSwitch.FUNCTION_DIM_SOCKET_B = 8
BrickletRemoteSwitch.FUNCTION_SWITCH_SOCKET_C = 9

void BrickletRemoteSwitch.SetResponseExpectedAll(bool responseExpected)¶

Parameters:	responseExpected – Type: bool

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

Constants¶

int BrickletRemoteSwitch.DEVICE_IDENTIFIER¶

This constant is used to identify a Remote Switch Bricklet.

The GetIdentity() function and the IPConnection.EnumerateCallback callback of the IP Connection have a deviceIdentifier parameter to specify the Brick's or Bricklet's type.

string BrickletRemoteSwitch.DEVICE_DISPLAY_NAME¶: This constant represents the human readable name of a Remote Switch Bricklet.