pyindi-client

version : v1.9.1

An INDI Client Python API, auto-generated from the official C++ API using SWIG.

Installation

Use pip

pip install pyindi-client

Alternatively download a zip archive (use commits history to get a previous release), extract it and run

python setup.py install

The file [setup.cfg]{.title-ref} contains configuration options (mainly concerning [libindi]{.title-ref} installation path). Edit [setup.cfg]{.title-ref} if you use a libindi version < 1.4.1 (02/2017). The file setup.py searchs for the libindiclient.a library in some predefined directories. If not found, the script fails. Locate this library (try [locate lindiclient.a]{.title-ref} from the command line) and add its path to the [libindisearchpaths]{.title-ref} variable in the setup script.

Dependencies

For the above installation to work, you need to have installed from your distribution repositories the following packages: Python setup tools, Python development files, libindi development files and swig.

On an Ubuntu-like distribution, you may use

apt-get install python-setuptools
apt-get install python-dev
apt-get install libindi-dev
apt-get install swig
apt-get install libcfitsio-dev
apt-get install libnova-dev

On a Fedora-like distribution, you may use

dnf install python-setuptools
dnf install python-devel
dnf install libindi-devel
dnf install swig
dnf install libcfitsio-dev
dnf install libnova-dev

Getting Started

In the following simple example, an INDI 2.0.0 client class is defined giving the implementation of the virtual INDI client functions. This is not mandatory. This class is instantiated once, and after defining server host and port in this object, a list of devices together with their properties is printed on the console.

# for logging
import sys
import time
import logging
# import the PyIndi module
import PyIndi

# The IndiClient class which inherits from the module PyIndi.BaseClient class
# Note that all INDI constants are accessible from the module as PyIndi.CONSTANTNAME
class IndiClient(PyIndi.BaseClient):
    def __init__(self):
        super(IndiClient, self).__init__()
        self.logger = logging.getLogger('IndiClient')
        self.logger.info('creating an instance of IndiClient')

    def newDevice(self, d):
        '''Emmited when a new device is created from INDI server.'''
        self.logger.info(f"new device {d.getDeviceName()}")

    def removeDevice(self, d):
        '''Emmited when a device is deleted from INDI server.'''
        self.logger.info(f"remove device {d.getDeviceName()}")

    def newProperty(self, p):
        '''Emmited when a new property is created for an INDI driver.'''
        self.logger.info(f"new property {p.getName()} as {p.getTypeAsString()} for device {p.getDeviceName()}")

    def updateProperty(self, p):
        '''Emmited when a new property value arrives from INDI server.'''
        self.logger.info(f"update property {p.getName()} as {p.getTypeAsString()} for device {p.getDeviceName()}")

    def removeProperty(self, p):
        '''Emmited when a property is deleted for an INDI driver.'''
        self.logger.info(f"remove property {p.getName()} as {p.getTypeAsString()} for device {p.getDeviceName()}")

    def newMessage(self, d, m):
        '''Emmited when a new message arrives from INDI server.'''
        self.logger.info(f"new Message {d.messageQueue(m)}")

    def serverConnected(self):
        '''Emmited when the server is connected.'''
        self.logger.info(f"Server connected ({self.getHost()}:{self.getPort()})")

    def serverDisconnected(self, code):
        '''Emmited when the server gets disconnected.'''
        self.logger.info(f"Server disconnected (exit code = {code},{self.getHost()}:{self.getPort()})")

logging.basicConfig(format = '%(asctime)s %(message)s', level = logging.INFO)

# Create an instance of the IndiClient class and initialize its host/port members
indiClient=IndiClient()
indiClient.setServer("localhost", 7624)

# Connect to server
print("Connecting and waiting 1 sec")
if not indiClient.connectServer():
     print(f"No indiserver running on {indiClient.getHost()}:{indiClient.getPort()} - Try to run")
     print("  indiserver indi_simulator_telescope indi_simulator_ccd")
     sys.exit(1)

# Waiting for discover devices
time.sleep(1)

# Print list of devices. The list is obtained from the wrapper function getDevices as indiClient is an instance
# of PyIndi.BaseClient and the original C++ array is mapped to a Python List. Each device in this list is an
# instance of PyIndi.BaseDevice, so we use getDeviceName to print its actual name.
print("List of devices")
deviceList = indiClient.getDevices()
for device in deviceList:
    print(f"   > {device.getDeviceName()}")

# Print all properties and their associated values.
print("List of Device Properties")
for device in deviceList:

    print(f"-- {device.getDeviceName()}")
    genericPropertyList = device.getProperties()

    for genericProperty in genericPropertyList:
        print(f"   > {genericProperty.getName()} {genericProperty.getTypeAsString()}")

        if genericProperty.getType() == PyIndi.INDI_TEXT:
            for widget in PyIndi.PropertyText(genericProperty):
                print(f"       {widget.getName()}({widget.getLabel()}) = {widget.getText()}")

        if genericProperty.getType() == PyIndi.INDI_NUMBER:
            for widget in PyIndi.PropertyNumber(genericProperty):
                print(f"       {widget.getName()}({widget.getLabel()}) = {widget.getValue()}")

        if genericProperty.getType() == PyIndi.INDI_SWITCH:
            for widget in PyIndi.PropertySwitch(genericProperty):
                print(f"       {widget.getName()}({widget.getLabel()}) = {widget.getStateAsString()}")

        if genericProperty.getType() == PyIndi.INDI_LIGHT:
            for widget in PyIndi.PropertyLight(genericProperty):
                print(f"       {widget.getLabel()}({widget.getLabel()}) = {widget.getStateAsString()}")
        
        if genericProperty.getType() == PyIndi.INDI_BLOB:
            for widget in PyIndi.PropertyBlob(genericProperty):
                print(f"       {widget.getName()}({widget.getLabel()}) = <blob {widget.getSize()} bytes>")

# Disconnect from the indiserver
print("Disconnecting")
indiClient.disconnectServer()

Migration to INDI Core 2.0.0