Latest revision as of 12:53, 24 February 2019

Triggering events at given times in the day is done with the help of an xPL device sending time messages every minute.

Before all, make sure you have installed an xPL hub.

Install xPL clock device

Download the xPL device script to xPL scripts directory:

SCRIPTS_BASE_DIR=/home/control/Documents/Controls
cd $SCRIPTS_BASE_DIR
wget http://www.dspc.ch/xPL/Downloads/xpl-clock.pl
chown control:users $SCRIPTS_BASE_DIR/*.pl
chmod 775 $SCRIPTS_BASE_DIR/*.pl

Test xPL clock device

Open a terminal window and launch the device:

SCRIPTS_BASE_DIR=/home/control/Documents/Controls
$SCRIPTS_BASE_DIR/xpl-clock.pl -v

Open a second terminal window (on any machine with xPL installed) and monitor the xPL protocol:

SCRIPTS_BASE_DIR=/home/control/Documents/Controls
$SCRIPTS_BASE_DIR/xpl-monitor.pl -vf

The monitor should echo the clock ticks every minute.

Launch the xPL clock device at startup

The xPL clock device is to be launched after the xPL hub.

Debian with SystemD

On Debian with systemd (such as Raspbian or Ubuntu), the scripts can be defined as services.

Edit /lib/systemd/system/xpl-clock.service:

[Unit]
Description=xPL clock
After=xpl-hub.service

[Service]
Type=simple
User=control
Group=users
ExecStart=/home/control/Documents/Controls/xpl-clock.pl -n home
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Activate the service:

su
systemctl enable xpl-clock.service
service xpl-clock start

Reboot and check:

ps aux | grep -v grep | grep -i xpl
ps ax | grep -i xpl | grep -v grep | sed 's/.*\/Controls\///'
systemctl list-units --type=service --state=running | grep xpl
service xpl-clock status

Ubuntu with Upstart

On Ubuntu, the xPL clock device starts-up once xpl-hub_started has been emitted.

Edit /etc/init/xpl-clock.conf:

################################################################################
# xPL clock, sends ticks every minute
#
description "xPL clock"
version     "1.0"
author      "Francois Corthay"

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Configuration variables
#
env SCRIPTS_DIR='/home/control/Documents/Controls'
env SCRIPT_NAME='xpl-clock.pl'
env PARAMETERS='-n home'

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Start and stop conditions
#
start on xpl-hub_started
stop on shutdown
respawn
setuid control
setgid users

#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Start daemon
#
exec $SCRIPTS_DIR/$SCRIPT_NAME $PARAMETERS

Start the device and check it is up and running:

su root
service xpl-clock start
service xpl-clock status
initctl list | grep xpl

Mac OS

On Mac OS, the xPL clock device starts-up later than the hub.

Edit /Library/LaunchDaemons/xpl-clock.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>xPL clock</string>
    <key>OnDemand</key>
    <false/>
    <key>UserName</key>
    <string>control</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>/Users/control/Documents/Controls/xpl-clock.pl</string>
      <string>-n</string>
      <string>home</string>
      <string>-w</string>
      <string>25</string>
    </array>
  </dict>
</plist>

Start the device and check it is up and running:

su root
launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/xpl-clock.plist
launchctl list | grep -i xpl