Quickstart

If you already got the hardware with the newest firmware, you're already done with the c++ part. Just connect the ftSwarm to your computer and install the python library:

pip install ftswarm.py

If you want to build the firmware on your own, you can find the source code at github.

Getting Started

After building a swarm and connecting one of the ftSwarm devices to your computer, you can start to control it with python. First, you have to import the library and create a swarm object as well as get asyncio running:

import swarm
import asyncio


async def main():
    ftswarm = swarm.FtSwarm(port="/dev/ttyUSB0")  # or "COM1" (or similar) on windows
    # do something with the ftSwarm


if __name__ == '__main__':
    asyncio.run(main())

The port has to be set to the serial port where the ftSwarm is connected. If you use windows, you can find the port in the device manager.

About aliases

A swarm can become quite complex fast. To make it easier to control the hardware, you can use aliases. An alias is a name for a specific hardware. For example, you can create an alias for the first motor in the cli. More information on this topic can be found in the official config documentation.

All IO Ports can be called by their alias name or their controller hostname + number, e.g. "ftswarm1.A1" or " ftswarm1.M2".

Now you can finally control some hardware.

Example: Reading a switch

For this example, we will read the state of a switch. The switch is connected to a digital input called myswitch.

import swarm
import asyncio

async def main():
    ftswarm = swarm.FtSwarm(port="/dev/ttyUSB0")  # Enter your port here
    switch = await ftswarm.get_switch("myswitch")
    while True:
        print("Switch state:", await switch.get_state())
        await asyncio.sleep(1)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    asyncio.run(main())

Example: Writing to a motor

For this example, we will write a value to a motor. The motor is connected to a digital output called mymotor.

import swarm
import asyncio

async def main():
    ftswarm = swarm.FtSwarm(port="/dev/ttyUSB0")  # Enter your port here
    motor = await ftswarm.get_motor("mymotor")
    while True:
        await motor.set_speed(255)
        await asyncio.sleep(1)
        await motor.set_speed(-255)
        await asyncio.sleep(1)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    asyncio.run(main())