Switch widget and python

Data management
,
1

I am using a raspberry pi with python to send dots which seems to work fine. when I try to read a switch state I use the
var.get_values(1) function which I assume would get the last and current switch value. It get the list of dictionary values and but I only get zeros.
I am assuming that the switch goes from 1 to zero once its read by the device?
Is there another more detailed description of the module api?

2

Hi @ssagerian,

Here’s an example to read the last value of a Switch:

from ubidots import ApiClient

api = ApiClient("a21ebafxxxxd195c0044fcc3b9f6dabxxxx3af3") 
control_variable = api.get_variable("553169cb7625421be86b9592")
status = control_variable.get_values(1)

print status[0]['value']
if status[0]['value']:
    print "Switch is ON"
else:
    print "Switch is OFF"

The variable doesn’t automatically go from 1 to zero when read from the device. If your application requires this behaviour, you can use the “save_value” function in your IF statement:

if status[0]['value']:
    print "Switch is ON"
    control_variable.save_value({"value":0})

A description of the Python API client can be found here: http://ubidots.com/docs/libraries/python.html#libraries-python-official

3

Hi Augustin, thanks for the quick reply.
I am seeing different behavior despite using exactly the same code as you posted (except for the ids).
while watching the widget, when I click on it, it goes from the off state to the on state, moments later (10 seconds) it goes off again, presumably because it was read by my endpoint device. I dont save a value of zero to it.
Also, I am still only reading zeros at the end point device, I have checked the id of the variable and they match.
any other actions you can suggest, or things to check on ?
thanks
Steve

4

Well, you were correct (go figure!). I found that I was setting the value later on to zero…now its working…thanks again, great website!

Steve

5

One other question, since I can set the value of the var, what happens if is I set it to something other than one or zero?

6

Glad it worked now! you can send any value to it, as any other Ubidots variable. Furthermore, you can send arbitrary “key”:“value” pairs if that makes sense to your application (see “context”).

In this case we are only sending “1” or “0” because it is a variable to control something, so the logic in the controller takes an action -or not- depending on the binary state.

If you use an “Indicator” widget then it will turn on for any value “> 0” or off for any value “=< 0”