yangyushi / bulb_control

controlling TP-Link smart bulb (Kasa) for scientific reasons

GUI controller for Smart Light Bulb

What is this

This is a GUI controller for a Kasa Smart Bulb. The idea is to control the brightness remotely for various scientific reasons.

Using the code

Use the following command to execute the script

python3 bulb_control/bulb_control.py 

Or you can use a shorter version

./bc

Main functions

The main function that the GUI offers are to following,

1. Changing the brightness of the bulb manually,
2. Setting up a day-to-night shift and have the brightness being changed automatically.

More features are being added.

Using the GUI

1. Input the IP address of the bulb, and uncheck the "Simulate Bulb" box.
2. Click "connect" button, if the connection were correct, the indicator will be a green sphere, otherwise it would be a red cross.
3. To change the brightness manually, drag the brightness slide.
4. To start the automatic mode, check the "Automated Control" box.

Reference

The communication between the bulb and the GUI is achieved using Brain Dorey's code. Very cool project.

Extra Stuff: Establishing the connection

I want to remote control the smart bulb whom located in a university lab in UK. It is not very straightforward because there are some restrictions for the internet access using the eduroam system.

There is a built-in WiFi network from the Kasa smart bulb. Thanks to this extra WiFi, I managed to connect everything together. Firstly, I connected my Raspberry Pi to this WiFi to access this smart bulb. Then I physically connected my PC to the Raspberry Pi, while the PC had Internet access using eduroam. See the following chat for what I meant.

┌─────────────┐                          
│     Me      │                          
└────┬───▲────┘                          
     │   │                               
   Any Method          ┌─────────────┐   
     │   │             │             │   
┌────▼───┴────┐        │ Smart Bulb  │   
│  Internet   │        │             │   
└────┬───▲────┘        └────┬───▲────┘   
     │   │                  │   │        
    Eduroam              Local WiFi      
     │   │                  │   │        
┌────▼───┴────┐      ┌──────▼───┴───────┐
│             │  SSH │                  │
│    My PC    ├──────▶   Raspberry Pi   │
│             │      │                  │
└─────────────┘      └──────────────────┘

This is only way I figured out to remotely control a device, while bypassing the restrictions from Eduroam. I am really bad with internet, and you probably will have better solutions.