avea 1.6.1
Control an Elgato Avea bulb using python3
License: MIT
Requires Python: <4,>=3.9

# Control of an Elgato Avea bulb using Python

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The [Avea bulb from Elgato](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Elgato-Avea-Dynamic-Light-Android-Smartphone/dp/B00O4EZ11Q) is a light bulb that connects to an iPhone or Android app via Bluetooth.

This project aim to control it using a Bluetooth 4.0 compatible device and some Python magic.

Tested on Raspberry Pi 3 and Zero W (with integrated bluetooth). 

- [Control of an Elgato Avea bulb using Python](#control-of-an-elgato-avea-bulb-using-python)
  - [TL;DR](#tldr)
  - [Library usage](#library-usage)
  - [Code documentation](#code-documentation)
  - [Reverse engineering of the bulb](#reverse-engineering-of-the-bulb)
  - [Communication protocol](#communication-protocol)
    - [Intro](#intro)
    - [Commands and payload explanation](#commands-and-payload-explanation)
    - [Color command](#color-command)
    - [Brightness command](#brightness-command)
  - [Walkthrough & Example](#walkthrough--example)
    - [Brightness](#brightness)
      - [Color](#color)
  - [Python implementation](#python-implementation)
    - [One-liner for color computation](#one-liner-for-color-computation)
    - [Bleak write\_gatt\_char usage](#bleak-write_gatt_char-usage)
    - [Working with notifications using Bleak](#working-with-notifications-using-bleak)
  - [TODO](#todo)

## TL;DR

The lib requires [bleak](https://github.com/hbldh/bleak), so we must install the following dependency, whether we use pip or install from source.

**Dependencies**

Ensure your system Bluetooth stack is available (for example `bluez` on Linux or the built-in CoreBluetooth framework on macOS). The Python dependency `bleak` is installed automatically when using pip.

**Then install from pip3**

```bash
sudo apt install python3-pip
sudo pip3 install --upgrade avea
```

**or if you prefer installing from source**

```bash
git clone https://github.com/k0rventen/avea
cd avea
sudo python3 setup.py install
```

## Library usage

You can check the example script `example.py`, to try it directly onto your bulbs :

```bash
sudo python3 example.py
```

Below is a quick how-to of the various methods of the library.

**Note : depending on your operating system configuration, Bluetooth discovery may require additional permissions (for example running with sudo on Linux or granting Bluetooth access on macOS).**

```python
import avea # Important !

# Get nearby bulbs in a list, then retrieve the name of all bulbs
# discovery might require elevated privileges depending on the platform
nearbyBulbs = avea.discover_avea_bulbs()
for bulb in nearbyBulbs:
    bulb.get_name()
    print(bulb.name)

# Or create a bulb if you know its address (after a scan for example)
myBulb = avea.Bulb("xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx")

# You can set the brightness, color and name
myBulb.set_brightness(2000)                 # ranges from 0 to 4095
myBulb.set_color(0,4095,0,0)                # in order : white, red, green, blue
myBulb.set_rgb(0,255,0)                     # RGB compliant function
myBulb.set_smooth_transition(255,255,0,4,30)   # change to rgb(255,255,0) in 4s with 30 iterations per second
myBulb.set_name("bedroom")                  # new name of the bulb

# And get the brightness, color and name
print(myBulb.get_name())                # Query the name of the bulb
theColor = myBulb.get_color()           # Query the current color
theRgbColor = myBulb.get_rgb()          # Query the bulb in a RGB format
theBrightness = myBulb.get_brightness() # query the current brightness
theAddr = myBulb.addr                   # query the bulb Bluetooth addr
theFwVersion = myBulb.get_fw_version()  # query the bulb firmware version
```

That's it. Pretty simple.

Check the explanations below for more informations, or check the sources !


## Code documentation

## Reverse engineering of the bulb

I've used the informations given by [Marmelatze](https://github.com/Marmelatze/avea_bulb) as well as some reverse engineering using a `btsnoop_hci.log` file from an Android device and Wireshark.

Below is a pretty thorough explanation of the BLE communication and the python implementation to communicate with the bulb.

As BLE communication is quite complicated, you might want to skip all of this if you just want to use the library. But it's quite interesting.


## Communication protocol

### Intro

To communicate the bulb uses Bluetooth 4.0 "BLE", which provide some interesting features for communications, to learn more about it go [here](https://learn.adafruit.com/introduction-to-bluetooth-low-energy/gatt).

To sum up, the bulb emits a set of `services` which have `characteristics`. We use the latter to communicate to the device.

The bulb uses the service `f815e810456c6761746f4d756e696368` and the associated characteristic `f815e811456c6761746f4d756e696368` to send and receive informations about its state (color, name and brightness). We'll transmit over this characteristic.

### Commands and payload explanation

The first bytes of transmission is the command. A few commands are available :

Value | Command
--- | ---
0x35 | set / get bulb color
0x57 | set / get bulb brightness
0x58 | set / get bulb name

### Color command

For the color command, the transmission payload is as follows :

Command | Fading time | Useless byte | White value | Red value | Green value | Blue value
---|---|---|---|---|---|---

Each value of the payload is a 4 hexadecimal value. (The actual values are integers between 0 and 4095)

For each color, a prefix in the hexadecimal value is needed :

Color | prefix
---|---
White| 0x8000
Red | 0x3000
Green | 0x2000
Blue | 0X1000

The values are then formatted in **big-endian** format :

Int | 4-bytes Hexadecimal | Big-endian hex
---|---|---
4095 | 0x0fff| **0xff0f**

### Brightness command

The brightness is also an Int value between 0 and 4095, sent as a big-endian 4-bytes hex value. The transmission looks like this :

Command | Brightness value |
---|---
0x57 | 0xff00

## Walkthrough & Example

Let say we want the bulb to be pink at 75% brightness :

### Brightness

75% brightness is roughly 3072 (out of the maximum 4095):

Int | 4-bytes Hexadecimal | **Big-endian hex**
---|---|---
3072 |0x0C00| **0x000C**

The brightness command will be `0x57000C`

#### Color

Pink is 100% red, 100% blue, no green. (We assume that the white value is also 0.) For each color, we convert the int value to hexadecimal, then we apply the prefix, then we convert to big-endian :

Variables | Int Values | Hexadecimal values | Bitwise XOR | Big-endian values
---|---|---|---|---
White| 0| 0x0000| 0x8000| 0x0080
Red | 4095| 0x0fff| 0x3fff| 0xff3f
Green | 0 | 0x0000| 0x2000 | 0x0020
Blue | 4095| 0x0fff | 0x1fff| 0xff1f


The final byte sequence for a pink bulb will be :

Command | Fading time | Useless byte | White value | Red value | Green value | Blue value
---|---|---|---|---|---|---
`0x35`|`1101`| `0000`| `0080`|`ff3f`|`0020`|`ff1f`


## Python implementation
Below is some python3 code regarding various aspects that are quite interesting.

### One-liner for color computation
To compute the correct values for each color, I created the following conversion (here showing for white) :

```python
white = (int(<value>) | int(0x8000)).to_bytes(2, byteorder='little').hex()
```

### Bleak write_gatt_char usage
Bleak lets us send raw binary payloads straight to a characteristic without any extra overrides. The library now prepares the payload as bytes and calls the client directly:

```python
await client.write_gatt_char(CONTROL_CHARACTERISTIC_UUID, payload, response=False)
```

### Working with notifications using Bleak
Notifications are enabled through `BleakClient.start_notify`. During the connection phase the library subscribes to the Avea control characteristic and routes every notification to a callback that updates the cached bulb state. Synchronous getters wait on an `asyncio.Event` that is set when the expected command is received, keeping the public API blocking while leveraging bleak under the hood.

## TODO
- Reverse engineer the `ambiances` (which are mood-based scenes).