This is the description of the Visual Basic .NET API bindings for the Ambient Light Bricklet. General information and technical specifications for the Ambient Light Bricklet are summarized in its hardware description.
An installation guide for the Visual Basic .NET API bindings is part of their general description.
The example code below is Public Domain (CC0 1.0).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 | Imports Tinkerforge
Module ExampleSimple
Const HOST As String = "localhost"
Const PORT As Integer = 4223
Const UID As String = "aNt" ' Change to your UID
Sub Main()
Dim ipcon As New IPConnection() ' Create IP connection
Dim al As New BrickletAmbientLight(UID, ipcon) ' Create device object
ipcon.Connect(HOST, PORT) ' Connect to brickd
' Don't use device before ipcon is connected
' Get current illuminance (unit is Lux/10)
Dim illuminance As Integer = al.GetIlluminance()
System.Console.WriteLine("Illuminance: " + (illuminance/10.0).ToString() + " Lux")
System.Console.WriteLine("Press key to exit")
System.Console.ReadLine()
ipcon.Disconnect()
End Sub
End Module
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 | Imports Tinkerforge
Module ExampleCallback
Const HOST As String = "localhost"
Const PORT As Integer = 4223
Const UID As String = "aNt" ' Change to your UID
' Callback function for illuminance callback (parameter has unit Lux/10)
Sub IlluminanceCB(ByVal sender As BrickletAmbientLight, ByVal illuminance As Integer)
System.Console.WriteLine("Illuminance: " + (illuminance/10.0).ToString() + " Lux")
End Sub
Sub Main()
Dim ipcon As New IPConnection() ' Create IP connection
Dim al As New BrickletAmbientLight(UID, ipcon) ' Create device object
ipcon.Connect(HOST, PORT) ' Connect to brickd
' Don't use device before ipcon is connected
' Set Period for illuminance callback to 1s (1000ms)
' Note: The illuminance callback is only called every second if the
' illuminance has changed since the last call!
al.SetIlluminanceCallbackPeriod(1000)
' Register illuminance callback to function IlluminanceCB
AddHandler al.Illuminance, AddressOf IlluminanceCB
System.Console.WriteLine("Press key to exit")
System.Console.ReadLine()
ipcon.Disconnect()
End Sub
End Module
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Download (ExampleThreshold.vb)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 | Imports Tinkerforge
Module ExampleThreshold
Const HOST As String = "localhost"
Const PORT As Integer = 4223
Const UID As String = "aNt" ' Change to your UID
' Callback for illuminance greater than 200 Lux
Sub ReachedCB(ByVal sender As BrickletAmbientLight, ByVal illuminance As Integer)
System.Console.WriteLine("We have " + (illuminance/10.0).ToString() + " Lux.")
System.Console.WriteLine("Too bright, close the curtains!")
End Sub
Sub Main()
Dim ipcon As New IPConnection() ' Create IP connection
Dim al As New BrickletAmbientLight(UID, ipcon) ' Create device object
ipcon.Connect(HOST, PORT) ' Connect to brickd
' Don't use device before ipcon is connected
' Get threshold callbacks with a debounce time of 10 seconds (10000ms)
al.SetDebouncePeriod(10000)
' Register threshold reached callback to function ReachedCB
AddHandler al.IlluminanceReached, AddressOf ReachedCB
' Configure threshold for "greater than 200 Lux" (unit is Lux/10)
al.SetIlluminanceCallbackThreshold(">"C, 200*10, 0)
System.Console.WriteLine("Press key to exit")
System.Console.ReadLine()
ipcon.Disconnect()
End Sub
End Module
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Since Visual Basic .NET does not support multiple return values directly, we use the ByRef keyword to return multiple values from a function.
All functions and procedures listed below are thread-safe.
Creates an object with the unique device ID uid:
Dim ambientLight As New BrickletAmbientLight("YOUR_DEVICE_UID", ipcon)
This object can then be used after the IP Connection is connected (see examples above).
Returns the illuminance of the ambient light sensor. The value has a range of 0 to 9000 and is given in Lux/10, i.e. a value of 4500 means that an illuminance of 450 Lux is measured.
If you want to get the illuminance periodically, it is recommended to use the callback Illuminance and set the period with SetIlluminanceCallbackPeriod().
Returns the value as read by a 12-bit analog-to-digital converter. The value is between 0 and 4095.
Note
The value returned by GetIlluminance() is averaged over several samples to yield less noise, while GetAnalogValue() gives back raw unfiltered analog values. The only reason to use GetAnalogValue() is, if you need the full resolution of the analog-to-digital converter.
Also, the analog-to-digital converter covers three different ranges that are set dynamically depending on the light intensity. It is impossible to distinguish between these ranges with the analog value.
If you want the analog value periodically, it is recommended to use the callback AnalogValue and set the period with SetAnalogValueCallbackPeriod().
Returns the version of the API definition (major, minor, revision) implemented by this API bindings. This is neither the release version of this API bindings nor does it tell you anything about the represented Brick or Bricklet.
Returns the response expected flag for the function specified by the function ID parameter. It is true if the function is expected to send a response, false otherwise.
For getter functions this is enabled by default and cannot be disabled, because those functions will always send a response. For callback configuration functions it is enabled by default too, but can be disabled by SetResponseExpected(). For setter functions it is disabled by default and can be enabled.
Enabling the response expected flag for a setter function allows to detect timeouts and other error conditions calls of this setter as well. The device will then send a response for this purpose. If this flag is disabled for a setter function then no response is send and errors are silently ignored, because they cannot be detected.
See SetResponseExpected() for the list of function ID constants available for this function.
Changes the response expected flag of the function specified by the function ID parameter. This flag can only be changed for setter (default value: false) and callback configuration functions (default value: true). For getter functions it is always enabled and callbacks it is always disabled.
Enabling the response expected flag for a setter function allows to detect timeouts and other error conditions calls of this setter as well. The device will then send a response for this purpose. If this flag is disabled for a setter function then no response is send and errors are silently ignored, because they cannot be detected.
The following function ID constants are available for this function:
Changes the response expected flag for all setter and callback configuration functions of this device at once.
Returns the UID, the UID where the Bricklet is connected to, the position, the hardware and firmware version as well as the device identifier.
The position can be 'a', 'b', 'c' or 'd'.
The device identifier numbers can be found here. There is also a constant for the device identifier of this Bricklet.
Sets the period in ms with which the Illuminance callback is triggered periodically. A value of 0 turns the callback off.
Illuminance is only triggered if the illuminance has changed since the last triggering.
The default value is 0.
Returns the period as set by SetIlluminanceCallbackPeriod().
Sets the period in ms with which the AnalogValue callback is triggered periodically. A value of 0 turns the callback off.
AnalogValue is only triggered if the analog value has changed since the last triggering.
The default value is 0.
Returns the period as set by SetAnalogValueCallbackPeriod().
Sets the thresholds for the IlluminanceReached callback.
The following options are possible:
Option | Description |
---|---|
'x' | Callback is turned off |
'o' | Callback is triggered when the illuminance is outside the min and max values |
'i' | Callback is triggered when the illuminance is inside the min and max values |
'<' | Callback is triggered when the illuminance is smaller than the min value (max is ignored) |
'>' | Callback is triggered when the illuminance is greater than the min value (max is ignored) |
The default value is ('x', 0, 0).
The following constants are available for this function:
Returns the threshold as set by SetIlluminanceCallbackThreshold().
The following constants are available for this function:
Sets the thresholds for the AnalogValueReached callback.
The following options are possible:
Option | Description |
---|---|
'x' | Callback is turned off |
'o' | Callback is triggered when the analog value is outside the min and max values |
'i' | Callback is triggered when the analog value is inside the min and max values |
'<' | Callback is triggered when the analog value is smaller than the min value (max is ignored) |
'>' | Callback is triggered when the analog value is greater than the min value (max is ignored) |
The default value is ('x', 0, 0).
The following constants are available for this function:
Returns the threshold as set by SetAnalogValueCallbackThreshold().
The following constants are available for this function:
Sets the period in ms with which the threshold callbacks
are triggered, if the thresholds
keep being reached.
The default value is 100.
Returns the debounce period as set by SetDebouncePeriod().
Callbacks can be registered to receive time critical or recurring data from the device. The registration is done by assigning a procedure to an callback property of the device object:
Sub Callback(ByVal sender As BrickletAmbientLight, ByVal value As Short) Console.WriteLine("Value: {0}", value) End Sub AddHandler ambientLight.Example, AddressOf Callback
The available callback property and their type of parameters are described below.
Note
Using callbacks for recurring events is always preferred compared to using getters. It will use less USB bandwidth and the latency will be a lot better, since there is no round trip time.
This callback is triggered periodically with the period that is set by SetIlluminanceCallbackPeriod(). The parameter is the illuminance of the ambient light sensor.
Illuminance is only triggered if the illuminance has changed since the last triggering.
This callback is triggered periodically with the period that is set by SetAnalogValueCallbackPeriod(). The parameter is the analog value of the ambient light sensor.
AnalogValue is only triggered if the analog value has changed since the last triggering.
This callback is triggered when the threshold as set by SetIlluminanceCallbackThreshold() is reached. The parameter is the illuminance of the ambient light sensor.
If the threshold keeps being reached, the callback is triggered periodically with the period as set by SetDebouncePeriod().
This callback is triggered when the threshold as set by SetAnalogValueCallbackThreshold() is reached. The parameter is the analog value of the ambient light sensor.
If the threshold keeps being reached, the callback is triggered periodically with the period as set by SetDebouncePeriod().
This constant is used to identify a Ambient Light Bricklet.
The GetIdentity() function and the EnumerateCallback callback of the IP Connection have a deviceIdentifier parameter to specify the Brick's or Bricklet's type.