SwitchBoard

SwitchBoard is a node.js based application intended to run on a device within a local network - preferably a dedicated server (such as a Raspberry Pi). It allows all web capable devices within that same network to issue commands to any other configured device. You may use your phone, tablet, desktop or laptop browser to interact with any controllable device - or issue simple GET commands programmatically. It's able to (optionally) log actions for machine learning to determine usage patterns and automate some tasks.

Follow along development in the SwitchBoard blog.

Video demonstration:

Or you may browse through a static version.

Setup

Easy

• You'll need to install node.js. You can grab it from the Node.js website
• npm install -g git+https://github.com/imbrianj/switchBoard.git
• Add a config file anywhere on the device you want to run the app on. See the default file for examples
• Run switchBoard -c yournewconfigfile
• Open your favorite browser on any device within your wireless network, and point it to the IP and port of the device hosting switchBoard (default is 8181). E.g. https://192.168.2.13:8181/ (Remember to bookmark)
• Profit

Advanced

Download the source, edit config/config.js to reflect your node server IP, desired port to hit when you visit the remote and web mac address of the server (used for authenticating against Samsung TVs). If you don't have a specific device, just comment out or remove the configuration for it. If you do have a device you'd like to control, just populate the given fields - they should all be pretty obvious in their use. Run node app.js then visit your node page. Run a command from the remote and Allow access on your TV.

Supported Devices/Services

Name	Status	Notes
ActiveBuilding	Stable	Checks for arrived packages to be picked up from your concierge
Air Quality	Stable	Checks local air quality values from OpenAQ.org
Belkin Wemo	Stable
Chromecast	Testing	Limited functionality. Determines if TV is on and allows sending of YouTube IDs
Client MP3	Stable	Sends an mp3 playback command to all Websocket connected clients
Client Notify	Stable	Sends a Desktop Notification to all Websocket connected clients
Client Screen Saver	Development	For use with OLED display fixtures - blacks out screen when not in use
Client Speech	Stable	Sends text to be speech synthesized to all Websocket connected clients
Client Vibrate	Stable	Sends a command to vibrate all Websocket connected clients (phones, tablets, etc)
Enviro+	Testing	Uses a remote Raspberry Pi with the Pimoroni Enviro+ HAT with a python script to report air quality measurements
Debug	Stable	Display basic system information (memory, cpu, uptime)
Denon	Stable	New controller and still in testing
DLinkCamera	Stable	Controls DLink MJPEG pan/tilt cameras
Foscam	Stable	Works with MPEG versions such as FI8910W. H.264 models are not supported. Arm, Disarm, Go to presets, etc. INSECURE Exposes camera credentials to users
Geiger	Stable	Uses switchboard-phpServer to track radition with a GQ brand geiger counter
Gerty	Stable	A simple interface for all devices that reacts to natural inputs
GitHub	Testing	Poll for commits to a given repository. For Switchboard, can tell you if you should update
have i been pwned?	Stable	Query haveibeenpwned.com to see if your username has been part of a data breach
LG TVs	Development	Still need work on authentication
Location	Stable	Uses switchboard-phpServer and Tasker to track your GPS position
MonoPrice 3d Printer	Stable	Probably works with other brands and models, but tested on Mini Select v2
MP3	Stable	Works on *nix with mpg123 or OSX with afplay. Win not supported
Neato	Developing	Control for Neato Botvac vacuum cleaner
Nest	Stable	Works with Nest thermostat and Protect smoke / CO detectors
Octoprint	Testing	Displays basic stats - completion percentage, temperatures
Panasonic	Stable	Text input and basic controls
Pi-Hole	Stable	Display stats from Pi-Hole dashboard
PowerView	Stable	Hunter Douglas PowerView blinds control
Pioneer	Testing	Reportedly works, but unable to test
PS3	Stable	Uses GIMX to emulate PS3 controller (see below). OSX not supported
Pushover	Stable	Requires purchased app and token / user key
Raspberry Remote	Stable	Uses Raspberry Remote to control lighting. Only Linux is supported
Roku	Stable	Launch apps directly, text input and basic controls
RSS	Stable	Simple RSS and Atom reader
Samsung SmartTV	Stable	Text input and basic controls
SmartThings	Stable	Control devices and monitor real-time states. Requires companion app
SMS	Stable	Uses Twilio. Requires ID and token
Speech	Stable	Uses espeak for *nix, say on OSX. Win not supported
Sports	Stable	Pull sports scores from ESPN (please don't hammer this endpoint)
TCL SmartTV	Stable	Uses the Roku controller, but it's own template with additional controls
Traffic Cams	Stable	View multiple traffic webcams
Travis CI	Stable
Twitter	Stable	Present mentions of your Twitter handle or subscribe to a user's feed
Weather	Stable	Uses Dark Sky API
Website	Stable	Simple controller to load an external site as an iframe
XBMC	Stable	Basic controls work

How to Contribute

I'm always looking to add devices and services. Even if you're not a developer, you can help by testing, doing documentation, translating or even just expressing interest in something to help guide the effort. Join ##switchboard on irc.freenode.net If you'd like to reach out. If you work for a device manufacturer - let me know if I can beg, borrow or steal a device from you to integrate!

Controlling your PS3 -- General instructions

Overview: You'll need to have your SwitchBoard device (computer, raspberry pi, etc.) pretend to be a PS3 controller (aka Sixaxis Controller) that communicates with the PS3 via Bluetooth.

• You'll need a supported Bluetooth dongle that plugs into your device and communicates with the console (the CSR bluecore4-rom is recommended): https://gimx.fr/wiki/index.php?title=Bluetooth_dongle
• Install GIMX version 2.0x+ (earlier versions won't work).
• Refer to the detailed instruction for spoofing your Bluetooth dongle's MAC address.
• ☝️ Tips:
  • The above instructions assume you have plugged your Sixaxis into your PS3, pressed the controller's PS button to pair it, unplugged the controller from the PS3, and pluged back into your SwitchBoard device.
  • Keep note of the Bluetooth addresses of both your PS3 controller (aka Current Bluetooth Device Address, or sixaxis_bt_address) and PS3 console (aka Current Bluetooth master, or ps3_bt_address). You'll need to add the PS3 Bluetooth address in your config/config.js file and you'll need the controller address to copy over to your dongle

Controlling your PS3 -- via a Raspberry Pi set up as a persistent server

• cd switchBoard && npm update && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get --yes dist-upgrade && sudo apt-get clean all && sudo updatedb && reboot # Make sure your Raspberry Pi is up to date
• You'll need a supported Bluetooth dongle that plugs into your device and communicates with the console (the CSR bluecore4-rom is recommended): https://gimx.fr/wiki/index.php?title=Bluetooth_dongle
• wget https://github.com/matlo/GIMX/releases/download/v3.2/gimx_3.2-1_armhf.deb && sudo dpkg -i gimx_3.2-1_armhf.deb # install gimx
• Plug your PS3 controller (aka Sixaxis) into your PS3, press the controller's PS button to pair it. Then, unplug the controller from the PS3 and plug into your Raspberry Pi.
• sixaddr
• Should result in: Current Bluetooth master: 90:34:FC:F7:75:E3 # your PS3's Bluetooth address, set this to be MAC address of your ps3 within config/config.js, remember to enable the device as well
• ... And Current Bluetooth Device Address: 04:98:F3:0C:FA:6B # save for later, you can disconnect the PS3 controller now
• hciconfig -a # With your dongle plugged in, this should reveal the active dongle.
• Take note of a line that looks like this, with the rest of the metadata representing your dongle: hci0: Type: BR/EDR Bus: USB Etc.
• bdaddr -r -i hci0 # Use the integer (in our case 0) from the hci0 output above, in this command, to set the MAC address of your dongle to that of the Sixaxis you saved earlier.
• Your Raspberry's dongle will now pretend to be the Sixaxis controller.
• switchBoard -c config/config.js # power up your controller, hit the Raspberry Pi via your browser
• You should now see the PS3 tab, click on it, click on the power button (equivalent to the PS3's start button), and profit.
• Reference: Installing on a Raspberry Pi (retrieved on 9.10.2014)

More Device Installation Info

For details about each device's specific requirements for installation, refer to the well commented config.js for any given device.

Credit

Thank you to Matlo from GIMX for his huge help in getting the PS3 control working. If you use the PS3 functionality and enjoy it, consider a donation to his project.

Nearly every controller was inspired by hard work from others. Trolling forums and seeing people's proof of concept code made many of them possible. For each controller file, a relevant link to the given forum/blog/post/article/page is available in a comment at the top.

MP3 sounds were taken from freesound.org. Specific attributions for each file are in the attribution.txt.

Also thanks to purecss.io and fontawesome.io for their assets.

Contact

If you have questions, comments or want to complain, email me at [email protected]

If you require more immediate assistance, you can join ##switchboard on irc.freenode.net

FAQ

• Q. Why aren't you using a seed-based JS library / referencing CSS from a CDN?

  A. I want to make sure this works without any Internet access. You need local LAN access, but nothing critical should be over the Internet. Some services (stocks and weather) obviously require access, but they are not core to the functionality of the app.

• Q. What is that dot in the top right?

  A. The dot indicates your connection state. If you see it, congrats! You're able to grab real-time info from SwitchBoard. Your browser will attempt to connect via WebSockets for real-time updates.

  If your browser does not support WebSockets, it'll attempt to set up standard XHR polling. If your browser doesn't support that, you can still issue commands, but will need to manually refresh your browser for updates.

  The colors indicate:

  • Red - Disconnected - and attempting to reconnect - or waiting to reconnect
  • Gray - Attempting to connect - or waiting to connect
  • Blue - Connected
  • No indicator - Either your browser doesn't support WebSockets, XHR or something bad happened.
  • Gray and Blue - XHR polling leaves the icon as gray, then will briefly flashes blue when it's grabbed the latest data.

• Q. How secure is this?

  A. Depends. It's assumed that any device that's on your network is deemed white-listed. This probably shouldn't be used on a large network with people you don't trust to screw with your TV. My goal is to provide the most security by keeping external connections to a minimum. See "Q. Why aren't you using a seed-based JS library / referencing CSS from a CDN?"

• Q. Why don't you use SmartThings or another third party system to do all this integration?

  A. Most other systems are cloud-based. This means that if you wanted to change your thermostat, you'd have to send a request to SmartThings, then it'd send a request to Nest. I wanted to reduce that lag - but I also wanted to gain more control. By having SwitchBoard do the integration, we can keep things local and we can do actions those cloud-based solutions cannot. Want to poll every 5 seconds? You'd be a jerk - but you can. Additionally, I wanted to support hardware that isn't supported on other systems. The Pi is capable of any TCP commands (Rest or Sockets) - but can also interface with Bluetooth, GPIO and any native Unix command. This ability allows the PS3, text-to-speech and MP3 capabilities.

• Q. Does SwitchBoard have a REST API?

  A. Kind of. For simplicity, everything is going through GET. Allowing a browser to simply hit a URL has it's advantages - but if there's interest in adhering to the true spirit of REST, I can change to the correct PUT, POST, DELETE commands where appropriate.

• Q. How can I access this if I'm away from my home?

  A. I would strongly advise you to not just punch a hole in your firewall. If your router supports VPN connections, it's a very safe option to configure your phone to connect to that before using SwitchBoard remotely. If that's not possible or not convenient, you may use ngrok to easily access SwitchBoard (at no cost) with no additional configuration. If you choose ngrok, be sure to configure a password!