Scan and press fails with firmware v4.7

[kyori19]

I recently bought a switchbot and tried to control with api and python.
But scanning and controlling the bot don't work.

Steps to reproduce

• Scan

  from switchbot import Scanner
  s = Scanner()
  m = s.scan() # Push "Pair with Remote" in SwitchBot app

  Error:

  Can't init device hci0: Connection timed out (110)
  ERROR:pygatt.backends.gatttool.gatttool:Unexpected error when scanning: Invalid device: Network is down
  
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/home/pi/.local/share/virtualenvs/switchbot-rpEz6xuZ/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pexpect/spawnbase.py", line 166, in read_nonblocking
      s = os.read(self.child_fd, size)
  OSError: [Errno 5] Input/output error
  

  I can get same error when I use flask api.

• Press button (Interactive Only)

  b = Bot(mac = "xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx", id = 1, name = "Bedroom Light")
  b.press()

  Error:

  Can't init device hci0: Connection timed out (110)
  ERROR:pygatt.backends.gatttool.gatttool:Timed out connecting to CF:BF:8B:68:CB:8F after 5.0 seconds.
  ERROR:switchbot:pygatt: failed to connect to ble device
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/home/pi/.local/share/virtualenvs/switchbot-rpEz6xuZ/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pygatt/backends/gatttool/gatttool.py", line 415, in connect
      self.sendline(cmd)
    File "/usr/lib/python3.7/contextlib.py", line 119, in __exit__
      next(self.gen)
    File "/home/pi/.local/share/virtualenvs/switchbot-rpEz6xuZ/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pygatt/backends/gatttool/gatttool.py", line 191, in event
      self.wait(event, timeout)
    File "/home/pi/.local/share/virtualenvs/switchbot-rpEz6xuZ/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pygatt/backends/gatttool/gatttool.py", line 157, in wait
        raise NotificationTimeout()
  pygatt.exceptions.NotificationTimeout: None
  

Environment

• SwitchBot Bot Firmware v4.7
• Raspberry Pi 3B+ Raspbian Buster Lite

[nicolas-kuechler]

@kyori19
Hi, I don't have a bot with firmware 4.7 available but I don't think that this is the problem here.

It looks like the ble library that I use (pygatt) has problems to connect.
This could be because some software packages are not up to date.
I would recommend that you try the following:

• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get upgrade
• sudo apt-get install build-essential libssl-dev libffi-dev python-dev
• remove the Pipefile.lock file and reinstall the environement with pipenv install in the root directory of switchbot
• sudo reboot reboot your raspberry pi

btw. the scanning requires root privileges (but it would show you a different error).
Here there is a link which describes how to circumvent this:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=151858

Let me know if this fixed your problem.

[kyori19]

@nicolas-kuechler Thanks for your comment.

Reinstall fixed all errors and now works fine.
Scan works without using mobile app.

btw. the scanning requires root privileges (but it would show you a different error).

I fixed that issue by this command.

sudo setcap 'cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin+eip' `which hcitool`