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Board Control

Use WebEx Board Event Actions to send PUT messages and take actions on them

ToDo's:

  • Setup feedback back to board to change Toggle Power button color to something like red when the plug is on and gray when it is off

  • Try this with another web-controlled plug

Motivation

I borrowed a WebEx Board from work during the COVID-19 pandemic and kept it in my basement office. I have a small space heater to keep the room warm, but the heater is a little noisy. I got tired of manually turning the heater on and off every time a call came in.

I wrote this middleware to take HTTP PUT information from the WebEx Board and turn off the plug if it's on, and turn the plug back on when the call is over.

Version 1.0 uses a macro on the WebEx board instead of HttpFeedback

Features

  • Turn on and off a TP-Link Kasa plug based on call status

  • Toggle button for Touch10 control of the plug.

  • Call from an existing web server or run stand-alone

Technologies & Frameworks Used

This uses Python 3.x for the code of the application. Other packages:

  • nginx - I already had a web server at my house, so the WebEx Board sends commands to nginx which routes the data to Flask
  • pyHS100 - a Python library for controlling TP-LINK Kasa plugs
  • Webex Board Macro Editor
  • Webex Board UI Extensions Editor

Cisco Products & Services:

This was designed with a WebEx Board 55. I expect this will work with any WebEx-registered endpoint such as a RoomKit, DX80, etc. The toggle button integration should work with any device that has a Touch10

Third-Party Products & Services:

  • TP-Link Kasa HS-105 Plug - this is a network-enabled power plug with APIs to let you control power through a smartphone app or APIs.

Tools & Frameworks:

  • Flask - A lightweight web app framework used to take requests from nginx
  • pm2 - pm2 is a javascript process manager that also can manage Python apps. I use pm2 to have my middleware run at system boot as a daemon.

Usage

For testing, start the app with: board_control.py

This runs in as a webapp listening on localhost port 6000. This lets the app be called only from a web server already on the device. If you want this to run on a different IP and port, change HOSTIP and HOSTPORT, and make sure your URL setting in the Board macro points to the right IP address and port.

For starting at boot time, you can create your own startup script or use pm2 (a javascript process manager app that works with both JS and Python)

Installation

  • You must have admin access to your WebEx device.

  • Import the button XML with the UI editor. Customize as necessary

  • Import the macro JS with the Macro Editor. Customize as necessary

Clone the board control repo. After cloning, do:

pip install -r requirements.txt

to get the required packages installed.

When you are ready to run your app, specify your TP-Link plug info and IP address/port the app will listen on, and then just run the app.

Authors & Maintainers

Smart people responsible for the creation and maintenance of this project:

Credits

Thanks to Benjamin Pylko (https://github.com/brpylko) for pointing me in the right direction with my first attempt at this with JavaScript and the "express" package. The asynchronous aspects of JS and the HS100 library I used made me try it with Python.

Also thanks to GadgetReactor (https://github.com/GadgetReactor/pyHS100) for the pyHS100 library/APIs

License

This project is licensed to you under the terms of the Cisco Sample Code License.