Python Code for Home Automation times out

Question

I was making a python script for home automation using Adafruit IO as a conduit between IFTTT and the Raspi, and it works great for a while. But after a few hours, it just stops working. I have no monitor connected, as the raspi is mounted to my wall. Below is my code:

import time
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import os
from Adafruit_IO import *
from Adafruit_IO import MQTTClient

clear = "CLEAR"

ADAFRUIT_IO_USERNAME = "ADAFRUIT IO USERNAME"
ADAFRUIT_IO_KEY = "ADAFRUIT IO KEY"

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
GPIO.setwarnings(False)
GPIO.setup(18,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(17,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(23,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(24,GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(25,GPIO.OUT)

def connected(client):
    client.subscribe('welcome-feed') #may need to change this feedname later
    print "Connected!"
    client.publish('welcome-feed', clear)
    client.publish('welcome-feed', clear)   
    time.sleep(1.5)

def disconnected(client):
    print 'Lost connection to server!'
def message(client, feed_id, payload):
    if payload == "LIGHT" :
        print "LIGHT command received from IFTTT."
        print "LIGHTS TOGGLED!"
        time.sleep(0.2)
        GPIO.output(17,GPIO.HIGH)
        time.sleep(0.1)
        GPIO.output(17,GPIO.LOW)
    elif payload == "FAN_LOW" :
        print "FAN SPEED SET TO LOW!"
        time.sleep(0.2)
        GPIO.output(18, GPIO.HIGH)
        time.sleep(0.1)
        GPIO.output(18, GPIO.LOW)

    elif payload == "FAN_MED" :
        print "FAN SPEED SET TO MEDIUM!"
        time.sleep(0.2)
        GPIO.output(23,GPIO.HIGH)
        time.sleep(0.1)
        GPIO.output(23,GPIO.LOW)
    elif payload == "FAN_HIGH" :
        print "FAN SPEED SET TO HIGH!"
        time.sleep(0.2)
        GPIO.output(24, GPIO.HIGH)
        time.sleep(0.1)
        GPIO.output(24, GPIO.LOW)

    elif payload == "FAN_OFF" :
        print "FAN IS OFF"
        time.sleep(0.2)
        GPIO.output(25, GPIO.HIGH)
        time.sleep(0.1)
        GPIO.output(25, GPIO.LOW)
    else:
        print"Message from IFTTT received: %s" % payload

client = MQTTClient (ADAFRUIT_IO_USERNAME, ADAFRUIT_IO_KEY)

# Setup the callback functions defined above.
# English: If it connects, go to connected, if it gets a msg go to message

client.on_connect   = connected
client.on_message   = message
client.on_disconnect    = disconnected

print 'Attempting a connection to the server...'
client.connect()
client.loop_background() # loop in background


while 1 == 1:
    time.sleep(120)
    client.publish('welcome-feed', "PING")

Any ideas as to why it isn't working? I thought it might be a connection to the server timing out because of inactivity, so I set up a part of the code to post "PING" to the server every 2 minutes, but that didn't help. Thanks for your help!!! :D :D

Answer 1

From the looks of this open github issue and this one that is closed but not yet merged the client disconnect functionality is not 100% yet.

Also, there's no error handling in your code, and even if you did get disconnected cleanly then your ping loop will continue trying to publish. Have a look at the exceptions types here and implement some error handling.

I would look at forgetting the client.loop_background() call and instead go for a forever loop like this

while 1 == 1:
    if client.connected() :
        # yay, we're still connected, so see if there are any messages
        client.loop(5)   # 5 second timeout waiting for a message
    else
        # we got disconnected somehow, so reconnect
        client.connect()