BME280 throwing an IOError (python)

Question

Long story short, I am using this BME280 library which utilizes the GPIO one. Every thing seems to be working great, except that after extended use, I get this fun little error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "Skynet/main.py", line 8, in <module>
    from bme import ReadTPH
  File "/home/pi/Skynet/bme.py", line 9, in <module>
    sensor = BME280(mode=BME280_OSAMPLE_8)
  File "/home/pi/Skynet/Adafruit_BME280.py", line 90, in __init__
    self._load_calibration()
  File "/home/pi/Skynet/Adafruit_BME280.py", line 96, in _load_calibration
    self.dig_T1 = self._device.readU16LE(BME280_REGISTER_DIG_T1)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Adafruit_GPIO-1.0.3-py2.7.egg/Adafruit_GPIO/I2C.py", line 185, in readU16LE
    return self.readU16(register, little_endian=True)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Adafruit_GPIO-1.0.3-py2.7.egg/Adafruit_GPIO/I2C.py", line 164, in readU16
    result = self._bus.read_word_data(self._address,register) & 0xFFFF
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Adafruit_PureIO-0.2.1-py2.7.egg/Adafruit_PureIO/smbus.py", line 173, in read_word_data
    ioctl(self._device.fileno(), I2C_RDWR, request)
IOError: [Errno 121] Remote I/O error

Now, I can of course catch this with try-except, but what I cannot do is resolve it. There must be a way? The only thing that currently works is unhooking the vin to "reboot" the sensor. Is there a way to do this programmatically? Once this in the final design, I can't tell the user: "unplug this cable when it breaks hur dur"

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

EDIT: According to Adafruit, I can force a reset:

You can force a reset by writing 0xB6 to register 0xE0

However, I have no idea how to do that with the libraries at hand.

Answer 1

I found some help via the Adafruit forums. From there I got this tidbit

You can force a reset by writing 0xB6 to register 0xE0

From that I was able to find

BME280_REGISTER_SOFTRESET = 0xE0

In the linked BME280 lib. I then simply added a function to that class

def reset_sensor(self):
    self._device.write8(BME280_REGISTER_SOFTRESET, 0xB6)
    return

Of course it hasn't yet crashed again, but I suspect that this will work.

Answer 2

try out this lib and see if it works for you. BME280 Python lib make sure your i2c address is correct.