beebotte-bme680

Using Pimoroni's BME680 breakout board with Beebotte.

This Python script is based on Beebotte's example to use a DHT11 temperature and humidity sensor on the Raspberry Pi and feed data to a dashboard. The example script can be found here and requires a Beebotte account.

Install the BME680 files

The installer script, created by Pimoroni, is simple:

curl https://get.pimoroni.com/bme680 | bash

But full install instructions can be found here.

Install the Beebotte files

You'll need to install the relevant Beebotte files, which is done by:

sudo pip install beebotte

Clone and use my script

Simply clone this script by running:

cd ~
sudo git clone https://github.com/raspberrycoulis/beebotte-bme680.git

You'll need to make some changes first, specifically inserting your Channel Key (found via Beebotte) in the following place:

### Replace CHANNEL_KEY with that of your channel
bbt = BBT(token = 'CHANNEL_KEY')

You can use your preferred text editor, but Nano works just fine:

sudo nano beebotte-bme680.py

Be sure to save when exiting:

ctrl + x
y

Make the script executable:

sudo chmod +x beebotte-bme680.py

And then finally test it by running:

./beebotte-bme680.py

If done correctly, you should see printouts in the command line of the temperature, pressure humidity and air quality readings. Stop the script by pressing ctrl + c.

Making the script run automatically on boot

I followed the excellent guide found on Raspberry Pi Spy to make my beebotte-bme680.py script run on boot. To recap, this is what I did:

1. Create a Unit file

This is what will tell the Pi to run your script on boot:

sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/beebotte-bme680.service

Then add the following text to your file (you may need to adjust the path for your beebotte-bme680.py script depending on where it is located (the part /home/pi/github/beebotte-bme680/beebotte-bme680.py):

[Unit]
Description=The BME680 Breakout Board via Beebotte service
After=multi-user.target

[Service]
Type=idle
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python /home/pi/github/beebotte-bme680/beebotte-bme680.py

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Exit, ctrl + x, and save yto create the service unit file.

2. Set the relevant permissions

Make sure that the permissions are set correctly:

sudo chmod 644 /lib/systemd/system/beebotte-bme680.service

3. Configure systemd

Make sure that systemd can use your newly created unit file:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable beebotte-bme680.service

Reboot the Pi to test via sudo reboot.

4. Check on the status of your service

Check that the service has started by running:

sudo systemctl status beebotte-bme680.service

If done correctly, you should see that your beebotte-bme680.py script is now running!

Live data from my BME680

If you are interested in seeing how this data can be displayed, take a look at my dashboard on Beebottee.