Error when running find-ballast with SyncTridonicDALIUSBDriver

[gabiSRC]

Hello, I am currently trying to use the library in order to control my DALI ballast but I am in my very first steps.

I have a tridonic dali - usb adapter that is connected to my mac (macOS Sierra) and the adapter is not connected to any ballast yet as I want to make sure my environment is OK.

I adapted the find-ballast.py script in order to use the SyncTridonicDALIUSBDriver instead of Daliserver (although I am also trying to install and use Daliserver as a back-up solution if the native tridonic library does not work properly) but I get the following error when I execute it:

$ sudo python3 find-ballast.py 
Password:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "find-ballast.py", line 75, in <module>
    with SyncTridonicDALIUSBDriver() as d:
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/python_dali-0.6.dev0-py3.6.egg/dali/driver/tridonic.py", line 221, in __init__
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/python_dali-0.6.dev0-py3.6.egg/dali/driver/base.py", line 164, in __init__
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/usb/util.py", line 205, in claim_interface
    device._ctx.managed_claim_interface(device, interface)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/usb/core.py", line 102, in wrapper
    return f(self, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/usb/core.py", line 167, in managed_claim_interface
    self.backend.claim_interface(self.handle, i)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/usb/backend/libusb1.py", line 811, in claim_interface
    _check(self.lib.libusb_claim_interface(dev_handle.handle, intf))
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/usb/backend/libusb1.py", line 595, in _check
    raise USBError(_strerror(ret), ret, _libusb_errno[ret])
usb.core.USBError: [Errno 13] Access denied (insufficient permissions)

So I wonder if anyone has already experienced this and/or could help me with it.

One last weird thing is that even if my tridonic USB is connected to one of my few usb port, I cannot see any tty.USB in /dev/

Anyway, thank you for the help ;)

[sde1000]

You wouldn't see a /dev/ttyUSB device with the Tridonic DALI-USB because it doesn't present as a serial interface over USB.

I think the question about permissions was answered by @onitake in this issue?

[gabiSRC]

How is that possible that I do not see a ttyUSB? How can I identify the tridonic adapter then? I would like to identify that in order to pass it to a VM or a container.

And yes, as I thought, the permission issue have the same root cause as with daliserver :)

[onitake]

The DALIUSB is not a TTY device. It registers as a HID (Human Input Device) and requires special software (i.e. python-dali or daliserver) to interact with it.

You can identify the device by enumerating the USB bus, for example with lsusb on Linux. The adapter will identify as vendor ID (VID) 0x17b5 and product ID (PID) 0x0020.

[gabiSRC]

Oh, ok (sorry, I am not really not familiar with this)

Sorry if I ask (again) a dumb question: as I do not have tty, how can I pass it to a container? At first I wanted to do --device=/dev/ttyUSB0:/dev/ttyUSB0 but the path is not correct. Is there a way to work with daliserver or python-dali in a container then?

Thank you again for the help!

[onitake]

Short answer: You can't.

Long answer: Your container needs to be able to access USB devices via sysfs/usbfs. If your container environment supports this, you can use the device. If it doesn't, you can't.

I suggest you try a VM with full USB pass-through support. The VM will run its own kernel and have its own (virtual) USB bus, where it will see the USBDALI adapter as a regular USB device, if it's passed through correctly.

[gabiSRC]

I connected the dali adapter to a raspi3 and I executed the lsusb command

$lsusb
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp. SMSC9512/9514 Fast Ethernet Adapter
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 17b5:0020 Lunatone 
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9514 Standard Microsystems Corp. SMC9514 Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

I do not see the adapter (maybe because it is not yet connected to any DALI device or power supply) but if it should appears here, I should have access to it in /dev/bus/usb/... I guess

[sde1000]

It is the "Lunatone" one - they are the Original Equipment Manufacturer for the Tridonic DALI-USB.

[gabiSRC]

Indeed, I missed the "17b5:0020", I was too focused on Tridonic

Thank you very very much!

[gabiSRC]

Hello, Ok it is good for me, using a docker container hosted on a raspi 3, I passed the usb bus to the docker and run in privileged mode, when I execute the daliserver all seems right:

$ daliserver
DALI USB multiplexer (daliserver)
Copyright (c) 2011 onitake All rights reserved.

[2018-05-11 08:18:24] INFO Starting daliserver
[2018-05-11 08:18:24] INFO Kernel driver is active, trying to detach
[2018-05-11 08:18:24] INFO Server ready, waiting for events

To pass the usb bus in the docker : --device="/dev/bus/usb/:/dev/bus/usb/" --privileged

Thank you for the help