galicaster-plugin-unplugged

Send email when someone plugs/unplugs a USB device from a device running Galicaster. Reminder emails can be sent at regular intervals if the device is not plugged back in.

This can also be used to switch Pulseaudio inputs when a device is plugged in or unplugged. This can be useful when using USB microphones, making sure that even if the microphone is not plugged in when Galicaster starts, or is unplugged in the middle of a recording, things will start working again as soon as the microphone is plugged back in. You can also use it to switch to a backup microphone when the USB one is unplugged.

Installation

Install using sudo pip2 install . in this directory. The plugin depends on the pulsectl python module, and it should be installed automatically by pip as needed.

You can also install manually by copying galicaster_plugin_unplugged/ into the Galicaster plugins directory, renaming it as unplugged/ and then installing the dependency with sudo pip2 install pulsectl.

However you install the plugin, also required is the GObject introspection data for libgudev. On Ubuntu 16.04 this can be installed with sudo apt-get install gir1.2-gudev-1.0.

Configuration

Enable the plugin with the following in your Galicaster conf.ini file:

[plugins]
unplugged = True

[unplugged]
mailfrom = galicaster@example.com
mailto = itsupport@example.com,avsupport@example.com
resend_every = 120
smtpserver = smtp.example.com
devices = {"USB Microphone": {"vendor_id": "17a0", "device_id": "0101", "switch_on_connect": "alsa_input.usb-Samson_Technologies_Samson_UB1-00.analog-stereo", "switch_on_disconnect": "alsa_input.pci-0000_01_00.0.analog-stereo"}, "Flashing light": {"vendor_id": "20a0", "device_id": "41e5"}}

Here are all the options:

Setting	Type	Description	Default
mailfrom	string	Address to send email from	required
mailto	string	Address(es) to send email to (comma separated list for multiple)	required
smtpserver	string	SMTP server to use to send email	required
resend_every	integer	Check for unplugged devices and resend email every X minutes	60 (1 hour)
devices	json	Details of devices to watch { "Display Name": { "vendor_id": "1234", "device_id": "abcd", "switch_on_connect": "pulse.source", "switch_on_disconnect": "pulse.source", }, ... } Display Name will appear in emails about this device vendor_id is the vendor hex code of the device to be watched (see lsusb) device_id is the device hex code of the device to be watched (see lsusb) switch_on_connect [optional] is a Pulseaudio source name to switch the recording input to when this device connects (see pactl list sources) switch_on_disconnect [optional] is a Pulseaudio source name to switch the recording input to when this device connects (see pactl list sources) Multiple devices may be specified. Audio input switching is optional. I am leaving the default input in the Galicaster recording profile and switching to the correct input when the USB microphone is plugged in so that the profile never fails if the microphone is unplugged at any point.	{} (do nothing)

Source

Source code is available at https://github.com/ppettit/galicaster-plugin-unplugged