I2C Send Start Stop Commands using Python

Question

I'm using a PCA9585 board with an I2C interface to control LED lights. I can control each LED separately or control them all at the same time. What I would like to accomplish is to program multiple specific channels starting with a I2C start command and then have the PCA9685 respond to the new programming when I send an I2C stop command. Right now when I program each channel you can see each LED respond separately (like turning channels 3,5,7,9,12 off) with a short delay between each one. That's not exactly what I want to accomplish.

I'm using python and the smbus library on a Raspberry Pi. I have read the PCA9685 documentation, and there is a mode in which the system will respond to the new programming when an I2C stop command is issued on the I2C bus.

I just don't know how to issue the START and STOP commands. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Try using the PIGPIO library, it allows Bit Banging on the I2C bus; it is also much better when interfaceing to the GPIO pins

Answer 2

Each SMBus command starts with a start condition and ends with a stop condition. There is no SMBus (or I2C) command which simply issues a start or stop condition.

You need to find an SMBus (or I2C) command which sends all the data you want to send or bit bang the protocol.

• a2f0: SMBus equivalent commands along with their low level transactions are specified here abyz.me.uk/rpi/pigpio/python.html#i2c_open