rpi-screenbrightness-mqtt

This service can be used to control the backlight of a raspberrypi (touchscreen) e.g. the official 7" touchsceen via mqtt.
The default config works with homeassistant if used with the config example for home assistant below. (You just have to enter your mqtt broker info)
The project uses the systemd package, so it will run automatically on startup and restart upon error. The script publishes the current state of power and brightness every 10 seconds.

How to install:

1. clone this repository to your raspberry pi
   git clone https://github.com/tofuSCHNITZEL/rpi-screenbrightness-mqtt
2. run installer
   sudo ./rpi-screenbrightness-mqtt/install.sh
3. edit config and enter your mqtt broker info and optional change the control and state topics you can use "${HOSTNAME}" in clientid, state_topic, command_topic, brightness_state_topic, brightness_command_topic and it will be replaced by the hostname of the device sudo nano /etc/rpi_screenbrightness_mqtt.conf

Troubleshooting

• to enable debug output set "debug" to True or 1 in /etc/rpi_screenbrightness_mqtt.conf
  you can find the logs via `sudo journalctl -u rpi_screenbrightness_mqtt.service'
• you can check the status with sudo systemctl status rpi_screenbrightness_mqtt or restart the service with sudo systemctl restart rpi_screenbrightness_mqtt

Home Assistant config example

since version 0.7.0 the backlight should be automatically added to home assistant via MQTT discovery. Check your entities for something named: "light.rpi_screenbacklight_....."

To add it manually use the following configuration:

light:
  - platform: mqtt
    name: "dashboard backlight"
    state_topic: "stat/rpi1/power"
    command_topic: "cmnd/rpi1/power"
    brightness_state_topic: "stat/rpi1/brightness"
    brightness_command_topic: "cmnd/rpi1/brightness"
    brightness_scale: 100