Library for reading sensor data on Raspberry pi

Question

I've been playing around with the GPIO pins on my Raspberry pi recently. While trying out a temperature sensor (the DHT11 specifically) and trying to find some code to get it work, i noticed something that seems kind of weird to me. All the code i found is either using libraries specific to the kind of sensor

Like with this python code:

import sys
import Adafruit_DHT

while True:

    humidity, temperature = Adafruit_DHT.read_retry(11, 4)

    print 'Temp: {0:0.1f} C  Humidity: {1:0.1f} %'.format(temperature, humidity) 

Or implementing it completely from scratch like this c-code:

#include <wiringPi.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#define MAXTIMINGS  85
#define DHTPIN      7
int dht11_dat[5] = { 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 };

void read_dht11_dat()
{
    uint8_t laststate   = HIGH;
    uint8_t counter     = 0;
    uint8_t j       = 0, i;
    float   f; 

    dht11_dat[0] = dht11_dat[1] = dht11_dat[2] = dht11_dat[3] = dht11_dat[4] = 0;

    pinMode( DHTPIN, OUTPUT );
    digitalWrite( DHTPIN, LOW );
    delay( 18 );
    digitalWrite( DHTPIN, HIGH );
    delayMicroseconds( 40 );
    pinMode( DHTPIN, INPUT );

    for ( i = 0; i < MAXTIMINGS; i++ )
    {
        counter = 0;
        while ( digitalRead( DHTPIN ) == laststate )
        {
            counter++;
            delayMicroseconds( 1 );
            if ( counter == 255 )
            {
                break;
            }
        }
        laststate = digitalRead( DHTPIN );

        if ( counter == 255 )
            break;

        if ( (i >= 4) && (i % 2 == 0) )
        {
            dht11_dat[j / 8] <<= 1;
            if ( counter > 16 )
                dht11_dat[j / 8] |= 1;
            j++;
        }
    }

    if ( (j >= 40) &&
         (dht11_dat[4] == ( (dht11_dat[0] + dht11_dat[1] + dht11_dat[2] + dht11_dat[3]) & 0xFF) ) )
    {
        f = dht11_dat[2] * 9. / 5. + 32;
        printf( "Humidity = %d.%d %% Temperature = %d.%d C (%.1f F)\n",
            dht11_dat[0], dht11_dat[1], dht11_dat[2], dht11_dat[3], f );
    }else  {
        printf( "Data not good, skip\n" );
    }
}

int main( void )
{
    printf( "Raspberry Pi wiringPi DHT11 Temperature test program\n" );

    if ( wiringPiSetup() == -1 )
        exit( 1 );

    while ( 1 )
    {
        read_dht11_dat();
        delay( 1000 ); 
    }

    return(0);
}

So i was wondering why there is no c-library that just returns the raw data read from a specific pin for all kind of sensors

Basically taking over this part:

void read_dht11_dat()
{
    uint8_t laststate   = HIGH;
    uint8_t counter     = 0;
    uint8_t j       = 0, i;
    float   f; 

    dht11_dat[0] = dht11_dat[1] = dht11_dat[2] = dht11_dat[3] = dht11_dat[4] = 0;

    pinMode( DHTPIN, OUTPUT );
    digitalWrite( DHTPIN, LOW );
    delay( 18 );
    digitalWrite( DHTPIN, HIGH );
    delayMicroseconds( 40 );
    pinMode( DHTPIN, INPUT );

    for ( i = 0; i < MAXTIMINGS; i++ )
    {
        counter = 0;
        while ( digitalRead( DHTPIN ) == laststate )
        {
            counter++;
            delayMicroseconds( 1 );
            if ( counter == 255 )
            {
                break;
            }
        }
        laststate = digitalRead( DHTPIN );

        if ( counter == 255 )
            break;

        if ( (i >= 4) && (i % 2 == 0) )
        {
            dht11_dat[j / 8] <<= 1;
            if ( counter > 16 )
                dht11_dat[j / 8] |= 1;
            j++;
        }
    }

    if ( (j >= 40) &&
         (dht11_dat[4] == ( (dht11_dat[0] + dht11_dat[1] + dht11_dat[2] + dht11_dat[3]) & 0xFF) ) )
    {
        f = dht11_dat[2] * 9. / 5. + 32;
        printf( "Humidity = %d.%d %% Temperature = %d.%d C (%.1f F)\n",
            dht11_dat[0], dht11_dat[1], dht11_dat[2], dht11_dat[3], f );
    }else  {
        printf( "Data not good, skip\n" );
    }
}

Why is that ?

Answer 1

First of all, you need to know that the temperature sensor communicates the data via a single GPIO pin, which can be HIGH or LOW. The temperature data for this sensor consist of 5 bytes each. This 5 bytes will stored in dht11_dat array:

dht11_dat[0] = dht11_dat[1] = dht11_dat[2] = dht11_dat[3] = dht11_dat[4] = 0;

So 5 x 8 (40) signals must be received until the temperature data is complete. The bytes are composed of these individual bits here:

    if ( (i >= 4) && (i % 2 == 0) )
    {
        dht11_dat[j / 8] <<= 1;
        if ( counter > 16 )
            dht11_dat[j / 8] |= 1;
        j++;
    }

The last byte is only a checksum for correct communication and will be checked here:

if ( (j >= 40) &&
     (dht11_dat[4] == ( (dht11_dat[0] + dht11_dat[1] + dht11_dat[2] + dht11_dat[3]) & 0xFF) ) )
{

The temperature value in Celcius is stored in byte 3 and 4:

dht11_dat[2], dht11_dat[3]