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set patterns in blink(1)

I bought a blink(1) http://blink1.thingm.com/ and am playing with it. Does anyone have one of these? I'm trying to figure out how to set and play patterns. There is NO documentation and I can find no examples by surfing. The "help" gives the syntax as:

  --setpattline <pos>         Write pattern RGB val at pos (--rgb/hsb to set)
  --getpattline <pos>         Read pattern RGB value at pos
  --savepattern               Save color pattern to flash (mk2)
  --play <1/0,pos>            Start playing color sequence (at pos)
  --play <1/0,start,end,cnt>  Playing color sequence sub-loop (mk2)

I've tried a bunch of things, but nothing works. No idea what <pos> means, no idea what start, end, cnt, or for that matter 1/0 mean.

Any idea how to make it blink forever without the blink1-tool having to run forever (I was hoping maybe the --play would do that)

Any idea how to use --servertickle? `blink1-tool --servertickle 1` turns on apparently random leds  forever, but trying args e.g. 1,0,1 doesn't seem to have any effect. If I could get this to alternate color/off I could do my blinking light thing.

I'm running this on Linux using the command line tool: blink1-tool. If anyone has one of these nifty little devices I'd like some help. Thanks
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jmarkfoley
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jmarkfoley
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David Johnson, CD, MVPOwnerCommented:
are you using the mac osx installer? did you download and compile the binaries from https://github.com/todbot/blink1/releases/tag/v1.94 ?
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jmarkfoleyAuthor Commented:
Hmmm, don't recall checking the MAC OS and Apple topics; I intended to check Misc Hardware and Linux.

This is installed on a Linux OS and I did successfully get, and make from source. The device and software work OK, I just can't find any docs on the pattern/play commands and I'm not figuring it out from the `blink1-tool` command help, nor by experimentation.

I've tested --blink -1, and --blink 1024, but 512 seems to be the max value allowed. This give a little over 4 minutes of blinkage. Changing the millisecond fade time still does not let it exceed the 4+ minute time.
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serialbandCommented:
Seems quite proprietary.  Is there a man page for blink?  Have you tried contacting them?  http://blink1.thingm.com/contact/
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jmarkfoleyAuthor Commented:
Did contact them and received the reply below. Will try to pursue information ASAP.
Hi Mark,

We have a list of various help resources here:
  http://blink1.thingm.com/help/

There's a sub-reddit as a forum but if you have a specific bug/issue you might
want to open an issue on github (which also often functions as a forum)

To address your specific concerns about blink1-tool: you're right, the docs are
sparse and scattered.  blink1-tool can do a lot of stuff (it's what I use
primarily to exercise blink(1)s) and it should be better documented.

I've started collating the docs in one place here:
  https://github.com/todbot/blink1/blob/master/docs/blink1-tool-tips.md
and I'll eventually put it up on blink1.thingm.com.

Let me know if you have any questions,

-=tod
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