raspberry-pi Documentation

Release 0.0

Greg Loyse

Nov 16, 2017

 Contents

1 Overview 3
1.1 Layers of Abstraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 General Purpose Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Tinkering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4 Open Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2 Getting Started 5
2.1 Hardware Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2 Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.3 Start up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.4 System configuration raspi-config . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.5 Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.6 Starting the Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.7 Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.8 Recap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3 Navigation 11
3.1 echo Hi - Print to screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.2 Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.3 Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.4 Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.5 Building a file system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.6 man the docs & less . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.7 Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.8 Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.9 Installing tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.10 executing a file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.11 Exercise: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.12 Recap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

4 Operating Systems 17
4.1 Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.2 System specs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.3 Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.4 Modules & Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.5 Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
4.6 Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

i
 4.7 Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.8 Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.9 Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

5 Files 21
5.1 The nano editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.2 Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.3 Deleting files & directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.4 Text as ASCII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.5 Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.6 Compiling C programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.7 Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.8 Recap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

6 Scratch 25
6.1 Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

7 Python 27

8 Electronics 29
8.1 GPIOs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
8.2 Our project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
8.3 A Breadboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
8.4 Light up LED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
8.5 Blinking LED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
8.6 Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
8.7 Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
8.8 Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

9 Resources 33

ii
 raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

Contents:

Contents 1
raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

2 Contents
 CHAPTER 1

Overview

Welcome to our session. What follows are our essential teaching goals. The high level take away.

1.1 Layers of Abstraction

In a sense all a computer can do is store 0s and 1s, move them around, and add.
Yet the computers of today (software and hardware) are incredibly complex.
This complexity is managed by using layers of abstraction.
We will see how you can use computers creatively by designing and implementing layers of abstraction; combining
simple components to build ever more complex and useful building blocks.

1.2 General Purpose Computing

The components of a Raspberry Pi are similar to those you will find in any modern device (phone, tablet, laptop,
desktop...).
We focus on the concepts that can be translated to all other devices and operating systems. Android, iOs, Windows,
Mac OSX, and the various Linuxes.

1.3 Tinkering

What sets the Raspberry Pi apart is that it exposes as much as possible and deliberately tries to get you to play.
It is the antithesis of the design princple don’t make me think.
The intention is to encourage tinkering in a safe environemnt that exposes far more of the innner workings than the
more protected mainstream experiences that other devices provide.

3
raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

You can’t break anything that can’t be fixed! If you do break something, congratulations you have done something
cretive and it is a leaning opportunity awaits.

1.4 Open Source

Open source broadly means that a the author(s) grant permission for anyone to freely read, modify, and build their
software or hardware designs.
Linux and GNU really speerheaded the movement. It is now quite common place. Android, a linux variant, is open
source. However the majority of our devices aren’t.
This is one of the reasons why the Raspberry Pi is so accessible. There are no locked doors. How far you explore is
limited only by your interest.

4 Chapter 1. Overview
5
raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

CHAPTER 2

Getting Started

2.1 Hardware Components

6 Chapter 2. Getting Started

 raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

2.2 Exercise

Which components do you expect to find in the following computers:

• desktop
• laptop
• mobile
• tablet
What makes the Raspberry Pi special?

2.3 Start up

There is no power on/off button. You simply add or remove power.

After the computer is finished loading the operating system you land in the shell.
Shell welcome message:

Linux raspberrypi 3.12.22+ #691 PREEMPT Wed Jun 18 18:29:58 BST 2014 armv6l

The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent

permitted by applicable law.
Last login: Tue Oct 14 18:43:45 2014 from 192.168.0.6
pi@raspberrypi ~ $

The pi@raspberrypi ~ $ is called a prompt. You type commands after the ‘$’.

2.4 System configuration raspi-config

Type:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ startx

and you will get:

------ Raspberry Pi Software Configuration Tool (raspi-config) ------

| Setup Options |
| |
| 1 Expand Filesystem Ensures that all of the SD card |
| 2 Change User Password Change password for the default |
| 3 Enable Boot to Desktop/ScratchChoose whether to boot into a de |
| 4 Internationalisation Options Set up language and regional set |
| 5 Enable Camera Enable this Pi to work with the |
| 6 Add to Rastrack Add this Pi to the online Raspbe |
| 7 Overclock Configure overclocking for your |
| 8 Advanced Options Configure advanced settings |
| 9 About raspi-config Information about this configura |
| |

2.2. Exercise 7
raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

| |
| <Select> <Finish> |
| |
---------------------------------------------------

2.5 Exercise

Explore the options that you have.

What are the similarities and differences with this from Mac OSX?

2.6 Starting the Desktop

The shell is one interface. A graphic user interface is another.

8 Chapter 2. Getting Started

 raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

Type this to start the GUI:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ startx

2.7 Exercise

We are going to focus on using the shell (command line).

Find:
• the Terminal
• a browser
• anything else you would typically use.

2.8 Recap

• The Raspberry Pi is a general purpose computer.

• However it exposes a lot that is typically hidden.
• Use raspi-config for a convenient way to configure your computer.
• Use startx to start the GUI
We will return to hardware later in the electronics section.

2.7. Exercise 9
raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

10 Chapter 2. Getting Started

 CHAPTER 3

Navigation

The GUI is a visual metaphor for interacting with a computer. Images represent things such as files, programs, and
folders. Windows act as containers where programs live.
The command line or shell is another way of doing the same. Instead of using a mouse and clicking, we type com-
mands. In many use cases it is far more powerfull than a GUI.
We are going to introduce the basics of this programming language. Keep in mind the equivalent GUI way of doing
things.

3.1 echo Hi - Print to screen

It is a tradition in computing tutorials to teach how to print ‘Hello World’.

Type this:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ echo "Hello World"

3.2 Location

You are always somewhere in the computer’s filesystem. You can get lost, but its always easy to find out where you
are.
Type this:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ ls
pi@raspberrypi ~ $
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ ls
Desktop Documents my_turtle.py networking-lessons ocr_pi.png python_games
˓→Scratch

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ pwd
/home/pi

11
raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

Note the prompt helps you remember where you are. Here ~ represents the current users’ home directory.

3.3 Users

You are a user. Every user needs a name. The default users is pi.
If you ever forget who you are, ask:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ whoami

3.4 Navigation

Just like we are used to navigating using our mouse and clicking on folders, we can do the same in the shell.
Type the following. At each step explain what it is doing:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ cd python_games
/home/pi
pi@raspberrypi ~/python_games $ pwd
/home/pi/python_games
pi@raspberrypi ~/python_games $ ls
[... lots of files, many ending in .py ...]

Note navigation gets easier if you keep a mental image in your head of where you are. Visually, a file system is just
like a tree. There is a root and the branches are folders, the files are leafs. We will install a program to help.
Note also that the prompt tells you where you are relative to the home directory. Your home directory is your users’
home. An absolute location is the location of a file or folder in terms of the root of the computer’s file system.
Note: We will drop the pi@raspberrypi part of the prompt from now on.

3.5 Building a file system

Lets build a file structure to manage a music collection:

~ $ mkdir music
~ $ cd music
~/music $ ls
~ $ ls
~/music $ mkdir rock classical jazz
~/music $ ls
classical jazz rock
~/music $ cd rock
~/music/rock $ ls
~/music/rock $ touch albums.txt
~/music/rock $ ls
rock.txt
~/music/rock $ cat rock.txt
~/music/rock $ echo "Beatles - The White Album - 1968" > rock.txt
~/music/rock $ cat rock.txt
Beatles - The White Album - 1968
~/music/rock $ cd ..

12 Chapter 3. Navigation
 raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

~/music $ pwd
/home/pi/music

3.6 man the docs & less

We have seen the following commands: ls, mkdir, cat, touch, pwd
To inspect the documentation for a command try:
~ $ man ls

Welcome to less. This is what is called a pager. It’s a file reader, a bit like a very lite browser for your desktop.
Some less commands:
`space` up a page,
`w` up a page
`q` exit
`h` help on many other commands (displayed in `less` of course)

3.7 Exercise

For each command we have seen inspect the man documentation. Parse the many options. Write in one sentance what
it does.

3.8 Exercise

Complete the above music collection database. Ensure that each music category folder has its own file with at least
one album example in it.
The end result should look like this:
~ $ tree music/
music/
- classical
| - albums.txt
- jazz
| - albums.txt
- rock
- albums.txt

3.9 Installing tree

cd followed by ls to explore directories becomes tedious. tree is a program that shows a directory and its contents.
First we need to install it. Typically you are used to browsing for software, downloading it and then clicking on a
package to install it. You may also have to answer some questions.
Things are similar in linux except the vast majority of software exist in vast centralised repositories. This is thanks to
the open source nature of most Linux software.

3.6. man the docs & less 13

raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianRepository
In Linux we use apt-get to install new software:

sudo apt-get install tree

Not any user can install software. The sudo part is to have permissions to install new software. You may need to enter
your password.
Now we can take a look at our creation:

tree music

3.10 executing a file

So far we have been programming interactively, executing one command at a time. It would be useful to group
commands so that they can be executed together. It would also be useful so as not to forget the useful sequence of
commands.
We do this by writing commands in a file and executing that file.
Create a file named make-jazz.sh and insert this:

mkdir jazz
cd jazz
touch albums.txt
echo "Miles Davis - Kind of Blue - 1959" > albums.txt

To execute make-jazz.sh you will have to specify that it is executable:

chomod +x make-jazz.sh

Now we should be able to run the program:

./make-jazz.sh

The ./ prefix indicates where to find the program to the shell. Effectively it means run the make-jazz.sh command
which is here (.).

3.11 Exercise:

Using a file, program the creation of your music collection.

Tip: You will have to put a lot of what we did above into the file.

3.12 Recap

Using the command line, we have seen:

• How to locate ourselves and navigate the file system using ls, pwd, cd, tree
• Create and remove folders and files using mkdir, deldir, touch, rm
• Print stuff to the line using echo, cat

14 Chapter 3. Navigation
 raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

• Read files and documentation using man, less

3.12. Recap 15
raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

16 Chapter 3. Navigation
 CHAPTER 4

Operating Systems

Lets explore some of the concepts that an operating system provides.

We will focus on OSs abstractions over:
• Hardware - Both computer and devices
• Processes - An environment for processes to live and die in

4.1 Exercise

In which level have all of the programs we have run so far existed?

4.2 System specs

Explore these commands:

uname -a # kernel version & sys architecture

head -n /etc/issue # distro name & version
cat /proc/partitions # all partitions
grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo # total RAM
grep "model name" /proc/cpuinfo
hdparm -i /dev/sda
hwinfo
lshw

All operating systems provide similar information in some way.

For example on Mac OSX.

17
raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

4.3 Exercise

How do you find the same information using the GUI?

4.4 Modules & Devices

List the current modules:

lsmopi@raspberrypi ~ $ lsmod
Module Size Used by
joydev 9096 0
evdev 10497 3
snd_bcm2835 18169 0
snd_soc_bcm2708_i2s 5486 0
regmap_mmio 2818 1 snd_soc_bcm2708_i2s
snd_soc_core 128166 1 snd_soc_bcm2708_i2s
regmap_spi 1913 1 snd_soc_core
snd_pcm_dmaengine 5481 1 snd_soc_core
snd_pcm 81518 3 snd_bcm2835,snd_soc_core,snd_pcm_dmaengine
snd_page_alloc 5168 1 snd_pcm
regmap_i2c 1657 1 snd_soc_core
snd_compress 8136 1 snd_soc_core
8192cu 551136 0
leds_gpio 2055 0d

Note the last one leds_gpio.

List the current usb devices:

18 Chapter 4. Operating Systems

 raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ lsusb
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9514 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 7392:7811 Edimax Technology Co., Ltd EW-7811Un 802.11n
˓→Wireless Adapter [Realtek RTL8188CUS]

Bus 001 Device 006: ID 1c4f:0016 SiGma Micro

Bus 001 Device 005: ID 15d9:0a4c Trust International B.V. USB+PS/2 Optical Mouse

Some names are useful. For example you can clearly identify the wireless adapter and mouse. But which one is my
keyboard?

4.5 Exercise

Determine the device that is used as a keyboard.

How can you do this in a way that is guaranteed to work even if naming is ambiguous?
Even if you disconnect all of these and run lsusb (you’d have to be logged in remotely to do this of course) there will
still be some usb devices listed. Why? Where are these devices?
The list of modules returned by lsmod is long and confusing. Google some of them and try to identify their purpose.
Make sure to know what 8192cu does.
Knowing what you know now, how would you problem solve a usb wireless device not working?

4.6 Processes

Commands:

top
htop # requires installing

Process managment on Mac OSX:

4.5. Exercise 19
raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

4.7 Exercise

Using top or htop, identify the process that is running the current terminal.
How do you kill it? Try using your intution combined with documentation, then Google.

4.8 Networking

We all have personal networks at home. Mostly we interact with it by setting it up with users and passwords.
Here we introduce some tools to explore our network.
commmands:

ifconfig
sudo iwlist wlan0 scan | grep ESSID

4.9 Exercise

What does the grep command do?

20 Chapter 4. Operating Systems

 CHAPTER 5

Files

Computers fundamentally only process 0s and 1s. In order for them to be useful we need to find ways to represent
things that are relevant to us.
Files are the basic unit of storage. When we save to file, the information persists even after the power is switched off.
There are many types of files and many different ways to represent types of things that are relevant to us. Examples
are images, videos, sound files...
We are going to look at one of the ways to represent text.

5.1 The nano editor

There are many editors available. Perhaps the most common is Microsoft Word. Nano is much more basic.
We use simple editors as we are working at a lower level of abstraction than those typically provided by document
editors such as Windows or Open Office.
launch nano:

namo

The list of nano commands are at the bottom. ^ signifies the Ctrl key. Exit is denoted as ^X this translates to Ctrl + X.

5.2 Exercise

Create a file named file, enter some text and save it.

5.3 Deleting files & directories

Here are some commands to delete:

21
raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

rm my_file
rmdir my_dir

5.4 Text as ASCII

Computers need some way of representing roman characters. An industry standard which has been in use for quite
some time is ASCII.
You can get some documenation on ASCII by typiing:

man ascii

Lets create a file and use hexdump to inspect it:

echo "hi" > file

hexdump -C file
00000000 68 69 0a |hi.|
00000003

5.5 Exercise

What do the numbers 68 69 0a represent? Map them to characters using man ascii as reference

5.6 Compiling C programs

C is a programming language. Most Linux software is written in it.

We will touch very briefly on how to compile a C file. The goal is just to give a flavour of whats going on. We don’t
want any hidden magic.
Run through with outputs as comments:

cd /opt/vc/src/hello_world
ls # Makefile world.c
nano world.c
make
ls # hello_world.bin Makefile world.c
./hello_world.bin # Hello world!

5.7 Exercise

Using less read the README file in /opt/vc/src/.

Find other programs that you’d like to compile and run.
hello_teapot and hello_video are recommended.
run hexdump on some to ensure they are just ASCII files.
Do poke around!

22 Chapter 5. Files
 raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

5.8 Recap

We know how to:

• edit files with nano
• rename or delete files and directories with mv, rm, rmdir
• inspect a file almost at its lowest level
• we have a notion of how to represent characters in binary
• we can compile C programs

5.8. Recap 23
raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

24 Chapter 5. Files
 CHAPTER 6

Scratch

A pedagogical tool for introducing programming.

It is fully graphical. You click and drag instructions into the editor and tweak certain paramters.
Its lots of fun and excellent for kids.

6.1 Exercise

Using either:
• scratch in the browser http://scratch.mit.edu/
• scratch on the desktop
Create an animation of the cat going round in a square.
Then Draw a square.
Use the control panel to refactor your solution and reduce the repeated instructions.

25
raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

26 Chapter 6. Scratch
 CHAPTER 7

Python

A full featured professional programming language.

Python is a great first language. It has replaced Java as the number one teaching language at universities. It is used in
industry a lot.
It is also popular in industry. Google, Instagram, Facebook... and many others use it. It is almost a defacto standard
the sciences and very popular in finance.
Click here for an intro to some of its imperative features

27
raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

28 Chapter 7. Python
 CHAPTER 8

Electronics

Introducing Raspberry Pi’s electronic features.

8.1 GPIOs

The board.

Symbolically.

29
raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

8.2 Our project

8.3 A Breadboard

Columns and rows are linked.

30 Chapter 8. Electronics
 raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

8.4 Light up LED

Hook up the following:

• wire: 1 Rpi (3.3v) <-> row 26
• LED: row 26 + (longer leg) <-> row 25 - (shorter leg)
• resistor: row 25 <-> - col
• wire: - col <-> 6 Rpi (ground)

8.5 Blinking LED

Python to control BPIO

switch 1 Rpi (3.3v) to 7
Type:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo ipython

In [1]: import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
In [2]: GPIO.setmode(gpio.BOARD)
In [3]: GPIO.setup(7, gpio.OUT)
In [4]: GPIO.output(7, True)
In [5]: GPIO.output(7, False)

8.4. Light up LED 31

raspberry-pi Documentation, Release 0.0

Note we have to be superuser to operate the GPIOs.

Type:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo ipython

In [1]: import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
In [2]: from time import sleep
In [3]: GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BOARD)
In [4]: GPIO.setup(7, GPIO.OUT)
In [5]: for _ in range(5):
....: GPIO.output(7, True)
....: sleep(1)
....: GPIO.output(7, False)
....: sleep(1)
....:

8.6 Exercise

Put the above into a script and run it.

8.7 Exercise

‘Blinking Big Ben’

Make a program to communicate the time via LED.
Decide which unit of time to measure. Maybe every 2 minutes.

8.8 Resources

• Source for some of the material

• Quick Reaction Game

32 Chapter 8. Electronics
 CHAPTER 9

Resources

Here are a list of resources:

33