Until now, this collection has targeted on the Raspberry Pi’s software program aspect, however right now we’ll get into the . The availability of general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins was one of many most important options that me within the Pi when it first got here out. GPIO permits you to programmatically work together with the bodily world by attaching sensors, relays, and different varieties of circuitry to the Raspberry Pi.
Each pin on the board both has a predefined operate or is designated as basic objective. Also, completely different Raspberry Pi fashions have both 26 or 40 pins so that you can use at your discretion. Wikipedia has a good overview of each pin and its performance.
You can do many issues with the Pi’s GPIO pins. I’ve written another articles about utilizing the GPIOs, together with a trio of articles (Part I, Part II, and Part III) about controlling vacation lights with the Raspberry Pi whereas utilizing open supply software program to pair the lights with music.
The Raspberry Pi neighborhood has accomplished an awesome job in creating libraries in numerous programming languages, so you must be capable to work together with the pins utilizing C, Python, Scratch, and different languages.
Also, if you need the final word expertise to work together with the bodily world, choose up a Raspberry Pi Sense Hat. It is an inexpensive enlargement board for the Pi that plugs into the GPIO pins so you’ll be able to programmatically work together with LEDs, joysticks, and barometric strain, temperature, humidity, gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer sensors.