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PIFACERELAYPLUS

Former Member
Former Member over 10 years ago

I hope you can help, I am sure that my question is really easy to resolve but first I think a little introduction .

 

I am recently retired and looking for a pastime, I remembered the fun I had with our two children making robots using Technik Lego, Sinclair Spectrum and an interface box called “ROBOTECH”

 

I decided to buy a Raspberry Pi and have started learning Python3, I do not find it easy to learn, from a book only, so thought I would add the PI Face Relay+ to give me the same inputs and outputs as I had on the Spectrum.

 

I downloaded the PiFace “Getting started “ and started to run through the spec and to run the setup procedure, it was only after several hours of frustration that I happened upon other instructions for other Piface products which lead me to load other software and to configure the Pi. This extra download and config is not mentioned at all in the Piface relay+ “Getting Started”

 

I am now able to run the Testing and the Example, so far so good.

 

I now come to my problem, no where can I find instructions as to how to use the GPIO pins on the PiFacerelayplus board.

 

I only need a nudge in the right direction, but at the present time I am lost.

 

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  • danringer
    0 danringer over 10 years ago

    isn't the piface relay board triggered by the default rpi gpio pins?  they can be controlled with rip.gpio from python3 or with gordons wiring pi from bash or any shell for that matter.

     

    https://pypi.python.org/pypi/RPi.GPIO

     

    https://projects.drogon.net/raspberry-pi/gpio-examples/tux-crossing/gpio-examples-1-a-single-led/

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  • Robert Peter Oakes
    0 Robert Peter Oakes over 10 years ago in reply to danringer

    No they are not, they are controlled by an onboard 16bit SPI to GPIO chip, the MCP23S17 http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/21952b.pdf

     

    And here are a couple of demos usng said board with Windows 10 IoT on the PI2 (These are with hte older PI Face Digital II not hte newest ones but I will be posting an updated review with the newest ones soon

     

    http://www.element14.com/community/community/raspberry-pi/blog/2015/08/03/piface-digital-ii-on-a-pi2-windows-10-iot-and-a-cool-demo

    http://www.element14.com/community/videos/17122/l/piface-digital-2-demo-using-windows-10-iot-library-and-rpi-2

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  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 10 years ago in reply to Robert Peter Oakes

    Thanks for your help, but unfortunately they refer to the Piface Digital2 rather than the Pifacerelayplus.

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  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 10 years ago in reply to Robert Peter Oakes

    Wow, I don't even have to duck for all of the info you have given to pass right over. Its all a bit too technical for me.

     

    Although I am not sure that it refers to the PiFaceRelayPlus.

     

    Thanks all the same

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  • Robert Peter Oakes
    0 Robert Peter Oakes over 10 years ago in reply to Former Member

    Correct and I said as much in my comment image, but the boards do use the same chip the MCP23S17 (I have one in my hands right now, litterally), practically speaking and ignoring a new board layout and a few different sized relays and the like the only difference being the new boards are using a QFN package rather than DIP and half the chip is uncommited waiting for your selection of add on card

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  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 10 years ago in reply to Robert Peter Oakes

    Thanks for your reply.

    I still am no nearer finding a simple solution to getting one of the GPIO pins to receive an input from a switch that I can use to activate one of the relays

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  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 10 years ago in reply to Robert Peter Oakes

    Thanks for your reply.

    I still am no nearer finding a simple solution to getting one of the GPIO pins to receive an input from a switch that I can use to activate one of the relays

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  • Robert Peter Oakes
    0 Robert Peter Oakes over 10 years ago in reply to Former Member

    Are you trying to use the PI Face Digital as the input or one of the PI pins directly

     

    If the PiFace Digital, which pin, can you draw a picture / take a photo etc to help understand what yur trying to do

     

    Thanks

     

    Peter

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  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 10 years ago in reply to Robert Peter Oakes

    Hi,

     

    I am trying to use the 4 GPIO pins on the board the attached PDF shows the four GPIO on page 3

     

    Getting Started - PiFaceTm Relay+ interface board for Raspberry PiRegistered

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  • Robert Peter Oakes
    0 Robert Peter Oakes over 10 years ago in reply to Former Member

    yup, ok

     

    4 of the 16 pins are used to drive the base 4 relays, the other 12 are split between X, Y and Z groups but they are all driven still from the MCP23S17 so you should be able to follow the existing guides for any of the PIFace Digital II even and it should work. I have not had time to play with mine yet but will real soon

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  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 10 years ago in reply to Robert Peter Oakes

    Thanks

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