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Raspberry Pi Forum Downloading software for the Piface Digital problems
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Downloading software for the Piface Digital problems

ake09
ake09 over 11 years ago

Hi,

I bougth a Raspberry Pi board and played a little with it. I then bougth a PiFace Digital. It sits nice on top of the Pi board,but I need some software drivers in order to use the PiFace Digital board. How do I get the necesserary software into the SD?  I have not got a network connection to it. I guess that I have to add a software module to the SD by downloading it with my PC.

But what is  this module called and where can I find it?

 

Regards,

 

Åke

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  • ake09
    0 ake09 over 11 years ago in reply to fvan

    I mean that I insert the SD into a slot in my PC. The SD appears as a disc in Windows. I then take the file that i wish to program and copy it to the SD. The copying takes some time, 10 - 20 seconds.

     

    Regards

    Åke

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  • fvan
    0 fvan over 11 years ago in reply to ake09

    That's not going to work. Please see reply number 5 in this thread, it contains a link to instructions on how to write to an SD card.

     

    You need a special application in Windows (e.g. Win32 Disk Imager) to properly write the *.img file to the SD card.

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  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 11 years ago in reply to ake09

    Hi,

    I have exactly the same problem as Ake, I downloaded the software both digitalio and emulator. The emulator works for a while and then freezes. when I try to write a small test script and started off with "import piface.pfio" i get an error message "no module named piface.pfio"

    Where is it stored and why dont your instructions work? I only managed to get the emulator to load by making it python3 although I am using version 2.7.3. If I try  using "python_digital_emulator it says " no module"

    I have to say that this is the worst documented accessory for pi I have come across and even the picture of the emulator isn't up to date!!

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  • ake09
    0 ake09 over 11 years ago in reply to wymand

    Hi Doug,

    Do you mean that you can compile Piface programs with the original NOOBS software?

    In other words, you don't have to bother about those .img files?

     

    Thanks in advance,

    Åke

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  • ake09
    0 ake09 over 11 years ago in reply to fvan

    Dear Frederick,

    I looked in the internet to find a suttable " Win32 Disk Imager" and found at least a dosen. There was one that was intended for the Raspberry Pi. It did not say which version, PC, MAC etc it was intended for.

    Can you help me?

     

    Thanks in advance!

    Åke

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  • ake09
    0 ake09 over 11 years ago in reply to ake09

    I got another question.

    The files that I have downloaded from pi.cs.man.ac.uk have all been compiled for the 4 Gb Raspberry Pi boards.

    I have got 8 Gb on my board. Can an 4 Gb program execute in a 8 Gb memory?

    If that is no, then is there an 8 Gb version available?

     

    Regards,

    Åke

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  • lardconcepts
    0 lardconcepts over 11 years ago in reply to ake09

    Hi Ake; Can I ask why you appear to be downloading obsolete files from a site which says:

     

    These images are not updated any longer -- use the latest version of Raspbian and follow the steps here


    I followed the link and got to PiFace – Install PiFace Digital Software – Installing PiFace Digital modules which said:


    To install the PiFace Digital software run the command:

    sudo apt-get install python3-pifacedigital-emulator

    Enter Y when prompted.

    Then reboot

    I just did it on my 4Gb card, took me under 2 minutes including reboot. At what stage is this recommended method failing for you?


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  • ake09
    0 ake09 over 11 years ago in reply to lardconcepts

    Well I read the PiFace documents and under "Quick Start Guide" it said:

     

    image

    I believed it, so there is why I have spent several hours trying to get it to work.

    I will try your recommendation as quick as possible. Unfortunatly I will be out of my home for some days, but I will tell you if it is a success or not.

     

    Until then,

    Thanks and bye-bye

     

    Åke

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  • wymand
    0 wymand over 11 years ago in reply to ake09

    Åke Webjörn I know I never loaded any .img file to get the pifacedigitalio library. 

    Now mind you I am 72 so my memory isn't the greatest but I think it came with the

    latest rasbian wheezy card.  I did not load NOOBS because I wanted only the Rasbian OS.

    I am sure you can find it here https://github.com/piface/pifacedigitalio/


    EDIT::: I found the instructions


    Install

    Make sure you are using the lastest version of Raspbian:

    $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get upgrade 

    Install pifacedigitalio (for Python 3 and 2) with the following command:

    $ sudo apt-get install python{,3}-pifacedigitalio 

    Test by running the blink.py program:

    $ python3 /usr/share/doc/python3-pifacedigitalio/examples/blink.py


    I have used it to control the lights using a PIR sensor on the input and a 5V LED lamp on the

    output.


    Here is the code:

    import pifacedigitalio

    from time import sleep

    pfd = pifacedigitalio.PiFaceDigital()

    lampon = 0

    while True:

        tmpval = pfd.input_pins[7].value

        if tmpval == 1:

            if lampon == 1:

                pfd.leds[7].turn_off()

                lampon = 0

            sleep(.5)

        if tmpval == 0:

            if lampon == 0:

                pfd.leds[7].turn_on()

                lampon = 1

                sleep(30)



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  • ake09
    0 ake09 over 11 years ago in reply to wymand

    Dear Doug,

    Thanks for your excellent letter! I came almost thru it, when the Pi complained that I must have the SPI enabled to be able to get the PiFace running.

    Can you tell me how to do it?

    I have seen it somewere, but it is easier to ask someone, than to do it yourself.

     

    Regards,

    Åke

     

    (I'm 62 years old myself)

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