easyaspi 2018.2

A module intended to abstract away a lot of the complexity of using the GPIO and PiCamera for beginner programmers.

EasyAsPi

This project aims to remove a lot of the complexity of dealing with the GPIO and PiCamera for beginner level programmers working with the Raspberry Pi.

This project has been initially developed for use within my own classes that I teach but I hope it might find use for others too.

PROJECT HOME

• EasyAsPi homepage

GETTING STARTED

This assumes you have a Raspberry Pi (and a PiCamera to use that functionality). All code tested on Raspberry Pi model 3, PiCamera model 2, running Raspbian 2018-06-29.

INSTALL

pip install easyaspi

USAGE

At present, the project supports LEDs, buttons, ultrasonics and the PiCamera. This list of tools is expected to grow as need arises.

Note: This library will set the default GPIO pin layout mode to BCM.

LEDs

• Create the LED object

import easyaspi
led = easyaspi.LED( pin_number )

• Turn an LED on

led.set(True)

• Turn an LED off

led.set(False)

BUTTONs

• Create the Button object

import easyaspi
button = easyaspi.Button( pin_number )

• Retrieve if the button is being pressed

button_state = button.get()

• Set an event callback for button presses

# Note: The function definition for the callback requires the state parameter even though it should always be set to True to indicate the button is currently pressed.

def was_pressed(state):
   print("Button was pressed!")

button.on_press(was_pressed)

• Remove an event callback

button.remove_on_press()            # Remove any event listener for this button

ULTRASONIC

• Create the Ultrasonic variable

import easyaspi
ultra = easyaspi.Ultrasonic( trigger_pin_number, echo_pin_number )

• Retrieve the distance in centimeters

distance = ultra.get_distance()

PICAMERA

• Create the Camera object

import easyaspi
camera = easyaspi.Camera()

• Take a photo (without a message)

camera.photo("myphoto.png")

• Take a photo (with a message)

camera.photo("myphoto.png", "my message")

• Start video recording

camera.record("myvideo.h264", "my message")

• Check to see if camera is recording video

recording_state = camera.recording      # Returns True or False

• Stop video recording

camera.stop()

• Close the camera preview window when finished

camera.preview(False)

AUTHOR

• Paul Baumgarten

LICENSE

MIT License (C) 2018 Paul Baumgarten