PiFace instructions?

[snooty]

Hi,

Myself and a friend have been playing around with the raspberry pi and are thinking of using it for a few things, he ordered a piface to use with the pi. The only problem is that we have no clue how to use it, it came with no documentation and I can't find anything useful except for some info about older revisions.

We're using pi4j to control the gpio, I expected to simply connect the piface and at the very least the leds or buttons would work straight away. I had one program running to set all the output pins to high hoping to get the led's to work, and another listening for inputs from all pins and printing out when one is received to test the buttons. Nothing happens when the piface is connected?

Are we doing something really stupid? Or does it need external power or jumpers to be set?

Any help would be very useful, thanks.

[Orly]

Hi,

I was in a similar situation to you a week ago. Andrew (the piface designer) pointed me in the right direction, so I will try and do the same for you...

Firstly you need a kernel with support for SPI devices, but a good shortcut to get you up and running, which also has the python module, c libs and some demo software is to download a raspbian image that has been prepared by the piface guys: http://pi.cs.man.ac.uk/download/2012-10 ... iFaced.zip

If you uncompress that, dd it onto a 4GB SD card then have a look in /home/pi/piface you should be up and running in no time.

There is some documentation here which you may find useful:

https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0B-UAZ ... edit?pli=1

https://github.com/thomasmacpherson/piface

Hope that helps.

Olly.
.

[Orly]

Oh, and no need to change any jumpers or power the board separately from the pi (although you can do that)

[snooty]

Hi Olly,

Thanks for the reply and the info, hopefully that will get me started with the piface. I had to use the debian soft-float image to use java for controlling the gpio, so I suppose that raspbian image created for the piface isn't going to work with java?

[Orly]

I'm not aware of any Java support currently. I've been using python so far.

Suggest you send a message via this form: http://pi.cs.man.ac.uk/contact.htm

Olly.
.

[csoutreach]

Comprehensive Instructions are coming soon, and even some video tutorials, we promise! There's currently no java support, but it's probably just an afternoon job for someone to write the Python as Java -- we'd be happy to include it with the PiFace distributed software.

[[email protected]]

Hi,

I was in a similar situation to you a week ago. Andrew (the piface designer) pointed me in the right direction, so I will try and do the same for you...

Firstly you need a kernel with support for SPI devices, but a good shortcut to get you up and running, which also has the python module, c libs and some demo software is to download a raspbian image that has been prepared by the piface guys: http://pi.cs.man.ac.uk/download/2012-10 ... iFaced.zip

If you uncompress that, dd it onto a 4GB SD card then have a look in /home/pi/piface you should be up and running in no time.

There is some documentation here which you may find useful:

https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0B-UAZ ... edit?pli=1

https://github.com/thomasmacpherson/piface

Hope that helps.

Olly.
.

The current Raspbian kernel supports the SPI drivers, and has done so since at least July, so no need to do anything else.

Install wiringPi and us the gpio command to load the drivers:

gpio load spi

and use the gpio command to play with the PiFace too:

gpio -p write 0 1

wiringPi fully supports the PiFace if you want to go down that route.

-Gordon

[Beron]

There's a manual for it on Farnells productpage now.

http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/1684425.pdf

Cheers!

/Peter

[elvisimprsntr]

The single most frequently asked question I get is how to wire up a relay to a RPi to control a garage door. The PiFace eliminates the complexity.

I am using the PiFace along with SiriProxy for voice controlled garage door.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpBG9m3LDqI

[HetmanJIIIS]

Hi !
I am working on automated opening door, I have a raspberryPi with piface digital and elektormagnetic door lock (bolt). My elektromagnetic door lock work only if have a voltage (12 V).
I want to make a program in java or python:
if (user have permission){
sendToOuputSignalAndTakeA12VToElektromagneticDoorLock(); //elektromagnetic door lock open
else
doNothing(); // elektromagnetic door lock closed

My curious:
where i have to join my elektromagnetic door lock in piface?? in one of 9 outputs?? or in this three inputs??
Do i have to insert a power supply other than usb? ( raspberry is only 5V right?)
I wrote my questions to gorrdon, He said that I don't need other power supply but i have to turn off JP4 or else... What it is JP?? how it works and what will be done when i turn off this? ( i see where are JP's)
hmm and last question - do i have to join other stuff (resistor or else) ???

Regards Mike!