Examples

Basic usage

>>> import pifacedigitalio

>>> pfd = pifacedigitalio.PiFaceDigital() # creates a PiFace Digtal object

>>> pfd.leds[1].turn_on()    # turn on/set high the second LED
>>> pfd.leds[1].set_high()   # turn on/set high the second LED
>>> pfd.leds[2].toggle()     # toggle third LED
>>> pfd.switches[3].value    # check the logical status of switch3
0
>>> pfd.relays[0].value = 1  # turn on/set high the first relay

>>> pfd.output_pins[6].value = 1
>>> pfd.output_pins[6].turn_off()

>>> pfd.input_pins[6].value
0

>>> pfd.output_port.all_off()
>>> pfd.output_port.value = 0xAA
>>> pfd.output_port.toggle()

>>> bin(pfd.input_port.value)  # fourth switch pressed (logical input port)
'0b1000'

>>> bin(pfd.gpiob.value)  # fourth switch pressed (physical input port)
'0b11110111'

>>> pfd.deinit_board()  # disables interrupts and closes the file

Here are some functions you might want to use if objects aren’t your thing:

>>> import pifacedigitalio as p
>>> p.init()
>>> p.digital_write(0, 1)    # writes pin0 high
>>> p.digital_write(5, 1, 2) # writes pin5 on board2 high
>>> p.digital_read(4)        # reads pin4 (on board0)
0
>>> p.digital_read(2, 3)     # reads pin2 (on board3)
1
>>> p.deinit()

Interrupts

Instead of polling for input we can use the InputEventListener to register actions that we wish to be called on certain input events.

>>> import pifacedigitalio
>>> def toggle_led0(event):
...     event.chip.leds[0].toggle()
...
>>> pifacedigital = pifacedigitalio.PiFaceDigital()
>>> listener = pifacedigitalio.InputEventListener(chip=pifacedigital)
>>> listener.register(0, pifacedigitalio.IODIR_FALLING_EDGE, toggle_led0)
>>> listener.activate()

When input 0 is pressed, led0 will be toggled. To stop the listener, call it’s deactivate method:

>>> listener.deactivate()

The Event object has some interesting attributes. You can access them like so:

>>> import pifacedigitalio
>>> pifacedigital = pifacedigitalio.PiFaceDigital()
>>> listener = pifacedigitalio.InputEventListener(chip=pifacedigital)
>>> listener.register(0, pifacedigitalio.IODIR_RISING_EDGE, print)
>>> listener.activate()

This would print out the event information whenever you un-press switch 0:

interrupt_flag:    0b1
interrupt_capture: 0b11111111
pin_num:           0
direction:         1
chip:              <pifacedigitalio.core.PiFaceDigital object at 0xb682dab0>
timestamp:         1380893579.447889

Exit from interrupt

In some cases you may want to deactivate the listener and exit your program on an interrupt (press switch to exit, for example). Since each method registered to an interrupt is run in a new thread and you can only deactivate a listener from within the same thread that activated it, you cannot deactivate a listener from a method registered to an interrupt. That is, you cannot do the following because the deactivate_listener_and_exit() method is started in a different thread:

import sys
import pifacedigitalio


listener = None


def deactivate_listener_and_exit(event):
    global listener
    listener.deactivate()
    sys.exit()


pifacedigital = pifacedigitalio.PiFaceDigital()
listener = pifacedigitalio.InputEventListener(chip=pifacedigital)
listener.register(0,
                  pifacedigitalio.IODIR_FALLING_EDGE,
                  deactivate_listener_and_exit)
listener.activate()

One solution is to use a Barrier synchronisation object. Each thread calls wait() on the barrier and then blocks. After the final thread calls wait() all threads are unblocked. Here is an example program which successfully exits on an interrupt:

import sys
import threading
import pifacedigitalio


exit_barrier = threading.Barrier(2)


def deactivate_listener_and_exit(event):
    global exit_barrier
    exit_barrier.wait()


pifacedigital = pifacedigitalio.PiFaceDigital()
listener = pifacedigitalio.InputEventListener(chip=pifacedigital)
listener.register(0,
                  pifacedigitalio.IODIR_FALLING_EDGE,
                  deactivate_listener_and_exit)
listener.activate()
exit_barrier.wait() # program will wait here until exit_barrier releases
listener.deactivate()
sys.exit()