PiFace Digital 2
Installed on the Raspberry Pi B+
As ever, a part I ordered from NEW_IT in the UK arrived with lighting speed this morning !!!
With just lunch time available, I had a quick but very successful go at installing the Piface board onto my Raspberry pi B+, I will try it on my Pi B2 in the future but at present, I very happy using my older model.
I used Thomas Macpherson instructions and they worked first time so a big thank you to him !!!
As with all the Raspberry Pi hardware and software I am very impressed with how stable everything is and how well constructed these devices are, when you consider the price point- this is as good as it gets!!
There is a great front-end application called the “pifacedigital-emulator” (Which can be called through an SSH -X session, allowing you to test the board from another system!) that lets you manually turn on and off all the eight LED’s and the four switched . plus two relay’s.
Using Thomas’s instructions you can very quickly write a Python Module to test if any of the four switch’s have been pressed along with turning on or off the eight LED’s on the PiFace itself. He includes a downloadable Python module that played with the LED’s, for some basic lighting effects and uses the PiFace’s switches to control the app, along with it’s exit.
One quick project I am already considering is an application using the eight LED’s to display Binary numbers converted from Decimal’s, starting by using the on-board LED’s then moving to an external set of LED’s or bulbs.
The eight on board LED lights so however do have a integral function relating to the board , being used to show when you have activated one of the eight output device ports, e.g. sensors or bulbs (The output device ports are marked as yellow and are above the LED’s , in the above image). You can manually test attached devices using the emulator application without doing any coding.
The Piface-Digital 2 board has the following specifications :
Features:
Plugs directly onto the Raspberry Pi GPIO socket
Fits Directly over the Raspberry Pi and within the Raspberry Pi’s footprint
2 Changeover Relays
4 Tactile Switches
8 Digital Inputs
8 Open-Collector OutPuts
8 LED Indicators
Easy to program in Python, Scratch and C
Graphical Emulator and Simulator
Relays can be used to switch voltages up to 20V (Max) or currents up to 5A (Max)
So after taking a quick look – all looks perfect and is working just great !!
I cannot wait to get started !!
