The PiGlow is a small add on board for the Raspberry Pi that provides 18 individually controllable LEDs.
Learn more: https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/piglow
This repository contains the library and examples for the PiGlow board.
Full install ( recommended ):
We've created a super-easy installation script that will install all pre-requisites and get your Piglow up and running in a jiffy. To run it fire up Terminal which you'll find in Menu -> Accessories -> Terminal on your Raspberry Pi desktop like so:
In the new terminal window, run our easy installer by typing:
curl -sS https://get.pimoroni.com/piglow | bash
If you choose to download examples you'll find them in /home/pi/Pimoroni/piglow/
.
Library install for Python 3:
on Raspbian:
sudo apt-get install python3-piglow
other environments:
sudo pip3 install piglow
Library install for Python 2:
on Raspbian:
sudo apt-get install python-piglow
other environments:
sudo pip2 install piglow
In all cases you will have to enable the i2c bus.
- PiGlow GPIO Pinout - https://pinout.xyz/pinout/piglow
- Function reference - http://docs.pimoroni.com/piglow/
- Get help - http://forums.pimoroni.com/c/support
The PiGlow Python library is designed to support examples written for Jason's PiGlow library found here: https://github.com/Boeeerb/PiGlow
It's compatible with the examples, and we've ported some over to show you how it's done.
To use the piglow library, you'll probably want to start by importing it:
import piglow
Now, you can turn some LEDs on:
piglow.red(64)
Nothing will happen yet, you've got to update PiGlow with your changes. Why? Because it's quicker! If you're setting up a pattern it costs time and resources to redraw every step of that setup to the PiGlow, so we don't do that. Instead you need to call show
like so:
piglow.show()
A bug is a feature you can't turn off, however, so if you want to change that behaviour you can set it after importing piglow:
piglow.auto_update = True
This will turn on auto update, refreshing the PiGlow after each change so you don't have to.
piglow.auto_update
- Set to True or False, determines if the PiGlow should automatically update after each LED changepiglow.clear_on_exit
- Set to True or False, determines if the PiGlow should be cleared on exit
piglow.white( value from 0 to 255 )
piglow.blue( value from 0 to 255 )
piglow.green( value from 0 to 255 )
piglow.yellow( value from 0 to 255 )
piglow.orange( value from 0 to 255 )
piglow.red( value from 0 to 255 )
piglow.arm( index from 0 to 2, value from 0 to 255 )
The set
method accepts a list of LEDs, a list of values, or a single LED or value, or any permutation therein:
piglow.set(0, 255)
- sets LED 0 to full brightness
piglow.set([1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17],255)
- sets all odd LEDs to full brightness
piglow.set(0,[50,50,50])
- let the 3 LEDs starting at index 0 to 50 brightness
Gordon Henderson (@drogon on Twitter) has very kindly added support for PiGlow into his very popular wiringPi library and even includes a basic command line tool that you can use to control your PiGlow! http://wiringpi.com/dev-lib/piglow/
Simon Walters (@cymplecy) has added awesome PiGlow support to his Raspberry Pi GPIO Scratch library: http://cymplecy.wordpress.com/2013/08/12/scratch-gpio-piglow-support/
Jason Barnett has put together a great Python class and a load of samples: https://github.com/Boeeerb/PiGlow
Ben Lebherz has forked Jasons project and tidied up the code a bit while adding gamma correction: https://github.com/benleb/PyGlow
Manuel Ernst has created a Node.js library: https://github.com/zaphod1984/node-piglow
For more information the datasheet for the SN3218 IC is included in this repository which outlines the complete communication protocol for the chip.
For those wanting to wire up their PiGlow in other ways these are the GPIO pins used by the module:
- P1 & P17 (3V3)
- P2 (5V)
- P14 (GND)
- P3 (SDA)
- P5 (SCL)
A special thanks for Jason Barnett for carrying the PiGlow torch with his original library.