Gertboard first contact

8th of January 2012 by liz

Gert has just sent me some video of Gertboard, the GPIO expansion board he has developed for Raspberry Pi, working with one of the beta Raspberry Pis and a motor. It’s the best thing I’ve seen all day; and I am in a city with white tigers and fibreglass Venice.

Thanks again to Gert, who is putting such a lot of his time and energy into making Raspberry Pi a success – and thanks to Dom for working on the Linux drivers.

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152 comments

Sancho on
January 8, 2012 at 6:33 pm said:

Excellent!
Love it, keep on the great work.

Comment ↓
arm2 on
January 8, 2012 at 6:34 pm said:

Great work Gert. Looking forward to getting a Gert board and… that little board it plugs into:-)

Comment ↓
Morgawr on
January 8, 2012 at 6:35 pm said:

This is really amazing, it seems and feels way easier than handling things with Arduino (or similar) and yet very powerful. I can’t wait to get my hands on these babies and have some fun!

One thing I noticed, though, is that in the video he’s using “system()”… I think it’d be way easier in C to just write the contents directly into the /dev special file instead of passing through an extra function… else he might as well have used bash. Still, really really impressive, keep up the good work guys!

Comment ↓
- Mjiig on
  January 8, 2012 at 7:02 pm said:
  
  That did occur to me as well, the only possible reason I could think of for it is that I’m not 100% sure that /dev files (and similar) play well with being fopen’d.
  
  Comment ↓
- Gert on
  January 8, 2012 at 10:20 pm said:
  
  I did that because the code is more readable. This way you can see the basic operation and get a fell of how easy it is. Also implies that you can do the same from a shell script.
  For a real program I would have opened the files and use ‘putc’.
  
  Comment ↓
  - Geoff Goehle on
    January 9, 2012 at 2:54 pm said:
    
    Can you activate the GPIO pins by using assembly to change registers? I was hoping to use this in an assembly course…
    
    Comment ↓
    - JamesH on
      January 9, 2012 at 3:15 pm said:
      
      I believe that will indeed be possible. No sure how you deal with the Arm memory manager myself but I am sure someone does!
      
      Comment ↓
eggn1n3 on
January 8, 2012 at 6:36 pm said:

Great stuff, hopefully this all gets documented well!

Comment ↓
- Clayton Smith on
  January 8, 2012 at 6:42 pm said:
  
  Looking great! I can’t wait to get one of these to play with. Given how much power the Raspberry Pi has compared to the Arduino, there should be lots of new possibilities.
  
  Comment ↓
DeliciousRaspberryCake on
January 8, 2012 at 6:58 pm said:

Sweet, the first extension board is nearly finished while the Raspberry Pi hasn’t even been released yet! It may provide a bright future for lots of applications the raspi may find itself in (education, entertainment, home automation), truly a device that won’t be placed in a cupboard after a couple of hours of fiddling like many other cheap (DIY) electronics

Comment ↓
alecthegeek on
January 8, 2012 at 7:05 pm said:

So cool of itself and so promising in that enables a whole ecosystem of possible applications (anyone from the Arduino community will know what I mean)

Comment ↓
Ben on
January 8, 2012 at 7:12 pm said:

Hi,
the rasberry supports PWM, right?
Is the mentioned driver capable of PWM?

What’s the drivers name (I couldn’t understand it in the video)?

Thank you very much for the video and your work! I really hope there will be a preassembled version of the gertboard, too.

Ben

Comment ↓
- Gert on
  January 8, 2012 at 10:38 pm said:
  
  No, it is not suited for PWM. Dom is working to give users direct access to the BMC2835 registers. I plan to test his SW this week to implement SPI. Also I have made the preliminary Raspberry-Pi peripherals data sheet. That is being revised and if all goes well you guys get in the next week or so a datasheet which describes not only GPIO but also UART, PWM, I2C, SPI, PCM/I2S, USB the ARM timer and the interrupt logic.
  
  Comment ↓
  - Ben on
    January 8, 2012 at 10:57 pm said:
    
    great, i’m looking forward to it
    
    Comment ↓
  - Eggn1n3 on
    January 9, 2012 at 9:37 am said:
    
    That’s where I have been waiting for! Thanks Gert.
    
    Comment ↓
    - Nghia on
      January 9, 2012 at 2:24 pm said:
      
      Bravo Monsieur Gert!
      Will you be releasing Dom’s GPIO driver, as well as your SPI code?
      
      Comment ↓
      - Gert on
        January 9, 2012 at 9:30 pm said:
        
        I assume it will be part of the standard distro.
Sayan on
January 8, 2012 at 7:22 pm said:

Very neat.. are there any plans of using an AVR or MSP430 instead of the PIC in the Gertboard?
BTW, I like the Metcal soldering iron in the background. I am a Metcal fan myself.

Keep up the great work !

Comment ↓
- Gert on
  January 9, 2012 at 9:32 pm said:
  
  No follow up plans yet. Maybe somebody else takes that on. Should be easier after I publish the databases.
  
  Comment ↓
Wayne Walker on
January 8, 2012 at 8:00 pm said:

Looks great Gert! Thank you for all the hard work!

The Raspberry Pi and the Gert board (or it’s derivatives/desscendants) could be the next great thing in robotics controllers and home automation!

Comment ↓
Pieter-Jan on
January 8, 2012 at 8:25 pm said:

Cool. I feel like building a robot arm after seeing this.

Comment ↓
jraff1 on
January 8, 2012 at 8:25 pm said:

When/If the Gert board is going on sale?
Kit or pre-built?
How much?

Comment ↓
- Gert on
  January 8, 2012 at 10:24 pm said:
  
  I have finished rev-2 apart from any issues I find in rev-1. PCB layout picture is in the education/gertboard section. It has a lot of changes from rev-1 and I hope to get prototype boards back end of the month. (I try to keep the cost down somewhat by using 8-work day turn around time.
  
  Comment ↓
Nightwing2012 on
January 8, 2012 at 8:32 pm said:

Oh… WOW! ^_^

When all this hits!!!! ^_^ A world changer!

Comment ↓
spock on
January 8, 2012 at 9:34 pm said:

i am also curious about PWM. how would this work? simply with many quick on/off system calls? is this fast enough?

and where can i get such a motor? my brother could really use something like that.

Comment ↓
- Gert on
  January 8, 2012 at 10:45 pm said:
  
  For PWM answer see above.
  That motor I personally imported from China together with 11 brothers. I am working on another project (It is my secret project) but it has now been delayed many months amount others because of my Raspi work. If enough people are interested I can order another batch. I can email specs and price (indications) but need contact details. (Yes I have admin privileges and I can steal your email address from your profile, but that is NOT how I work).
  
  Comment ↓
  - spock on
    January 9, 2012 at 10:19 pm said:
    
    thanks for your answer!
    it would be great if you could email specs and price to the email address of my profile.
    but wouldn’t batch ordering be too complicated if i (and the others who are interested) aren’t near you in the UK? (i am in austria.)
    
    i am looking forward to your secret project. or will it always stay a secret?
    
    Comment ↓
    - Tim Rayner on
      March 14, 2012 at 10:35 am said:
      
      He’s building a Death Ray. He feels he has to balance out all the Good work he’s done for Rasperry Pi with a bit of good old fashioned evil….
      
      Comment ↓
      - JamesH on
        March 14, 2012 at 10:56 am said:
        
        Technically, it’s a ‘frikkin laser.
Pingback: Gertboard first contact | Raspberry Pi | Raspberry Pi | Scoop.it
chris on
January 8, 2012 at 9:41 pm said:

That’s really awesome. I’ve never done much on the hardware side of programming (save some standard old school VGA stuff), so I’d be interested in seeing the driver’s code for learning purposes.

Comment ↓
Jacques Richer on
January 8, 2012 at 9:49 pm said:

Awesome work.

Having said that, I have this bizarre picture of Eben with his finger poised over a giant red mushroom button that says “Release to Manufacturing”. I know full well that it’s going to be done with phone calls, but the picture is still stuck in my head…

Comment ↓
greg jaskiewicz on
January 8, 2012 at 9:55 pm said:

Seriously, the code there – using system – is probably the worse example of coding every done. You should have written a bash script for that !
I’m sorry – but you should stick to hardware design, that code is rather poor.

Comment ↓
- JonB on
  January 8, 2012 at 9:58 pm said:
  
  Calm down Greg, it’s only a proof of concept!
  
  Comment ↓
- Ben on
  January 8, 2012 at 10:04 pm said:
  
  it’s only a prove of concept. personally i would write it in c too, just because i’m faster in writing c than bash…
  
  Comment ↓
- JamesH on
  January 8, 2012 at 10:12 pm said:
  
  Hi Greg, when you design a HW block for the videocore, I look forwarding to commenting on it too.
  
  Comment ↓
- JamesH on
  January 8, 2012 at 10:13 pm said:
  
  Actually, I’m going to uprate my comment, after reading yours again, to say “Arsehole”.
  
  Comment ↓
- Gert on
  January 8, 2012 at 10:56 pm said:
  
  “you should stick to hardware design”
  Just for your information: I have a masters degree in computer science. Which means I also know how to make things dead simple so 95% of the audience can get an idea of how user friendly Dom’s GPIO driver is.
  
  Comment ↓
  - Jorrit on
    January 9, 2012 at 2:03 pm said:
    
    Amen!
    
    Comment ↓
- liz on
  January 8, 2012 at 11:49 pm said:
  
  +1 on the arsehole thing.
  
  Comment ↓
  - ichapple on
    January 9, 2012 at 3:16 pm said:
    
    +2 on the arsehole. Some people should really engage their brain before opening their mouth…
    
    Comment ↓
    - Arjen on
      January 9, 2012 at 4:53 pm said:
      
      Make it +3. And great work Gert!
      
      Comment ↓
      - MikeDX on
        January 12, 2012 at 12:26 pm said:
        
        +4 and liz, make sure he gets sent to the back of the queue for orders!
- liz on
  January 9, 2012 at 12:04 am said:
  
  Actually, like Jamesh, I found myself reading that comment again and reconsidering. You’re not just an arsehole. You’re also banned.
  
  Comment ↓
  - John on
    January 9, 2012 at 1:02 am said:
    
    Let me see that forum IP ban list. I think you’re painting with too broad a brush. Also, LANGUAGE!
    
    Comment ↓
    - JamesH on
      January 9, 2012 at 9:56 am said:
      
      I could have been as rude as the original poster, but decided a-hole was adequate. What do you mean by ‘too broad a brush” btw?
      
      Comment ↓
      - John on
        January 9, 2012 at 11:07 am said:
        
        Yesterday I was banned from the forum (“You are banned”). Apparently it was an IP address block ban. I don’t think I have given reason for that kind of action. I see that at least one other person was banned unexpectedly too. We may have been collateral damage. The ban was lifted after a short web site and forum downtime.
      - JamesH on
        January 9, 2012 at 12:20 pm said:
        
        OK, as long as its working OK now.
  - Robert on
    January 9, 2012 at 1:15 pm said:
    
    Ban him? Someone should put him against a wall and f****** shoot him!
    
    Gert – on behalf of humanity – thank you.
    
    Comment ↓
    - ejamie on
      January 9, 2012 at 3:15 pm said:
      
      PSA:
      RPi’s intended audience is children. Of course, many early adopters have other intent for the hardware. However, let’s please keep the language and tone civil for the future day when children are browsing content on this site.
      
      Comment ↓
  - DaVince on
    January 10, 2012 at 3:15 pm said:
    
    I feel like that’s a bit much for his uninformed opinion – hope it was at least partially a joke.
    
    Comment ↓
- Kyle on
  January 9, 2012 at 12:53 am said:
  
  Personally i get a really giddy feeling whenever i write code that looks bad and is very easy to understand at a glance what is going on.
  
  Comment ↓
- Morgawr on
  January 9, 2012 at 12:57 pm said:
  
  Just wanted to say that I commented earlier about the usage of system() just to explain to people who might have been wondering if there was an easier/better method. I acknowledge that system is a working example and, as Gert already said, was just meant to point out that it could’ve been easily made using a bash script.
  
  If you really think that such a person should be judged for writing such small code, you’re probably very very ignorant yourself.
  
  Comment ↓
Davespice on
January 8, 2012 at 10:27 pm said:

Gert, you are a legend. Last time I did any GPIO programming was about 1998 with a little zilog process controller, this video makes me really want to get back into it!

Comment ↓
- Gert on
  January 8, 2012 at 10:50 pm said:
  
  Thanks, you should see my little ‘secret home project’. It uses a PIC with the same motor and motor controller and has a zigbee transceiver. Analogue PWM speed control, position accurate to about 2mm and can lift 40KG 1 meter in about 30 seconds all from the shown battery. Standby current about 2mA. (And no, it does not use ‘system()’ calls. )
  
  Comment ↓
  - Eggn1n3 on
    January 9, 2012 at 9:42 am said:
    
    Hi Gert, are you using Xbee’s for you Zigbee?
    
    Comment ↓
    - Gert on
      January 9, 2012 at 1:57 pm said:
      
      I was bit naughty mentioning Zigbee as in fact I use a CC1101 (which you can use with Zigbee) but I have my own protocol as I need to talk to my own equipment only. I need about 100M free range.
      
      Comment ↓
TheEponymousBob on
January 8, 2012 at 10:31 pm said:

Oooooh… I see a home-made sous-vide on the horizon. Must gen up on PID algorithms…

Comment ↓
- John on
  January 8, 2012 at 11:28 pm said:
  
  Overkill, perhaps? A sous-vide should need little more than a heater, pump and thermostat. However, ‘remapping’ the bread machine, or inventing a toaster that never burns bread might be a worthy challenge.
  
  Comment ↓
  - TheEponymousBob on
    January 9, 2012 at 9:10 am said:
    
    You’d need a PID controller as well – a simple thermostat would produce a fluctuating temperature where the sous-vide needs to hold it absolutely steady. The PID controller employs predictive analysis to maintain a precise temperature. You can buy standalone PID controllers for the job, but they can be painful to set up, tend to cost more than a RPi, and I can re-use an RPi for many other things when not cooking.
    
    Comment ↓
  - Burngate on
    January 9, 2012 at 9:45 am said:
    
    I *like* burnt toast!
    
    Comment ↓
  - Tim Rayner on
    March 14, 2012 at 2:53 pm said:
    
    Someone invented a toaster which you could set the browning based on how brown the bread was rather than how long it had been toasting (he came across the idea when he had an over-sensitive fire alarm. He realised he could retask the smoke sensor to work out the right amount of carbon particulates and know how brown the toast was) so basically a machine designed to not burn toast. It was on some TV show about new inventions. Some big business types sounded interested, bought the patent and… did nothing with it, that I can see (otherwise they’d be in the shops by now).
    
    So it’s definitely worth looking into making a toaster that won’t burn toast (or even one that WILL burn it to your own personal specification – I’m looking at YOU Mr Burngate) as the concept has already been proven.
    
    Comment ↓
nebula on
January 8, 2012 at 10:59 pm said:

Hi,
first of all thanks for the amazing job and quick results.
I believe that the best will be to have in the future an easy logic application like this free and open source http://cq.cx/ladder.pl
One of the great features of LDmicro is that can generate interpretable byte code. If you are willing to write an interpreter then you can use this to run your ladder code on any kind of target (there are sources of the interpreter in mostly-portable C).
This means that the new compiled code can be download to the target and the interpreter that will run in the board will run the new code almost in real time.

It is also possible to generate C code from the ladder program. That is less convenient, but you could use it on any processor for which you have a C compiler.

Comment ↓
- netomx on
  January 9, 2012 at 5:15 pm said:
  
  Ladder? No thx hahaha
  
  Comment ↓
Bart on
January 8, 2012 at 11:08 pm said:

This is awesome. Having this this at your disposal for around what will it be? A total of about 100 bucks? Think this will become general purpose for a lot of projects around the world Can’t wait to get my hands on it. This will make me picking up programming again!

Comment ↓
- JamesH on
  January 9, 2012 at 10:13 am said:
  
  Much less than $100. $35 for the Raspi, $25 ish for the Gertboard, depending on how you populate it.
  
  Comment ↓
  - Tim Rayner on
    March 14, 2012 at 3:42 pm said:
    
    Not as bad an assumption as you’d think.
    
    It’s fair to say you MIGHT already have a monitor, maybe a mouse, maybe a keyboard etc.
    
    But you won’t have them all.
    Then again he’s possibly also factoring in tax and postage on both items.
    
    As can be seen on the later postings about RS and Farnell’s prices some people don’t seem to have any idea on what the phrase ‘base price’ means. It means the price before VAT and postage and packaging.
    
    Add all that to your $60 worth of orders and it comes close to $100 I should imagine.
    
    Comment ↓
Jason on
January 8, 2012 at 11:29 pm said:

Everytime I come here all I think is http://bit.ly/uj9Sa8

Comment ↓
- tzj on
  January 9, 2012 at 12:13 am said:
  
  Indeed. XD
  
  Comment ↓
nelson on
January 9, 2012 at 12:48 am said:

Actually the code makes me think I can do the same with a php webpage
Looks like the next script kiddie that breaks into my site will be able to wreak havoc on my home lights

also… why the hell am i also banned?

Comment ↓
- liz on
  January 9, 2012 at 12:50 am said:
  
  Er…you don’t look particularly banned to me!
  
  Comment ↓
  - nelson on
    January 9, 2012 at 1:36 am said:
    
    Strange now its working fine… sorry to bother you
    
    Comment ↓
    - Mezo on
      January 9, 2012 at 10:45 am said:
      
      Scoff scoff scoff scoff, nice one Liz.
      
      Comment ↓
- cnxsoft on
  January 9, 2012 at 1:40 am said:
  
  That would actually be nice as you could control the LEDs and Motor via a webpage.
  
  Comment ↓
  - nelson on
    January 9, 2012 at 3:31 am said:
    
    thinking of relays on the breaker panel, can control the whole house, just don’t do this at home if your not certified to work with electricity, you can easily have a painful death from electric shock or fire
    
    Comment ↓
- Lance Benson on
  January 9, 2012 at 2:49 pm said:
  
  I also got the somewhat scary “You are banned” screen a few minutes after reading the above “you are banned” post series. It happened when I clicked something innocuous, like “Features” in the forum.
  
  Back to the home page, right click on “Forums”, and click on “open in new tab” and all was ok.
  
  Whew!
  
  Comment ↓
Vlad on
January 9, 2012 at 1:08 am said:

Now it works!

Comment ↓
Scott Baker on
January 9, 2012 at 1:09 am said:

Can you post the code you use to drive the GPIO pins? Or will there be more documentation on the GPIO portion available? The code is hard to read on YouTube I’m curious how it works.

Comment ↓
- Gert on
  January 9, 2012 at 9:34 pm said:
  
  I will try in due time. I have just spend five hours on rev-2 board.
  
  Comment ↓
fos on
January 9, 2012 at 1:40 am said:

The Gertboard in conjunction with the Pi will make a great combination. Good work and thank you!!!

Comment ↓
tomek on
January 9, 2012 at 1:48 am said:

I never messed around with hardware too much, but this looks super easy and I’m quite tempted to try it out. Ever since I heard of the Raspberry Pi, I kept thinking of practical applications for it, but this brings raspberry to a whole new level of awesomeness!

When can we expect this to be available? Will there be a pre-built version? Somebody already asked this, but I believe it wasn’t answered.

Comment ↓
- Gert on
  January 9, 2012 at 9:36 pm said:
  
  Pre-build doe not look feasible yet. As I mentioned elsewhere you always need a soldering iron as the Raspberry-Pi main boards do not have a GPIO connector. I also realized when making the video that you need to solder the GPIO patch wires.
  
  Comment ↓
  - spock on
    January 9, 2012 at 10:23 pm said:
    
    how hard will it be to solder a gpio connector to the raspberry pi main board? isn’t everything tiny on that board?
    (i have some soldering experience but not with tiny SMT stuff or how this is called.)
    
    Comment ↓
    - spock on
      January 9, 2012 at 10:50 pm said:
      
      hm… i looked at the photos of the board. there are holes for the gpios and they look reasonably big but some of the circuit paths seem to come very close.
      
      Comment ↓
      - Gert on
        January 10, 2012 at 6:31 am said:
        
        Not too difficult as the holes or the standard 0.1 inch (2.54 mm) apart and you don’t have to worry about circuit paths as they have a solder mask on top.
Ed Jason on
January 9, 2012 at 1:57 am said:

Bravo.
We can control a motor. The world is ours.
I have just opened Puppy Linux Hacker School.
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/PuppySchool
First homework will be to get a Gert board with a slice of Rpi. Then build a . . . [insert hacker project]
We are Geek. We have technology. We come in Pi.

Comment ↓
Michael Longval on
January 9, 2012 at 4:12 am said:

Nice work sir! Very interesting.

Comment ↓
glen on
January 9, 2012 at 6:34 am said:

HI,
People are asking about the code, so I’ve typed out what I could see.
(please excuse typos etc…)

int main()
{ int g.rcp;
char string[128];

// Make the 17 GPIO file systems & set them to output mode
for(g=0;g /sys/class/gpio/export” ,gpiotbl[g]);
system(string);
sprintf(string, “echo out > /sys/class/gpio%d/direction” .gpiotbl[g]);
system(string);
}

//light effect on buffers
for (rep=0;rep<5;rep++)
{
for(g=0;g /sys/class/gpio%d/value” ,gpiotbl[g]);
system(string);
usleep(TIME);
}
for(g=0;g /sys/class/gpio%d/value” ,gpiotbl[g]);
system(string);
usleep(TIME);
}
}

testmotor();
testmotor();

return 0;

}//main

Comment ↓
- Javi on
  January 9, 2012 at 2:30 pm said:
  
  I’ll help you a bit with the code…
  
  int main()
  { int y,rep;
  char string[128];
  
  // Make the 17 GPIO file systems & set them to output mode
  for (g=0; g /sys/class/gpio/export”, gpiotbl[g]);
  system(string);
  sprintf(string, “echo out > /sys/class/gpio/gpio%d/direction”, gpiotbl[g] );
  system(string);
  }
  
  // light effect on buffers
  for (rep=0; rep<5; rep++)
  {
  for (g=0; g /sys/class/gpio%d/value”, gpiotbl[g]);
  system(string);
  usleep(TIME);
  }
  for (g=0; g /sys/class/gpio%d/value”, gpiotbl[g]);
  system(string);
  usleep(TIME);
  }
  }
  
  test_motor();
  test_motor();
  
  return 0;
  // main
  
  Comment ↓
  - Javi on
    January 9, 2012 at 2:33 pm said:
    
    oh… why the code was reformated? at least now I know why he wrote that strange C code x’D
    
    Comment ↓
Stephane B on
January 9, 2012 at 8:38 am said:

Hi Gert,

This Raspberry pi project will turn to addiction, )

and my next dream will be a gertboard connected to Raspberrypi via ethernet (not flat cable and definitely not usb), to make easy a network deployment.

dear admin, I am also interested to be in for your next batch of chinese motors.

Thanks a lot for all this good works,

Stephane

Comment ↓
- Gert on
  January 9, 2012 at 9:38 pm said:
  
  There is no batch scheduled yet. I can do another batch if I have an order which is big enough.
  
  Comment ↓
theWylieStCoyote on
January 9, 2012 at 9:17 am said:

Sweet,
Very cool
As a robotics guy this is perfect, just the this to use for my cnc mill. Now to get EMC2 to run on it.

Cant wait to get mine!

Comment ↓
- netomx on
  January 9, 2012 at 5:13 pm said:
  
  Wow, nice one, you are correct!
  
  Comment ↓
DavidIO on
January 9, 2012 at 9:59 am said:

Hi Gert,
You say the R-Pi will support I2C, that’s great as it will mean it should be compatible with my companies DS-RCB [Robotic Control Board]. This board uses I2C to control 16 individual RC servos, with speed control, and with the power of the R-Pi will allow some fantastic robotic systems to be developed.
Looking forward to the release of the R-Pi, hope its soon!
David

Comment ↓
Mezo on
January 9, 2012 at 10:41 am said:

Chicken door open, chicken door close.

Cheers, Gert.

Mezo.

Comment ↓
- Kris Chaplin on
  January 9, 2012 at 2:35 pm said:
  
  Fantastic idea. I could really do with that for my chicken coop. Perhaps take a reading of overnight temperature, and light level, and tuck the chickens away for the night! I’ll need to add one to my list of boards to buy now! Roll on launch day!
  
  Comment ↓
  - Rich Sedman on
    January 9, 2012 at 9:40 pm said:
    
    Must admit, I’m planning on the same thing… thinking open, close, pickup sunset/sunrise times off the Internet, webcam – all controlled via a web browser interface from afar.
    
    Can’t wait to get started! (it’s like being a kid again and my children are almost as excited as me with plans for their own robots!)
    
    Comment ↓
    - Mezo on
      January 9, 2012 at 10:45 pm said:
      
      I have been thinking about knocking up a door opener using a photoelectric switch, and with the Pi the ability to give them a measured amount of food in the morning & evening (other wise they just guts the whole lot in one go) LoL
      
      Comment ↓
      - Mezo on
        January 9, 2012 at 10:50 pm said:
        
        Just had an idea on the feed thingy, an auger screw from a feed bin, on for 10 seconds, chook`s belly`s full.
    - Kris Chaplin on
      January 10, 2012 at 11:58 am said:
      
      Webcam… I like your thinking. Perhaps port over Zoneminder, that’ll be great.
      
      Comment ↓
    - Kris Chaplin on
      January 10, 2012 at 11:58 am said:
      
      Webcam… I like your thinking. Perhaps port over Zoneminder, that’ll be great.
      
      Comment ↓
Ilan Volow on
January 9, 2012 at 10:44 am said:

I loved going to the Venetian. The fake Venice is a wonderful spectacle. Even if it is fake.

Comment ↓
adrian.oconnor on
January 9, 2012 at 10:52 am said:

This is just fantastic, Gert is doing such an incredible job. Is it just as easy to use the same /dev/file method to read input? I presume there’s a control file somewhere that sets them as either in or out?

Can’t wait to learn about SPI/I2C so we can interace with more complicated instruments/displays. The possibilies are just mind boggling

Comment ↓
- Gert on
  January 9, 2012 at 2:03 pm said:
  
  First there is no control file. You switch direction by sending “out” or “in” to the ‘direction’ of the gpio file. So you can change the direction in your program! For an input you do a getc which returns an ASCII ’0′ or ASCII ’1′. I have not yet tried it though.
  
  Comment ↓
DavidIO on
January 9, 2012 at 12:23 pm said:

Hi Gert,

Will the I2C port come out on the GPIO pins, will it be 3V3 or 5V and I guess you will need external pull-ups?
Just to let others know, if the DS-RCB works on the R-Pi – which it should – then it is
available assembled or in kit form if you enjoy soldering.

David

Comment ↓
- Gert on
  January 9, 2012 at 2:05 pm said:
  
  I2C is 3V3 and there are already 1K8 pull-ups on the Raspberry-Pi board.
  
  Comment ↓
Bill C on
January 9, 2012 at 1:08 pm said:

Hm… Gert’s Secret project…

Well it can only be one thing to keep with the Raspberry genre…

I suspect it’s going to be a large moving robotic Air-Blower based somewhere in London…

And is it going to be called “The Phantom Raspberry Blower of old London town”??
(name the Classic British Humour) ^_~

Comment ↓
- JamesH on
  January 9, 2012 at 1:29 pm said:
  
  Now that is going back a bit; A duo of Ronald’s IIRC.
  
  Comment ↓
- Julian Grammer on
  January 17, 2012 at 11:23 am said:
  
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/clips/p00bvbn2/the_two_ronnies_the_phantom_raspberry_blower/
  
  Comment ↓
PRamos on
January 9, 2012 at 2:51 pm said:

Grrrrr, i want one… i need one

I am Computer Software Engineer but i have a Electronic degree, and my hobby is robotics. You can imagine how i am enthusiastic for the release of this two boards.

Good job. Keep on the great work.

Comment ↓
Michael on
January 9, 2012 at 3:57 pm said:

What is really awesome about this? We are coming full circle back to when personal computers started. People started using the Apple II to control hardware. As time went by, engineers lost touch with the hardware. They found things like Java and C# “easier”. I bought an XM Beagleboard and had a bit of a learning experience getting a QT embedded Linux on it. The people who work in this space take too much for granted. Your source code is VERY instructive. In that, it is a success. From that, I would know how to do it from any language.

On another note, what is is with engineers and chickens. I know two engineers that have automated their chicken coops. Longer lights in the winter so egg laying doesn’t drop off. I’m looking forward to the PI and GERT. Maybe I’ll automate my chicken coop.

Gert, thanks. BTW, I am a very experienced engineer. Is there anything I can do to help you?

Michael

Comment ↓
- Gert on
  January 9, 2012 at 9:39 pm said:
  
  Thank you Michale but not at the moment.
  
  Comment ↓
Tee on
January 9, 2012 at 6:08 pm said:

Since processors evoled 4 times a year, most large corps are moving to MathWorks tools, which is replacing C experts. It’s the sign of the times, just like the slide rule. Important base concepts master by young learners will develop creativity.

Comment ↓
Pingback: Raspberry Pi’s Gertboard expansion board already works (video) | My Blog
HerrFrosty on
January 9, 2012 at 6:51 pm said:

Must….. resist….. urge…… to build a level 3 sentry.

Rambling on about sentries, is the Gertboard able to control stepper motors? Or would I need a seperate stepper motor driver for that?

Keep up the good work, it’s looking like christmas all over again

Comment ↓
- Gert on
  January 9, 2012 at 9:43 pm said:
  
  I really have to read up on stepper motors again as you are not the first person to ask that question. I remembered something about two? three? output drivers where you pulse through a certain sequence to step forwards/backwards. If so you probably need two or three motor drivers. I’ll come back to this when I have time (2015 probably as things go now)
  
  Comment ↓
  - Roger on
    January 10, 2012 at 8:35 pm said:
    
    Gert,
    
    Really inspired by your work – you have mentioned that you are carrying some expenses on this so I think you should publish a donate button somewhere, If you get a surplus you should take your loved ones out for a meal and any surplus beyond that could go to causes close to your own heart.
    
    Anyway, why not let Michael help you with problems like this if you cant look at it till 2015.
    
    Comment ↓
- Outback Pete on
  January 22, 2012 at 12:10 pm said:
  
  HerrFrosty (and possibly Gert) : there are a number of very widely-used (read : standard) stepper motor driver chips that just need direction, enable, and step logic inputs that will work wonderfully. And (oh, joy!) they’re available in through-hole mounts!
  Check out L293 stepper drivers. They may need a level translator if used directly on the RPi’s GPIO pins though.
  Gert, is your board a 3V3 or 5V0 interface on the PIC outputs? (sorry if this is answered below!)
  
  Comment ↓
Marcus on
January 9, 2012 at 8:45 pm said:

Hello Gert!
Did you control the motor from a normal Linux user process on a standard kernel or with some kind of realtime thread priority? Sorry for hammering this point so much everywhere here, but I would really like to get some numbers and/or waveform pictures for jitter and latency on the Pi, both for the GPIO ports (input change -> interrupt -> output change) and for realtime-audio processing via USB.

I suppose you know about Ingo Molnar’s realtime patches for many kernel versions, have you already tried something in this direction?

Thanks, Marcus

Comment ↓
- JamesH on
  January 9, 2012 at 8:59 pm said:
  
  I believe Ingo’s patches are in mainstream – there are certainly options in the kernel build to run a RT system (not sure its Hard RT though – very unlikely). I htink I tried and built a kernel with the real time options enabled. Seemed to work ok. Depending on how Gert’s kernel was built, it could be either. I think you will have to wait for more details on jitter and latency till the boards are available, then you can try it yourself.
  
  Comment ↓
  - Marcus on
    January 10, 2012 at 8:55 pm said:
    
    Thanks for your answer.
    
    See
    https://rt.wiki.kernel.org/
    
    From this page I get the realtime kernel patch maintained by Ingo Molnar has to be applied manually to mainline kernel, the matching patch(es) for following kernel versions are available via first link on
    https://rt.wiki.kernel.org/articles/c/o/n/CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT_Patch_79df.html
    
    2.6.22/ 04-Nov-2011 17:38 –
    2.6.23/ 04-Nov-2011 17:38 –
    2.6.24/ 04-Nov-2011 17:38 –
    2.6.25/ 04-Nov-2011 17:38 –
    2.6.26/ 04-Nov-2011 17:38 –
    2.6.29/ 04-Nov-2011 17:38 –
    2.6.31/ 04-Nov-2011 17:38 –
    2.6.33/ 04-Nov-2011 17:38 –
    3.0/ 22-Dec-2011 03:33 –
    3.2/ (not stable yet)
    
    you can learn how to do and test it at:
    https://rt.wiki.kernel.org/articles/r/t/_/RT_PREEMPT_HOWTO_6bc9.html
    
    (up to date info)
    
    I don’t know if seeing the CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT option in your kernel config means the patch is already installed, the option could be just sitting there for future integration.
    
    If Broadcomm drivers/ Raspberry Pi kernel patches do not introduce additional problems or DMA is very demanding on bus, or there are conflct with the realtime patch, we should be doing fine. (I suppose Ingo would be willing to help out if there are any problems)
    
    “With Ingo Molnar’s Realtime Preemption patch (referenced to as RT-Preempt in this document) and Thomas Gleixner’s generic clock event layer with high resolution support, the kernel gains hard realtime capabilities.”
    
    Great stuff, would love this to see this happening with the board soon! (Also for myself coming fully on board then
    
    Caveat: There may be use cases where a realtime enabled kernel could bring disadvanges.
    
    All the best,
    Marcus
    
    Comment ↓
John on
January 9, 2012 at 10:37 pm said:

Imagine the implications for a program such as RepRap! you could have the complete electronics for somewhere around $75 (only 4 motors off one of these boards+ the other stop buttons and you’re set!

Comment ↓
Paul Johnson on
January 9, 2012 at 11:23 pm said:

This is tremendous – I’m not sure what I like best, the Gertboard, or Gert’s accent!

I love that this is going to re-connect people to actual hardware. Having got started with electronics by connection my ZX81 to my train set, I know the sheer excitement of using a computer to control actual things. It’s increasingly difficult to connect PC’s to anything these days, so a project that allows people to do that is absolutely fantastic!

Comment ↓
James on
January 10, 2012 at 8:34 am said:

Great work Gert! Quick question, what would be the maximum voltage and amp’s it can support?

Comment ↓
- Gert on
  January 10, 2012 at 12:55 pm said:
  
  Look up the specs of the L6203-miniwatt package.
  I think it is up to 48V 4A.
  
  Comment ↓
Tobias on
January 10, 2012 at 8:51 am said:

Any chance of ADC? It would be very useful for reading cheap(er) sensors. For example, most if not all digital hygrometers I can find around here are more expensive than the raspberry itself.

Comment ↓
- Gert on
  January 10, 2012 at 12:56 pm said:
  
  Read my post under education/gertboard.
  
  Comment ↓
  - Tobias on
    January 10, 2012 at 6:49 pm said:
    
    Sorry about that. Search could have found that one for me..
    None the less, excellent!
    Btw,
    http://www.raspberrypi.org/forum/educational-applications/gertboard
    
    Comment ↓
Emyr on
January 10, 2012 at 11:31 am said:

Very nice. I think this will be great for getting people started.

I’m not 100% sure if controlling everything through the Pi will be the best bet in the long run. I think the future is using the power of the Pi for the ‘brains’ and farming out motor control, sensing and so-on to microcontrollers and using spi / i2c for comms. Essentially a Brooks subsumption type architecture with the Pi at the top level.

I can’t help thinking that a no-OS AVR running a dedicated small C program will be much more suited to doing PWM for low-level stepper motor control than trying to get linux on the Pi to do it. You can also buy dedicated ADC and DAC chips which you could talk to via spi / i2c from the Pi.

Of course making a start on Pi / Gert will be a nice learning experience to ease in to that more flexible type of architecture.

Comment ↓
- Gert on
  January 10, 2012 at 4:36 pm said:
  
  That reflects my comments on several ‘controller’ forums. Use the Raspberry-Pi for the high level stuff. Use a controller for accurate timing (and end stops Use the Gertboard to develop and debug your controller program. Then make a new I/O board with a controller+motor driver for every motor/axis.
  
  Comment ↓
- Outback Pete on
  January 22, 2012 at 12:15 pm said:
  
  Emyr, I’m also a huge fan of Joe Jones’ books and subsumption architecture!
  
  You can see a couple of his books in my photo gallery for Rocky the rover on http://RobotGestation.com. They’re props for Rocky, nothing more significant….
  
  Comment ↓
Horak Ladislav on
January 11, 2012 at 9:31 am said:

I can buy Raspberry Ri.

Comment ↓
piggymoo on
January 11, 2012 at 4:12 pm said:

sorry if this has been asked before but could you also publish you pic source code, the reason i am asking this is so that i can make tiny modifications and have the pic start/shutdown the pi via a push button,interrupts etc and save power (only power required is for the pic in sleep mode)
thank you

Comment ↓
- Gert on
  January 11, 2012 at 11:25 pm said:
  
  There is no PIC source code yet. I just today got an ICD2 debugger working with it. I have had no time to write code for it.
  I was planning to work on SPI code where the raspberry-Pi is the master and the PIC the slave but I have not yet found the time.
  
  Comment ↓
  - piggletmoo on
    January 17, 2012 at 5:22 pm said:
    
    Thanks for the reply, the reason i asked was if the final source or .asm file for the pic was available things could be added such as using 1 interrupt, a basic time/date could be kept and sent to the pi after boot,the latter day pics seem reasonable at keeping accuracy to a few seconds per day. A diode from an external battery could power the pic om power down
    
    Comment ↓
Edwin on
January 12, 2012 at 6:24 pm said:

That was a great demonstration of XBMC on the Raspberry Pi. Does any know if the audio works??

Comment ↓
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Kama S on
January 16, 2012 at 12:37 pm said:

Id just like to interject for a moment. What you’e referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as Ive recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called linux and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machines resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called linux distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.
.

Comment ↓
Clay Dowling on
January 17, 2012 at 3:07 pm said:

I’ll concur with the others that the C code shown was particularly painful. The C code isn’t the part that we’re interested in though. The ability of the gert board to provide external interfaces is the cool part. In production we’ll hopefully write less painful code and build interesting new devices to amaze our friends and change the world.

Comment ↓
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Outback Pete on
January 22, 2012 at 11:48 am said:

Wow! Gert, it’s really exciting to see the Gertboard’s first light. My mouth is actually watering!

Now, we have to talk to the “marketing team” (hi, Liz!) about a Pi-oneer kit to include a Gertboard with the first run Model B boards for those ubergeeks so inclined… Is that possible? Or should we more realistically wait for the RPi boards to settle in to their new homes first?

I’d even be happy to get a Gertboard before the RPi, so I can use my SPI emulator to start building ideas for the accessory board.

Comment ↓
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Caleb Madrigal on
January 23, 2012 at 4:38 pm said:

So this will allow me to build a robot and program it in an interpreted language like Python. Nice!

Comment ↓
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Henry Brown on
January 25, 2012 at 11:18 pm said:

Can GERT run a java/processing interface like ardunio?
We would like to connect Raspberry PI to Ecat.
Use Raspberry PI to control the Ecat nuclear reactor.
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/GeneMachine/1791470

Comment ↓
- liz on
  January 25, 2012 at 11:20 pm said:
  
  Well, Gertboard can’t, but the Raspberry Pi can. Eben’s actually visiting MIT next week, so you can ask him about it in person then.
  
  Comment ↓
Sai Manoj on
January 30, 2012 at 9:24 am said:

Dear Rasberrypi,
Please let me know the process to buy 1 development board for my LAB.
I am located in Bangalore, India.
Please mail me the details to my email id: saimanoj@hotmail.com
Regards,
Sai

Comment ↓
- JamesH on
  January 30, 2012 at 9:55 am said:
  
  You cannot buy the devices yet – they should be available from this website within two to three weeks. You can subscribe to a mailing list on the front page, you well then be emailed when the device goes on sale.
  
  Comment ↓
alxxthegeek on
February 18, 2012 at 5:31 am said:

Great to see the use of sys fs. Makes porting code so much easier.

But why a pic and not another arm chip (arm7 or cortex M) or direct control of io?

Hoping for a nice io board with level shifters for 3 and 5V. Then its nice and easy to add a small mosfet driver or few for 12 or 24V.

Just finishing off a remote lab experiment based on omap3530/DM3730 (gumstix overo)
http://www.labshare.edu.au/library/future_rigtypedetail/?id=16&version=1

Raspberrypi is a better option as students could have their own board which means hands on debugging and interfacing not treating it just as a software project.

Comment ↓
Pingback: Is the Raspberry Pi an ideal DIY robot processor board? | Immersive Systems Blog
jno on
April 25, 2012 at 3:26 pm said:

Wow!

sprintf(string,”echo %d > FILE\n”,value); system(string);

programs written by electronics engineers are real fun!
Well, they do their work anyway

Comment ↓

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