DOCUMENTATION > USAGE > GPIO
GPIO
A powerful feature of the Raspberry Pi is the row of GPIO (general-purpose
input/output) pins along the top edge of the board. A 40-pin GPIO header is found
on all current Raspberry Pi boards (unpopulated on Pi Zero and Pi Zero W). Prior to
the Pi 1 Model B+ (2014), boards comprised a shorter 26-pin header.
Any of the GPIO pins can be designated (in software) as an input or output pin and
used for a wide range of purposes.
Note: the numbering of the GPIO pins is not in numerical order; GPIO pins 0 and 1
are present on the board (physical pins 27 and 28) but are reserved for advanced
use (see below).
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Voltages
Two 5V pins and two 3V3 pins are present on the board, as well as a number of
ground pins (0V), which are uncon gurable. The remaining pins are all general
purpose 3V3 pins, meaning outputs are set to 3V3 and inputs are 3V3-tolerant.
Outputs
A GPIO pin designated as an output pin can be set to high (3V3) or low (0V).
Inputs
A GPIO pin designated as an input pin can be read as high (3V3) or low (0V). This is
made easier with the use of internal pull-up or pull-down resistors. Pins GPIO2 and
GPIO3 have xed pull-up resistors, but for other pins this can be con gured in
software.
More
As well as simple input and output devices, the GPIO pins can be used with a
variety of alternative functions, some are available on all pins, others on speci c
pins.
PWM (pulse-width modulation)
Software PWM available on all pins
Hardware PWM available on GPIO12, GPIO13, GPIO18, GPIO19
SPI
SPI0: MOSI (GPIO10); MISO (GPIO9); SCLK (GPIO11); CE0 (GPIO8), CE1
(GPIO7)
SPI1: MOSI (GPIO20); MISO (GPIO19); SCLK (GPIO21); CE0 (GPIO18);
CE1 (GPIO17); CE2 (GPIO16)
I2C
Data: (GPIO2); Clock (GPIO3)
EEPROM Data: (GPIO0); EEPROM Clock (GPIO1)
Serial
TX (GPIO14); RX (GPIO15)
GPIO pinout
It's important to be aware of which pin is which. Some people use pin labels (like
the RasPiO Portsplus PCB, or the printable Raspberry Leaf).
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A handy reference can be accessed on the Raspberry Pi by opening a terminal
window and running the command pinout . This tool is provided by the GPIO
Zero Python library, which it is installed by default on the Raspbian desktop image,
but not on Raspbian Lite.
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For more details on the advanced capabilities of the GPIO pins see gadgetoid's
interactive pinout diagram.
Programming with GPIO
It is possible to control GPIO pins using a number of programming languages and
tools. See the following guides to get started:
GPIO with Scratch 1.4
GPIO with Scratch 2
GPIO with Python
GPIO with C/C++ using standard kernel interface via libgpiod
GPIO with C/C++ using 3rd party library pigio
GPIO with Processing3
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Warning: while connecting up simple components to the GPIO pins is perfectly
safe, it's important to be careful how you wire things up. LEDs should have
resistors to limit the current passing through them. Do not use 5V for 3V3
components. Do not connect motors directly to the GPIO pins, instead use an H-
bridge circuit or a motor controller board.
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