Adafruit IO Basics: Digital Output
Created by Justin Cooper
https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-io-basics-digital-output
Last updated on 2024-03-08 02:08:41 PM EST
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Table of Contents
Overview 3
Get Started with Adafruit IO 3
• I have an Adafruit.com Account already
• Create an Adafruit Account (for Adafruit IO)
Arduino Wiring 6
• Arduino Wiring
Arduino Setup 7
Arduino Network Config 8
• WiFi Config
• FONA Config
• Ethernet Config
Arduino Code 10
Python Wiring 12
• Parts
• Wiring
Python Setup 13
• Update your Pi and Python
• Make sure you're using Python 3!
• Install Python Libraries
• Installing Adafruit Blinka Library
• Installing Adafruit IO Python Library
• Downloading Example Code
Python Code 17
• Running the Code
• Code
Adafruit IO FAQ 20
• Encountering an issue with your Adafruit IO Arduino Project?
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Overview
This guide is part of a series of guides that cover the basics of using Adafruit IO. It will
show you how to turn a LED on and off from Adafruit IO using any modern web
browser.
If you haven't worked your way through the Adafruit IO feed and dashboard basics
guides, you should do that before continuing with this guide so you have a basic
understanding of Adafruit IO.
• Adafruit IO Basics: Feeds
• Adafruit IO Basics: Dashboards
You should go through the setup guides associated with your selected set of
hardware, and make sure you have internet connectivity with the device before
continuing. The following links will take you to the guides for your selected platform.
• Adafruit Feather HUZZAH ESP8266 Setup Guide
If you have gone through all of the prerequisites for your selected hardware, you are
now ready to move on to the Adafruit IO setup steps that are common between all of
the hardware choices for this project. Let's get started!
Get Started with Adafruit IO
Adafruit IO is integrated with your adafruit.com account (https://adafru.it/dyy) so you
don't need to create yet another online account! You need an Adafruit account to use
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Adafruit IO because we want to make sure the data you upload is available to only
you (unless you decide to publish your data).
I have an Adafruit.com Account already
If you already have an Adafruit account, then you already have access to Adafruit
IO. It doesn't matter how you signed up, your account will make all three available.
To access Adafruit IO, simply visit https://io.adafruit.com (https://adafru.it/eZ8) to start
streaming, logging, and interacting with your data.
Create an Adafruit Account (for Adafruit IO)
An Adafruit account makes Adafruit content and services available to you in one
place. Your account provides access to the Adafruit shop (https://adafru.it/dAR), the
Adafruit Learning System (https://adafru.it/dIu), and Adafruit IO (https://adafru.it/fsU).
This means only one account, one username, and one password are necessary to
engage with the content and services that Adafruit offers.
If you do not have an Adafruit account, signing up for a new Adafruit account only
takes a couple of steps.
Begin by visiting https://accounts.adafruit.com (https://adafru.it/18ta).
Click the Sign Up button under the "Need An Adafruit Account?" title, below the Sign
In section.
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This will take you to the Sign Up page.
Fill in the requested information, and click the Create Account button.
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This takes you to your Adafruit Account home page. From here, you can access all the
features of your account.
You can also access the Adafruit content and services right from this page. Along the
top of the page, you'll see a series of links beginning with "Shop". To access any of
these, simply click the link.
For example, to begin working with Adafruit IO, click the IO link to the right of the
rest of the links. This is the same for the other links as well.
That's all there is to creating a new Adafruit account, and navigating to Adafruit IO.
Arduino Wiring
Arduino Wiring
You will need the following parts for this tutorial:
• 1x Adafruit IO compatible Feather
• 2x jumper wires
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• 1x 560 ohm resistor
• 1x 10mm LED
You will need to connect the following pins to the LED and resistor:
• Feather GND to LED cathode (short leg)
• Feather Pin 5 to one leg of the 560 ohm resistor
• LED anode (long leg) to the second leg of the 560 ohm resistor
Note: Resistors are not polarized, so the 560 ohm resistor can be connected to the
circuit in either direction.
Next, we're going to set up our Arduino.
Arduino Setup
You should go through the setup guides associated with your selected set of
hardware, and make sure you have internet connectivity with the device before
continuing. The following links will take you to the guides for your selected platform.
• Adafruit Feather HUZZAH ESP8266 Setup Guide
You will need to make sure you have at least version 2.3.1 of the Adafruit IO Arduino
library installed before continuing.
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For this example you will need to open the adafruitio_07_digital_out example in the
Adafruit IO Arduino library.
Next, we will look at the network configuration options in the sketch.
Arduino Network Config
To configure the network settings, click on the config.h tab in the sketch. You will
need to set your Adafruit IO username in the IO_USERNAME define, and your
Adafruit IO key in the IO_KEY define.
WiFi Config
WiFi is enabled by default in config.h so if you are using one of the supported WiFi
boards, you will only need to modify the WIFI_SSID and WIFI_PASS options in the
config.h tab.
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FONA Config
If you wish to use the FONA 32u4 Feather to connect to Adafruit IO, you will need to
first comment out the WiFi support in config.h
Next, remove the comments from both of the FONA config lines in the FONA section
of config.h to enable FONA support.
Ethernet Config
If you wish to use the Ethernet Wing to connect to Adafruit IO, you will need to first
comment out the WiFi support in config.h
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Next, remove the comments from both of the Ethernet config lines in the Ethernet
section of config.h to enable Ethernet Wing support.
Next, we will look at how the example sketch works.
Arduino Code
The adafruitio_07_digital_out example uses digital pin 5 by default on all boards, and
that can be modified by changing the LED_PIN define.
Note: If you are using the WICED Feather, you will need to change the LED_PIN
define to PC5 instead of the default setting of 5.
/************************ Example Starts Here *******************************/
// digital pin 5
#define LED_PIN 5
The next chunk of code sets up an Adafruit IO Feed instance for a feed called digital.
// set up the 'digital' feed
AdafruitIO_Feed *digital = io.feed("digital");
In the setup function, we set the LED_PIN as a digital output, and connect to Adafruit
IO. We also attach a function called handleMessage to the digital feed that will be
called whenever your device receives messages for that feed.
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The code will wait until you have a valid connection to Adafruit IO before continuing
with the sketch. If you have any issues connecting, check config.h for any typos in
your username or key.
void setup() {
// set led pin as a digital output
pinMode(LED_PIN, OUTPUT);
// start the serial connection
Serial.begin(115200);
// wait for serial monitor to open
while(! Serial);
// connect to io.adafruit.com
Serial.print("Connecting to Adafruit IO");
io.connect();
// set up a message handler for the 'digital' feed.
// the handleMessage function (defined below)
// will be called whenever a message is
// received from adafruit io.
digital->onMessage(handleMessage);
// wait for a connection
while(io.status() < AIO_CONNECTED) {
Serial.print(".");
delay(500);
}
// we are connected
Serial.println();
Serial.println(io.statusText());
digital->get();
}
Next, we have the main loop() function. The first line of the loop function calls
io.run(); this line will need to be present at the top of your loop in every sketch. It
helps keep your device connected to Adafruit IO, and processes any incoming data.
void loop() {
// io.run(); is required for all sketches.
// it should always be present at the top of your loop
// function. it keeps the client connected to
// io.adafruit.com, and processes any incoming data.
io.run();
}
The final chunk of code is the handleMessage function. This is the function that is
called whenever the digital feed gets a message.
We use the data->toPinLevel() function to convert the incoming data to either
LOW or HIGH, and set the state of the LED_PIN to that value.
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// this function is called whenever an 'digital' feed message
// is received from Adafruit IO. it was attached to
// the 'digital' feed in the setup() function above.
void handleMessage(AdafruitIO_Data *data) {
Serial.print("received <- ");
if(data->toPinLevel() == HIGH)
Serial.println("HIGH");
else
Serial.println("LOW");
// write the current state to the led
digitalWrite(LED_PIN, data->toPinLevel());
Upload the sketch to your board, and open the Arduino Serial Monitor. Your board
should now connect to Adafruit IO.
Connecting to Adafruit IO....
Adafruit IO connected.
Toggle the button on your Adafruit IO dashboard, and you should see the following in
the Arduino Serial Monitor.
received <- HIGH
received <- LOW
received <- HIGH
received <- LOW
You can now toggle the button on your Adafruit IO dashboard, and you should see
your LED turn on and off.
Python Wiring
We're going to use a combination of the Adafruit IO Client Library and Adafruit's
CircuitPython to control a Raspberry Pi over Adafruit IO.
Parts
1 x Raspberry Pi 3 - Model B+ https://www.adafruit.com/product/3775
The Raspberry Pi is a small linux board compatible with
Adafruit IO projects.
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If you're following along with a Raspberry Pi, we use the T-Cobbler Plus for the IO
Basics Projects. This add-on prototyping board lets you easily connect a Raspberry Pi
(Raspberry Pi Model Zero, A+, B+, Pi 2,Pi 3) to a solderless breadboard:
1 x Assembled Pi T-Cobbler Plus https://www.adafruit.com/product/
GPIO Breakout - Pi A+, B+, Pi 2, Pi 3, Zero 2028
1 x Green LED https://www.adafruit.com/product/298
Diffused Green 5mm LED
1 x Jumper Wires https://www.adafruit.com/product/153
Breadboarding wire bundle.
Wiring
You'll need to make the following connections:
• Pi GND to LED Cathode (short LED leg).
• Pi Pin 5 to one leg of the 560 ohm resistor.
• LED Anode (long LED leg) to the other leg of the 560 ohm resistor.
◦ note: resistors are not polarized, so the 560 ohm resistor can be
connected to the circuit in either direction.
Python Setup
If you're following along with a Raspberry Pi, Beaglebone or any other supported
small linux computer, we'll use a special library called adafruit_blinka (https://
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adafru.it/BJS) (named after Blinka, the CircuitPython mascot (https://adafru.it/BJT)) to
provide the layer that translates the CircuitPython hardware API to whatever library
the Linux board provides. It's CircuitPython, on Pi!
Update your Pi and Python
The latest Raspbian (currently this is `Stretch`) is required for the installation of
Adafruit IO + Blinka.
In this page we'll assume you've already gotten your Raspberry Pi up and running and
can log into the command line.
Go ahead and ssh into your Raspberry Pi via terminal or a ssh client:
ssh [email protected]
Run the standard updates:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
and
sudo pip3 install --upgrade setuptools
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Make sure you're using Python 3!
The default python on your computer may not be python 3. Python 2 is officially
discontinued and all our libraries are Python 3 only.
We'll be using python3 and pip3 in our commands, use those versions of python
and pip to make sure you're using 3 and not 2
Install Python Libraries
Installing Adafruit Blinka Library
Now you're ready to install all the python support
Run the following command to install the Raspberry PI GPIO library:
pip3 install RPI.GPIO
Run the following command to install adafruit_blinka
pip3 install adafruit-blinka
The computer will install a few different libraries such as adafruit-pureio (our
ioctl-only i2c library), spidev (for SPI interfacing), Adafruit-GPIO (for detecting
your board) and of course adafruit-blinka
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Installing Adafruit IO Python Library
We'll also need to install the Adafruit IO Python Client Library (https://adafru.it/eli) to
communicate with Adafruit IO.
Run the following command to install the Adafruit IO Client for Python:
pip3 install adafruit-io
If the installation gives you 'insufficient permissions' errors, add 'sudo' before the
call to pip3
Downloading Example Code
The example code is contained within the Python IO Client's examples/
basics subdirectory.
Navigate to the root directory of your Pi:
cd ~
Then, download the latest version of the adafruit/io-client-python repository by
running:
git clone https://github.com/adafruit/io-client-python.git
Navigate to that folder's example folder for the examples:
cd io-client-python/examples/basics/
That's it! We're all set up.
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Next, let's upload some code and learn how it works.
Python Code
Before we run the script, we'll need to
change ADAFRUIT_IO_USERNAME and ADAFRUIT_IO_KEY to the username and key
for your Adafruit IO account.
• If you need the AIO Key, navigate to your Adafruit IO Profile (https://adafru.it/
BmD)
# Set to your Adafruit IO key.
# Remember, your key is a secret,
# so make sure not to publish it when you publish this code!
ADAFRUIT_IO_KEY = 'YOUR_AIO_KEY'
# Set to your Adafruit IO username.
# (go to https://accounts.adafruit.com to find your username)
ADAFRUIT_IO_USERNAME = 'YOUR_AIO_USERNAME'
Next, we'll create an instance of the Adafruit IO Client and set up the feed we created
earlier.
aio = Client(ADAFRUIT_IO_USERNAME, ADAFRUIT_IO_KEY)
digital = aio.feeds('digital')
The next chunk of code sets up the LED to digital pin 5 ( board.D5 ) and sets the
direction of the LED to an output.
# led set up
led = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D5)
led.direction = digitalio.Direction.OUTPUT
To set up the led, assign it to digital pin 5:
led = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D5)
We want the LED to light up. To do this, its pin needs to be set to an output:
led.direction = Direction.OUTPUT
Inside the while True loop,. the code retrieves the the current value of the feed
and sets the LED to the value.
while True:
data = aio.receive(digital.key)
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if int(data.value) == 1:
print('received <- ON\n')
elif int(data.value) == 0:
print('received <- OFF\n')
# set the LED to the feed value
led.value = int(data.value)
# timeout so we dont flood adafruit-io with requests
time.sleep(0.5)
Running the Code
Make sure you're within the /io-client-python/examples/basics directory.
If you're not sure which directory you're in, you can check this by running pwd and
you should see the following output from your terminal:
~/io-client-python/examples/basics
Let's run the script. In your terminal, run:
python3 digital_in.py
Toggle the button on your Adafruit IO dashboard, and you should see the following in
the the terminal of your Pi.
You can now toggle the button on your Adafruit IO dashboard, and you should see
your LED turn on and off.
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Code
"""
'digital_out.py'
===================================
Example of turning on and off a LED
from the Adafruit IO Python Client
Author(s): Brent Rubell, Todd Treece
"""
# Import standard python modules
import time
# import Adafruit Blinka
import digitalio
import board
# import Adafruit IO REST client.
from Adafruit_IO import Client, Feed, RequestError
# Set to your Adafruit IO key.
# Remember, your key is a secret,
# so make sure not to publish it when you publish this code!
ADAFRUIT_IO_KEY = 'YOUR_AIO_KEY'
# Set to your Adafruit IO username.
# (go to https://accounts.adafruit.com to find your username)
ADAFRUIT_IO_USERNAME = 'YOUR_AIO_USERNAME'
# Create an instance of the REST client.
aio = Client(ADAFRUIT_IO_USERNAME, ADAFRUIT_IO_KEY)
try: # if we have a 'digital' feed
digital = aio.feeds('digital')
except RequestError: # create a digital feed
feed = Feed(name="digital")
digital = aio.create_feed(feed)
# led set up
led = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D5)
led.direction = digitalio.Direction.OUTPUT
while True:
data = aio.receive(digital.key)
if int(data.value) == 1:
print('received <- ON\n')
elif int(data.value) == 0:
print('received <- OFF\n')
# set the LED to the feed value
led.value = int(data.value)
# timeout so we dont flood adafruit-io with requests
time.sleep(0.5)
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Adafruit IO FAQ
Encountering an issue with your Adafruit IO Arduino
Project?
If you're having an issue compiling, connecting, or troubleshooting your project,
check this page first.
Don't see your issue? Post up on the Adafruit IO Forum with your issue (https://
adafru.it/plC).
I encounter the following error when compiling my sketch:
fatal error: Adafruit_MQTT.h: No such file or directory, #include
"Adafruit_MQTT.h"
The Adafruit IO Arduino library is dependent on our Adafruit IO MQTT Library.
To resolve this error, from the Arduino IDE,
navigate to the Manage Libraries... option
in the Sketch -> Include Library menu.
To resolve this error, from the Arduino IDE,
navigate to the Manage Libraries... option
in the Sketch -> Include Library menu.
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My Serial Monitor prints "..." endlessly after the
"Connecting to Adafruit IO" message
Your board is not connecting to Adafruit IO, but why? Let's find out:
First, check in config.h that you have the
correct IO_USERNAME , IO_KEY , WIFI_SSID , and WIFI_PASS are set correctly.
Next, we're going to modify the while loop which waits for an IO connection in your
sketch. Change the line in the status check loop
from Serial.println(.); to Serial.println(io.statusText());
// wait for a connection
while(io.status() < AIO_CONNECTED) {
Serial.println(io.statusText());
delay(500);
}
Verify and re-upload the sketch. If you're receiving a Network disconnected error
message, the board is not able to talk to the internet. Re-check your hardware,
connections, and router settings.
If it's still not showing Adafruit IO connected, check the IO status on the Adafruit
Status page (https://adafru.it/Oc0) to make sure the service is online.
My data isn't displaying, is Adafruit IO's {service/MQTT/
API} down?
Possibly - you can check IO status on the Adafruit Status page (https://adafru.it/
Oc0).
Is my data being sent properly? Am I sending too much
data?
There's a monitor page built-into Adafruit IO (https://adafru.it/DOK) which provides
a live view of incoming data and error messages. Keep this page open while you
send data to your Adafruit IO devices to monitor data and errors.
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