LED blinking

Here we are going to Initialize the GPIO ports and Turn the LED on and off in 1-second intervals

To initialize the GPIO ports on the Raspberry Pi we need to first import the Python library, initialize the library and set up pin 8 as an output pin. We will need the following tools to complete the project:

Components

We will need the following tools to complete the project:

1. Raspberry Pi 3 setup with monitor and USB Mouse & Keyboard
2. Solderless breadboard
3. Jumper wires for easy hookup
4. Resistor 80ohm
5. Red LED

Circuit Diagram

1. 

With the circuit created we need to write the Python script to blink the LED. Before we start writing the software we first need to install the Raspberry Pi GPIO Python module. This is a library that allows us to access the GPIO port directly from Python.

To install the Python library open a terminal and execute the following command:

" sudo apt-get install python-rpi.gpio python3-rpi.gpio"

Programing

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO       # Import Raspberry Pi GPIO library

from time import sleep        # Import the sleep function from the time module

GPIO.setwarnings(False)        # Ignore warning for now

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BOARD)       # Use physical pin numbering

GPIO.setup(8, GPIO.OUT, initial=GPIO.LOW)    # Set pin 8 to be an output pin and set initial value to low (off)

while True:                      # Run forever

GPIO.output(8, GPIO.HIGH)        # Turn on

sleep(1)                         # Sleep for 1 second

GPIO.output(8, GPIO.LOW)         # Turn off

sleep(1)                         # Sleep for 1 second

With our program finished, save it as blinking_led.py and run it either inside your IDE or in the console with:

$ python blinking_led.py