Skip to content
CEC Semenster Undefined

Building Raspberry Pi Controllers with Python

Dr. Don Wilcher -
Director of Manufacturing and Technology at Jefferson State Community College
July 6,
2015
Introduction to Building Raspberry Pi Controllers
The Raspberry Pi is a user-friendly, credit-card-size, Linux-based computer that design engineers (and educators and Makers) can use as a rapid development platform to design products for the consumer and industrial markets. An overview of the Raspberry Pi's architecture will be explained, along with a presentation of the examples illustrating the use of this credit-card-size, Linux-based computer.
Course Resources
Course Resource (PPT)
Special Educational Materials
Listen/Download Archive (mp3)
Get Materials
July 7,
2015
Introduction to the Python Programming Language
This session will include a discussion on Python, the purpose of the interpretive programming language, and the inventor who created it. A review of the Python IDLE (Integrated DeveLopment Environment) will be provided in this session. The discussion will also focus on Python 2, 3, and "sudo python" IDLEs. Also, basic hands-on scripting activities (building a simple calculator) on using Python will be presented in this session, as well.
Course Resources
Course Resource (PPT)
Special Educational Materials
Listen/Download Archive (mp3)
Get Materials
July 8,
2015
A Detailed Look at the RPi.GPIO Library
The Python library used in connecting the platform to the physical world for electronic controls is the RPi.GPIO code. In this session we'll investigate the RPi's GPIO (General Input Output) pins and how to enable them with the RPi.GPIO library. We'll investigate how to install the library using LXTerminal/Linux commands. The final test of the RPi.GPIO library installation will consist of controlling an LED and reading an electric switch wired to the Raspberry Pi.
Course Resources
Course Resource (PPT)
Special Educational Materials
Listen/Download Archive (mp3)
Get Materials
July 9,
2015
Raspibot Board Part 1
The Raspibot board is an accessory controller that allows control of DC and stepper motors, LED matrices and LCDs, allowing basic mobile robots and electronic controllers to be built quite easily (uses the RRB library dev'd by Simon Monk). We'll discuss the board architecture, a hands-on activity of installing the Raspibot RRB library to the Raspberry Pi, and how to operate two DC motors and onboard LEDs by way of sending simple RRB scripting commands to the board using the "sudo python"¬ù IDLE.
Course Resources
Course Resource (PPT)
Special Educational Materials
Listen/Download Archive (mp3)
Get Materials
July 10,
2015
Raspibot Board Part 2
This final session is a continuation of the Raspibot board discussion. We'll take a look at how to create awesome visual displays using an LED matrix cube. A discussion of the cube's construction and attaching it to the Raspibot will be presented. Final testing of the LED matrix cube with RRB and RPi.GPIO libraries will be discussed in this concluding session.
Course Resources
Course Resource (PPT)
Special Educational Materials
Listen/Download Archive (mp3)
Get Materials
Headshotv2
Instructor
Dr. Don Wilcher
Director of Manufacturing and Technology at Jefferson State Community College

Dr. Don Wilcher, an Electrical Engineer, is an Associate Certified Electronics Technician (CETa), a Technical Education Researcher, Instructor, Maker, Emerging Technology Lecturer, Electronics Project writer, and Book Author. His Learn Electronics with Arduino book, published by Apress, has been cited 80 times in academic journals and referenced on patents.

He is the Director of Manufacturing and Technology at Jefferson State Community College. His research interest is Embedded Controls, Robotics Education, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence applications and their impact on Personalized Learning, Competency-Based Models curriculum, and instructional development in Mechatronics, Automation, IoT, Electronics, Robotics, and Industrial Maintenance Technologies. He is also the Founder and owner of MaDon Research LLC, an instructional technology consulting, technical training, and electronics project writing company serving Electronics Marketing Media, Technical and Engineering Education companies.