Adafruit IO Basics: Digital Input
Created by Justin Cooper
Last updated on 2019-07-26 09:16:00 PM UTC
Overview
This guide is part of a series of guides that cover the basics of using Adafruit IO. It will show you how to send momentary
button press data to Adafruit IO.
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 went 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!
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Adafruit IO Setup
The first thing you will need to do is to login to Adafruit IO and visit the Settings page.
Click the VIEW AIO KEY button to retrieve your key.
A window will pop up with your Adafruit IO. Keep a copy of this in a safe place. We'll need it later.
Creating the Digital Feed
Next, you will need to create a feed called Digital. If you need help getting started with creating feeds on Adafruit IO, check
out the Adafruit IO Feed Basics guide (https://adafru.it/ioA).
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Adding the Gauge Block
Next, add a new Gauge block to a new or existing dashboard. Name the block whatever you would like, and give it a max
value of 1 and a min value of 0. Make sure you have selected the Digital feed as the data source for the gauge.
If you need help getting started with Dashboards on Adafruit IO, check out the Adafruit IO Dashboard Basics
guide (https://adafru.it/f5m).
When you are finished editing the form, click Create Block to add the new block to the dashboard.
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Next, we will look at wiring the circuit.
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Arduino Wiring
You will need the following parts for this tutorial:
1x Adafruit IO compatible Feather 3x
jumper wires
1x 10k resistor
1x momentary button
You will need to connect the following pins to the button and 10k resistor:
Feather GND to one side of the momentary button
Feather Pin 5 to the other side of the momentary button
Feather 3V to one leg of a 10k resistor
The second leg of the 10k resistor to the same side of the momentary button as Pin 5
Note: Resistors are not polarized, so the 10k resistor can be connected to the circuit in either direction.
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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.
You will also need the Arduino HTTP library and Adafruit MQTT library so check the setup guide above to get all set up!
For this example, you will need to open the adafruitio_06_digital_in example in the Adafruit IO Arduino library.
Next, we will look at the network configuration options in the sketch.
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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.
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
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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
Next, remove the comments from both of the Ethernet config lines in the Ethernet section of config.h to enable
Ethernet Wing support.
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Next, we will look at how the example sketch works.
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Arduino Code
The adafruitio_06_digital_in example uses digital pin 5 by default on all boards, and that can be modified if needed by
changing the BUTTON_PIN define.
Note: If you are using the WICED Feather, you will need to change the BUTTON_PIN define to PC5 instead of the default
setting of 5.
/************************ Example Starts Here *******************************/
// digital pin 5 #define
BUTTON_PIN 5
The next chunk of code sets up two boolean variables to track button state, and an Adafruit IO Feed instance for a feed
called digital.
// button state
bool current = false; bool
last = false;
// set up the 'digital' feed
AdafruitIO_Feed *digital = io.feed("digital");
In the setup function, we set the BUTTON_PIN as a digital input, and connect to Adafruit IO. 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.
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void setup() {
// set button pin as an input
pinMode(BUTTON_PIN, INPUT);
// 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();
// wait for a connection while(io.status() <
AIO_CONNECTED) {
Serial.print(".");
delay(500);
}
// we are connected Serial.println();
Serial.println(io.statusText());
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 next chunk of code inside the loop() checks the current state of the button, and saves the state of the button in the
current variable. Because we are using a pullup resistor, we will need to flip the button state.
If the button state is LOW it means the button is pressed, so we set current = true;. If the button state is HIGH it
means the button is released, so we set current = false;.
We then check if the current button state is equal to the last button state. If it is equal, we will return early and not
continue with the rest of the loop.
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// grab the current state of the button.
// we have to flip the logic because we are
// using a pullup resistor.
if(digitalRead(BUTTON_PIN) == LOW)
current = true; else
current = false;
// return if the value hasn't changed if(current
== last)
return;
The final chunk of the loop() function prints the current value to the Arduino Serial Monitor, and sends the current value to
the digital feed on Adafruit IO. We also set last = current; so we can tell if the state of the button has changed in the
next run of the loop.
// save the current state to the 'digital' feed on adafruit io
Serial.print("sending button -> ");
Serial.println(current);
digital->save(current);
// store last button state last =
current;
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.
You can now press the button, and you should see button presses being sent to Adafruit IO.
sending button -> 1
sending button -> 0
sending button -> 1
sending button -> 0
Check your dashboard on Adafruit IO, and you should see the gauge respond to button presses.
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Python Wiring
Parts
Raspberry Pi 3 - Model B+ - 1.4GHz Cortex-A53 with 1GB
RAM
$35.00
IN STOCK
ADD TO CART
If you're following along with a Raspberry Pi (https://adafru.it/ejq), we're going to use a 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.
Assembled Pi T-Cobbler Plus - GPIO Breakout
$7.95
IN STOCK
ADD TO CART
1 x Jumper Wires
Breadboarding wire bundle.
ADD TO CART
1 x Button
Tactile Switch Buttons (12mm square, 6mm tall) x 10 pack
ADD TO CART
Wiring
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You'll need to make the following connections:
Pi GND to a common ground rail.
Pi GND to one side of the momentary button.
Pi Pin 12 to the other side of the momentary button.
Next, proceed to the Python Setup Page (https://adafru.it/BMB) of this guide.
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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://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
Run the standard updates:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
and
sudo pip3 install --upgrade setuptools
Make sure you're using Python 3!
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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
Installing Adafruit IO Python Library
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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.
Next, let's upload some code and learn how it works.
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Python Code
Code
Before we run the script at the bottom of this page, 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'
We're going to set up an instance of the feed we created earlier:
digital = aio.create_feed(Feed(name="digital"))
In the while True loop, we're going to check the value of the button and send it to Adafruit IO. A delay (time.sleep())
has been added to avoid timing out by sending too many requests to Adafruit IO.
while True:
if not button.value: button_current = 1
else:
button_current = 0
print('Button -> ', button_current)
aio.send(digital.key, button_current)
# avoid timeout from adafruit io
time.sleep(1)
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
You can now press the button, and you should see button presses being sent to Adafruit IO:
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Button -> 1
Button -> 0
Button -> 1
Button -> 0
Check your dashboard on Adafruit IO, and you should see the gauge respond to button presses:
Code
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"""
'digital_in.py'
==================================
Example of sending button values to an
Adafruit IO feed.
Author(s): Brent Rubell, Todd Treece """
# Import standard python modules import
time
# import Adafruit Blinka import
board
import digitalio
# 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)
# button set up
button = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D12)
button.direction = digitalio.Direction.INPUT
button.pull = digitalio.Pull.UP button_current = 0
while True:
if not button.value:
button_current = 1
else:
button_current = 0
print('Button -> ', button_current)
aio.send(digital.key, button_current)
# avoid timeout from adafruit io
time.sleep(1)
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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.
# 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:
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First, check in config.h that you have the correct IO_USERNAME , IO_KEY , WIFI_SSID , WIFI_PASS
are set
correctly. and
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(.); toSerial.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 to make sure the
service is online.
# My data isn't displaying, is Adafruit IO's {service/MQTT/API} down?
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Possibly - you can check IO status on the Adafruit Status page.
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# Is my data being sent properly? Am I sending too much data?
There's a monitor page built-into Adafruit IO 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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