How to Install pigpio on Raspberry Pi

The pigpio is an open-source command line tool used for Raspberry Pi device to control the General-Purpose Input Output (GPIO) pins. Different operations can be performed through it, such as to control hardware time sampling, waveform generation, controlling servo, PWM, and many more. It simplifies the process of assigning input and output value to the pins.

Follow this guide to install pigpio on your Raspberry Pi system.

How to Install pigpio on Raspberry Pi

Installation of pigpio on Raspberry Pi is straightforward, which can be accomplished using the following steps:

Step 1: Install Updates

Make sure your Raspberry Pi system is fully updated. If not, you can use the command shown below to update it.

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Step 2: Install pigpio

Now, next step is to install pigpio on the Raspberry Pi, which you can do using the following command:

$ sudo apt-get install pigpio

Step 3: Start and Enable pigpio on Raspberry Pi

In order to control the pins of Raspberry Pi using pigpio, you first need to start and enable the pigpio daemon.

To start the daemon, use the below-given command:

$ sudo systemctl start pigpiod

Then enable the pigpio, use the following command:

$ sudo systemctl enable pigpiod

After enabling the pigpio, you can now configure the GPIO pins.

Configuration of GPIO Pins

As an example, we are taking the GPIO 17 and GPIO 18 to configure them as Input and Output pins for the Raspberry Pi. Let’s configure the GPIO 17 as an output. To do this, you can execute the following syntax:

$ pigs modes 17 w

The “w” denotes the pin is used for writing.

If you want to assign input to the GPIO 18 pin, use below-given command.

$ pigs modes 18 r

The “r” denotes the pin is used for reading.

By default, the state of assigned GPIO pins are low “0”.

To assign “High” state value to the designated GPIO pins, you need to execute below-given command.

$ pigs w 17 1

Similarly, we can set the state value to “Low” again by simply using the following command.

$ pigs w 17 0

To check the status of the GPIO pins either it is “High” or “Low”. Run the below-given command.

$ pigs r <pin-number>

In this way, you can control the Raspberry Pi GPIO pins through pigpio command-line tool.

Remove pigpio from Raspberry Pi

To remove the pigpio from Raspberry Pi, run the below-given command.

$ sudo apt remove pigpio -y

Conclusion

The pigpio is an effective tool that lets you easily control Raspberry Pi’s GPIO Pins. You can install this tool from Raspberry Pi repository through “apt” command and then use different commands to control GPIO pins through Raspberry Pi terminal. The step-by-step instructions are already presented in the above-mentioned guidelines.

How to Install pigpio on Raspberry Pi