A GPIO Python module, that works on many platforms.
Based on anyio by David Whale @whaleygeek, Improved by Ryan Walmsley @Ryanteck
The anyio package aims to mimic the basic functionality of the RPi.GPIO Python module that is used on the Raspberry Pi computer. 'Mimic' is used in the loosest sense of the word, because all it does is to implement 5 functions of the same name as the RPi.GPIO module. This allows you to write simple GPIO programs in Python, that work on Raspberry Pi, PC, Mac and Linux computers.
This package consists of two parts - a Python module that runs on a PC, Mac or Linux machine (well, anything that can run Python and pyserial), and some firmware that is programmed to a microcontroller.
The two are linked together by a serial port controlled by the pyserial library. Calls to the anyio.GPIO methods on the host computer will cause reads or writes to the GPIO pins on the microcontroller platform.
Supported Boards Are: Arduino Pro Micro
In this way, it is possible to write a hardware control program on any platform, that can easily be ported between different platforms (including the Raspberry Pi). Just change the "import RPi.GPIO as GPIO" to "import anyio.GPIO as GPIO" and change your pin numbers, and you'll be working in no time!
The serial link between the two parts runs at varying speeds depending o the microcontroller, and each command is only a few characters, so the system performs reasonably well unless you are repeatedly polling or changing lots of GPIO's at the same time.
The arduino pro micro runs at 115200 Baud and the at a faster baud rate.
Currently the is being funded on kickstarter over at
You can also buy an arduino pro mico pre-programmed ready to go from: http://skpang.co.uk/catalog/pro-micro-33v8mhz-with-headers-and-anyio-firmware-p-1327.html
All you need to do is plug it in, download this module by choosing the "Download as Zip" button, unzip the file and run the test programs, and you'll be working in no time!
You can also program your own pro micro and flash the firmware located at anyio/arduino/firmware/gpio/gpio.ino to get going.
This module uses pyserial to communicate with the Arduino Pro Micro.
anyio modifies the Python PACKAGEPATH for you when it runs, to make sure that it uses this embedded pyserial rather than one that might or might not be installed on your system. This means that if you don't have pyserial installed on your system, you should still be able to just run this out of the box and it should work.
If you already have pyserial installed and want to use your installed version for any reason, you can change the anyio/arduino/GPIO.py USE_EMBEDDED_PYSERIAL = False
This package contains a console based (text mode) simulator that can be used to test your programs on before you connect to real hardware, and this supports both inputs and outputs. This console package works, but is not completely documented yet. You can try it with this: import anyio.console.GPIO as GPIO
The GPIO interface itself could be anything, not just an Arduino. There is a very simple protocol between the python module and the target GPIO hardware, that is written in a way to allow future extension to support other hardware peripherals such as I2C, SPI, UART, PWM, Analog, OneWire and other protocols and features aimed at near real time control and sensing.
There are placeholders in the design for a tkinter GUI simulator that I am planning to write soon, and also a network aware version, that allows GPIO controls to be sent remotely over a network connection to a GPIO server running on any arbitrary host computer (e.g. a Raspberry Pi).
The source code in the anyio package is (c) 2014 David Whale.
There is an embedded version of pyserial inside the anyio package, and this is provided in it's entirely complete form, with it's original licence, which allows for it to be embedded inside other packages with out any special install.
There is an embedded version of the ProMicro.inf file, which came from the SparkFun github repository. It is included here for convenience, but the latest copy can always be retrieved from here:
https://github.com/sparkfun/SF32u4_boards/blob/master/driver/ProMicro.inf
David Whale
@whaleygeek
June 2014