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Raspberry Pi 5 Support

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Jeremy Garff edited this page Oct 18, 2024 · 20 revisions

Experimental Raspberry Pi 5 Support

Support for the Raspberry Pi 5 is now available. Due to significant changes in the Raspberry Pi hardware, namely the RP1 chipset, a kernel module is now required. Currently these instructions are for using GPIO 18. Other pins and more channels will be added to the driver soon.

There has been significant demand for this feature. I wanted to get something out as soon as I could, so not all features (all channels, inverted signal, etc.) are working yet.

Unfortunately I don't have much time to work through hardware setup issues. It's best to have a working setup on a prior Raspberry Pi model before attempting to use the Pi5. The hardware setup is the same. This will help us focus on Pi 5 specific issues. Thanks.

Lastly, this project relates to electricity and electronic hardware. I take no responsibility for damage to person, property, Pi, LEDs, or anything else. You need to know what you're doing. As always, use at your own risk.

Requirements

  • Rasbperry Pi OS 64-bit
  • Repository pi5 branch
  • Kernel Header Package
  • Device Tree Compiler
  • Device Tree Overlay
  • pinctrl Utility

Installing Required Components

  • Kernel Header Package

    $ sudo apt install linux-headers

  • Device Tree Compiler

    $ sudo apt install device-tree-compiler

  • Pin Control Utility

    $ sudo apt install raspi-utils

Building the Kernel Driver

  • Check out the pi5 branch

    $ git checkout pi5

  • Go into the rp1_ws281x_pwm subdirectory.

    $ cd rp1_ws281x_pwm

  • Build the kernel module.

    $ make

Building the Device Tree Overlay

  • Build the device tree overlay

    $ ./dts.sh

Choosing the correct PWM channel

  • Different pins are configure to use different PWM channels. See the RP1 Datasheet.

  • For convenience the following are the pin and channel settings

    GPIO # pinctrl pwm_channel
    12 a0 0
    13 a0 1
    14 a0 2
    15 a0 3
    18 a2 2
    19 a2 3

Loading the Kernel Driver

  • Loading the kernel module from the driver directory. Use the pwm_channel from the GPIO list above.

    $ sudo insmod ./rp1_ws281x_pwm.ko pwm_channel=2

  • Loading the device tree overlay. This will initialize the device.

    $ sudo dtoverlay -d . rp1_ws281x_pwm

  • Setting up the GPIO (for GPIO 18). Use the aX parameter from the GPIO list above.

    $ sudo pinctrl set 18 a2 pn

Testing

  • From the base directory, build the library and test program

    $ cmake . ; make

  • Run the test program

    $ sudo ./test

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