GrovePi
The GrovePi+ from Dexter Industries is a HAT that allows a wide range of Grove sensors to be connected and utilized quickly and easily with the UP board.
"GrovePi+ is an easy-to-use and modular system for hardware hacking with the Raspberry Pi, no need for soldering or breadboards: plug in your Grove sensors and start programming directly. Grove is an easy to use a collection of more than 100 inexpensive plug-and-play modules that sense and control the physical world. By connecting Grove Sensors to the Raspberry Pi, it empowers your Pi in the physical world. With hundreds of sensors to choose from Grove families, the possibilities for interaction are endless." [ref.]
The GrovePi+ HAT has been verified on UP and UP^2, using each of the sensors available in the GrovePi+ Internet of Things Kit and the GrovePi Python scripts provided by Dexter Industries.
Note: Is suggested to use the latest revision of the Groovepi board (3.1) because the earlier revision presents a hardware bug on the I2C lines that prevent the board to work reliably with the UP board.
- Install some additional software packages
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y git python-smbus
- Download the GrovePi software, complete with Python script modifications for UP
git clone -b up-board https://github.com/emutex/GrovePi.git
The GrovePi+ supports a maximum I2C bus speed of 100kHz. By default, the UP board uses 400kHz, but this can be changed easily in the BIOS as follows:
- Power-up (or reboot) the UP board
- Press the 'Del' key on the keyboard during boot-up to enter the BIOS configuration menu
- If prompted for a password, just press 'Enter'
- Press the 'right-arrow' key to move to the Advanced tab.
- Select the 'HAP Configuration' menu, then press 'Enter'
- Select the 'I2C #2 Speed' menu, then press 'Enter'
- Select the '100KHz' option, then press 'Enter'
- Press 'F4', then select 'Yes' and press 'Enter' to save the settings and exit
- Boot to ubilinux
- Connect a Grove LED to the connector labeled D4 on the GrovePi+
- Run the following script
python GrovePi/Software/Python/grove_led_blink.py
The LED should now blink slowly. Press Ctrl-C to stop the script
- Connect the Grove Temperature and Humidity Sensor (blue color) to the connector labeled D4 on the GrovePi+
- Run the following script
python GrovePi/Software/Python/grove_dht_pro.py
Temperature and humidity measurements should now print out on the terminal window. Press Ctrl-C to stop the script
Check out the other scripts in GrovePi/Software/Python/ for examples of how to use these and many other Grove sensors with the GrovePi+. Also, there are some interesting and fun projects to try in GrovePi/Projects/ which combine several Grove sensors for various applications.
Further information on the GrovePi+ and Grove sensors can be found at the following links:
For specific examples using UP2 and GrovePi:
