GPioneer - A side project compatible with PiPlay
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GPioneer - A Python Based GPIO Controller
I'm releasing a side project that is compatible with PiPlay called GPioneer. A Python based GPIO controller. For anyone that is familiar with Adafruit's RetroGame Utility, this is very similar. The main difference being that this is much more user friendly.- It has a configuration tool to auto map keystrokes to buttons
- it has a web-front end to modify settings/will auto integrate with piplay's web frontend
- supports button combinations for alternate keystrokes
- It supports system commands! (you can map volume/shutdown/etc to buttons)
How to install
in terminal type:cd ~
git clone https://github.com/mholgatem/gpioneer.git
bash gpioneer/install.sh
That's it! The installer is still very much in the beta stage, so let me know if you have problems. But I have tested it on several clean raspbian/piplay images with no problem.How to use
After the installer runs, you will be prompted to run the configuration tool. You will be prompted to press each direction twice to register the correct gpio pins (note: after registering 'up', you can skip any configuration by pressing up twice).
After running the configuration, GPioneer will automatically run in the background. You can customize any buttons or add your own custom combos by going to the web interface on a local computer (Pi's ip address/if you have piplay installed, go to the 'database admin->GPioneer' section)
I'll be editing the 'readme' section of the git repository soon to add some extra info -
Well done @mholgatem great idea. No one knows better than you the problems encountered when trying to get the GPIO based joysticks/buttons working (I alone have been harassing you with no end of questions and troubleshooting advice!). Now that I've got my controller working pretty darn well though I'm reluctant to switch, though probably will at some point. Would be interested to hear how people go and what they think.
Keep up the good work mate.
tSm -
Oooooow, control volume. I'd like that. Would it be hard to move from one to the other (and back if something breaks)?
The flexibility of it sounds great in lieu of all the basic functions on mine working but anything secondary doesnt.
Might even be a workaround to that tab problem I'm having on the keyboard. -
Yeah I am.
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ok, I just updated the installer. It will now automatically comment out retrogame from your /etc/rc.local and/or /home/pi/.profile files so that retrogame won't activate on startup, but the files will still be there. If you decide that you want to switch back, just type:
sudo nano /etc/rc.local
and remove the: #from in front of the retrogame command, and put#in front of the gpioneer command.
easy peasy
ignore that. I added a removal script to the repo. Just runbash remove.shto uninstall gpioneer and re-enable retrogame (if it was disabled by gpioneer) -
Excellent, will give it a go when i get a chance and see how it goes. Thanks very much.
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Okay so fired this up. Installed and ran the config tool which all seemed to go well. I set the select button to to button 1 but that doesnt seem to work in the Pi Play menu or within Advance Mame (when i navigate there with the keyboard). Left, right, up and down work fine in the Pi Play menu i should probably add. Have I forgotten something, or do i now need to go and adjust the advmame.rc? Thanks
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Would also be interested to see how to go about creating a volume up and down control using the held down 1P coin button (pin 33) + up on joystick (pin 3) and 1P coin button (pin 33) + down on joystick (pin 5).
Also is there a list of all keyboard functions on piplay/advmame? I do recall seeing one a while back but a search hasnt turned up anything.
Thanks for all the help. :) -
oh, sorry. I should have mentioned. At the beginning, when you are configuring, it will go up/down/left/right/exit/start... then it will have you configure 'select', which is like the select button on a regular nes controller, not like 'select this option'. When you configure player1 -> generic button 1, it will automatically be assigned as the 'Enter' key, which should allow you to make selections in piplay (as for advmame, you may need to run the controller config to get it all set up correctly)
You can also change any of the key's/ add commands by going to the web front-end:Pi's IP address -> Database Admin -> GPioneer
You should see a list of already configured keys:- Name: can be anything, it's just for the user to know what they are for
- command: use 'KEY_' to send keystrokes, anything else will be sent as a system command. Multiple keys/commands can be assigned by separating them with a pipe '|'
- pins: these are the pin(s) that when pushed (together), will send the keystroke or command. You can separate these with a comma to require that multiple pins be active in order to send a command.
So, in order to configure volume up and volume down like you want, you would create a new entry:
Name: Volume up (or whatever you want)
command: /usr/bin/amixer -q -c 0 sset PCM 3dB+ unmute nocap
pins: 3, 33
Now create another entry:
Name: Volume down
command: /usr/bin/amixer -q -c 0 sset PCM 3dB- unmute nocap
pins: 5, 33 -
Yeah cool worked that bit out and when navigating to the Pi's IP address -> Database Admin -> GPioneer it looked like it had assigned the "enter" key to player 1 button 1 like i wanted, but still didnt work. Will have another look tonight. On that note it would likely be a good option for me to reconfigure again. Is there a command for me to do that? I assume there is an easier option than unistalling GPioneer then reinstalling and running through the config again?
Thanks for the Volume commands, I'd never have worked that out. :) Think I'll have to hit you up for a 3 button combo script to shut down the Pi in the future as working that out will be beyond me.
Thanks again.
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Did you at some point alter your /home/pi/pimame/pimame-menu/controller.yaml file? maybe 'enter' isn't the key that you need for that anymore.
You can rerun the configuration by running:sudo python ~/gpioneer/GPioneer.py -c
a 3 button combo for for shutdown or reboot will be pretty easy
Name: shutdown
command: sudo poweroff or sudo reboot
pins: 33,35,37 (will be different based on what buttons you want) -
Perfect, thanks man. Gives me plenty to work on! Will let you know how I get on. Cheers.
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piplay controls audio via 2 methods. The in-menu music (only some themes have music) is controlled using pygame's built-in volume control, which does not directly affect anything outside of the piplay music. The volume adjust is controlling audio via Alsa command lines. I'm not familiar with adafruits usb audio, but knowing them, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a command line to adjust the audio. GPioneer supports nearly any type of command line command (including running an external script).
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I tried out GPioneer but I am having trouble with it. The configuration is easy but something is causing my Pi to freeze. I am running 0.8 beta 9. It seems to be very repeatable on my setup. I had ESC mapped as a combo of my coin button and button 1(KP1 and ENTER). Whenever I use that combo to exit from an emulator menu(back to the main screen) my pi freezes.
I just wanted to let you know. If you have any ideas I will set it up again and try it out. -
From what I see from your touch sensor, it puts the output line high when touched, which means that you need to set the gpio pin internal resistor to pulldown. In Retrogame, You can edit line 330ish to change to a pulldown
gpio[GPPUD] = 2;I'm not 100% certain but I think that you need to set it to =1;
Gpioneer has a flag that you can use to set the pins to pull down. After installation edit /etc/rc.local and change "python ../../Gpioneer.py &" to include "python ../../Gpioneer.py --pulldown &"
In either case, you will want to make sure that you avoid pins 3 & 5. They have a physical pullup resistor that can't be pulled down. -
That is exactly what the sensor does, which, of course is opposite from all other inputs. Would that flag set all pins to pulldown? I have one other GPIO wired button (simple open/closed) that retrogame ties to ESC. I just cant get retrogame to play with the active high sensor properly. Or, could I use the flag and put the ESC switch on pin 3 or 5 since the pullup is needed there?
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technically, yes. You could use the gpioneer flag and then connect your standard button between one of the i2c pins (3 or 5) and a ground pin, just be careful not to mix them with the normal pins as you can cause a short. An alternative as well would be to wire your standard momentary button as follows 3.3v pin->10kohm resistor ->button->gpio pin.
As mentioned above, you can also achieve the same results with retrogame by editing line 330ish. That is part of a loop that will set all of the pins to either high or low, you could also copy that chunk of code and paste it outside of the loop and then specify a specific pin to be either high or low. -
I have tried editing retrogame. I put this code just in front of the munmap() call:
bitmask = (1 << 13);<br /> gpio[GPPUD] = 1; // Enable pulldown
for(shortWait=150;--shortWait;); // Min 150 cycle wait
gpio[GPPUDCLK0] = bitmask; // Set pulldown mask
for(shortWait=150;--shortWait;); // Wait again
gpio[GPPUD] = 0; // Reset pulldown registers
gpio[GPPUDCLK0] = 0;
and,.................nothing. (I used GPIO 13 for the input).
should the //enable pulldown value be "2"?
Apologize for the bother. I thank you again for your comments and insight. -
YOU ARE MY HERO! I wired the other button through 3.3v with the resistor as you suggested, and used the pulldown flag. After using the slick web interface and a reboot, both buttons work perfectly, and no interference with RetroPie that I can tell.
My tribe will sing your praises over the campfire for eternity, sir! Thanks again!
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Cool. Glad you got it working man!
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A couple of general questions. First, I have discovered that the keystroke mapping for one of the pins is a "P" . Turns out that the P key initiates a pause in games. Further, pause does not seem to be a 'mappable' action in MAME4ALL input configuration (neither general nor game specific). I can go into the GPioneer DB and change it to a different character. Are there any issues with doing that? Any other considerations? Similarly, I had wired up a couple of extra pins for future use. Of course, I could not configure them during the initial GPioneer setup. If/when I hook something up to these wires, I would prefer to add rows to the DB, as opposed to running through the entire configuration again. Can I map the pins to any unused character or are there specific ones (like "P"), I should avoid?
Thanks -
- yeah, that's exactly what the db is for; so that you can remap keys that don't work for you. You should be able to remap to just about any other key. I haven't tested things like the 'F#' keys.
- Those extra pins can be set up through the database later if you want. Just remember that they are based on the board pin numbers, not the bcm numbering. so 1,3,5,7,9... are on one side, 2,4,6,8,10 are on the other side.
- You should be able to use pretty much any keys that you want. to avoid duplicate keys, I had to map certain ones in the configurator, but you by no means have to use those
- yeah, that's exactly what the db is for; so that you can remap keys that don't work for you. You should be able to remap to just about any other key. I haven't tested things like the 'F#' keys.
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Thanks. One day you'll have to explain the pattern/logic behind the bcm numbering.
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it's just the number portion of the pins labeled gpio#. I guess that it's based on the Broadcom Soc Channels, but that's about the extent on my knowledge about that. :D
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Great work with a good idea.You discussed the main problems encountered while interfacing the GPIO based controls.The flexibility of it sounds great in lieu of all the basic functions on others work.
http://www.7pcb.com -
@JohnDumais, Thanks! I've been casually using it for a while now and haven't really had any problems, so I hope that it's the same for everyone else!
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hmm. I'm not sure. I've never needed to do something like that, but I imagine that there is something out there like that.
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post edited out because I am stupid.
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are you the phoenix from here? http://blog.petrockblock.com/forums/topic/gpio-to-keys-simplest-method/#post-110050
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lol. Yes I am, and I'm trying to make amends for my stupidity (on that thread as well)
For those interested:
I have now used Adafruit's Retrogame, MK_arcade_joystick, and GPioneer.
GPioneer is by far the best option, for many reasons. -
hmm. that's weird. I just installed it on an unrelated raspberry pi no problem. Now, does it say: no module named evade? or no module named evdev?
in any case, try this out:sudo apt-get remove python-six
sudo pip uninstall six
sudo pip install six
if gpioneer still doesn't work, then type this:python -c 'import six; print(six); print(six.__version__); print(six.PY2)'
and post what it outputs. also, post any other errors that you get.
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ah, that's why. The installer should have installed pip for you, but something must have gone wrong.
try manually installing
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install python python-dev python-requests python-pip
sudo apt-get -y install supervisor gunicorn sqlite3
sudo pip install flask pyyaml flask-sqlalchemy flask-admin evdev
if that all runs fine, then run the gpioneer installer.bash gpioneer/install.sh -
Hello!
I just Wanted to say THANK YOU !!
Great work so easy to get my arcade controls working 100% .
I used Emulatorstation with retropie before and used a guide but 2 ways on 1 controller stick didnt work :(.
And must say i think piplay looked better with theme. -
should just be:
sudo apt-get install python-dev python-requests python-pip
sudo pip install evdev -
what version of raspbian are you running? It seems that you have an x86 version of gcc installed.
you can try
sudo apt-get --purge remove gcc
sudo apt-get install gcc -
oh nice! I'm glad you got that working.
yeah, that warning will always come up. It's a warning from the Rpi.GPIO module, it doesn't affect the running of it. You can use pins 3 and 5 though (I do), just make sure that the i2c interface is turned off in raspi-config->8. advanced->A7. I2C
if restarting doesn't get the web interface running again, try typing:sudo supervisorctl
(press ctrl+D to exit)
it should list all of it's running processes -
ok, first run
sudo pip install flask pyyaml flask-sqlalchemy flask-admin
then try restarting. If it still exits after a few seconds, try running the web frontend directly:sudo python /home/pi/gpioneer/web-frontend/app.py &
you can also look at the error and output logs here:
stderr_logfile=/var/log/long.err.log
stdout_logfile=/var/log/long.out.log -
YAY! I'm glad that you got it working! Thanks for the heads up on the problems that you ran into. It will definitely make it easier to troubleshoot in the future.
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hmm... I really have no idea why that would happen. I did notice that evdev (the core library that gpioneer uses) just recently got an update, I wonder if that has anything to do with it. I'll try to test it out when I get a chance, but I'm in the middle of a really big backyard project right now, so I'm not sure when that will be.
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well, it uses supervisord to handle the web app. you can stop it with the command sudo supervisorctl stop all
I was just checking out the documentation for supervisord, it looks like the config file could use an extra line.
The config file is located at /etc/supervisor/conf.d/gpioneer-web.conf
[program:gpioneer-web]
directory=/home/pi/gpioneer/web-frontend/
command=sudo python app.py
autostart=true
exitcodes=0,2
autorestart=unexpected
stderr_logfile=/var/log/long.err.log
stdout_logfile=/var/log/long.out.log
(the exitcodes line is missing) If that doesn't work, you can also set autostart=false in order to keep it from starting on startup.
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