Setting up Your Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi
If this is your first time using the Raspberry Pi single board computer (SBC) and you're wondering where to start, we recommend the Raspberry Pi Beginner’s Guide. This is a free resource from the Raspeberry Pi Foundation that can be found here.
Enable SPI on your Raspberry Pi
Moving on, make sure you have downloaded the very latest version of Raspian from the RaspberryPi.org. The latest versions not only support the newest hardware but have also simplified the use of Python with GPIO pins. Your Raspberry Pi will boot straight into the graphics-user-interface (GUI) which makes it easy to set things up.
The following steps assume your Raspberry Pi is on, that you are connected to the internet, and that you have booted to the startup screen. If so, click on the menu button on the upper left and then on the Preferences tab below that. After another submenu pops out to the right, click on the area where it says Raspberry Pi Configuration:
After that, the Raspberry Pi Configuration window will pop up with some tabs across the top. Click on the Interfaces tab and then locate the line that says SPI. Click the button to the left of the work Enable. We also use the SSH and VNC protocols quite a bit in our lab so now would be a good time to enable those as well:
Click on the OK button. You may be prompted to reboot your Raspberry Pi. If so, just click the Yes button. After your RPi has rebooted and the desktop is on the screen again, you will be ready for the next step.
Downloading the TINKERplate Python Modules
Start by clicking on the icon shown in the image below to open a terminal window :
A terminal window will then pop up in the middle of your screen presenting you with a command line interface (CLI):
Install the TINKERplate python modules by typing: sudo pip3 install pi-plates and hitting <ENTER>
If all goes well, you should see something like the following in your terminal window:
Congratulations, you're ready to talk to your TINKERplate using Python!