Configure an orangepi Board

Configure an orangepi board to integrate an Orange Pi Zero2 or OrangePi 3 LTS into your machine.

If you have an Orange Pi Zero2, follow this guide to flash your board. Follow the setup instructions to install viam-server on your board and connect to the Viam app.

Then, configure your board as a component of your machine in the Viam app:

{
  "components": [
    {
      "name": "<your-orangepi-board>",
      "model": "orangepi",
      "type": "board",
      "namespace": "rdk",
      "attributes": {
        "analogs": [
          {
            "name": "<your-analog-reader-name>",
            "pin": "<pin-number-on-adc>",
            "spi_bus": "<your-spi-bus-index>",
            "chip_select": "<chip-select-index>",
            "average_over_ms": <int>,
            "samples_per_sec": <int>
          }
        ],
        "digital_interrupts": [
          {
            "name": "<your-digital-interrupt-name>",
            "pin": "<pin-number>"
          }
        ]
      }
      ,
      "depends_on": []
    }
  ]
}

{
  "components": [
    {
      "name": "<your-orangepi-board>",
      "model": "orangepi",
      "type": "board",
      "namespace": "rdk",
      "attributes": {
        "digital_interrupts": [
          {
            "name": "your-interrupt",
            "pin": "18"
          }
        ]
      },
      "depends_on": []
    }
  ]
}

The following attributes are available for orangepi boards:

Attribute configuration

Configure these attributes on your board to integrate analog-to-digital converters and digital interrupts into your machine.

analogs

An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) takes a continuous voltage input (analog signal) and converts it to an discrete integer output (digital signal).

ADCs are useful when building a robot, as they enable your board to read the analog signal output by most types of sensors and other hardware components.

To integrate an ADC into your machine, you must first physically connect the pins on your ADC to your board.

Then, integrate analogs into the attributes of your board by following the Config Builder instructions or by adding the following to your board’s JSON configuration:

// "attributes": { ... ,
"analogs": [
  {
    "name": "<your-analog-reader-name>",
    "pin": "<pin-number-on-adc>",
    "spi_bus": "<your-spi-bus-index>",
    "chip_select": "<chip-select-index>",
    "average_over_ms": <int>,
    "samples_per_sec": <int>
  }
]

{
  "components": [
    {
      "model": "pi",
      "name": "your-board",
      "type": "board",
      "attributes": {
        "analogs": [
          {
            "name": "current",
            "pin": "1",
            "spi_bus": "1",
            "chip_select": "0"
          },
          {
            "name": "pressure",
            "pin": "0",
            "spi_bus": "1",
            "chip_select": "0"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

The following properties are available for analogs:

Test analogs

Once you have configured your analogs, navigate to the CONTROL tab to monitor analog values. The numbers displayed next to each analog name represent the digital signal received from the analog inputs.

digital_interrupts

Interrupts are a method of signaling precise state changes. Configuring digital interrupts to monitor GPIO pins on your board is useful when your application needs to know precisely when there is a change in GPIO value between high and low.

• When an interrupt configured on your board processes a change in the state of the GPIO pin it is configured to monitor, it ticks to record the state change. You can stream these ticks with the board API’s StreamTicks(), or get the current value of the digital interrupt with Value().
• Calling GetGPIO() on a GPIO pin, which you can do without configuring interrupts, is useful when you want to know a pin’s value at specific points in your program, but is less precise and convenient than using an interrupt.

Integrate digital_interrupts into your machine in the attributes of your board by following the Config Builder instructions, or by adding the following to your board’s JSON configuration:

// "attributes": { ... ,
"digital_interrupts": [
  {
    "name": "<your-digital-interrupt-name>",
    "pin": "<pin-number>"
  }
]

{
  "components": [
    {
      "model": "pi",
      "name": "your-board",
      "type": "board",
      "attributes": {
        "digital_interrupts": [
          {
            "name": "your-interrupt-1",
            "pin": "15"
          },
          {
            "name": "your-interrupt-2",
            "pin": "16"
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

The following properties are available for digital_interrupts:

Test digital_interrupts

Once you have configured your digital interrupts, navigate to the CONTROL tab to monitor interrupt activity. The value displayed next to each interrupt name represents the total count of interrupts triggered by the corresponding digital interrupt.