Create A Shutdown Button for Your Pi @Raspberry_pi #piday #raspberrypi

Screen Shot 2014 05 20 at 2 50 28 PM

In this tutorial, KingPhil shows us how he created a shutdown button for his Raspberry Pi using an Adafruit Arcade Button:

It has been around a year now since my first Pi arrived and that first Pi has always been used as a media centre for my trailer and at home.

The problem being…

I use the remote app on my phone and iPad as the primary control there is no keyboard attached to the Pi for input. On the rare occasion there is a problem where either XBMC hangs up or the Pi drops from wifi I have no way to power it off other than unplugging it.
At home when it is just the wifi problem no biggie, the physical remote over HDMI works but at my trailer I have an older TV and this doesn’t work.

Anyone who has used a Pi knows you do an unclean shutdown enough times and you have to re image the OS because the file system damage is not always repairable. With lower quality cards this even sometimes leads to the SD card becoming unbootable permanently but I have only had that happen with one particular brand.

The solution

So I have some buttons left over from my original Arcade project and I decided to solve the problem by adding a shutdown button to my Pi. This way even if XBMC locks the physical button can execute a shutdown. It would take a full hardware lock of the Pi to cause a forced power off again and the only time I have seen that occur is when over clocking to 1Ghz so this should in almost all cases solve the problem!

Read more.

Screen Shot 2014 05 20 at 2 50 40 PM


Featured Adafruit Product!

472 00

Arcade Button – 30mm Translucent Pink: A button is a button, and a switch is a switch, but these translucent arcade buttons are in a class of their own. They’re the same size as common arcade controls (often referred to as 30mm diameter) but have some nice things going for them that justify the extra dollar. Read more!



Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards

Join Adafruit on Mastodon

Adafruit is on Mastodon, join in! adafruit.com/mastodon

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 36,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


Maker Business — “Packaging” chips in the US

Wearables — Enclosures help fight body humidity in costumes

Electronics — Transformers: More than meets the eye!

Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Silicon Labs introduces CircuitPython support, and more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

Adafruit IoT Monthly — Guardian Robot, Weather-wise Umbrella Stand, and more!

Microsoft MakeCode — MakeCode Thank You!

EYE on NPI — Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — #NewProds 7/19/23 Feat. Adafruit Matrix Portal S3 CircuitPython Powered Internet Display!

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !



No Comments

No comments yet.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.