Ben Martin shows us how to receive interrupts through Linux GPIO using the BeagleBone Black.
A previous article looked at the differences between the Arduino and the BeagleBone Black in how you go about accessing chips over the SPI. This time around the focus will be on how to receive interrupts from your hardware on the BeagleBone Black.
The header pins on each side of the BeagleBone Black can be used for General Purpose I/O (GPIO). This way you can set the voltage to high or low, or if you are reading you can see if the voltage is currently high or low on the pin. Generally, high might be 3.3 volts and low would be the common ground voltage. The GPIO support in Linux can optionally generate interrupts when the signal raises from ground to a high voltage, from the high voltage to ground, or if either of these cases occurs.
Each Tuesday is BeagleBone Black Day here Adafruit! What is the BeagleBone? The BeagleBones are a line of affordable single-board Linux computers (SBCs) created by Texas Instruments. New to the Bone? Grab one of our Adafruit BeagleBone Black Starter Packs and check out our extensive resources available on the Adafruit Learning System including a guide to setting up the Adafruit BeagleBone IO Python Library. We have a number of Bone accessories including add-on shields (called “capes”) and USB devices to help you do even more with your SBC. Need a nice display to go along with your Bone? Check out our fine selection of HDMI displays, we’ve tested all of them with the Beagle Bone Black!