This project will make a button switch that will both boot up and shutdown a Raspberry Pi and will light an LED while the RPi is operational. Great for headless setups. I created it to augment a Raspberry Pi Baby monitor, because of the concern with using a camera in a shared room.
My example is on a Raspberry Pi Zero, but it will work on any Raspberry Pi.
The button switch is just Pin 5(GPIO3) and 6(GND) connected together. I added a .01uf capacitor because it would signal the GPIO without hitting the button especially when I discharged static electricity nearby. Works reliably with the capacitor.
The LED is hooked to ground with a 330 Ohm resistor and is powered by the TXD (Pin 8). It needs serial console enabled to Light up. My circuit board pictured is a little different from this guide because I was in the process of adding some IR LEDs to my project.
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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.
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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!