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How To Install The Gpio Python Library On Mac

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Bob Savage <bobsavage@mac.com>

Python on a Macintosh running Mac OS X is in principle very similar to Python onany other Unix platform, but there are a number of additional features such asthe IDE and the Package Manager that are worth pointing out.

A Python module to control the GPIO on a Raspberry Pi. Get project updates, sponsored content from our select partners, and more. On our test install of OpenSUSE with default options and the KDE desktop Python & Pip were already installed, if it's not on your system when you go to execute the installation of the library install it with the following command and try installing the library again. Sudo zypper install python3-pip. Tested on OpenSUSE on the 29th of December 2016. # Turn relays off then on in a loop # Import standard Python time library. Import time # Import GPIO and FT232H modules. Import AdafruitGPIO as GPIO import AdafruitGPIO.FT232H as FT232H # Temporarily disable the built-in FTDI serial driver on Mac & Linux platforms. Jan 21, 2015  This tutorial covers how to download and install packages using pip. Pip comes with newer versions of Python, and makes installing packages a breeze. To access the MPSSE mode on Mac OSX we need to install libftdi and the Adafruit Python GPIO library. Carefully follow the steps below to install these libraries. Note that these steps were tested using OSX Mavericks. The steps should work for later versions like Yosemite, but you might need to search for extra help on installing Xcode command. Python Library – RPi.GPIO Python RPi.GPIO library. Informatie (ENG): This package provides a class to control the GPIO on a Raspberry Pi. Note that this module. Another potential cause could be because the RPi.GPIO library has C bindings and therefore need to have python-dev installed in order to compile correctly when installing. Make sure you've got the python-dev package installed along with the RPi.GPIO package. Sudo apt-get install python-dev python-rpi.gpio This is the recommended approach on the Adafriuit installation guide.

4.1. Getting and Installing MacPython¶

Mac OS X 10.8 comes with Python 2.7 pre-installed by Apple. If you wish, youare invited to install the most recent version of Python 3 from the Pythonwebsite (https://www.python.org). A current “universal binary” build of Python,which runs natively on the Mac’s new Intel and legacy PPC CPU’s, is availablethere.

What you get after installing is a number of things:

  • A Python3.8 folder in your Applications folder. In hereyou find IDLE, the development environment that is a standard part of officialPython distributions; PythonLauncher, which handles double-clicking Pythonscripts from the Finder; and the “Build Applet” tool, which allows you topackage Python scripts as standalone applications on your system.

  • A framework /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework, which includes thePython executable and libraries. The installer adds this location to your shellpath. To uninstall MacPython, you can simply remove these three things. Asymlink to the Python executable is placed in /usr/local/bin/.

The Apple-provided build of Python is installed in/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework and /usr/bin/python,respectively. You should never modify or delete these, as they areApple-controlled and are used by Apple- or third-party software. Remember thatif you choose to install a newer Python version from python.org, you will havetwo different but functional Python installations on your computer, so it willbe important that your paths and usages are consistent with what you want to do.

IDLE includes a help menu that allows you to access Python documentation. If youare completely new to Python you should start reading the tutorial introductionin that document.

If you are familiar with Python on other Unix platforms you should read thesection on running Python scripts from the Unix shell.

4.1.1. How to run a Python script¶

Your best way to get started with Python on Mac OS X is through the IDLEintegrated development environment, see section The IDE and use the Help menuwhen the IDE is running.

If you want to run Python scripts from the Terminal window command line or fromthe Finder you first need an editor to create your script. Mac OS X comes with anumber of standard Unix command line editors, vim andemacs among them. If you want a more Mac-like editor,BBEdit or TextWrangler from Bare Bones Software (seehttp://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/index.html) are good choices, as isTextMate (see https://macromates.com/). Other editors includeGvim (http://macvim-dev.github.io/macvim/) and Aquamacs(http://aquamacs.org/).

To run your script from the Terminal window you must make sure that/usr/local/bin is in your shell search path.

To run your script from the Finder you have two options:

  • Drag it to PythonLauncher

  • Select PythonLauncher as the default application to open yourscript (or any .py script) through the finder Info window and double-click it.PythonLauncher has various preferences to control how your script islaunched. Option-dragging allows you to change these for one invocation, or useits Preferences menu to change things globally.

4.1.2. Running scripts with a GUI¶

With older versions of Python, there is one Mac OS X quirk that you need to beaware of: programs that talk to the Aqua window manager (in other words,anything that has a GUI) need to be run in a special way. Use pythonwinstead of python to start such scripts.

With Python 3.8, you can use either python or pythonw.

4.1.3. Configuration¶

Python on OS X honors all standard Unix environment variables such asPYTHONPATH, but setting these variables for programs started from theFinder is non-standard as the Finder does not read your .profile or.cshrc at startup. You need to create a file~/.MacOSX/environment.plist. See Apple’s Technical Document QA1067 fordetails.

For more information on installation Python packages in MacPython, see sectionInstalling Additional Python Packages.

4.2. The IDE¶

MacPython ships with the standard IDLE development environment. A goodintroduction to using IDLE can be found athttp://www.hashcollision.org/hkn/python/idle_intro/index.html.

4.3. Installing Additional Python Packages¶

There are several methods to install additional Python packages:

  • Packages can be installed via the standard Python distutils mode (pythonsetup.pyinstall).

  • Many packages can also be installed via the setuptools extensionor pip wrapper, see https://pip.pypa.io/.

4.4. GUI Programming on the Mac¶

There are several options for building GUI applications on the Mac with Python.

PyObjC is a Python binding to Apple’s Objective-C/Cocoa framework, which isthe foundation of most modern Mac development. Information on PyObjC isavailable from https://pypi.org/project/pyobjc/.

The standard Python GUI toolkit is tkinter, based on the cross-platformTk toolkit (https://www.tcl.tk). An Aqua-native version of Tk is bundled with OSX by Apple, and the latest version can be downloaded and installed fromhttps://www.activestate.com; it can also be built from source.

wxPython is another popular cross-platform GUI toolkit that runs natively onMac OS X. Packages and documentation are available from https://www.wxpython.org.

PyQt is another popular cross-platform GUI toolkit that runs natively on MacOS X. More information can be found athttps://riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt/intro.

4.5. Distributing Python Applications on the Mac¶

The “Build Applet” tool that is placed in the MacPython 3.6 folder is fine forpackaging small Python scripts on your own machine to run as a standard Macapplication. This tool, however, is not robust enough to distribute Pythonapplications to other users.

The standard tool for deploying standalone Python applications on the Mac ispy2app. More information on installing and using py2app can be foundat http://undefined.org/python/#py2app.

4.6. Other Resources¶

The MacPython mailing list is an excellent support resource for Python users anddevelopers on the Mac:

Another useful resource is the MacPython wiki:

This guide will show you how to use an FT232H to connect to I2C and SPI sensors and breakouts from your desktop PC running Windows, Mac OSX, or Linux. The FT232H also allows for general purpose digital input and output (GPIO) for things like buttons and LEDs.

The cool part about this is that you can then use any of the CircuitPython Libraries that have been written for the numerous sensors and breakouts.

CircuitPython and CircuitPython Libraries

As you are going through this guide, keep in mind the difference between CircuitPython and CircuitPython Libraries:

  • CircuitPython - a microprocessor specific implementation of Python written in C. Here's the source code. And here's the main CircuitPython guide.
  • CircuitPython Libraries - sensor and breakout specific code written in Python using the CircuitPython hardware API. There are a lot of these - check out the bundle.

There are various hardware combinations that allow for running CircuitPython and CircuitPython Libraries. In this guide we will not be using the actual CircuitPython firmware. But we will be using CircuitPython Libraries. To explain this further, let's go over the main hardware platforms and explain where the FT232H fits in to all this.

CircuitPython on Microcontrollers

This is the most straight forward setup.

If you are using a microcontroller that can run CircuitPython, then you will most likely have the low level hardware interfaces needed to access the many sensors and other breakout boards - I2C, SPI, and GPIO. Even better, there is most likely a CircuitPython library written for the sensor.

Mac global library path system. In this case, you simply install CircuitPython, add the libraries, and then follow whatever guide goes along with your sensor.

CircuitPython on Single Board Computers

This setup requires a special shim library called Blinka.

Single Board Computers (SBC), like the Raspberry Pi and Beagle, also typically have I2C, SPI, and GPIO interfaces available. These boards are also powerful enough to run complete operating systems, like Linux. They can't run CircuitPython directly, but generally don't need to. They can run the much larger Python implementations, like CPython. To allow use of SBCs running Python to use CircuitPython libraries to access sensors over I2C/SPI/GPIO, the Blinka library was created.

In this case, you pip install Blinka, pip install libraries, and then follow whatever guide goes along with your sensor.

CircuitPython on Personal Computers

How To Install The Gpio Python Library On Mac Windows 10

This is where the FT232H comes in. Here's why.

So what about your super powerful desktop or laptop PC? They can most definitely run Python. But can they also use CircuitPython libraries and talk to I2C/SPI sensors? Can they blink LEDs? Read buttons? Generally, no. As powerful as your Windows, Mac, or Linux PC is, it most likely does not have those low level hardware interfaces. Look on the back of your computer. Do you see an I2C port? A SPI port? A cluster of pins labeled GPIO? Nope.

So what can we do? Well, look again at the back of your PC. See any USB ports? Most likely there are several. Heck, there are probably even several USB ports on the front of your PC! Can we use USB? Yes, thanks to a specialized USB bridge chip made by FTDI - the FT232H.

How To Install The Gpio Python Library On Mac Download

This will allow us to do something like this:

With FT232H support added to Blinka, we can follow a similar approach as with the SBCs. The FT232H attached to the USB port acts as our surrogate set of low level hardware interfaces.

Neat! Let's see how we can get this all setup and working.

This guide was first published on Sep 29, 2019. It was lastupdated on Sep 29, 2019.

How To Install The Gpio Python Library On Mac Computer

This page (Overiew) was last updated on Apr 10, 2020.