GPIO
GPIOs (General Purpose Input Outputs) are user-controllable pins that can be used to interact with external circuits.
Hardware
The table illustrated below shows the number of GPIOs available on the Omega2/2+ vs Omega2S/Omega2S+.
| Omega2/2+ | Omega2S/2S+ | |
|---|---|---|
| GPIOs | 18 | 37 |
Electrical Ratings
GPIO Operating Voltage:
| Parameter | Minimum (Vdc) | Minimum (Vdc) |
|---|---|---|
| Input HIGH | 2.0 | 3.6 |
| Input Low | -0.3 | 0.8 |
| Output HIGH | 2.4 | 3.3 |
| Output LOW | - | 0.4 |
The Omega2/2+ GPIOs are not 5V input tolerant!
Connecting a signal to an input pin below the minimum LOW or above the maximum HIGH voltages may damage your Omega device!
Standard 5V logic devices typically accept 3.3V as a logical HIGH, however, the output logical HIGH is in the range of 4.4V to 5V. This means the Omega can output to a 5V logical device, but input from the 5V logic device would damage the GPIO input circuitry.
Multiplexed Pins
A number of the available pins can be used for multiple purposes other than general-purpose input/output when needed. Such pins are referred to as multiplexed pins.
See detailed explanation of Multiplexed Pins.
Software
The GPIOs can be accessed through the GPIO sysfs interface, see the documentation for details.
| The GPIO sysfs interface is deprecated but is currently the best option for userspace GPIO access. More context is available in this post by Luz on the Onion Community.
GPIO Numbering Change
Due to the changes in the kernel, the GPIO numbering system has been updated.
- GPIO 0 - 31 ⇒ GPIO 480 - 511 (GPIO n + 480)
- GPIO 32 - 63 ⇒ GPIO 448 - 479 (GPIO n + 416)
GPIO Lookup Utility
To simplify Omega2 GPIO mapping a new utility gpio-lookup has been introduced, which would generate equivalent kernel GPIO numbers against a given "actual" GPIO number.
Here are a few examples of how to use gpio-lookup.
# gpio-lookup 15
495
# gpio-lookup 62
478
# gpio-lookup 99
-1
For valid GPIO numbers, gpio-lookup would display the corresponding kernel GPIO number, for all other cases It would display -1 with a non-zero exit code.
The gpio-lookup utility is included in the Omega2 firmware
Interacting with GPIOs
Command Line: Use the GPIO sysfs interface for basic testing and interaction with GPIOs. For detailed usage instructions, refer to the GPIO Sysfs usage documentation documentation.