Idea

I own a raspberry pi model B from one of the first generations which is quite hard to develop on because of how slow it is.

I end up writing all of the code on my regular computer and then uploading to the pi which can be cumbersome particularly for GPIO intensive projects.

The idea of RPiCon is to have an application to develop and test code locally (even with GPIO) and easily deploy.

You can find the code on github.

Features

  • Edit python code
  • Run the code mocking the RPi GPIO lib
  • The GPIO mock will connect to virtual pins embedded in the application to display the output and also allow manual input.
  • Find a raspberry pi on the local network and deploy the code into it

Technology Stack

Preact for a super small and component-based view

Electron to build it as a native application

Photon to easily get the feel of a mac application

The development was made easier by the preact-photon lib and the starter app preact-photon-electron-quick-start.

Current Status

Right now I have a code editor that is able to run python code with the mock GPIO lib available (even if it only has one method).

RPiCon Screenshot

What Next

The main feature that I’m looking forward to fully implement is the GPIO debug. It will be awesome to see as the pins are triggered from the code and also to be able to simulate inputs into the pins.

Other stuff that I’d like to get to:

  • Showing when the file has unsaved changes
  • Keyboard shortcuts to save, run/stop, move cursor to path input, etc
  • File tabs to have multiple files open
  • Reload file from disk if it has changed (currently have to close and reopen the file)
  • Run with parameters

If you have any feedback or are keen to contribute please reach out!