The CircuitPython digitalio module has many applications. The basic Blink program sets up the LED as a digital output. You can just as easily set up a digital input such as a button to control the LED. This example builds on the basic Blink example, but now includes setup for a button switch. Instead of using the time module to blink the LED, it uses the status of the button switch to control whether the LED is turned on or off.
- The little red LED (indicated by the red box) is located on the board near the 13 an 12 labels on the silk.
- The BOOT button (indicated by the blue box) is labeled BOOT, and is located in the corner of the board below the "40" in the RP2040 label on the silk.
In the example below, click the Download Project Bundle button below to download the necessary libraries and the code.py file in a zip file. Extract the contents of the zip file, open the directory Adafruit_ItsyBitsy_RP2040/digital_input/ and then click on the directory that matches the version of CircuitPython you're using and copy the contents of that directory to your CIRCUITPY drive.
Your CIRCUITPY drive should now look similar to the following image:
# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 Kattni Rembor for Adafruit Industries
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
"""CircuitPython Digital Input Example for ItsyBitsy RP2040"""
import board
import digitalio
led = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.LED)
led.direction = digitalio.Direction.OUTPUT
button = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.BUTTON)
button.switch_to_input(pull=digitalio.Pull.UP)
while True:
if not button.value:
led.value = True
else:
led.value = False
Now, press the button. The LED lights up! Let go of the button and the LED turns off.
Note that the code is a little less "Pythonic" than it could be. It could also be written as led.value = not button.value. That way is more difficult to understand if you're new to programming, so the example is a bit longer than it needed to be to make it easier to read.
First you import two modules: board and digitalio. This makes these modules available for use in your code. Both are built-in to CircuitPython, so you don't need to download anything to get started.
Next, you set up the LED. To interact with hardware in CircuitPython, your code must let the board know where to look for the hardware and what to do with it. So, you create a digitalio.DigitalInOut() object, provide it the LED pin using the board module, and save it to the variable led. Then, you tell the pin to act as an OUTPUT.
You include setup for the button as well. It is similar to the LED setup, except the button is an INPUT, and requires a pull up.
Inside the loop, you check to see if the button is pressed, and if so, turn on the LED. Otherwise the LED is off.
That's all there is to controlling an LED with a button switch!
Page last edited January 22, 2025
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