The first part of interfacing with hardware is being able to manage digital inputs and outputs. With CircuitPython, it's super easy!

This example shows how to use both a digital input and output. You can use a switch input with pullup resistor (built in) to control a digital output - the built in red LED.

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 CircuitPython_Essentials/CircuitPython_Digitial_In_Out/ 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: 2018 Kattni Rembor for Adafruit Industries
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

"""CircuitPython Essentials Digital In Out example"""
import time
import board
from digitalio import DigitalInOut, Direction, Pull

# LED setup.
led = DigitalInOut(board.LED)
# For QT Py M0. QT Py M0 does not have a D13 LED, so you can connect an external LED instead.
# led = DigitalInOut(board.SCK)
led.direction = Direction.OUTPUT

# For Gemma M0, Trinket M0, Metro M0 Express, ItsyBitsy M0 Express, Itsy M4 Express, QT Py M0
switch = DigitalInOut(board.D2)
# switch = DigitalInOut(board.D5)  # For Feather M0 Express, Feather M4 Express
# switch = DigitalInOut(board.D7)  # For Circuit Playground Express
switch.direction = Direction.INPUT
switch.pull = Pull.UP

while True:
    # We could also do "led.value = not switch.value"!
    if switch.value:
        led.value = False
    else:
        led.value = True

    time.sleep(0.01)  # debounce delay

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2018 Kattni Rembor for Adafruit Industries
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

"""CircuitPython Essentials Digital In Out example"""
import time
import board
from digitalio import DigitalInOut, Direction, Pull

# LED setup.
led = DigitalInOut(board.LED)
# For QT Py M0. QT Py M0 does not have a D13 LED, so you can connect an external LED instead.
# led = DigitalInOut(board.SCK)
led.direction = Direction.OUTPUT

# For Gemma M0, Trinket M0, Metro M0 Express, ItsyBitsy M0 Express, Itsy M4 Express, QT Py M0
switch = DigitalInOut(board.D2)
# switch = DigitalInOut(board.D5)  # For Feather M0 Express, Feather M4 Express
# switch = DigitalInOut(board.D7)  # For Circuit Playground Express
switch.direction = Direction.INPUT
switch.pull = Pull.UP

while True:
    # We could also do "led.value = not switch.value"!
    if switch.value:
        led.value = False
    else:
        led.value = True

    time.sleep(0.01)  # debounce delay

Note that we made the code a little less "Pythonic" than necessary. The if/else block could be replaced with a simple led.value = not switch.value but we wanted to make it super clear how to test the inputs. The interpreter will read the digital input when it evaluates switch.value.

For Gemma M0, Trinket M0, Metro M0 Express, Metro M4 Express, ItsyBitsy M0 Express, ItsyBitsy M4 Express, no changes to the initial example are needed.

For Feather M0 Express and Feather M4 Express, comment out switch = DigitalInOut(board.D2) (and/or switch = DigitalInOut(board.D7) depending on what changes you already made), and uncomment switch = DigitalInOut(board.D5).

For Circuit Playground Express, you'll need to comment out switch = DigitalInOut(board.D2) (and/or switch = DigitalInOut(board.D5) depending on what changes you already made), and uncomment switch = DigitalInOut(board.D7).

For QT Py M0, you'll need to comment out led = DigitalInOut(board.LED) and uncomment led = DigitalInOut(board.SCK). The switch code remains the same.

To find the pin or pad suggested in the code, see the list below. For the boards that require wiring, wire up a switch (also known as a tactile switch, button or push-button), following the diagram for guidance. Press or slide the switch, and the onboard red LED will turn on and off.

Note that on the M0/SAMD based CircuitPython boards, at least, you can also have internal pulldowns with Pull.DOWN and if you want to turn off the pullup/pulldown just assign switch.pull = None.

Find the pins!

The list below shows each board, explains the location of the Digital pin suggested for use as input, and the location of the D13 LED.

Read the Docs

For a more in-depth look at what digitalio can do, check out the DigitalInOut page in Read the Docs.