IoT-Smart Light Bulbs Controller in Raspberry Pi using .NET Core

In today’s article, we will learn to create a simple application for controlling smart light Bulbs in Raspberry Pi using .NET Core application.

In our previous articles Create First .NET Core application in Raspberry Pi we learned the basics of how to create a ‘Hello World’ application. We also learned how to  Set up Raspberry Pi – Step by step and also Configure .NET Core IoT App on Raspberry Pi.

Today in this article, we will cover below aspects,

Prerequisites:

• Set up Raspberry Pi

• Install .NET Core SDK on Raspberry Pi

The smart light Bulb controller application

•  LED, BreadBoard with 3 male to female jumper wires and 220 Ohm resistor

• We need an LED, BreadBoard, 3 male to female jumper wires and 220 Ohm resistor for this exercise.

• GpioController class from “System.Device.Gpio” provides control on accessing the General Purpose Input/Output(GPIO) ports.

• We have used Pin 7 from the breadboard GPIO port for controlling LED bulbs.

Let’s create a console application using the below command in a Raspberry Pi Terminal window.

dotnet new console

Above command shall add .csproj file and Program.cs file. 

Add the below code to the Main() method in Program.cs as below

using System;
using System.Device.Gpio;
using System.Threading;

namespace led_blink
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var pin = 7;
            var lightTimeInMilliseconds = 500;
            var dimTimeInMilliseconds = 500;
            
            Console.WriteLine($"Let's blink an LED!");
            using (GpioController controller = new 
            GpioController(PinNumberingScheme.Board))
            {
                controller.OpenPin(pin, PinMode.Output);
                Console.WriteLine($"GPIO pin enabled for use: {pin}");

                Console.CancelKeyPress += (object sender, 
                ConsoleCancelEventArgs eventArgs) =>
                {
                    controller.Dispose();
                };

                while (true)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine($"Light for 
                    {lightTimeInMilliseconds}ms");
                    controller.Write(pin, PinValue.High);
                    Thread.Sleep(lightTimeInMilliseconds);
                    Console.WriteLine($"Dim for {dimTimeInMilliseconds}ms");
                    controller.Write(pin, PinValue.Low);
                    Thread.Sleep(dimTimeInMilliseconds);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

The project file should use the below package( you can try using the latest available version of “System.Device.Gpio“).

 <ItemGroup>
    
    <PackageReference Include="System.Device.Gpio" Version="0.1.0- prerelease.19376.1" />

  </ItemGroup>

Note: Please use the latest available version of GPIO

Before running the app please make sure to connect LED with the right polarity to avoid any issue.

After a successful setup, the LED light bulb will start blinking as shown below,

Happy Coding !!

Please sound off your comments below if any.

Useful references :

• Setting up Raspberry Pi – Step by step

• Build .NET Core IoT App on Raspberry Pi

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