Raspberry Ladder Software

Here you’ll find details of the Raspberry Ladder board layout and software to use for it. Please see the original blog posting for details of the board, assembly and how to get one!

The ladder board has 10 LEDs and 4 buttons. They are connected up as follows:

    +-----------------------------+
    |        .............        |
    |        .............        |
    |                             |
    |                   Red   (9) |
    |        (0)        Green (8) |
    |    Red       [13]           |
    |        (1)                  |
    |                             |
    |        (2)                  |
    | Yellow       [12]           |
    |        (3)                  |
    |                             |
    |        (4)                  |
    |  Green       [10]           |
    |        (5)                  |
    |                             |
    |        (6)                  |
    |   Blue       [11]           |
    |        (7)                  |
    |                             |
    +-----------------------------+

The numbers – in (round brackets) refer to the LED numbers and in [square brackets] refer to the switches. The numbers here are native wiringPi pin numbers and not the BCM_GPIO numbers.

  • After the change in the pin assignments form the Rev 1 to the Rev 2 boards, I do not recommend using the native BCM_GPIO numbers anymore.

Software

Firstly to use my demonstration software, you need to have wiringPi installed. Please see here for download and installation instructions.

Please use GIT to download the latest version of the demonstration software for the Ladder board:

  • git clone git://git.drogon.net/ladder

Or browse the GIT archive here:

This will fetch the latest version of the ladder software. What you’ll get:

  • ladderTest.sh

This is a bash script that you can use to test your newly assembled board. It’s also a demonstration of how to use the board from bash. Run by typing ./ladderTest.sh

  • tuxx.sh

This is the Tux (aka Pelican) road crossing simulator written in bash script. It uses button A as the “Push to walk button”.

  • ladder.c

This is a version of my original ladder program written in C and adapter for the Raspberry ladder board. Run it with sudo ./ladder and it uses button A as the climb button.

  • cylon.c

This is a LED sequencer program, again written in C. Run with sudo ./cylon

To compile the C programs, just type make.

There are some programs written in BASIC (RTB; Return to BASIC – See here for details)

  • reaction.rtb
  • simon.rtb
  • cylon.rtb

These are a simple reaction timer, the “simon says” game and a version of the LED sequencer in BASIC which uses the Pi’s display as well as the Ladder board.

Additionally, there are some library/include files to help you write your own programs:

  • ladderSetup.sh
  • ladderSetup.h
  • ladderSetup.rtb

These can be used when writing your own programs for the ladder board.

Comments

Raspberry Ladder Software — 4 Comments

  1. Hi Gordon, I have just completed a Ladder Board but I am unable to download the software. I am very new to this so it is probably me. Simply typing in clone git://git.drogon.net/ladder into the Pi will not work?
    I have also pointed my Windows browser at the http address and can see the software but still do not know how to download. Yes, I need a bit more training!
    Best wishes, John

    • OK… Try this:

      cd
      sudo apt-get install git

      then you’ll need wiringPi:

      git clone git://git.drogon.net/wiringPi
      cd wiringPi
      ./build

      to check:

      gpio -v

      Then:
      git clone git://git.drogon.net/ladder
      cd ladder
      ./ladderTest.sh

      and see how you get on.

      -Gordon

  2. Hi Gordon, I’m having a great time with the Ladder board but I’ve found an error in the Cylon RTB program.
    The onscreen instructions say to use button A to speed it up, B & C to light the small LEDS and D to quit the program, but the board is marked up in the opposite order with A at the top (which quits) and D at the bottom (which speeds it up).

    • You have a Rev 2 Ladder board – And yes, I got the silkscreen the wrong way round – the letters A-D are not present on the Rev 1’s.

      Glad you worked it out though 🙂

      -Gordon