WiringPi on the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W

This tutorial is going to cover how to set up the WiringPi library to enable you to use the GPIO on your Raspberry Pi in C. If you are looking for something more advanced than a blinky program, then make sure you check back as this tutorial is only the first in a long series.

The first set is to remote into your Raspberry Pi (you don’t have to do this you can use a normal set-up). Then download git if you haven’t already:

sudo apt-get install git-core

Then you download and install the library using git:

git clone https://github.com/WiringPi/WiringPi.git

cd WiringPi

./build

Then we are ready to code! Create a new file called blinky.c and use the following code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <wiringPi.h>

const int ledPin = 17;

int main(){
    wiringPiSetupGpio(); // Initialise WiringPi with Broadcom GPIO pins

    pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT); // Set LED Pin as an output

    while(1){
        // Turn LED On
        printf("LED On\n");
        digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);

        delay(1000);
 
        // Turn LED off
        printf("LED Off\n");
        digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);

        delay(1000);
    }

    return 0;
    
}

Then to build the code, use ctrl+shift+B and then press the cog button next to build active task. This will open the tasks.json file. Your tasks.json file should look like this (note the “args” section):

{
	"version": "2.0.0",
	"tasks": [
		{
			"type": "cppbuild",
			"label": "C/C++: gcc build active file",
			"command": "/usr/bin/gcc",
			"args": [
				"-fdiagnostics-color=always",
				"-g",
				"${file}",
				"-o",
				"${fileDirname}/${fileBasenameNoExtension}",
				"-l", 
				"wiringPi"
			],
			"options": {
				"cwd": "${fileDirname}"
			},
			"problemMatcher": [
				"$gcc"
			],
			"group": "build",
			"detail": "compiler: /usr/bin/gcc"
		}
	]
}

The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W was connected to the LED as shown in the diagram below.

Now you can run your program! In the terminal type:

./blinky

And now you should see the LED blinking on and off!