Installation

First, make sure you have enabled I2C and SPI by running:

sudo raspi-config

and then navigating to:

Advanced Options > Would you like the I2C interface to be enabled? > Yes
Would you like the I2C kernel module to be loaded by default? > Yes

and:

Advanced Options > Would you like the SPI interface to be enabled? > Yes
Would you like the SPI kernel module to be loaded by default? > Yes

Then reboot.

You can install microstacknode with either apt-get or pip.

Installing with apt-get

Make sure you are using the lastest version of Raspbian:

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Install microstacknode for Python 3 with the following command:

$ sudo apt-get install python3-microstacknode

Installing with pip

Warning

Do not install microstacknode with both apt-get and pip as unexpected things will happen. Consider using virtual environments.

Make sure pip is installed:

sudo apt-get install python3-pip

Install microstacknode using pip:

sudo pip3 install microstacknode

GPS

The GPS uses the serial port. By default it is configured to output the login shell. You must disable this before GPS will work. To do so, run:

sudo raspi-config

Navigate to Advanced Options > Serial, disable the login shell and then reboot.

Note

If you’re using a Raspberry Pi 3 you will also need to fix the CPU core_freq at 250 otherwise the serial port baud rate will not stay constant. To do this add core_freq=250 to /boot/config.txt.

Testing

Accelerometer

Dump accelerometer data with:

$ python3 /usr/share/doc/python3-microstacknode/examples/accelcat.py

GPS

Dump GPS data:

$ python3 /usr/share/doc/python3-microstacknode/examples/gpscat.py

Other GPS Software

You might also want to install standard GPS software:

$ sudo apt-get install gpsd gpsd-clients python-gps

You can dump GPS data with:

$ sudo gpsd /dev/ttyAMA0 -F /var/run/gpsd.sock

or:

$ cgps -s

Replace /dev/ttyAMA0 with /dev/ttyS0 if you’re using a Raspberry Pi 3.

Automatically Starting GPS

Reconfigure the GPS daemon and choose <yes> when asked if you want to start gpsd automatically (use the defaults for the remaining options):

$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure gpsd