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Getting Started with The Sense HAT – Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi Sense HAT is a useful and somewhat confusingly named interface board for the RPi. It includes sensors, we can
measure Temperature, Relative humidity and Pressure. Accelerometer, Gyroscope and magnetometer are available. It also has a full-color 8*8
LED matrix display. Sense HAT requires a RPi with 40 Pin GPIO header and some softwares to be installed before you can use it.

What you will need

Hardware

  • Raspberry Pi
  • Sense HAT

Software

You will need the latest version of Raspbian which already includes the following software packages:

  • Python 3
  • Sense HAT for Python 3

If for any reason you need to install a package manually, follow these instructions:

Install the Sense HAT Python library

Install the Sense HAT Python library by using the command

 sudo apt-get install sense-hat 

This installer will actually enable I2C automatically, So you do not need to follow the usual I2C setup. Sense HAT’s Display uses a graphics library called Python Image Library (PIL), which must be installed by using the command:

sudo pip-3.2 install pillow

Installation will take a while, after which you should reboot if I2C was not already enabled.

So Now we can check that everything is working or not, by opening Python console using:

sudo python

Now enter these commands

>>> from sense_hat import SenseHat

>>> hat = SenseHat()

>>> hat.show_message('RPi Tutorials by IoTbyHVM')

Now LED matrix should then display the text of the message above, scrolling it across the screen.


You may like also: How To Use Raspberry pi in a truely headless mode


Measuring temperature, Humidity, and Pressure with a Sense HAT

Now we are going to measure temp, humd and pressure with SenseHat. Open any text editor or IDLE and Paste given below code.

and save with sense_thp.py.



# Program for measuring temperature and humidity and pressure with Sense Hat
# Visit https://iotbyhvm.ooo IoTbyHVM.ooo Explore TechBytes

from sense_hat import SenseHat
import time

hat = SenseHat()

while true:
    t = hat.get_temperature()
    h = hat.get_humidity()
    p = hat.get_preesure()
    print ('Temp C:{:.2f} Humd:{:.0f} Pres:{:.0f}' .format(t, h, p ) )
    time.sleep(1)
    

Output will like this:


sudo pyhton sense_thp.py
Temp: C:27.12 Humd:45 Pres:1232
Temp: C:27.45 Humd:44 Pres:1231

Here temp is in degree C, Humdity is in the percentage and Atmospheric Pressure is in milibars.

Sensing a Magnet with Sense HAT

Yes, you can sense magnet with Sense hat because SenseHAT  has magnetometer. Follow code given below:


# Sense magnet with SenseHAT
from sense_hat import SenseHat
import time

hat = SenseHat()
fill = (255,0,0)

while true:
    reading = int(hat.get_compass_raw()['z'])
    if reading > 200:
        hat.clear(fill)
        time.sleep(0.2)
    else:
        hat.clear()

now run this program, when the magnet gets close to SenseHAT, the LEDs will all turn red for 1/5 of a second.

Finding magnetic North with Sense HAT | How To make Compass


from sense_hat import SenseHat
import time

hat = SenseHat()

while true:
    bearing = sense.get_compass()
    print ('bearing: {:.0f} to north' .format(bearing))

Output:


sudo python sense_compass.py
Bearing : 138 to north
Bearing : 138 to north

Controlling LED with Raspberry Pi

Control LED with GPIO connector. Visit these articles given below.


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Harshvardhan Mishra

Hi, I'm Harshvardhan Mishra. Tech enthusiast and IT professional with a B.Tech in IT, PG Diploma in IoT from CDAC, and 6 years of industry experience. Founder of HVM Smart Solutions, blending technology for real-world solutions. As a passionate technical author, I simplify complex concepts for diverse audiences. Let's connect and explore the tech world together! If you want to help support me on my journey, consider sharing my articles, or Buy me a Coffee! Thank you for reading my blog! Happy learning! Linkedin

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