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MCP23017 GPIO Expander python 3 Library – With Interrupts!

There are numerous python libraries out there for the 16 port MCP23017 GPIO expander chip that works with the Raspberry Pi, so why yet another one? None of the ones I could find actually implement interrupts via the chip Polling is not ideal for my home monitoring setup. I was already monitoring via interrupts and the onboard GPIO pins using the awesome RPIO module and wanted to continue using interrupts with the expansion chip. So I built my own module, leveraging Adafruit’s I2C library for the nitty gritty backend interface.

Features:
  • Simple digital input and output via all pins
  • Input interrupts
  • Interrupt port mirroring is configurable – either INTA and INTB can trigger independently for their respective GPIO port banks, or both INTA and INTB can trigger at the same time regardless of what GPIO pin causes the interrupt
  • Configurable interrupt polarity – INT could pull the pin high or push it low
  • Each GPIO pin can be configured for interrupts independently to either compare against the previous value or against a default pin value
  • A utility method cleanupInterrupts that can be called periodically to clear the interrupt if it somehow gets stuck on

You can find the library on my BitBucket.

Stick around after the break for a breakdown of how to use it.

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