GPIO Zero, the easy-to-use Python library for the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO pins has just had an update on the Raspbian repository. It’s been available for a couple of weeks now via a slightly convoluted route, but is now available with a simple:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install python3-gpiozero

The update includes the following new features:

• An interface for the Energenie GPIO add-on board (and therefore the RF plug sockets it controls)
• A generic object for line sensors.
• A generic object for ultrasonic distance sensors.
• An object for the SnowPi add-on board.
• An idea of a ‘holdable button’ so you can specify different actions to occur if a button is pressed momentarily and when it is pressed and held.
• A pulsable LED (which could be done before, but this makes it simpler)
• More support for Analog to Digital converter chips.
• Various bells-and-whistles.

A blog post from the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s Ben Nuttall, who manages the project, is available here with much more detail as to what the update includes.

A big shout out to Dave Jones who did most of the work on the actual code. It’s fantastic how the community at large is contributing, too!