Transfer Data over TCP/IP Between Raspberry Pi Sense HAT and Android Device

Introduction

The Raspberry Pi Sense HAT is an add-on board for Raspberry Pi hardware. It has an 8X8 RGB LED Matrix, a five-position joystick and includes the following sensors:

In this example, you will develop an algorithm to send the data from the IMU sensor by defining a TCP/IP client. You will also develop another algorithm to receive RGB color values from the Android device over TCP/IP and display the color on the 8x8 RGB LED matrix.

Prerequisites

Required Hardware

To run this example you will need the following hardware:

Required Products

Step 1: Create a Sense HAT Object and TCP/IP Clients

Create a Sense HAT object in MATLAB Support Package for Raspberry Pi Hardware by executing the following commands at the MATLAB prompt.

r = raspi();
s = sensehat(r);

s is a handle to a sensehat object.

Create a TCP/IP client object to send data from Raspberry Pi to the Android device. Replace the IP address and Port according to your Android device.

tcpObj_Send = tcpclient('192.168.1.2',6000);

Create a TCP/IP client object to receive data from the Android device. Replace the IP address and Port according to your Android device. We specify the Timeout as 2 seconds for a response to be obtained from the Android device.

tcpObj_Recv= tcpclient('192.168.1.2',10000, 'Timeout',2);

Step 2: Send IMU Sensor Data from Sense HAT

In MATLAB Support Package for Raspberry Pi Hardware, we will use an algorithm that uses a for loop that runs for 1000 iterations while obtaining data from the IMU sensor of Raspberry Pi Sense HAT. We combine the IMU sensor data into a [1x3] array and send the data using the TCP/IP client object. We also add a pause time of 0.2 seconds between the iterations.

for count = 1:1000
   %Read IMU Sensor - Accel data
   accelData = readAcceleration(s);
   %Read IMU Sensor - Gyro data
   gyroData = readAngularVelocity(s);
   %Read IMU Sensor - Mag data
   magData = readMagneticField(s);
   imuData = [accelData gyroData magData];
   write(tcpObj_Send, imuData);
   pause(0.2)
end

Step 3: Read Data from the Android Device on LED Matrix of Sense HAT

In MATLAB Support Package for Raspberry Pi Hardware, we will use an algorithm that uses a for loop that runs for 1000 iterations while receiving data from the color sliders on the application that you are going to deploy on the remote Android device. We will use the read method to read data from the TCP/IP receive object (which obtains the data from the remote Android device). We also add a pause time of 0.2 seconds between the iterations.

We can display the received data on the LED matrix of Sense HAT using the writePixel function. In this case, we will also add a code to ignore the writePixel command if the input data is zero. Additionally, if the read is not successful within the timeout value specified, the TCP/IP client returns zero as output.

for count = 1:1000
 LEDdata = read(tcpObj_Recv, 3, 'double');
 if ((LEDdata(1) ~=0) && (LEDdata(2) ~=0) && (LEDdata(3) ~=0))
      for row = 1:8
          for col = 1:8
              writePixel(s, [row col] , LEDdata);
          end
      end
  end
 pause(0.2)
end

Step 4: Deploy the MATLAB Function

You can deploy the raspi_sensehat_display() function on the Raspberry Pi hardware.

function raspi_sensehat_display()

r = raspi();
s = sensehat(r);

tcpObj_Send = tcpclient('192.168.1.2',6000);
tcpObj_Recv= tcpclient('192.168.1.2',10000, 'Timeout',2);

for count = 1:1000

   accelData = readAcceleration(s);
   gyroData = readAngularVelocity(s);
   magData = readMagneticField(s);
   imuData = [accelData gyroData magData];

   write(tcpObj_Send, imuData);

   LEDdata = read(tcpObj_Recv, 3, 'double');%

   if ((LEDdata(1) ~=0) && (LEDdata(2) ~=0) && (LEDdata(3) ~=0))
       for row = 1:8
           for col = 1:8
               writePixel(s, [row col] , LEDdata);
           end
       end
   end

   pause(0.2);
end

Deploy the raspi_sensehat_display function as a standalone executable on the hardware by using the deploy function.

board = targetHardware('Raspberry Pi')
deploy(board,'raspi_sensehat_display')

Code generation successful: View report

The deploy function initiates code generation of the raspi_sensehat_display function. At the end of code generation, MATLAB generates a code generation report. Use this report to debug the raspi_sensehat_display function for any build errors and warnings in the generated code.

After successfully generating the code, the support package loads and runs the code as a standalone executable on the hardware. The executable starts sending IMU Sensor data over TCP/IP and prepares to receive any data from the remote Android device.

Step 5: Prepare and Deploy a Model for TCP/IP Using Simulink Support Package for Android Devices

After you install Simulink Support Package for Android Devices, open the androidraspberrypisensehat Simulink model.

Deploy this model to the Android device that is connected to the host computer (in the Hardware tab of the Simulink model, click Build, Deploy & Start). The deployed model launches an application that helps you to read the data and also use the three sliders on the application to send the desired RGB values.

On the Android device, launch the application that you deployed, and view the live data for accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer, as obtained from the IMU sensor of Raspberry Pi Sense HAT.

On the Android device, move the three color sliders in the application for configuring various RGB values. You can observe the corresponding change of color on the 8X8 RGB LED Matrix of the Raspberry Pi Sense HAT.

Other Things to Try

Create an algorithm to run the control continuously in MATLAB Support Package for Raspberry Pi Hardware, by using a while loop in the MATLAB code.