# Qwiic Button + Rpi + Python **URL:** \ **Category:** Qwiic System\ **Tags:** qwiic\ **Created:** [December 27, 2020, 6:11pm UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/qwiic-button-rpi-python/41174 "2020-12-27T18:11:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![awwaiid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@awwaiid](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/awwaiid)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2020, 6:11pm UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/qwiic-button-rpi-python/41174/1 "2020-12-27T18:11:35Z")
I’m trying a perhaps ill-advised setup of running plain Python on my Model B+ Raspberry Pi to control some Qwiic buttons over i2c – and having some issues. New to this so maybe I’m missing something. The button does not have an official python driver (yet, I might build it), and so am doing low-level i2c prodding. Here is code that polls the button watching for status changes. The problem is … that I sometimes get presses/noise even when nothing has been pressed. It runs fine for a few seconds (no presses) and then sees presses when there weren’t any. It DOES pick up real presses in addition to the noise! I also have no problem setting the LED brightness and even blinking. Any advice would be appreciated. I’ve tried shorter qwiic wires, only having the one device, increasing the sleeps. I haven’t yet tried messing with the i2c bus clock speed, I think the default is 100 kHz. ```auto import time import qwiic qwiic_i2c = qwiic._QwiicInternal.get_i2c_driver() # Set brightness to 0x10 qwiic_i2c.writeByte(111, 0x19, 0x0) def monitor_button(): print("Reset the current status") qwiic_i2c.writeByte(111, 0x03, 0) time.sleep(0.05) # Wait for a click while True: time.sleep(0.05) button_status = qwiic_i2c.readByte(111, 0x03) # Bit 0 (eventAvailable) is set to 1 when a new event occurs user must write 0 to clear. # Bit 1 (hasBeenClicked) defaults to 0 on POR, is set to one when the button is clicked, must be cleared by the user. # Bit 2 (isPressed) is set to 1 when the button is pushed event_available = button_status & 0b001 has_been_clicked = button_status & 0b010 is_pressed = button_status & 0b100 print(f"Status: {bin(button_status)} Event Available: {event_available} Has clicked: {has_been_clicked} Currently pressed: {is_pressed}") if has_been_clicked: print(f"CLICK DETECTED") qwiic_i2c.writeByte(111, 0x03, 0) # break monitor_button() ``` Sample output: ```auto Status: 0b0 Event Available: 0 Has clicked: 0 Currently pressed: 0 Status: 0b0 Event Available: 0 Has clicked: 0 Currently pressed: 0 Status: 0b0 Event Available: 0 Has clicked: 0 Currently pressed: 0 Status: 0b0 Event Available: 0 Has clicked: 0 Currently pressed: 0 Status: 0b0 Event Available: 0 Has clicked: 0 Currently pressed: 0 Status: 0b1111111 Event Available: 1 Has clicked: 2 Currently pressed: 4 CLICK DETECTED Status: 0b11 Event Available: 1 Has clicked: 2 Currently pressed: 0 CLICK DETECTED Status: 0b11 Event Available: 1 Has clicked: 2 Currently pressed: 0 CLICK DETECTED Status: 0b11 Event Available: 1 Has clicked: 2 Currently pressed: 0 CLICK DETECTED Status: 0b1 Event Available: 1 Has clicked: 0 Currently pressed: 0 Status: 0b1 Event Available: 1 Has clicked: 0 Currently pressed: 0 Status: 0b1 Event Available: 1 Has clicked: 0 Currently pressed: 0 Status: 0b1 Event Available: 1 Has clicked: 0 Currently pressed: 0 Status: 0b11 Event Available: 1 Has clicked: 2 Currently pressed: 0 CLICK DETECTED Status: 0b11 Event Available: 1 Has clicked: 2 Currently pressed: 0 CLICK DETECTED Status: 0b11 Event Available: 1 Has clicked: 2 Currently pressed: 0 CLICK DETECTED ``` ---
**Author:** ![awwaiid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@awwaiid](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/awwaiid)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 2:52am UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/qwiic-button-rpi-python/41174/2 "2020-12-29T02:52:15Z")
I made some progress! I decreased the i2c clock speed all the way down to 10 kHz and now it is completely stable. I’ll do some more experimenting to see how fast I can get it and still be stable. I wonder if I should mess with the pull down resistors? I also wonder how the pi might differ from an arduino type thingie for this. ---
**Author:** ![awwaiid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@awwaiid](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/awwaiid)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2020, 6:00pm UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/qwiic-button-rpi-python/41174/3 "2020-12-29T18:00:41Z")
Thanks to [[this forum post](https://forum.sparkfun.com/viewtopic.php?f=105&t=52585&p=214794&hilit=raspberry#p214794) I got it working! Switched to a gpio based (software) i2c implementation that can do clock-stretching. I think this is working at the default 100 kHz (and looks fast based on a display I have on the bus). A simple change to the /boot/config.txt file is all that was needed: ```auto # What I had before to force 10 kHz #dtparam=i2c_arm=on,i2c_arm_baudrate=10000 # Switch to software i2c, works much better! This uses the same bus=1 dtoverlay=i2c-gpio,bus=1,i2c_gpio_sda=2,i2c_gpio_scl=3 ``` ]([https://forum.sparkfun.com/viewtopic.php?f=105&t=52585&p=214794&hilit=raspberry#p214794](https://forum.sparkfun.com/viewtopic.php?f=105&t=52585&p=214794&hilit=raspberry#p214794)) ---
**Author:** ![TS-John](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/sparkfun/user_avatar/community.sparkfun.com/ts-john/32/6093_2.png) [@TS-John](https://community.sparkfun.com/u/TS-John)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2020, 10:21pm UTC](https://community.sparkfun.com/t/qwiic-button-rpi-python/41174/4 "2020-12-30T22:21:53Z")
Awesome! Glad to see that everything is working for you now. Thank you so much for posting the fix on the SFE forums. I am sure these posts will really help some of our users out. If we don’t hear back from you soon we wish you a happy New Year!