For the Raspberry Pi - make LEDs blink on network and/or SD card/USB storage device activity.
PiDiskLeds blinks one or two LEDs connected to one or two GPIO pins by a read or write access of any mounted block device (a.k.a. a "mass storage" or "disk drive" device). Not only on SD card access, but also on USB thumbdrive and hard drive activity. When two LEDs are used with this program, one can be assigned to indicate read access and the other write access.
PiNetLeds blinks one or two LEDs connected to one or two GPIO pins when there is receive or transmit activity on any network interface. Not only the built-in ethernet or WiFi interfaces, but also on any other USB ethernet or WiFi interface. When two LEDs are used with this program, one can be assigned to indicate receive activity and the other transmit activity
Building the programs is easy:
make PiDiskLeds
make PiNetLeds
or
make all
To remove the binaries from the current directory, use:
make clean
PiNetLeds and PiDiskLeds make use of Gordon Henderson's WiringPi library (wiringpi.com), so this needs to be installed in order to build the programs. Current versions of Raspbian come with WiringPi already installed.
For both PiDiskLeds and PiNetLeds, GPIO pins are selected using the WiringPi numbering scheme. The gpio readall command can be used to view the mapping of WiringPi pin numbers to physical pin locations on the specific Raspberry Pi model being used.
The -?, --help, or --usage option may be used with either program to view all available options. The -V option wil display the program's version number.
PiDiskLeds [options]
| Option | Action |
|---|---|
| -d, --detach | Detach from terminal (run as a background process [a.k.a daemon]). |
| -p, --poll interval=MILLISECONDS | Sets the time interval (in milliseconds) between checks for new disk activity. |
| -r, --read led=PIN | Set the GPIO pin number connected to the LED indicating disk read activity. |
| -w, --write led=PIN | Set the GPIO pin number connected to the LED indicating disk write activity. |
NOTE: By default, PiDiskLeds uses WiringPi pin 10 by for both read and write activity indication. This pin is also used for the CE0 signal in the default configuration of the Pi's SPI0 interface. If an add-on utilizing SPI communications is connected, it is likely that another, unused, pin will need to be selected using the -r or -w option.
PiNetLeds [options]
| Option | Action |
|---|---|
| -d, --detach | Detach from terminal (run as a background process [a.k.a daemon]). |
| -p, --poll interval=MILLISECONDS | Sets the time interval (in milliseconds) between checks for new network activity. |
| -r, --receive led=PIN | Set the GPIO pin number connected to the LED indicating network reveive activity. |
| -t, --transmit led=PIN | Set the GPIO pin number connected to the LED indicating network transmit activity. |
NOTE: By default, PiNetLeds uses WiringPi pin 11 by for both read and write activity indication. This pin is also used for the CE1 signal in the default configuration of the Pi's SPI0 interface. If an add-on utilizing SPI communications is connected, it is possible that another, unused, pin will need to be selected using the -r or -t option.
| LED | Blinks to indicate |
|---|---|
| 1 (green) | all block device (mass storage) read or write activity |
| 2 (red) | all network interface (ethernet or WiFi) receive or transmit activity |
Commands:
PiDiskLeds --detach
PiNetLeds
| LED | Blinks to indicate |
|---|---|
| 1 (yellow) | network interface (ethernet or WiFi) transmit activity |
| 2 (blue) | network interface (ethernet or WiFi) receive activity |
| 3 (green) | block device (mass storage) read activity |
| 4 (red) | block device (mass storage) write activity |
Commands:
PiDiskLeds --read led=6 --write led=26
PiNetLeds --receive led=5 --transmit led=4
| LED | Blinks to indicate |
|---|---|
| 1 (red-green) | red=network interface (ethernet or WiFi) transmit activity, green=network interface (ethernet or WiFi) receive activity |
| 2 (red-blue) | blue=block device (mass storage) read activity, red=block device (mass storage) write activity |
Commands:
PiDiskLeds --poll interval=50 -w25 -r 24 -d
PiNetLeds -r 22 -d -t 23 -p10
Configuration files have been provided in the ./intscripts directory to allow both programs to be started at system boot, before any user login. If the programs are to be started during system bootup, it is recommended to copy the binaries to the /usr/local/bin directory, since the configuration files assume that they reside there. View the README file in the ./initscripts directory for specific instructions to enable running the programs upon system boot.
PiNetLeds and PiDiskLeds need super-user privileges, so when running the programs after system boot you may need to invoke them with "sudo", e.g.:
sudo PiNetLeds -d -p 10 -r 28 -t 29