Raspberry Pi Pin Numbers – Python

Python provides two different ways of identifying the GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi P1 header socket. For example, pin 11 in the BOARD scheme is the same as GPIO17 in the BCM scheme. There are two options as follows.

• GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
• GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BOARD)

Of the two options, I would choose BOARD because it follows the numbers marked on the GPIO P1 socket. This is probably the easiest scheme to use because you can simply count off the numbers. The BCM option represents the pin numbers on the Broadcom BCM2835 processor; therefore, a translation table is required to determine how they map to the P1 socket. The BCM option is the least useful option and usually not used.

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