Book Image

Raspberry Pi for Python Programmers Cookbook - Second Edition

Book Image

Raspberry Pi for Python Programmers Cookbook - Second Edition

Overview of this book

Raspberry Pi cookbook for Python Programmers is a practical guide for getting the most out of this little computer. This book begins by guiding you through setting up the Raspberry Pi, performing tasks using Python 3 and introduces the first steps to interface with electronics. As you work through each chapter you will build up your skills and knowledge and apply them as you progress throughout the book, delving further and further into the unique abilities and features of the Raspberry Pi. Later, you will learn how to automate tasks by accessing files, build applications using the popular Tkinter library and create games by controlling graphics on screen. You will harness the power of the built-in graphics processor by using Pi3D to generate your own high quality 3D graphics and environments. Connect directly to the Raspberry Pi’s hardware pins to control electronics from switching on LEDs and responding to push buttons right through to driving motors and servos. Learn how to monitor sensors to gather real life data and to use it to control other devices, and view the results over the Internet. Apply what you have learnt by creating your own Pi-Rover or Pi-Hexipod robots. Finally, we will explore using many of the purpose built add-ons available for the Raspberry Pi, as well as interfacing with common household devices in new ways.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Raspberry Pi for Python Programmers Cookbook - Second Edition
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Hardware and Software List
Index

Logging and plotting data


Now that we are able to sample and collect a lot of data, it is important that we can capture and analyze it. We will make use of a Python library called matplotlib, which includes lots of useful tools for manipulating, graphing, and analyzing data. We will use pyplot (which is a part of matplotlib) to produce graphs of our captured data. For more information on pyplot, go to http://matplotlib.org/users/pyplot_tutorial.html.

Getting ready

To use pyplot, we will need to install matplotlib.

Note

Due to a problem with the matplotlib installer, performing the installation using pip-3.2 doesn't always work correctly. The method that follows will overcome this problem by performing all the steps PIP does manually; however, this can take over 30 minutes to complete.

To save time, you can try the PIP installation, which is much quicker. If it doesn't work, you can install it using this manual method.

Try installing matplotlib using PIP with the following commands:

sudo apt-get...