Multiple independent TTL input counters with Raspberry Pi?

Question

I'm curious if the GPIO pins on a Raspberry Pi are capable of acting as a counter for TTL like signal inputs. I am interested in independently counting on six channels/pins, where the input signal that I would like to count is a 3.3 V (for greater than 1 kOhm, which the GPIO inputs seem to be) rectangular pulse with 5-50 us width. I'd like to count signals with a frequency of up to 1 kHz, but at least 100 Hz.

Based on this link it seems possible, using the pigpio c-module: Count RPM/Frequency/Pulses on GPIO ports (Maximum?)

I'd just like to verify that counting at 0.1-1 kHz can occur on multiple GPIO pins simultaneously with a Raspberry Pi, or if not, could a better board/computer be suggested.

Answer 1

The Pi is capable of doing what you want.

http://abyz.me.uk/videos/events.webm shows signals on GPIOs 2 through 26 being captured/displayed.

The only thing to be careful about is the minimum pulse width. By default my pigpio library samples at 5 µs so it would be best to ensure edges are at least say 10 µs. However you could boost the sampling rate to 2 µs so ensuring that 5 µs edges will be detected.

There are two C examples of simple (multiple GPIO) frequency counters at http://abyz.me.uk/rpi/pigpio/examples.html.