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I currently have 4 Pi's, soon to have 40. I have them setup to take a picture when a signal is detected via GPIO. Individually they work.

I connected the pins on all 4 to one wire, and the grounds on all 4 to another wire. Then connected the wires and only one took a picture. I then broke it down and added one Pi at a time. Up to 3 worked, but the forth one threw it off again.

The weirdest thing is, I took the pin from the 4th Pi off the chain, and tried to get the first 3 to work again, and only the 4th Pi took a picture... Even though its ground was the only thing connected Where am I going wrong here? How can I trigger them all with one button?

current wiring

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  • No reason why this shouldn't work. Could you edit your post and include a diagram showing how the button is connected to the Pis?
    – joan
    Jun 6, 2016 at 21:56
  • I've added a basic diagram. It's a very basic setup.
    – Michael Williams
    Jun 6, 2016 at 22:09
  • You need to show the button. Does it just connect GPIO21 to ground when pressed? Are there any pull-ups to hold GPIO21 high when the button isn't pressed?
    – joan
    Jun 6, 2016 at 22:13
  • I see, There is no physical "button" I physically connect the wires, then disconnect them.
    – Michael Williams
    Jun 6, 2016 at 22:20

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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If it isn't time sensitive on the snapshots, maybe have one pi create the dir if not exist then add check if exists and a sleep to the rest to allow the directory to be created.

I would also add a diode to all the positive lines on each pi to prevent each pi from backfeeding a false trigger.

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  • I changed it so one creates the directory if it doesn't exist. The others save it to the sd then move it to the directory after its created.
    – Michael Williams
    Jun 7, 2016 at 22:40
  • Hope that works out for ya. If it does could I get the honor of the accepted answer?
    – Dan V
    Jun 8, 2016 at 0:03
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Joining the pins to one button doesn't appear to be the issue. The issue is in my script that was creating a directory if it did exist. The problem was all 4 trying to make a directory if it didn't already exist, and one would see that the directory didn't exist, and try to create the directory, but another pi beat him to the punch.

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  • Does this mean the question has been resolved?
    – joan
    Jun 7, 2016 at 8:00
  • Yes, it was a coding error that became more likely to happen with each additional pi.
    – Michael Williams
    Jun 7, 2016 at 22:41
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I highly suggest adding a pullup/pulldown resistor or some other pullup/pulldown mechanism. I suspect having different power supplies for each Pi has something to do with this. Also, I don't see any pullup/down resistors in your diagram.

A quick search would result in a simple pullup/down circuit (i.e. just add a resistor between GPIO and ground for each Pi).

An alternative would be to do it programatically since the Pi's GPIO pins can be pulled high or low in-software. This would be the most practical option.

Take note that you may or may not have to change your trigger logic. For example, for a pullup setup, detecting a low would mean the button was pressed. For a pulldown setup, detecting a high would mean a button press. I'm sure you get what I mean.

I also suggest getting an actual switch/button since manually connecting wires can almost always cause issues with bouncing, unless proper debouncing logic is implemented (in software and/or hardware).

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