Introduction to Scratch for Pi, with GPIO LED Example

There are many great beginner projects out there which use the Pi’s GPIO (general-purpose input/output) pins. It’s great for coding too, since the Raspbian operating system comes with Python built-in. There is even a version of Minecraft for the Pi which can help you learn both beginner electronics and Python!

While this is great for people with some coding experience, what if you wanted to teach someone how to use the Pi’s GPIO pins without having to learn a programming language?

With Scratch, you can.

Today we will use Scratch to turn on an LED attached to our GPIO pins, while learning about some basic animation and programming ideas—all without having to type any code! This tutorial is perfect for getting kids involved with DIY electronics and programmatic thinking from an early age. Both the video and the article are perfect for the home or classroom.

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[joshpierce]

Thank you for creating and sharing this, being able to use drag and drop programming is incredible! Thank you again!

[qzorn]

Can Scratch3 be installed on the Orange Pi-5 and use PWM servo GPIO pins? Thank you. Is Scratch only for RPi stuff? Bummer. 🙈🙉🙊

[Migueldeservantes]

Does Scratch have a way to input equations?? so one can give it inputs and see the outputs??

[nileharvey]

What model of raspberry pi are you using and also can you download scratch 2 on the raspberry pi three?

[jcw]

I tried your little video here with the new raspberry. 4 I did exactly like you did it and it doesn’t seem to be working exactly the same

[bigmancozmo]

Well, it seems SUPER LUCKY because i use scratch all the time! XD

[OscSom]

Can scratch run on an raspberry Pi zero

[techspider]

Nice, I never knew that you could use scratch through a pi operating system.

[thecomplexity]

I had created a very cool program of disco lights, it worked for 1 hour and just shut off. I hope it’s a problem with my material And not with the Rasberry pi !

[TheMono]

Umm I only have scratch 1 and 3 but only 1 will open on my pi

[BrianB]

Just to say Scratch 3.0 is out to but they are working on it as it uses a lot of memory and works well on the P4... 4GB just keep this in mind and only use earlier versions of scratch.... I hope they add more sprites for temperature and LED strips and servos....

[thecomplexity]

I know the video Is right but for some reason mine never works

[fredmartini]

great vid. this is really helpful when u want to do some gpio programming but ur not very good at python

[situationalexistence]

I HAVE BEEN MAKING GAMES FOR 2 YEAR WITH SCRATCH 1-3!!