Porting a python script to C/C++ (potentiometer, MCP3008, pi-zero-w-2)

Question

I'm pretty newbie to C++. I'm trying to write a simple, workable code for interfacing my potentiometer and MCP3008 with my raspberry pi. I've written this python script which works nicely. However I also read that writing code in C/C++ makes the code run significantly faster and ideally I'd like to start porting my code to C++. Any help is greatly appreciated!

#!/usr/bin/env python2.7
# Simple example of reading the MCP3008 analog input channels and printing
# them all out.
import time
import sys
Import SPI library (for hardware SPI) and MCP3008 library.
import Adafruit_GPIO.SPI as SPI
import Adafruit_MCP3008
a class used to control the MCP3008 values
class Flex_Sensors():
    def init(self):
        software=1
    # Run using software SPI configuration:
    if software==1:

        CLK  = 11
        MOSI = 10
        MISO = 9
        CEO_mcp_1   = 22
        CEO_mcp_2   = 27

        #the ones provided by adafruit
        #~ CLK=18
        #~ MOSI =24
        #~ MISO=23
        #~ CEO=25

        self.mcp_1 = Adafruit_MCP3008.MCP3008(clk=CLK, cs=CEO_mcp_1, miso=MISO, mosi=MOSI)
        self.mcp_2 = Adafruit_MCP3008.MCP3008(clk=CLK, cs=CEO_mcp_2, miso=MISO, mosi=MOSI)

    # unused Hardware SPI configuration
    elif software==0:
        raise NotImplementedError(&quot;Software condition not implemented&quot;)

        SPI_PORT   = 0
        SPI_DEVICE = 0

        self.mcp_1 = Adafruit_MCP3008.MCP3008(spi=SPI.SpiDev(SPI_PORT, SPI_DEVICE))

# The read_adc function will get the value of the specified channel of mcp_1 (0-7).
def read_adc_1(self,i):
    return self.mcp_1.read_adc(i)

# The read_adc function will get the value of the specified channel mcp_2 (0-7).
def read_adc_2(self,i):

    return self.mcp_2.read_adc(i)

def WeightValues(self,oldValue,newValue):

    if (oldValue == 0): 
        return newValue

    oldWeight = 0.9
    newWeight = (1-oldWeight)

    oldValueWeighted = oldValue * oldWeight
    newValueWeighted = newValue * newWeight

    addedValues = oldValueWeighted+newValueWeighted
    return int(addedValues)


if name == "main":
    potentiometer_list=Flex_Sensors()
    print('Reading MCP3008 values, press Ctrl-C to quit...')
# Print nice channel column headers.
print(('| {0:&gt;4} | {1:&gt;4} | {2:&gt;4} | {3:&gt;4} | {4:&gt;4} | {5:&gt;4} | {6:&gt;4} | {7:&gt;4} |'.format(*list(range(8)))))
print(('-' * 57))

values_1 = [0] * 8
values_2 = [0] * 8

try:

    while True:
        # Read all the ADC channel values in a list.
        for i in range(8):

            #~ values[i] = mcp.read_adc(i)

            values_1[i] = potentiometer_list.read_adc_1(i)
            values_2[i] = potentiometer_list.read_adc_2(i)

        # skip one line for each print
        # for i in range(2):
            # #back to previous lines and clear line
            # sys.stdout.write(&quot;\033[F\033[K&quot;)


        mcp1_printout = ('mcp1:| {0:&gt;4} | {1:&gt;4} | {2:&gt;4} | {3:&gt;4} | {4:&gt;4} | {5:&gt;4} | {6:&gt;4} | {7:&gt;4} '.format(*values_1))
        mcp2_printout = ('mcp2:| {0:&gt;4} | {1:&gt;4} | {2:&gt;4} | {3:&gt;4} | {4:&gt;4} | {5:&gt;4} | {6:&gt;4} | {7:&gt;4} |'.format(*values_2))

        print(mcp1_printout,&quot;|||| &quot;,mcp2_printout)

        # # Print the ADC values.
        # print(('mcp1:| {0:&gt;4} | {1:&gt;4} | {2:&gt;4} | {3:&gt;4} | {4:&gt;4} | {5:&gt;4} | {6:&gt;4} | {7:&gt;4} |'.format(*values_1)))
        # print(('mcp2:| {0:&gt;4} | {1:&gt;4} | {2:&gt;4} | {3:&gt;4} | {4:&gt;4} | {5:&gt;4} | {6:&gt;4} | {7:&gt;4} |'.format(*values_2)))



        time.sleep(0.05)
    time.sleep(2)

except KeyboardInterrupt:
    print ('KeyboardInterrupt exception is caught')

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 17 '22 at 11:08

Your premise is wrong. Rewriting the Python code in C++ will not make the code run significantly faster.

All the Python functions you call are probably actually written in C.

All that will speed up is the little bit of Python outside the function calls. Any time saving will be swamped by the time taken by the rest of the code.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 17 '22 at 12:11

https://gpiozero.readthedocs.io/en/v1.6.2/api_spi.html?highlight=mcp3008#gpiozero.MCP3008.channel is probably the easiest. It has a number of examples.

There are examples using the SPI kernel driver which I have used (but don't have links to hand)

I use my own c library pi-gpio for SPI support and have a MCP3002 example https://github.com/Milliways2/pi-gpio/blob/main/examples/aread.c which uses the SPI kernel driver (but don't recommend as a starting point - this was mainly to test SPI interface).

I am sure there is pigpio code http://abyz.me.uk/rpi/pigpio/examples.html

There is WiringPi code (but as this is deprecated)

https://tutorials-raspberrypi.com/mcp3008-read-out-analog-signals-on-the-raspberry-pi/ is a simple example using spidev

Porting a python script to C/C++ (potentiometer, MCP3008, pi-zero-w-2)

Import SPI library (for hardware SPI) and MCP3008 library.

a class used to control the MCP3008 values

2 Answers2