Connect to Raspberry Pi Hardware Board in MATLAB Online

Prepare your Raspberry Pi® hardware board to establish a connection from MATLAB® Online™.

Prerequisites

  1. Check that your hardware board and operating system are supported for a MATLAB Online connection.

    The supported Raspberry Pi operating systems are:

    • Bullseye 32-bit

    • Bookworm 32-bit

    • Trixie 32-bit

    The supported Raspberry Pi boards are:

    • Raspberry Pi 3 Model B

    • Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+

    • Raspberry Pi 4 Model B

    • Raspberry Pi Compute Model 4

    • Raspberry Pi 5

    • Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5

    It is a best practice to implement the security measures outlined in Securing your Raspberry Pi.

  2. Turn on your Raspberry Pi, and make sure it is connected to the Internet. Your device does not have to be connected to the same computer or the same network as the computer running MATLAB Online.

  3. If you are using a version of Raspbian with a desktop environment, you can open a shell to enter the installation commands. If your device boots into the command line, enter the installation commands there. You can also access your device via SSH or another remote access method, as described in Remote Access.

    Note

    Using the full version of the Raspberry Pi OS is recommended when deploying MATLAB functions on the Raspberry Pi hardware in MATLAB Online.

Set Up Raspberry Pi Hardware Board

  1. Install the MATLAB package for Raspberry Pi by entering these commands in the Raspberry Pi shell:

    $sudo apt-get update
$sudo apt-get install matlab-rpi

  2. Configure your Raspberry Pi to make it discoverable in MATLAB Online. Follow the setup steps that appear in your command line.

    $sudo matlab-rpi-setup

    1. Give your device a name.

      Step 1: Provide a name for your Raspberry Pi in MATLAB Online.
Name: myPi

    2. Choose to enable or disable peripheral features.

      Step 2: Enable/disable peripherals on Raspberry Pi.
Do you want to enable I2C? (y/n): y 
Do you want to enable SPI? (y/n): y 
Do you want to enable camera? (y/n): y
Do you want to enable UART? (y/n): y

    3. Choose to enable or disable deploying MATLAB Function to Raspberry Pi.

      Step 3: Enable/disable deploying MATLAB Function/Simulink model to Raspberry Pi. 
Do you want to enable deploy MATLAB function/Simulink model as a standalone executable? (y/n): y
	
Paho MQTT C library is required to deploy MATLAB function/Simulink model to Raspberry Pi Hardware.
Paho MQTT C library is licensed to you by third parties under separate license terms 
available in the GitHub repository, https://github.com/eclipse/paho.mqtt.c 
	
Do you want to install Paho MQTT? (y/n): y
	
"nnpy" library is required to deploy MATLAB function/Simulink model to Raspberry Pi Hardware.
nnpy python ibrary is licensed to you by third parties under separate license terms 
available in the GitHub repository, https://github.com/nanomsg/nnpy 
	
Do you want to install nnpy? (y/n): y

    4. Choose to enable or disable deploying Simulink® customizable dashboard blocks to the Raspberry Pi.

      Step 4: Enable/disable deploying Simulink customizable dashboard blocks on Raspberry Pi.
Do you want to enable dashboard deployment workflow? (y/n): y
 
Username used to login to the display session on the Raspberry Pi Hardware is required for dashboard deployment.
Enter the username: pi
Update display username success!
 
Chromium-browser, required to deploy Simulink customizable dashboard blocks to Raspberry Pi Hardware will be installed as part of the setup.

    5. Provide your MathWorks® Account credentials to authenticate the MATLAB Online connection. Your user ID and email address associated with your account are both valid. This information is not stored locally on your Raspberry Pi.

      Step 4: Provide your MathWorks Account credentials. 
Email Address or User ID: jsmith 
Password: ***********

      If you are having problems logging in to your MathWorks Account, visit the MathWorks website. We recommend that you enable the Two-Step Verification for your MathWorks account for additional security. For specific authentication instructions if the Two-Step Verification enabled, see Two-Step Verification Is Turned On.

    Note

    This login remains valid for six months until your credentials expire. Once they expire, you will not be able connect to your Raspberry Pi from MATLAB Online. To re-authenticate your board, follow the steps in MathWorks Account Credentials Have Expired.

  3. Restart your Raspberry Pi to start listening for MATLAB Online connections.

    $sudo reboot

    You can modify settings at any time after the initial setup by using flags. These are the flags you can provide to matlab-rpi-setup package installation command.

    DescriptionOption syntaxExample
    Set Raspberry Pi display name in MATLAB Online.--name=namesudo matlab-rpi-setup --name myPi2
    -nsudo matlab-rpi-setup -n myPi2
    Set authentication credentials for Raspberry Pi in MATLAB Online.--loginsudo matlab-rpi-setup --login
    -lsudo matlab-rpi-setup -l
    Enable or disable I2C feature on Raspberry Pi. Requires a reboot.--i2c={enable | disable}sudo matlab-rpi-setup --i2c enable
    -isudo matlab-rpi-setup -i enable

    Enable or disable SPI feature on Raspberry Pi. Requires a reboot.

    		--spi={enable | disable}sudo matlab-rpi-setup --spi enable
    -ssudo matlab-rpi-setup -s enable
    Enable or disable camera feature on Raspberry Pi. Requires a reboot.--camera={enable | disable}sudo matlab-rpi-setup --camera enable
    -csudo matlab-rpi-setup -c enable
    Enable or disable UART feature on Raspberry Pi. Requires a reboot.--uart={enable | disable}sudo matlab-rpi-setup --uart enable
    -usudo matlab-rpi-setup -u enable
    Deploy a MATLAB function as a standalone executable on Raspberry Pi.--deploy={enable | disable}sudo matlab-rpi-setup --deploy enable
    -dsudo matlab-rpi-setup -d enable
    Display matlab-rpi-setup usage. --helpsudo matlab-rpi-setup --help
    -hsudo matlab-rpi-setup -h

    To see the full description of each flag in your shell, enter this command.

    $man matlab-rpi-setup

Connect to Raspberry Pi from MATLAB Online

  1. Open a MATLAB Online session at https://matlab.mathworks.com from any computer connected to the Internet. Log in with your MathWorks Account credentials.

    Note

    You must log in with the same account credentials you used during the Raspberry Pi setup.

  2. Scan for Raspberry Pi hardware configured with the same MathWorks Account credentials.

    raspilist
    ans =

  1x4 table

       Name        SerialNumber       PackageVersion          Status
      ______    __________________    ______________    __________________

      "myPi"    "00000000a9f2c18c"       "18.1.0"       "Ready to connect"

    These are the possible statuses for your Raspberry Pi:

    Ready to connectRaspberry Pi has the correct version of matlab-rpi package installed. You can create a MATLAB Online connection.
    ConnectedRaspberry Pi has the correct version of matlab-rpi package installed. It is already connected in MATLAB Online.
    Upgrade requiredRaspberry Pi has an outdated version of matlab-rpi package installed. See MATLAB Package on Raspberry Pi Needs to Be Updated for instructions.
    Authentication requiredProvide your MathWorks Account credentials to reauthenticate online connection. This status appears two weeks before your login credentials expire. See MathWorks Account Credentials Have Expired for instructions.

  3. Use raspi without any inputs to reuse the settings from the most recent successful Raspberry Pi connection. If connecting for the first time, this function creates a connection to the first Raspberry Pi device designated as "Ready to connect" in the raspilist output.

    r = raspi
    r=

  raspi with properties:

         DeviceAddress: 'myPi'
          SerialNumber: '00000000a9f2c18c'
             BoardName: Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
         AvailableLEDs: {'led0'}
  AvailableDigitalPins: [4,5,6,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27]
  AvailableSPIChannels: {'CE0','CE1'}
     AvailableI2CBuses: {'i2c-1'}
      AvailableWebcams: {'UVC Camera (046d:0809)'}
           I2CBusSpeed: 0

    Alternatively, you can specify the name or serialnumber of the Raspberry Pi from the raspilist output to connect to a certain device. 

    r = raspi('myPi');
    r = raspi('00000000a9f2c18c');

    Note

    If you encounter errors after running the above commands, try using additional arguments (as listed in raspi) or refer to Troubleshoot Raspberry Pi in MATLAB Online.

    After successfully connecting to your Raspberry Pi from MATLAB Online, see Connect to and Control Raspberry Pi Board from MATLAB to perform basic operations on the hardware.

Note

Only one user can access a Raspberry Pi through MATLAB Online.

Deploy MATLAB Function on Hardware from MATLAB Online

  1. Create a MATLAB function blinkLED and verify it in connected mode in MATLAB Online on Raspberry Pi.

    function blinkLED() 
    % Create a Raspberry Pi object
    r= raspi();
    % Blink the LED for 100 cycles
 
    for count = 1:10000
        % Turn on the LED
        writeLED(r,"LED0", 1);
        % Pause for 0.5 seconds
        pause(0.5);   
        % Turn off the LED
        writeLED(r,"LED0", 0);
        % Pause for 0.5 seconds
        pause(0.5);   
    end
end

  2. Add compilation directive #codegen and make code changes to ensure the function is deployable. For more information on deploying MATLAB function on the hardware, see Workflow to Deploy MATLAB Function on Raspberry Pi.

    function blinkLED()
    % #codegen
    % Create a Raspberry Pi object
    r= raspi();
    % Blink the LED for 100 cycles
 
    for count = 1:10000
        % Turn on the LED
        writeLED(r,"LED0", 1);
        % Pause for 0.5 seconds
        pause(0.5);
        % Turn off the LED
        writeLED(r,"LED0", 0);
        % Pause for 0.5 seconds
        pause(0.5);
    end
end

  3. Create the hardware configuration object. 

    board = targetHardware('Raspberry Pi')
    board =
 
targetHardware with properties:
 
               Name: 'Raspberry Pi'
      DeviceAddress: '00000000a9f2c18c'
           Username: ''
           Password: ''
           BuildDir: '/home/matlabrpi'
    EnableRunOnBoot: 0
        BuildAction: 'Build, load, and run'
        CoderConfig: [1x1 coder.CodeConfig]

  4. Deploy the blinkLED function on the Raspberry Pi. Deployment can take a few minutes.

    deploy(board, 'blinkLED');

Communicate with Raspberry Pi Hardware Using Connected IO in Simulink Online

In Simulink Online, you can use connected IO to communicate with the input-output peripherals on the Raspberry Pi hardware board during normal mode simulation. For more information on connected IO, see Communicate with Hardware Using Connected IO.

This section demonstrates the connected IO workflow in the Build and Deploy Your First Simulink Model to Raspberry Pi example. You can use the same steps for any example in the blockset.

  1. In the MATLAB Command Window, run this command to open the Simulink model.

    openExample('raspberrypi_gettingstarted')

  2. On the Modeling tab of the Simulink model, in the Setup section, click Model Settings.

  3. In the Configuration Parameters dialog box, ensure that the Hardware board parameter is set to Raspberry Pi.

  4. Select Target hardware resources > Board Parameters and enter the Device Name.

  5. In the Connected I/O section, ensure that the Communication Interface parameter is set to Internet.

  6. Click Apply > OK.

  7. On the Hardware tab of the Simulink model, in the Mode section, select Connected IO.

  8. In the Run on Computer section of the Simulink model, click Run with IO. During simulation, observe that the LED on the Raspberry Pi board blinks with a time period of 1 second.

Deploy Simulink Model on Raspberry Pi Hardware from Simulink Online

In Simulink Online, you can build and deploy a Simulink model on your Raspberry Pi hardware board.

This section demonstrates the deployment workflow in the Build and Deploy Your First Simulink Model to Raspberry Pi example. You can use the same steps for any example in the blockset.

  1. In the MATLAB Command Window, run this command to open the Simulink model.

    openExample('raspberrypi_gettingstarted')

  2. On the Modeling tab of the Simulink model, in the Setup section, click Model Settings.

  3. In the Configuration Parameters dialog box, ensure that the Hardware board parameter is set to Raspberry Pi.

  4. Select Target hardware resources > Board Parameters and enter the Device Name.

  5. Click Apply > OK.

  6. On the Hardware tab of the Simulink model, in the Mode section, select Run on board.

  7. In the Deploy section of the Simulink model, click Build, Deploy & Start. The generated code is built on the Raspberry Pi hardware and runs automatically. Observe that the LED on the board blinks with a time period of 1 second.

See Also

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