Welcome to Pi4J

Latest release: V2.7.0 (2024-10-03, see Release Notes).

This project is intended to provide a friendly object-oriented I/O API and implementation libraries for Java Programmers to access the full I/O capabilities of the Raspberry Pi platform. This project abstracts the low-level native integration and interrupt monitoring to enable Java programmers to focus on implementing their application business logic.

If you immediately want to “dive” into Pi4J development, check these resources:

• Starters: Creating a single file application with JBang.
• Experienced Java developer: Creating an application with Maven or Gradle.

Brief History

The Pi4J Project was started in 2012, the same year the Raspberry Pi was introduced as a tool to provide Java developers a simple and familiar object-oriented interface library to access the low-level I/O capabilities of the Raspberry Pi including GPIO, I2C, SPI, PWM and Serial communications.

Project Mission/Goals

The Pi4J Project’s mission is to provide a rich and powerful, yet simple to use, Java-friendly API library enabling programmatic access to the low-level hardware I/O capabilities of embedded platforms such as the Raspberry Pi.

Project Status Summary

The Pi4j project has evolved in all these years as the whole Java eco-system and Raspberry Pi systems have been evolving.

This resulted in two main versions.

Version 1

The original library which started in 2012 and got a last release in 2021. Up till version 1.3 the library targets Java 8, while version 1.4 relies on Java 11.

More info is provided on “Previous versions (V.1)”.

Version 2

As of Version 2.0, Pi4J no longer includes support for peripheral devices and add-on chipsets/boards as part of the core project. A new plugin model has been introduced in version 2.0 that helps to enable third-party development and support third-party add-ons which can be developed and maintained independently of the core Pi4J project.

More info is provided on “What’s New (V.2)”.