# Adding "GPIO functionality" to the Opentrons (or other platforms)

**URL:** <https://accelerated-discovery.org/t/adding-gpio-functionality-to-the-opentrons-or-other-platforms/445>\
**Category:** Tools\
**Tags:** orchestration\
**Created:** [November 8, 2024, 8:25pm UTC](https://accelerated-discovery.org/t/adding-gpio-functionality-to-the-opentrons-or-other-platforms/445 "2024-11-08T20:25:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sgbaird](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex003/user_avatar/accelerated-discovery.org/sgbaird/32/341_2.png) [@sgbaird](https://accelerated-discovery.org/u/sgbaird)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2024, 4:27pm UTC](https://accelerated-discovery.org/t/adding-gpio-functionality-to-the-opentrons-or-other-platforms/445/2 "2024-11-09T16:27:10Z")

</div>

I lean towards setting up the Pico W and the OT-2 with MQTT. You can either use an external orchestrator that communicates with the OT-2 and Pico W (ideal), or use the OT-2 as the orchestrator to send commands to the Pico W.

If due to network/WiFi constraints, you can’t use a Pico W, a suitable alternative would be to get a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W (reasonable price) and connect it to eduroam/university WiFi/etc.

From what I can tell, even though a Raspberry Pi 3+ is at the core of the OT-2, the digital IO pins from the RPi don’t seem to be exposed.

@jeff.watchorn has experience integrating external devices with the OT-2 and may be able to shed some additional light.

I tend to shy away from _writing_ custom serial communication protocols and drivers usually intended only for Windows or MacOS. If it’s a “plug together”, download some code, and “here’s the Python API” setup, great - otherwise it can be pretty time intensive IMO. Setting up two independent devices for control via an external orchestrator is a compelling concept to me from a setup, robustness, and modularity standpoint, at least for when time synchronization on the order of 10’s of ms isn’t absolutely essential (see also [Improvements to the Digital Pipette - #8 by chattrick](https://accelerated-discovery.org/t/improvements-to-the-digital-pipette/236/8))

[https://support.opentrons.com/s/article/Integrating-the-OT-2-with-other-lab-equipment](https://support.opentrons.com/s/article/Integrating-the-OT-2-with-other-lab-equipment)

---

_[View the full topic](https://accelerated-discovery.org/t/adding-gpio-functionality-to-the-opentrons-or-other-platforms/445)._