VM-CLAP1 👏 sensor + gpiozero on Raspberry Pi

Last week I wrote about how easy it was to interface the Verbal Machines VM-CLAP1 sensor to an Arduino: Clap on 👏👏, Clap off 👏👏 . This week, I thought I'd show you how to use it with a Raspberry Pi.

Since the sensor is an open collector type — that is, it sinks current when triggered — it behaves like a simple button to gpiozero, the Raspberry Pi Python GPIO library. If you attach a callback function to the sensor’s when_pressed event, your Python script will call that function every time it registers a clap.

The wiring is as simple as it could be:

 VM-CLAP1: Raspberry Pi:
 ========= =============
      GND → GND
      PWR → 3V3
      OUT → GPIO 4

This example code just prints clap! when the board picks up a 👏:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 
# Raspberry Pi gpiozero test for
# Verbal Machines VM-CLAP1 clap sensor
#   scruss - 2017-06
#
# Wiring:
#
#  VM-CLAP1:    Raspberry Pi:
#  =========    =============
#    GND     →   GND
#    PWR     →   3V3
#    OUT     →   GPIO 4
 
from gpiozero import Button
from signal import pause
 
def clapping():
        print("clap!")
 
clap = Button(4)
clap.when_pressed = clapping
pause()

This is a trivial example, but at least it shows that anything you can do with a button, you can also do with this hand-clap sensor.

(This article first appeared on the author's personal blog.)