ValueError: The channel sent is invalid on a Raspberry Pi - Controlling GPIO Pin 2 (BOARD) using Python causes Error

python raspberry-pi raspbian gpio
Georgi Angelov picture Georgi Angelov · Jun 15, 2014 · Viewed 35.4k times · Source

So I have a tiny little fan connected to pin 6(Ground) and pin 2. I am trying to manually start and stop the fan when needed but I am getting this error when trying:

ValueError: The channel sent is invalid on a Raspberry Pi

Here is my code that I am executing as root. It seems to be working on other pins but not Pin 2

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BOARD)

GPIO.setup(2, GPIO.OUT, pull_up_down=GPIO.PUD_UP)

I am not sure how to access this pin. Is there something I am doing wrong?

Answer

Jesus Cepeda picture Jesus Cepeda · Sep 2, 2014

It could be something stupid, i was looking exacty the same. It seems there are two modes in the GPIO. Change GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BOARD) to 

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)

It worked for me on a clean installation of Raspbian

Related questions

Using FTDI D2XX drivers with Python from Raspberry Pi on raspbian soft-float

We have a USB device controlled by FTDI's D2XX drivers. It's currently controlled from a Windows machine via a Python interface and as a fun project I tried moving the control to a Raspberry Pi (about 1/10th the cost …

Read More
How to install Python 3.5 on Raspbian Jessie

I need to install Python 3.5+ on Rasbian (Debian for the Raspberry Pi). Currently only version 3.4 is supported. For the sources I want to compile I have to install: sudo apt-get install -y python3 python-empy python3-dev python3-empy python3-nose …

Read More
yowsup - Integrating sending and receiving

Background: I would like to integrate yowsup to my home automation project. I have seen a simple sample on how to receive messages and after some minor changes it is working fine. Issue: My problem starts when it comes to …

Read More