Use multiple SPIs on RPI (Raspberry Pi) 4B?

I am using a RPI 4B board to connect and use multiple SPI devices simultaneously. The RPI 4B board provides upto 6 SPI connections.

My question is that is it possible to switch between SPIs (for eg select SPI1, SPI2...) using MATLAB® Support Package for Raspberry Pi™?

I have already installed the "mathworks_raspbian_R21.1.0" image on the RPI and successfully booted the device. I am also able to connect to the device on the IP address. However, it only shows two CE {CE0, CE1} which I assume are only for SPI0 and there is no option to select SPI1 or others.

P.S. When connected to my RPI, the boardname is detected as "Raspberry Pi 2 Model B" instead of "Raspberry Pi 4 Model B", which I also don't understand why?

Answer 1

[Sylvain]

Hi Arish,

I faced the same issue and found that the Raspberry Pi is limited with GPIOs. Hence I am using microcontrollers to handle the SPI buses and bridge back to the Rpi using i2c. This works like a charm but require you to program microcontrollers.

An alternative would be to use the GPIO as CS lines, but you won't have a lot of them available. You could use a multiplexer for the SPI0 and SPI1 using an i2c intergrated circuit.

I learned the hard way the limitation of the RPi, PWM frequency capped to 8 kHz, only few GPIOs, and timing might be an issue (models running below 0.1s time step require some care).

No idea about why Rpi 4 is detected as Rpi 2, I just figured out I have the same issue:

[Arish Yaseen]

Hey Sylvain,

Thanks alot for the response.

I understand the logic behind your approach but if we have atleast 4 SPI lines available at the same time of the RPI 4 board, it would have been easier to just switch between them rather than using a single line and an additional multiplexer.

My question is how can we select our RPI to communicate on SPI1 or SPIx rather than SPI0 (which is by default)?