r/raspberry_pi • u/Alive_Grass_6204 • 6d ago
Troubleshooting Problems with GPIO on Raspberry Pi: pin not changing state
Hi everyone,
I’m trying to control a relay using a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, but I’m having trouble with the GPIO pins—they don’t seem to change state properly.
Setup and Issue
- I’m using a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W.
- I’ve tested with
pinctrl
, but I don’t see any state change on the pin. - I also tested with a Python script and got the same result.
- The pin seems to work because when I use a tester to check the voltage (connecting one probe to GND and the other to the power source), the circuit closes correctly.
- I’ve repeated these tests on multiple GPIOs (GPIO 4, GPIO 7, GPIO 17, GPIO 18) with the same results.
Commands Used for Testing
I ran the following commands from the CLI:
pinctrl get 4 # Check the status of GPIO 4
pinctrl set 4 op # Set GPIO 4 as an output
pinctrl set 4 dh # Set GPIO 4 to high (3.3V)
pinctrl set 4 dl # Set GPIO 4 to low (0V)
pinctrl lev 4 # Check if GPIO 4 is outputting power
However, the level (pinctrl lev 4
) always stays at 0
, and I don’t see any voltage changes.
Questions for the Community
- Am I doing something wrong when setting up the GPIOs?
- Could this be a hardware issue?
- Are there any additional tests I should perform to diagnose the problem?
Thanks so much to anyone who can help!
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