Raspberry Pi Shutdown / Restart Button

I'm helping to build some crazy singing Tesla coils for Burning Man, and we're having trouble with our controllers, so I've researched how to set up a script that runs in the background and can shut down or restart the Pi. This should help prevent data corruption (hopefully!). It's super quick and easy!

Wiring the button(s)

Grab a momentary switch (push button) and cut a female-female jumper wire in half. Strip the cut ends, and solder them to the button's terminals. Place these female connectors on pin 18 and a GND pin.

If you want separate "shut down" and "reboot" buttons, do this twice, and place the second one on pin 23 and another GND pin.

Writing the code

We're going to follow, modify, and add to this tutorial by Inderpreet Singh.

Do everything he says about creating the Scripts folder and the shutdown_pi.py file. However, we're going to modify it a bit:

#!/bin/python 
# Simple script for shutting down the raspberry Pi at the press of a button. 
# by Inderpreet Singh 
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO  
import time  
import os  
# Use the Broadcom SOC Pin numbers 
# Setup the Pin with Internal pullups enabled and PIN in reading mode. 
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)  
GPIO.setup(18, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down = GPIO.PUD_UP)  
GPIO.setup(23, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down = GPIO.PUD_UP)
# Our function on what to do when the button is pressed 
def Shutdown(channel):  
   os.system("sudo shutdown -h now")  
def Restart(channel):
   os.system("sudo shutdown -r now")
# Add our function to execute when the button pressed event happens 
GPIO.add_event_detect(18, GPIO.FALLING, callback = Shutdown, bouncetime = 2000)  
GPIO.add_event_detect(23, GPIO.FALLING, callback = Restart, bouncetime = 2000) 
# Now wait! 
while 1:  
   time.sleep(1) 

All we've done here is add the Restart code, in case you wanted it.

Next, to make it auto-run, I found that it was unclear where to place the extra Python code in the rc.local file. So, after saving and exiting, go to:

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

And then place this line *before the final exit 0 *:

python /home/pi/Scripts/shutdown_pi.py &

(You apparently don't need the sudo here, either, since rc.local runs as root.)

...Annnd, ta-dah! You're done! Save and quit. To test this, go run

sudo shutdown -r now

in your console, wait for it to reboot, and test your button-pushing skills. I bet you're a pro. Here's a testing video, just for fun: