Electronics DIY firm Adafruit is adding its own specialtwist to the coveted $25 Raspberry Pi computer, announcing its own PrototypingPi Plate Kit, to enable tinkerers to try their hands at homemade embeddedprojects.
The Pi Plate can snap onto the Pi PCB to offer users allkinds of prototypes to use with their mini-linux machine, including the abilityto wire up DIP chips, sensors, and more.
Raspberry Pi, a single-board computer developed in the UK bythe Raspberry Pi Foundation with the intention of stimulating the teaching ofbasic computer science in schools, only recently began shipping and has seen ahuge surge of interest from electronics hobbyists and professionals alike.
Adafruit said it had divided the prototyping area up so asto offer one half "breadboard" style and the other"perfboard" style.
Adafruit has also made it easy to connect up to the boardwith all the GPIO/I2C/SPI and power pins along the edges of the prototype areabroken out to 0.1-inch strips. The firm said all of the pins were alsoconnected to 3.5-mm screw-terminal blocks, making it simpler tosemi-permanently wire in things like sensors and LEDs.
With the little space left, Adafruit also added an SOICsurface mount chip breakout area, for those chips that don't come in DIPformat.
"The nice thing about this plate is we're getting customheader breakouts that are taller than usual, so that the proto plate sits abovethe metal connectors, out of the way and allows for plenty of workspace," said Adafruiton its website, adding that it had stackable header kits for those interestedin adding multiple plates, too.
Unfortunately, Adafruit says it is still testing the platewith Raspberry Pi and will only release it once it has been thoroughly putthrough its paces. Pricing on the plate has also yet to be set, but willhopefully not far outstrip the low-cost ARM GNU/Linux Raspberry Pi box itself.
This story was originally posted by EETimes.
