Prototype Raspberry Pi with the Prototyping Pi Plate

Raspberry Pi Linux computer, that little thing that has been getting more attention than anyone had expected, has begun to see compatible accessories cropping up. 

Adafruit, an electronics component maker, has introduced the Prototyping Pi Plate, a PCB (printed circuit board) that can be installed on top of the Raspberry Pi and interface with its headers. 

Half of the prototyping area is “breadboard” style and the other is in the “perfboard” style. 

What's more, all the GPIO/I2C/SPI and power pins are broken out to 0.1 inches and there are custom tall header breakouts along the edges. 

Basically, the Prototyping Pi Plate is supposed to help owners make those embedded computing projects the Raspberry Pi was made for. 

Sure, the credit-card-sized PC got media attention for other things, like its ability to turn any TV into a SMART TV (assuming it has HDMI), but programming was the original purpose of the invention. 

“The nice thing about this plate is we're getting custom header breakouts that are taller than usual, so that the proto plate sits above the metal connectors, out of the way and allows for plenty of workspace. We'll have stackable header kits as well for those who want to put multiple plates on top,” Adafruit says. 

“On the edges of the prototyping area, all of the pins are also connected to 3.5mm screw-terminal blocks. This makes it easy to semi-permanently wire in sensors, LEDs, etc. Finally, we had a little space remaining over the metal connectors so we put in an SOIC surface mount chip breakout area, for those chips that don’t come in DIP format.” 

Adafruit does not have the Prototyping Pi Plate up for order anywhere yet. It wants to see how many people are interested in it before committing to anything. If you're among those who want this project to become a reality, all you have to do is go to this page and sign up.

Posted in: Hardware, Preview