171 Pi: Maker Hat Base by Cytron (171.html)

Keywords:
"Maker Hat Base" Grove "IX Pi Library" "Raspberry Pi" Python MicroPython "Piezo buzzer" jumpers "GPIO pins" RPi

The Maker Hat Base by Cytron (US$ 9.90) attaches to the Pi-3, Pi-4 and Pi400 to facilitate experimentation with small electronic circuits. No view of the back side is known to be available. The 3rd Grove connector outputs are from GPIO12 and GPIO13 which are normally used as PWM output signal waveforms. The Maker Hat Base contains the following devices:

3 Grove ports ( I2C, UART, GPIO:12&13 )
GPIO pin headers IDC Socket
GPIO pin headers (all 40)(for Daisy-Chain or another HAT)
tiny breadboard (10x17 female holes) no pins pre-connected
GPIO breakout (female) with 28 status LEDs
5v0 power LED
3v3 power LED
1 buzzer (GPIO26)
4 buttons (GPIO17, 22, 23 and 27)
3v3 regulator to provide an additional 800mA of current to drive offboard devices

Three views of the Maker Hat Base are shown below. On the left we see the tiny breadboard that can optionally be stuck on the board using its adhesive backing. In the middle is the Maker Hat Base attached to the Pi400 with another HAT board plugged into the "extra" set of GPIO pins. On the right is the bare Maker Hat Base board.

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thumb: maker-hat-base-iso-512x512.png

Maker Hat Base (Top View)

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thumb: MakerHatBaseWithHAT.jpg

Maker Hat Base with HAT

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thumb: MakeBaseHat_ViewB.jpg

Maker Hat Base with HAT ViewB

Terminal commands to update the Raspberry Pi and Python3

Before attempting to run the Python program listed below, use Terminal to update your Pi as follows:

	sudo apt-get update
	
	sudo apt-get upgrade
	
	sudo apt-get install python3-pip

	sudo pip3 install --upgrade setuptools

Software for the Maker Hat Base

The following program loads the Adafruit software library written in CircuitPython .

Blinka program in CicuitPython

Blinka is Adafruit's CircuitPython library compatibility layer. It allows many of the libraries that were written for CircuitPython to run on CPython for Linux. To learn more about Blinka, you can check out our CircuitPython on Linux and Raspberry Pi guide in Source 4. The following Terminal commands download and run Blinka:

	cd ~
	sudo pip3 install --upgrade adafruit-python-shell
	wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/Raspberry-Pi-Installer-Scripts/master/raspi-blinka.py
	sudo python3 raspi-blinka.py

When it asks you if your would like to reboot, choose "Yes"
Check to see if I2C and SPI have been installed by running

	ls /dev/i2c* /dev/spi*

Its response should be

/dev/i2c-1 /dev/spidev0.0 /dev/spidev0.1

Blinka Test

Create a new file called blinkatest.py with nano or your favorite text editor and put the following in:

	import board
	import digitalio
	import busio
	
	print("Hello blinka!")
	
	# Try to [ed. create] a Digital input
	pin = digitalio.DigitalInOut(board.D4)
	print("Digital IO ok!")
	
	# Try to create an I2C device
	i2c = busio.I2C(board.SCL, board.SDA)
	print("I2C ok!")
	
	# Try to create an SPI device
	spi = busio.SPI(board.SCLK, board.MOSI, board.MISO)
	print("SPI ok!")
	
	print("done!")

Save it and run at the command line with