The Raspberry Pi HATs

Raspberry Pi is a series of single-board computers being used by engineers, computer enthusiasts. It is the most popular single-board computer in the market. It has been featured in various movies and web series including Revolution, Mr. Robot, and Black Mirror, etc.

Raspberry Pi has a lot of projects build on it. Enthusiasts have used Raspberry Pi to create a server, hack into a network, home automation, robotics, and lots of other projects. 

Home automation projects are very basic projects made by embedded hobbyists. Home Automation implies very practical implementation of our theoretical knowledge. Controlling or automating LEDs, lights, fans, TV, etc at home is learning by doing with fun. 

SB Components has few must try Raspberry Pi shields and hats which makes getting started for you easier.

1. BreadPi

BreadPi is a Multipurpose HAT for Raspberry Pi made to reduce the problems faced during hardware interfacing of the Raspberry Pi with sensors or other devices. It may be confusing for a person to find the right pin on the board, if we make wrong connections we might blow up the Raspberry Pi. To avoid the connection mesh and provide ADC|DAC functionalities on the Raspberry Pi, BreadPi is the best choice.

BreadPi also provides basic I/O components like LEDs, Momentary Switches, and a Buzzer on the board to ease testing. There are 4 channels for analog input and 1 channel for analog output. 3v3 and 5v compatible pins are also present on BreadPi for different IO device types.

BreadPi is the best choice for starters and hobbyists for testing and development purposes. 

More details on BreadPi are available at BreadPi Introduction.

Buy BreadPi - Multipurpose HAT for Raspberry Pi

2. Motorshield

Motorshield is a Raspberry Pi based shield which is used to drive motors. You cannot connect motors directly to the Raspberry Pi or other controllers as they consume more current. So we need a different power source for motors which can provide them enough current. For driving motors in both directions, we need an H-bridge. Motorshield solves both problems with an L293DD IC for H bridge, and a connector for providing enough power to the motors. The shield provides a PVT connector for external voltage to drive motors, and 4 pvt connectors to connect motors. There are 4 directional arrows which can be used as indicators, and pins for sensors.

Motorshield is an excellent product for robotic application on Raspberry Pi. Motors are widely used in embedded, and connecting them with your Raspberry Pi has a messy connection this shield is going to save you lots of time. 

Buy Motorshield for the Raspberry Pi

3. PiRelay 

PiRelay is a stackable relay shield for the Raspberry Pi. This shield provides easy way for the user to interact with the daily home appliances operating at high DC or AC voltage. PiRelay is useful to interface your Raspberry Pi with devices such as fan at our homes which operates at 220 volts AC. As you cannot plug Raspberry Pi’s GPIO directly into a high voltage DC or AC circuit, PiRelay provides an easy to use medium. PiRelay has customizable pins for Relay, LED indicators for relays, and high-quality connectors. PiRelay is tolerant for loads up to 240 VAC/7A or 125 VDC/10A and operates at 5 VDC.

PiRelay is the best suitable Raspberry Pi shield for Home Automation projects. PiRelay can also be controlled via android app.

Buy PiRelay - Relay Shield for Raspberry Pi

4.PiTalk

PiTalk is a customizable smartphone based on Raspberry Pi. PiTalk is for learners with intermediate knowledge of embedded systems. PiTalk has a GSM module that is used to turn Raspberry Pi into a Raspberry Pi smartphone. Along with a touchscreen display and an interactive GUI PiTalks is the first Raspberry Pi based smartphone. PiTalk is being used for learning, training, and home automation tasks. PiTalk along with PiRelay is being used as a remote controller for home appliances.

PiTalk is a very good product for electronics hobbyists. It is the open-source project so users can totally upgrade and customize the PiTalk.  

Buy PiTalk - Modular SmartPhone for Raspberry Pi