Hats

Raspberry Pi Hat - “Hardware attached on top” (HAT) is a new hardware specification for add-one modules for the new Raspberry Pi model B+. You can find out many Oi HATS such as SmartElex GSM/GPRS/GNSS Bluetooth, GPS, DC Motor Driver, Power Over Ethernet, TV, and Sense.

Compared to older add-on modules for the Raspberry Pi like No soldering,HATs have several advantages  just plug it onto the Raspberry Pi, Robust mechanical design, etc.

Raspberry Pi Hat

For learning and experimentation, the Raspberry Pi is  a great  platform. With this platform one can learn how to code, build robots, monitor satellites in orbit andmany more things. It helps to have the right HAT (hardware attached on top), but to make the most of the Pi. Connected to the Raspberry Pi’s set of 40 GPIO pins, and  HATs add functionality such as lights, motors, sensors and fans,  as these are expansion boards.

With any model of Pi that has 40 pins, thousands of Raspberry Pi HATs on the market will work which is every model launched from 2014, though  to the Pi Zero there will be need to connect the GPIO pins

You will also need a breakout connector,  such as Pimoroni's HAT Hacker HAT, if you intend to use a HAT with the new Raspberry Pi 400

Below, we’ve listed the best Raspberry Pi HATs based on use case, to help you make the choice. for everything from general learning to building arcade cabinets or implementing A.I., these expansion boards can be used, check out below:

Raspberry Pi HAT Shopping Tips

There are few questions we have mentioned below that one must ask before busing the Pi HATS:

What is HAT?  What is its working mechanism? 

How can the HAT be programmed? Is it user friendly? Does it come with a Python module? Can it be programmed in another language? Is there documentation to support your learning?

Does the HAT use all your pins?  Allowing a pass-through, most Raspberry Pi HATs physically cover all 40 GPIO pins, so you can use many of those pins with other devices or even another HAT stacked on top of the first one.

Best Raspberry Pi HATs at a glance:

·         Pimoroni Explorer HAT Pro

·         Adafruit BrainCraft HAT

·         Pimoroni IO Expander

·         Pimoroni Picade X

·         Raspberry Pi Sense HAT

·         Pimoroni Breakout Garden

·         Raspberry Pi PoE HAT

·         Google AIY Voice HAT

·         Cyntech Pibrella

·         Adafruit Perma-Proto HAT

·         Adafruit Capacitive Touch HAT

With four mounting holes, a HAT is a rectangular board (65x56mm)  in the (nicely rounded) corners that align with the mounting holes on the B+, has the special autoconfiguration system and  a 40W GPIO header and supports that allows automatic GPIO setup and driver setup. Using 2 dedicated pins (ID_SD and ID_SC) on the 40W B+ GPIO header that are reserved for an I2C EEPROM the automatic configuration is achieved. GPIO setup and a thing called a ‘device tree‘ fragment, the EEPROM holds the board manufacturer information,  basically a description of the attached hardware that allows Linux to automatically load the required drivers.

Final Thought

Above mentioned are the detailed information about the Raspberry Pi Hat, with the helps of these Pi Hats you can improve the functionality and working process. you can also check out distinctive Pi Hats, and make the better choice, along with it go through its working mechanism mentioned above in detail.