Extensions for the Raspberry Pi
As people rushed to purchase a Raspberry Pi [1], many users developed additional circuit boards to support new applications. These user-created boards range from the simple to the complex, and many of the boards are now produced for the general public.
Companies have also gotten into the game of developing add-ons for the Raspberry Pi. As a result, solutions exist for almost every task, including a camera module that functions via sensors, control boards that assist with home automation, and even small sound cards. In this article, I look at some of the more popular and interesting add-ons, many of which can be purchased from sta ndard electronics stores (see Table 1 for an overview).
Attaching Extensions
Typically, hardware extensions are attached to the GPIO pins of the Raspberry Pi. Users connect the boards either with a flat ribbon cable or put the extensions directly on the Rasp Pi. The results give the appearance of a hardware sandwich. The Raspberry Pi Foundation even offers specifications for these kind of piggyback boards [2]. The specifications prescribe the use of an EEPROM chip for communicating how an extension uses the GPIO pins and the type of hardware that is on the board.
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