I have recently purchased some of these (http://shop.pimoroni.com/products/adafruit-capacitive-touch-hat-for-raspberry-pi-mini-kit-mpr121) for a school demonstration and, pre-emptively, the electronics technicians soldered on 2x20 hats for all of them when we only have one RPi which is a B+ (with 40 GPIO pins) and the rest are model B. The webpage states that I’d need to use 2x13 hats instead of the provided 2x20 hats, but would it be possible to just put the 2x20 hats on top of the pins on the RPi model B? Will it work or will I blow out my GPIO pins? Sorry in advance for being such a noob.
The 2x20 HATs should work fine on top of the RPi model B, just make sure you put it in the right place!
Looking down on the HAT, the 26pins (2x13) the Pi B and A models use are on the left-hand side. If you orient your Pi with the USB ports on the right and plug it down with the left-hand edges aligned then you’ll be fine.
What you might find, however, is that you can’t physically fit the HAT board on top of the A or B models- Adafruit suggest that an extra-tall, 26pin extended header is necessary. You might be able to plug one of these on top of the Pi B and then plug the HAT on top of that… it wouldn’t be very stable though!
So, if they will physically fit- give it a go, but make sure their left edges are aligned and you’re not plugging the 26-pins into the middle or right-hand of the header. If they wont physically fit then you’ll need to borrow some 26-pin extended headers if the electronics guys have them!
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Thanks! I’ll give that a go. I’m not optimistic about it physically fitting but it’s worth a shot.