Elevating Sense HAT

Discussion Raspberry Pi
1

I presume I could avoid all this by purchasing a Black HAT Hack3r, but am I right in thinking that I could put a 10mm 2x20 pin GPIO header on a Pi 2 and then place the Sense HAT on top so that I could then access the GPIO pins? I want to be able to put wires on them so that I can use the button functionality of the Sense HAT etc. If that’s correct, what standoff should I then purchase to go with this setup? Do you have longer versions of the ones that came with the Sense HAT?

David

2

By “button functionality” do you mean the Joystick? I believe it’s wired up to the AVR on the Sense HAT (not connected directly to the GPIO).

You could use a Black HAT Hack3r and detect the Joystick using the Sense HAT driver/code library then update GPIO pin states to reflect it though I suppose!

3

Not the Joystick. I’ve been looking at the resources on the AstroPi website and to be able to do some of them I need to be able to plug female - male wires from the bottom six GPIO pins into a breadboard (that’s off the top of my head - can’t see the resource at the moment). My thought was to put the Sense HAT onto the taller pins so that they would stick through and I could then attach the wires. Not looked at the joystick yet :)

4

An extended header or Black HAT Hack3r should do the job then!

5

Excellent! Is there a standoff that goes with the extended header?

6

We don’t have any standoffs that tall I’m afraid! I suppose you could screw a couple of standoffs into each other to extend them in height?

7

Ah - looks like the Black HAT then :)

8

All ordered. Thanks Jon :)

9

Hi,

Can I just confirm that a Black HAT would suit my needs please?
I have a Pi zero that I want to connect two GPIO devices to, neither of which have passthrough pins.
One is a SENSE Hat, the other is a Infra-red sender.

I can’t think of any other way I can connect two separate devices to the GPIO on the zero.

Thanks!

10

It’s not impossible to use a Black HAT for this purpose but connecting more than one add-on board is not exactly what it was designed for.

There are 3 sets of header pins 2x20, if you elevate the middle one then you could attach the Sense HAT there and your other board on the one normally meant to host the add-on board (the side towards the writing).

That said it depends on the physical presentation of your IR and its exact position.