Chapter 16
Add-On Hardware
THE RASPBERRY PI is more than a single-board computer; it's an entire ecosystem. The Pi's low cost, ready availability, and onboard expansion headers have sparked an explosion of creativity in which engineers and enthusiasts from around the world have built hundreds of add-on devices compatible with the Pi, many of which connect through the multifunction general-purpose input/output (GPIO) header.
As well as these third-party accessories, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has designed, produced, and released a range of first-party add-ons designed to expand the capabilities of the Raspberry Pi. Some of these – such as the Raspberry Pi Camera Module and the Raspberry Pi Wi-Fi Adapter – have been discussed earlier in this book. The remainder are covered in this chapter, complete with instructions for their installation and use.
At the time of writing, the Foundation has released the following add-on hardware for the Raspberry Pi:
- Universal Raspberry Pi power supply—Provides high-quality power for any model or Raspberry Pi or other micro-USB device; see Chapter 2, “Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi”.
- Raspberry Pi Wi-Fi adapter—Used to add wireless networking capabilities to a Raspberry Pi via a USB port; see Chapter 5, “Network Configuration”.
- Raspberry Pi Zero adapter kit—Converts the Pi Zero's micro-USB OTG and mini-HDMI ports into their full-size equivalents and provides male pin headers for soldering to the GPIO port; see Chapter 14, “The GPIO Port”. ...
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