SparkFun Launches Stackable and Interchangeable Boards for Your Raspberry Pi

While scrolling through our Twitter feed, we stumbled upon a tweet from our friends at SparkFun announcing a new line of products. And just in time for Pi Day, too! Pi-Plates is a family of stackable and interchangeable circuit boards that enable you to interact with the outside world using your Raspberry Pi.

Every Pi-Plate packs a robust set of features at minimal cost while using the fewest pins possible on the RPi header. The boards are also mechanically and electrically compatible with all revisions of the Raspberry Pi with 40-pin headers, including the Pi 3 and Pi Zero.

First up is the DAQCplate (Data Acquisition and Controller), which adds a rich set of input/output options. It boasts seven powerful digital outputs for driving external devices such as relays and high-current LEDs, as well as eight analog-to-digital inputs for measuring temperature, voltage, humidity and more. Aside from that, there are eight digital inputs, two analog outputs, and seven general-purpose indicator LEDs.

Next, the MOTORplate brings a suite of professional motion control capabilities to your Pi. These plates can each control a combination of two stepper motors, four DC motors or one stepper, and two DC motors. An onboard microprocessor handles the heavy lifting, like acceleration trajectories and microstepping. By offloading these functions, your Pi is free to perform other tasks.

Last but not least is the RELAYplate, a relay board designed to meet the safety requirements of UL 60950 while being capable of switching 120 volts AC. Each of the seven relays is UL rated to switch 1 Amp at 120 volts AC or 30 volts DC. And, just like SparkFun’s Pi-Plates, you can stack these boards to increase your relay count to 56 using eight plates. The RELAYplate is compatible with the DAQCplate and MOTORplate, allowing you to create the perfect stack of boards to control your next project.

Sound like just the thing you’ve been looking for? You can delve deeper into the Pi-Plates specs and order yours today on SparkFun!