CarPiHat Offers Multi-Feature Interfaces Between Your Raspberry Pi and Any 12V Vehicle System
HAT-standard board includes 12-5V buck converter, opto-isolated inputs, two high-current 12V outputs, CAN bus, and more.
Automotive engineering fan TJD has launched a new add-on for the Raspberry Pi and compatible single-board computers designed to make it easier to integrate them into vehicle projects: the CarPiHat.
"I designed this board to help with my OpenAutoPro install, which is an automotive head unit based around the Raspberry Pi," TJD explains of the project. "This board augments the pi, allowing easy interfacing to a car, or any 12V based system! (board, truck, simulator right, etc!)"
"The board follows the standard HAT [Hardware Attached on Top] format, including an EEPROM for autoconfiguration of some of the device tree overlays. All connections are made using latching Molex nanofit connectors."
The compact board includes a fused and filtered 12V-5V buck converter for the Raspberry Pi and optional touchscreen interface, safe shutdown circuitry, opto-isolated reverse, illumination, and axillary inputs plus two additional general-purpose inputs, two high-current high side switched 12V outputs at 1A, an independent CAN bus port, real-time clock, and breakouts for I2C and One-Wire interfaces.
For those looking to build a bigger project, the kit includes lengthy header pins to allow additional hardware to stack on top: Several of the Raspberry Pi's GPIO pins are kept spare, including those responsible for I2S — meaning it's possible to use both the CarPiHat and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for audio purposes.
The CarPiHat is now available on TJD's Tindie store, priced at $80.