Another (larger) Raspberry Pi Interface Board

Here is another somewhat larger interface shown connected to a switch unit and a 16 LED output board. As the Pi connector does not have 20 GPIO pins, three of the pins are shared and can be connected to be either input or output via tree links.

I designed the pin-out of this interface so that most of my Velleman projects can  be connected to it without alterations. The finished product provides four input lines and sixteen output lines.Another (larger) Raspberry Pi Interface Board The outputs are buffered by two ULN 2803 Darlington driver which can sink – with luck – 500mA with each output. The board connects to the Raspberry Pi via a parallel cable.

The circuit diagram is on the right.

GPIO pins 3 and 4 are internally connected to the 3.3V line by 1.8k transistors, so their protection is via two 3.3V zener diodes rather than two resistors as used for the other two input lines. The rest of the circuit is entirely conventional. The shared lines are GPIO 2,4 and 17.

A LED is connected to the 5V line to indicate power on. The draw file of a suggested PCB layout can be downloaded via the link below.Another (larger) Raspberry Pi Interface Board schematic

For those of you who don't use RISC OS, the draw file above will be of no use and I present a gif of the same design. This is of a lower resolution of course, but should do the job.
I heartily recommend RISC OS though, it's much more fun than Debian.

Finally, here is a circuit diagram.

 

For more detail: Another (larger) Raspberry Pi Interface Board


About The Author

Ibrar Ayyub

I am an experienced technical writer holding a Master's degree in computer science from BZU Multan, Pakistan University. With a background spanning various industries, particularly in home automation and engineering, I have honed my skills in crafting clear and concise content. Proficient in leveraging infographics and diagrams, I strive to simplify complex concepts for readers. My strength lies in thorough research and presenting information in a structured and logical format.

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