The Gertboard is an add-on board designed by Gert van Loo who is also one of the hardware engineers involved in the original design of the Raspberry Pi. The board was originally sold by Farnell/Element14 in kit form but has just been re-launched as a fully assembled unit.
This may come as a disappoint to those people that wanted to solder their own boards but perhaps a relief to those that will be happy with a pre-built product.
The Gertboard plugs directly onto the Raspberry Pi GPIO header and provides a range of features and interfacing possibilities including :
- Drive powerful motors
- Detect switch presses
- Illuminate LEDs
- Drive relays.
- Detect and output analogue voltages
- Respond to external physical events
Specifications & Features
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- 12 x LED indicators
- 12 x buffered I/O
- 3 x momentary push buttons
- 6 open collector drivers (50V, 0.5A)
- 18V, 2A bi-directional motor controller
- 28-pin dual in line ATmega microcontroller
- 2-channel 8 bit Digital to Analogue converter
The product from Farnell/Element14 contains :
- 1 Gertboard (Fully assembled)
- 10 x strap cables
- 18 x jumpers
Photos
Here are some photos I took of my Gertboard, including the Farnell packaging :
User Manual
The Gertboard User Manual is available to download from Farnell/Element14. It was created by Gert van Loo and Myra VanInwegen. It explains the features of the board, how to configure it and provides some examples to get you started.
Possible Applications
- General electronics experiments
- Robots and motor control
- Sensor monitoring
- Security systems and alarms
For more detail: Gertboard – The Ultimate Raspberry Pi Add-on Board
