The Raspberry Pi is a nice little board, but in some cases you may want to add some extra ports. Suptronics released the X100 expansion board for Raspberry Pi Model B last year, and they’ve now come up with a little monster called X200 expansion board for Raspberry Pi Model B+ which adds Wi-Fi, a real-time clock + battery, a VGA port, optical S/PDIF output, 3.5 mm mic and audio jack, servo support (ULN2803), and a few USB ports to the low cost board.
Key features of X200 expansion board:
- Input Voltage – 6V to 21Vdc converted to 5V, 3A via step-down DC/DC converter to power the Raspberry Pi.
- VGA output – HDMI to VGA converter supporting up to UXGA (1600×1200) and 1080p with 10-bit DAC
- Audio – 3.5mm MIC in jack, 3.5mm stereo audio jack, S/PDIF output, audio I/O connector (Microphone input and stereo audio amplifier 3.3Wx2)
- Connectivity – WiFi 802.11b/g/n with antenna
- USB – Self-powered USB hub with 4 ports (3 usable)
- Servo support – 8-channel Darlington driver chip (ULN2803) allowing to control electronic circuits which require more current.
- I/Os – 40-pin Raspberry Pi header (male and female), CSI header for camera
- Misc – IR sensor (38KHz), RTC based on DS3231SN with included CR2032 battery, DIP switch to remove connection from RPi’s pin header
- Power – 5V DC jack
- Dimensions – 85 x 56mm (Same size as Raspberry Pi)
The expansion board is directly connected on top of the Raspberry Pi using the board 40-pin GPIO header pins. X200 is compatible with Raspberry Pi Model B+, but you may also be able to use it with the recently released Raspberry Pi Model A+ by using a short USB cable if you want to make use of the extra USB ports. You can find more information, including instructions to build the RTC drivers and control the servo with WiringPi, on the company’s X200 product page.
For more detail: Suptronics X200 Raspberry Pi Model B+ Expansion Board Adds Wi-Fi, RTC, VGA, optical S/PDIF, USB ports, Servo Support, and More
