Another month, another robot board for your Raspberry Pi; this time we’re looking at the RoboHAT from 4tronix, basically a bigger version of the Picon Zero we looked at last issue. This board is designed to work with all 40-pin Raspberry Pis (so no original Model A or B, sadly) and as it’s a HAT, it attaches neatly on top of a compatible Raspberry Pi without hanging off the sides.

Like the Picon Zero, the RoboHAT comes with an amazing number of inputs, outputs, and general robot connections to make use of. It all comes presoldered on a very sturdy piece of PCB, so you’re ready to start using it right away. On the board are the requisite DC motor screw terminals; the RoboHAT comes with two, enabling it to control two motors. There’s a set of pins forconnecting the popular HC-SR04 ultrasonic distance sensor, and a mixture of ten input and output pins, along with a series of I2C breakout pins. It’s powered by a DC jack that can also handily power the Raspberry Pi while in use, cutting down on power inputs.

It’s all more spread out than on the Picon Zero, so the board becomes a bit less of a mess when everything is connected up and in use. There are also custom Python scripts and libraries to get it all working, making programming very easy. For example, importing the robohat module allows for robohat.forward() to move the robot forward. There are many examples included to get your head around how the library works, and they’re all very easily installed using the instructions on the 4tronix blog.

It’s a good board for novices and also some advanced users, allowing you to take the skills you may have learnt from a very simple kit and apply them to a custom project of your own design quite easily. It’s easy to find out which GPIO pin controls which aspect, so you can create further custom code if that’s your thing, making it fairly open and versatile. It’s also a pretty good price at only £20.

Last word

5/5

A well-designed robot HAT that works very well with the Raspberry Pi and many common robotics components. Definitely worth a look if you’re planning to advance your Raspberry Pi robotics.