Astro-Pi HAT + UART?

[ryan88]

I ordered an Astro-Pi HAT from the swag store on Wednesday and it arrived this morning. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but I did notice that I do not have access to any of the gpio pins. I know that the HAT uses some of them, but I really need to be able to use the HAT and the UART at the same time. Is this possible?

[ShiftPlusOne]

Certainly. You can get an extension header with long pins which stick out through the HAT.

The site seems to be down right now, but search for REF-182684-02 on http://www.toby.co.uk/

[ryan88]

Certainly. You can get an extension header with long pins which stick out through the HAT.

The site seems to be down right now, but search for REF-182684-02 on http://www.toby.co.uk/

So is the header that comes on the board removable? Then you replace it with the extension header?

[ShiftPlusOne]

Certainly. You can get an extension header with long pins which stick out through the HAT.

The site seems to be down right now, but search for REF-182684-02 on http://www.toby.co.uk/

So is the header that comes on the board removable? Then you replace it with the extension header?

Yes, you get a header that sits between the Pi and the HAT, and lifts the HAT high enough to clear the connectors. The standard one has short pins which don't stick out through the HAT. Toby has those ones, but also ones with extended pins which poke out through and let you use GPIO pins normally (as long as they're not already in use). You can swap between them quite easily.