connecting sense hat

[sblair1290]

I just received my sense-hat after a long wait due to it being out of stock across all suppliers. The advice for assembling ( http://www.pi-in-the-sky.com/index.php? ... king-guide ) indicates using a stacking kit which I have ordered. On closer inspection the images seem to show that the PiTS board (after assembly to the Rasp Pi) has a set of male pins sticking up before the extending 'header' is attached to the aforementioned 'stacking header'. My problem is that my Pits board has female connections i.e. no pins sticking up. I thus have a Sense-hat with female connections on both sides and a PiTS board with female connections exposed and I have ordered a stacking kit that seems to consist of an extension/coupling component with female-male connections. Did I order the wrong type of extension kit? I would have thought that the PiTS board would be the same across all models.

thanks in advance,

Stuart

[Burngate]

... My problem is that my Pits board has female connections i.e. no pins sticking up...

When the Pits board is pushed down onto the stacking header, there should be enough of the header pins sticking up above the Pits board onto which the next header can attach.
If you haven't got that, there are three possibilities:
Either the header pins are to short,
Or the Pits hat isn't going down far enough,
Or I've misunderstood completely

[daveake]

Yes, this just needs a stacking kit - a header with long pins, and a set of standoffs/bolts to fix it all together.

The PITS board has a female GPIO connector, and is supplied with a normal short-pin header which is suitable for using the PITS on a Pi, but not suitable for adding a further board. The PITS add-on boards (APRS and LoRa boards) come with stacking kits, but for the Sense HAT you'll need to order a separate kit from a Pi supplier, ebay or wherever. This should come with a long-pin header, which goes right through the PITS connector, and can then have a standard (or further stacking) header connected. If you have a header which doesn't allow this, then it's not a stacking header.

Dave

[sblair1290]

Ok - we have actually connected the Pi to the sense hat and then to a touchscreen (it fits in the case). Not sure why my pupil did that - he likes mucking about! Everything powers up and the joystick can be used to navigate etc. Now to get the sensors giving us some data..... I think the initial idea was that the touchscreen would make a convenient and portable unit for bench testing the sense hat. We could program and make changes with the touchscreen giving our output.

Any comment?

Stuart