SparkFun Opens Pre-Orders for Machine Learning Top pHAT and Robotics Auto pHAT SBC Add-Ons
New family is designed for Raspberry Pi SBCs and GPIO-compatible alternatives including the Google Coral Dev Board and NVIDIA Jetson Nano.
SparkFun has announced a pair of new pHAT add-ons for single-board computers including the Raspberry Pi, NVIDIA Jetson Nano, and Google Coral Board: the SparkFun Top pHAT for machine learning projects, and the SparkFun Auto pHAT for robotics.
"While working with the newest development platforms on the market, we realised there weren't many options available that made Machine Learning easily interactive, or raised robotics to the level these development systems demand," claims Kirk Benell, SparkFun's chief technology officer, of the inspiration behind the new hardware. "We knew that we had the means to create unique solutions that can help bring out the true capabilities of your new Pi, Jetson, or Coral. The results of this effort are the two boards we're releasing today."
The first board, the SparkFun Top pHAT, aims at the machine learning enthusiast: The board includes a a microphone array and on-board speaker for voice interaction, a 2.4" colour TFT for graphical feedback, two programmable joysticks, a series of RGB LEDs, and a Qwiic I2C connector. While it's compatible with any single-board computer mimicking the Raspberry Pi 40-pin general-purpose input/output (GPIO) header, including the NVIDIA Jetson Nano and Google Coral Dev Board, those using it on a Raspberry Pi get a bonus feature: a power switch otherwise missing from the design of the SBC.
The SparkFun Auto pHAT, by contrast, is designed for robotics projects. The board includes the same Cypress 4245 PSoC and two-channel motor ports as used on SparkFun's Qwiic Motor Driver, offering 1.2A of peak steady-state and 1.5A peak drive per channel along with 127 levels of drive strength. An on-board ATtiny84A microcontroller adds support for two DC motor encoders, and a nine-degrees-of-freedom (9DoF) inertial measurement unit (IMU) is included and accessible via a Qwiic library. A USB Type-C port is also included for power input, which can also power the attached SBC.
The two pHATs are designed to be stackable, as part of a wider family of boards: The Auto pHAT includes stacking headers, meaning multiple pHAT boards can be connected to a single host SBC. The Top pHAT, however, does not - and is designed, as the name implies, to sit at the top of the board. SparkFun has confirmed it plans to launch another pair of pHAT designs by the end of the year.
"The main goal of SparkFun pHATs is to enable anyone to easily expand the capabilities of their single board computers - simply stack and build," explains SparkFun CEO Glenn Samala. "Whether prototyping a new product or working on an at-home project, the pHATs make your work more efficient and easy."
The new pHATs are now available to pre-order ahead of a May delivery, priced at $49.95 for the SparkFun Top pHAT and $29.95 for the SparkFun Auto pHAT.