Pseudonymous maker “Retrocution” has launched an add-on for the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W single-board laptop that makes full use of the take a look at factors on its underside so as to add three full-size USB 2.0 ports plus analog audio and video outputs: the AV-USB.
“Whereas I used to be trying on the backside of the [Raspberry] Pi Zero 2 W and determining one of the simplest ways to wire a composite video cable into [its] little take a look at pad,” Retrocution explains of the board’s origin, “I spotted I might design a sandwich board that makes use of pogo pins to make all of the connections. I had seen different merchandise use this method earlier than, and it appeared just like the cleanest approach to preserve all the things compact with out having to solder.”
If the “single” a part of “single-board laptop” is not that necessary to you, the AV-USB dramatically boosts the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W’s connectivity. (📷; Retrocution)
The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W is a surprisingly succesful, low-cost, small-footprint single-board laptop — but it surely comes with a spread of trade-offs to get there, each in relation to its larger brethren and to rival SBC designs. It has just one USB port, and it is a micro-USB On-The-Go (OTG) port requiring an adapter to be used with full-size USB Kind-A units, and it lacks a connector for analog audio and video. The identical was true of its predecessor, however that not less than had an unpopulated through-hole header for composite video; the Raspberry Pi 2 W, nevertheless, eliminated this fully.
Whereas the header might have been moved to save lots of board house for different issues, although, the potential continues to be there — and nonetheless accessible, utilizing plated take a look at pads on the underside of the board. Retrocution’s AV-USB “sandwich” board takes benefit of each these and the typically-unpopulated 40-pin general-purpose enter/output (GPIO) header to offer three full-size USB Kind-A ports and a 3.5mm AV jack with stereo analog audio, generated by a Texas Devices PCM5102 sound chip, and composite video.
Because the board makes use of pogo-pins, there is no soldering: the AV-USB merely mounts beneath the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and screws into place, and in the event you resolve to repurpose it unscrews cleanly leaving each boards reusable.
Extra data is on the market on Retrocution’s weblog, together with a hyperlink to buy from a “small quantity” of boards at present produced at $19.99.
