Bare Conductive is one of those cool things we love to see stuff made with. The conductive paint can be used in some amazing creative builds and we love seeing people make things with it and post pictures and videos online.
To expand the uses of the paint, Bare Conductive the company has created its own special HAT for the Raspberry Pi, called the Pi Cap. HAT, Cap? The name is a bit more than just a pun, as one of the board’s most interesting features is the addition of capacitive touch buttons/pads. We’ll get to that, though – first, let’s talk about the design.
The full article can be found in The MagPi 52 and was written by Rob Zwetsloot.
The Pi Cap works very much like a standard HAT, sitting on top of your Raspberry Pi and granting you immediate access to more functions through the use of special software. Unlike most HATs, it hangs over the sides of the Raspberry Pi, though this is a deliberate design choice which allows easier access to some of its features. While it’s designed with the Pi Zero in mind (the parts of the board that don’t overhang fit snugly over the Zero’s form factor), it will work on any other Pi model with a 40‑pin GPIO.
The board comes pre-soldered so you can use it out of the box. You can put it straight onto a Raspberry Pi from there, although this does require some degree of software setup. The process is well documented on the website, and you should be able to get it all set up within half an hour.
Internet of caps
With the Pi Cap on and ready to use, you have access to the aforementioned capacitive touch pads. These are the large gold connectors on the long edge, which can also be used to connect to wires and which are ideal for painting on with the Bare Conductive paint. Next to these is a large prototyping area with a GPIO breakout. There’s also a physical button and an RGB LED attached to the board.
It’s all really quite appealing. It adds a decent amount of useful functionality for education and for creating some interesting projects (you can find Capong in issue 51, but there are others on the firm’s website under Suggested Tutorials). We especially like the little breakout area, which is useful in any project. However, the capacitive pads are also excellent and the slightly larger holes in the connectors make them pretty good for wearables as well.
Programming the Cap is pretty simple and you can do so in a number of languages, including the standard Python and C++, although you can also control it via Processing. Again, refer to our Capong tutorial from last issue for a sneak peek into how that works. There’s also an interactive introduction and examples that come with the code so you can try some lower-barrier-to-entry tests; they’re enough to get your head around what’s going on at least.
Thinking cap
We do like the build of the Pi Cap. It’s very robust and high-quality, possibly even more sturdy than the Pis themselves, which is quite the accomplishment. All the components are very small and have a very small form factor, meaning you will be unlikely to snap them off easily. There’s even a high-quality audio jack installed on the board – it’s perfect for the Pi Zero and is a little better than the 3.5mm jack on the Pi 3 as well.
We’d love to see an activity kit come with the Pi Cap in the future, with some components and perhaps a book to get you started with some fun projects. At the moment, though, it’s still a pretty great board on its own, and maybe something to look into with Christmas coming up.
Last word
4/5
A neat little board with a lot of potential, adding some fairly unique features to the Pi. It would be better in a kit, but it’s still great in its own right.
