A super simple thing, but useful, & spectacularly well made
For Proto Pi HAT
Yes, it's a minimalist product, but that's what you want and what you're buying.
When I received this, I had to get out a loupe to admire it. Honestly, I did.
It feels like a circuit board manufactured by Cartier jewellers.
Also, I can't believe it pays to ship it from India included in the price, arrived in 6 days (less than 5 working days).
Room for improvement?
It would be nice also to have a deluxe version which also came with:
- 4 short nylon set-off spacer screws to hold it at the just right height for those who want to solder it straight to the Pi B+, around 6mm.
Length is critical: too long and the Pi pins won't solder well, too short and it won't clear the Pi's HDMI socket.
- A slide-on 40 pin header for the B+ to which the proto could be soldered, for those who want the proto to be removable, and
- 4 longer nylon set-off spacer screws to hold it at the right height for those who use the removable header, around 11mm
That would make it easy to build several different variants and switch among them.
Most people don't want to solder directly to their Pi.
I guess a token documentation sheet would be nice, though it's barely needed.
Just enough to point out that the 40 Pi pins are duplicated to the same positions in the next two rows of the proto board,
and that otherwise the pins are all isolated (this is not a rows-connected-on-top, columns-connected-on-bottom breadboard,
as the silkscreen pattern might make you think at first glance)
Might be nice to have row (1-19) and column (A-Z) identification for the rows and columns in the silkscreen?
But really, I'm working hard to find room for improvement.
The product is fine, an outstandingly well made example of exactly what it says it is.
Response from Black Electronics | Dec. 30, 2014
Thank you so much for such an awesome review!
I'll incorporate the cons you mentioned in the next version.
Thank you again you made my day! :)
