Propeller HAT will get you flying in the world of microcontrollers; whether you’re just learning the ropes, or using it as an integral part of your home automation project.

We’ve brought the much adored Parallax Propeller microcontroller to the Raspberry Pi in an experimentation-friendly HAT format that includes a mini breadboard for prototyping and breaks out a whole array of signals from both Pi and Propeller.

Ideal for servo twiddling, robot building, IO-expanding, VGA driving, or rockin’ to classic tunes with sound chip emulators like SIDcog. Parallax’s Object Exchange is packed with code examples and libraries: http://obex.parallax.com/

Features:

• Stonkin’ 8-Core Micro handles menial IO tasks for your Pi
• 30 general purpose IO pins controllable by any of the 8 cores
• Easy to program using the Pi-compatible Propeller IDE and SPIN language
• On-board 170pt breadboard for hosting your experiments
• Breaks out Pi SPI, I2C and 15 other pins
• Fully open-source hardware, right down to the microcontroller!
• Supplied as a kit with female headers

Supplied as a kit – Male or female headers, it’s a tough choice and there’s a good case for both. We’ve bundled Propeller HAT with a 170pt breadboard and female headers, but left them un-soldered and un-stuck so you can choose what fits you best. That does mean, however, that soldering is required!

Built around the Parallax Propeller – Propeller HAT hosts the powerful 8-core Propeller microcontroller from Parallax. It connects it to your Pi’s serial port for programming, and breaking out its 30 remaining pins for general IO use.

Fully programmable on the Pi – All the tools you need to program Propeller HAT will run on the Raspberry Pi. From Propeller IDE, the software you need to write SPIN code, to OpenSpin, the compiler, and p1load, the loader.

Python IO library – We’ve created a collection of Python IO library examples. Just import them into Python and instantly transform your Propeller HAT into a 30-pin IO expander or PWM driver.

Learn microcontroller and multi-core programming – using SPIN, the native language of the Propeller, you can learn how to make a microcontroller do your bidding. We’ve written step-by-step tutorials to get you acquainted with the basics.

Fully open-source – The Propeller is open source; from the tools used to program it, right down to the code describing the hardware itself: http://www.parallax.com/microcontrollers/propeller-1-open-source

See Pimoroni’sGitHub repository for software, examples and tutorials: https://github.com/pimoroni/propeller-hat