Question 8.19: You want to know how to use a Humble Pi prototyping board....

The Humble Pi (Figure 8-15) is a prototyping board rather than an interface board like the PiFace (Recipe 8.16) or RaspiRobot board (Recipe 10.8). In other words, it does not include any electronics—it is designed for you to solder your own components to a prototyping area.

A neat feature of the Humble Pi is that it has a special area of the board where you can attach a DC barrel socket, voltage regulator, and associated capacitors. Ciseco, the maker of the board, also sells a suitable regulator and capacitor kit.

Discussion

The board design has a grid of holes at a pitch of the standard 0.1 inch used by most through-hole components, including DIL ICs. You solder components to the board by pushing the leads through the holes at the top and soldering the connections underneath.

If you have not soldered before, check out a few YouTube videos to get the basic idea.

Holes contained within a white rectangle are connected together by tracks on the PCB, and the board is organized with central power lines, one connected to GND and one that can be bridged to 5V or 3.3V on the Raspberry Pi or to the output of the optional voltage regulator.

On either side of these central power lines are rows comprising groups of three connections. This gives plenty of room for DIL ICs, either accross the central power lines or on either side.

Having soldered the components into place, you will need extra wires to link everything. These can be run on the bottom of the board or the top, or both if the design is complicated.

In any case, it is a good idea to plan out the layout before you start soldering.

See Also

There is more information about this product at the Ciseco website.

The Pi Plate from Adafruit is a similar design to the Humble Pi (Recipe 8.20).