X100 Raspberry Pi Expansion Board Adds VGA Output, RTC and More

Suptronics X100 is an expansion board that connects on top of the Raspberry Pi in order to add VGA output, RTC, four USB ports, a micro SD card slot, an RS232 DB9 connector, and an 8-channel servo port.

Key features of X100 expansion board:

 

• Input Voltage – 6V to 23V converted to 5V, 3A via step-down DC/DC converter to power the Raspberry Pi.
• VGA – HDMI to VGA converter supporting up to UXGA (1600×1200) and 1080p with 10-bit DAC
• USB – self-powered USB hub with 4 ports
• Storage – micro SD card reader
• RTC – NXP PCF2127AT / PCF2129AT with included CR2032 battery
• Debugging – RS232 DB9 connector (via MAX3232) to be used with a null-modem cable.
• I/Os – Reset switch for RPi reset, headers to access S1 & S5 on top of the Raspberry Pi
• Servo support – 8-channel Darlington driver chip  (ULN2803) allowing to control electronic circuits which require more current.
• Misc – DIP switch to remove connection from RPi’s pin header
• Dimensions – 85 x 56mm (Same size as Raspberry Pi)

The expansion board is directly connected on top of the Raspberry Pi using the board GPIO header pins, and no wiring nor soldering is required, and they’ve duplicated the 26-pin header of the R-Pi in order to support existing expansion boards. X100 is only fully compatible with Raspberry Pi Rev.2 Model.

The company emphasizes that their HDMI to VGA converter is not powered by the R-Pi HDMI port, as this is known to cause issues. You can find more information, including instructions to build the RTC drivers and control the servo with WiringPi, on the company’s Raspberry Pi page.

X100 expansion board is available on DealExtreme for $38.44 including shipping, as well as Amazon UK for 28.99 GBP.

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