CarPiHat Connects Raspberry Pi to your Car with Opto GPIO, CAN Bus, 12V Outputs

OpenAuto Pro software is a Raspberry Pi-based head-unit solution that brings various features to your car including Bluetooth hands-free Profile, music streaming, integrated media player, navigation via Android Auto, screen mirroring, rear camera support, and more.

But TDJ realized he needs more than just a Raspberry Pi, touchscreen display, and OpenAuto Pro software to meet his requirements, so he designed CarPiHat add-on board for Raspberry Pi providing power supply, opto-isolated GPIOs, CAN Bus, and 12V outputs.

CarPiHat key features and specifications:

• I/Os
  • Dedicated reverse, illumination, and aux inputs, all opto-isolated.
  • 2x opto-isolated general-purpose inputs (for a total of 5 inputs)
  • 2x high-current, high side switched 12V outputs (@ 1A) for switching relays, lights, etc…
  • 1x independent CAN bus port
  • Broken out I2C bus.
  • Broken out one-wire for temperature sensor, etc…
• Misc – Real-time clock to maintain system time across reboots, EEPROM for Raspberry Pi HAT compatibility
• Power Supply
  • 12V – 5V buck converter with fuse and filtering to power the Raspberry Pi board and touchscreen display
  • Safe shutdown circuitry to allow the Pi to control its own power.
• Dimensions – Compliant with Raspberry Pi HAT (HArdware-on-Top) form factor

The board ships with 4 standoffs and screws to mount it on top of the Raspberry Pi, and features long pins for the 40-pin header in order to allow stacking another HAT board. TDJ notably explains the I2S pins are available which would allow the inclusion of a DAC HAT.

CarPiHat is listed on Tindie for $80, but currently out of the stock. All pictures above are for revision 0.1 of the board, but once rev 0.2 of the board will be sold. It’s unclear what the differences are between the two.

Via Hackster.io

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