Spotpear’s Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W to Raspberry Pi 3/4 adapters would not exist in a “normal” world of abundance that still existed a little less than 3 years ago. But I suppose extraordinary times require extraordinary adapters…
If you have a spare Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W lying around but would rather like getting the ports from a Raspberry Pi 3 or Raspberry Pi 4, Spotpear has designed three adapters that can also be used as USB docks from a computer or mobile phone.
The first adapter the “ZERO to 4B” will get you a Raspberry Pi 4-looking SBC with a Raspberry Pi RP3A0 system-in-package (Quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU + 512 MB RAM), and most of the same ports, except only three USB 2.0 Type-A ports are available with a maximum speed of 480 Mbps, and only one HDMI output due the inherent limitations of the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. Also noted that Ethernet is implemented through the RTL8152B Fast Ethernet chip, so wired networking will be limited to 100 Mbps.
The next two adapters that come from the same “Zero to 3B” PCB transform the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W into a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B SBC with either four USB 2.0 ports, or three USB 2.0 ports plus a 10/100M RJ45 port.
The Zero to 3B adapter ships with a micro USB cable, while the Zero to 4B adapter’s package includes a USB Type-C cable. While we’ve only talked about the RPi 2 W board here, users of the adapters have confirmed those also work with the Raspberry Pi Zero (W) and Banana Pi M2 Zero boards. Besides Spotpear, Waveshare also offers several Pi adapters including a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W to Raspberry Pi CM3 adapter that we checked out on CNX Software a few months ago.
Spotpear Pi Zero to Raspberry Pi 3/4 Model B adapters can be purchased on Aliexpress for $10.77 to $13.40 plus shipping. You may also find more details on the product page on Spotpear, or browse their website to discover even more adapters.
Thanks to Willy for the tip.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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Funny, because it’s based on the Zero. It would call it COOL when it was based on the CM3 or CM4.
The interfaces marked NC (on the picture, not IRL) might cause hair-pulling (“why is it not working?!”). Can’t they delete that physical interface?