{"id":13187,"date":"2015-08-21T13:54:15","date_gmt":"2015-08-21T12:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=13187"},"modified":"2015-08-24T09:33:36","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T08:33:36","slug":"pianohat-for-the-raspberry-pi-a-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=13187","title":{"rendered":"PianoHAT for the Raspberry Pi – a review"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Occasionally<\/i>,\u00a0I get sent things in the post to review. Sometimes I buy a product just because I think it looks cool. This is one of the latter type.<\/em><\/p>\n

Update: I have added a video demo here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

The original board, known as the “PiPiano”, was developed by Zachary Igielman<\/a>, a young man who\u00a0quietly\u00a0went about the business of raising funds for the board by\u00a0embarking on an IndieGoGo campaign<\/a>. The campaign was a success and soon the board (which came as a kit to solder together yourself) began to get into the hands of the backers. This is what it looked like:<\/p>\n

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A few months ago, Zach was approached by Pimoroni about the prospect of turning it into a HAT and,\u00a0being very sensible, and with exams approaching, Zach agreed to hand the project over to them. Enter Phil “Gadgetoid” Howard and the others at Pimoroni who took the kit and turned it into a rather attractive HAT:<\/p>\n

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Now known as the “Piano HAT”, the product was launched very recently and I quickly ordered one from The Pi Hut<\/a>, having seen a few sneak peaks in the preceding weeks.<\/p>\n

The looks<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think you’ll agree that this is one of the most attractive\u00a0boards for the Raspberry Pi ever produced. It is made in stylish black, white and gold with intricate typefaces and an incredible amount of functionality built in.<\/p>\n

The functionality<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Piano HAT comes with the following features:<\/p>\n