{"id":8543,"date":"2014-03-09T17:38:30","date_gmt":"2014-03-09T17:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/178.62.14.192\/?p=8543"},"modified":"2014-03-09T17:38:30","modified_gmt":"2014-03-09T17:38:30","slug":"berryclip-for-the-raspberrypi-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/?p=8543","title":{"rendered":"BerryClip+ for the #RaspberryPi review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt Hawkins (aka The Raspberry Pi Spy) sent me one of his new GPIO add-on boards for the Pi called the BerryClip+.<\/em><\/p>\n

The BerryClip+ is a simple, half-sized add-on board for the Raspberry Pi that plugs straight onto the GPIO header. It contains 6 LEDs (2 red, 2 amber, 2 green), 2 momentary push buttons and 1 buzzer. It is an improvement over the original BerryClip in that it has an extra button and also breaks out the majority of the GPIO pins to a separate header.\u00a0You can watch a review of the original BerryClip on the Raspberry Pi IV Beginners YouTube channel<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The Original BerryClip<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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The BerryClip+<\/em><\/p>\n

As with the original BerryClip, the BerryClip+ comes as a kit. The kit contains all the parts you need and a card listing the bill-of-materials and links to some help. I would like to have seen explicit mention of the test scripts that you can download on the card, but if you end up on the instructions page<\/a> then you’ll find these soon enough.<\/p>\n

\"20140309_162333\"<\/a> \"20140309_162345\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As a kit, it means getting your soldering iron out. I found that the BerryClip+ was slightly<\/em> more difficult to solder together than the original. This is mostly because of the extra male header pins which restrict the space you have to solder on the 26-way header. It’s not a major issue, though, and really it just needs a steady hand and some patience. One thing I should say is that because of the way the rest of the components are placed and spaced, this is an ideal project for the soldering beginner. Here’s a picture of my soldering efforts with all the resistors in place:<\/p>\n

\"20140309_153122\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And here’s a couple of photos of the finished board. The whole thing took about 30-40 minutes, but I really take my time and a more experienced solderer could probably do it in 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"20140309_155633\"<\/a> \"20140309_155702\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And here’s the board plugged into my red Pi:<\/p>\n

\"20140309_155908\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The BerryClip+, just like the original, can be tested out using a series of example scripts downloadable from bitbucket. Instructions for doing this can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are twelve scripts in all plus an added bonus, of which more later. The twelve scripts are as follows:<\/p>\n