Gertboard Expansion Board For Raspberry PI (Fully Assembled)

This board contains several circuits which are extremely useful for interfacing the revolutionary Raspberry Pi to the real world.Most of the chips are relatively inexpensive, and if something goes wrong with a prospective circuit, it is relatively easy toinstall replacement chips. Very versatile computer interface!

The GertBoard is a expansion board that plugs directly into the Pi's GPIO connector. It is a "generic" I/O board, not locking the user into a set Input/Output configuration, and that's both its biggest strength and weakness. You manually set each I/O from the Pi to either an input or output buffer (using wires jumpers and DIP jumpers) assuming you can figure out how to do so from the awful documentation. The docs are needlessly complicated as they keep referring to a previous diagram and it is annoying to keep flipping back & forth - a simple full page diagram or two with callouts would have made this much more clear. Some of the silkscreen markings on the board are non-obvious, probably due to space constraints. I had to look at the schematics to try to understand what the overly verbose text was trying to say.THE GOOD:+ The inclusion of the onboard Arduino microcontroller gives an easy way to separate "real time" tasks (that can be done by the Arduino) and higher level "monitoring/control" done by the Pi. Remember Linux on the Pi is not suitable for real-time control (unless the kernal is modified), but letting the Arduino do time critical tasks overseen by the Pi is an easier job for those unskilled in the black arts of C & Linux.+ Includes 9 wire jumpers, DIP jumpers and a couple of plastic feet to add mechanical support to the GertBoard when assembled.THE BAD:- Documentation is wordy while at the same time not clear on the hardware aspects of the in/out/jumpers of the I/O chips. The docs keep referring to the schematics at the end but the PDF file has no schematics (turns out they are in a separate PDF file). Also, there were no physical docs including in the box - at this price there should be!- The other ICs (with the exception of the Arduino microcontroller) are not socketed but soldered directly to the board. I have always felt that on these types of I/O boards ALL ICs should be socketed (excepting surface mounted ones of course) for easy replacement in case you screw up and damage something (or in case of ESD damage).- A clone of this board, the DIY kit Multiface has better layout (especially better silkscreen reminders for setting buffered I/O jumpers) and an extra open-collector output. Note that Multiface is a kit and not ready-to-use like GertBoard.- Because the GertBoard plugs DIRECTLY (no cables) into the Pi "piggyback" style it is inconvenient to use as the entire Pi & all cabling must be rotated so you can read the labels on the board rightside up. This may have been done so that long cabling would not interfere with signal transmission between the Pi & GertBoard but it is a little annoying (a couple times I have accidentally unplugged the microUSB power connection, losing the code I was working on). The Multiface clone connects via ribbon cable and not directly to the Pi - you can orient the Multiface regardless of the Pi orientation.- Note that even though some open collector outputs are marked "RLY" there are NO RELAYS on this board, but you can drive relays using the "RLY" outputs.- Overpriced in my opinion.OVERALL, it's not the easiest to use (especially for electronics beginners) nor is the most inexpensive, but if you want to combine both a Pi & Arduino plus have additional I/O (ADC, DAC, single Motor driver) all in one single board the GertBoard is what you are looking for.I hope you have found this useful!

It is a perfect addition to my collection of electronic projects.

Great add on board for Pi.

as advertised

The board came without instructions on how to connect it to raspberry pi. Further a CD was included for development on pc environment not on raspberry pi. I bought this card as an expansion for hardware applications on the raspberry pi environment. I found it not at all useful so I am returning it.

It came as a plain board without any documentation. No cable, just empty sockets. This is too expensive (more expensive than Raspberry Pi starter kit!) for what it offers for the money.