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  • Author Author: thinkengineer
  • Date Created: Date Created
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  • Comments 10 comments
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New Keypad HAT for the Raspberry Pi - The CapHat

thinkengineer

Product development specialists, Think Engineer are set to launch a revolutionary new accessory for the Raspberry Pi hardware. CapHat is a new HAT for all versions of the Raspberry Pi, featuring  an easy to use capacitive keypad that gives creators and educators an unlimited array of possible functions to add to their Raspberry Pi hardware.

 

Simply clicking on to the Raspberry Pi GPIO Header, the CapHat offers a full, numbered keypad, so you can keep on adding accessories as you create. Fully licenced with the Raspberry Pi, the CapHat is officially hardware compatible with the A+, B+ and 2, as well as the brand new Raspberry Pi 3.

 

This product will go live on Kickstarter on 14th November 2016. Please take a look at some of our fantastic early bird pledges.

www.caphat.io

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  • I think you guys could make it a bit different, and market it better too.

    As the guys above say, the numbers make little sense, maybe better to have then blank, let people put stickers on them with arrows, etc or an overlay. I get the coder needs a key reference, but it could be a small number on the silkscreen generally not easily visible. Pressing a capacitive Shift plus another button would allow for an additional 8 buttons effectively, so there could be a demo overlay for that too perhaps.

    Also, why restrict to the Pi, there is a whole community of Arduino users too; maybe better to save costs, ditch the EEPROM for the HAT (it is fairly useless), and the long DIL header socket (expensive!), and instead supply a few jumper wires.

    I'd spend the saved money on an I2C expander and through-hole pins left unallocated (or a SIL pin header), let the user wire up some LEDs if desired to it, or an LCD display (they can be controlled via I2C, or from a port expander with a bit of code effort) or even a buzzer, or even for a future board from you guys that augments the keypad with a display. Anyway, by leaving them unallocated the user has more options, it is no incremental cost for you (except for the port expander but you're saving on the EEPROM removal) and you could create some how-to's using some popular displays.

  • in reply to clem57

    I agree. Without "0" it's pretty useless. Also I would move all the components to the bottom side, to make the top side completely flat. You can then place thin sheet of acrylic over the keypad for better protection and easier integration into an enclosure.

  • I am curious why no "0" "*" and "#" to create a full phone keypad interface?

    Clem

  • Thank you for getting in touch. The CapHat only uses one GPIO pin (GPIO17) the rest of the connections are either power/ground or I2C. It has connections to GPIO2 & 3 for the capacitive sensing and connections to ID_SC & ID_SD for the EEPROM.

    When the product launches on KS we have various pledges on offer. An Early Bird deal at £14, the standard price at £18 plus an education offer where you get one and a school gets one for £25.

    We will be going live on KS on 14th November so hope to see you there.

    Cheers

    Wendy

  • Can you give an idea of the price during and after the KS campaign?

    How many GPIOs remain available/which ones are in use?