Raspberry Pi Meets AlaMode®

An Arduino compatible board for the Raspberry Pi — # raspiSerie — Episode #04

Published in

Jungletronics

3 min readApr 14, 2020

Hi, Alamode is an Arduino compatible development board that extends that lovin’ feeling to the Raspberry Pi.

Photo 1. gif presentation of the solution: Raspberry+ Alamode!

We will use alamode in this IoT project (upcoming episode:):

Fig 1. Please, refer to the next episode to get acquainted with this awesome project!

With Raspberry Pi plus alaMode, you can write a program on the Pi in any language you want, to control or monitor your Arduino application, making Internet integration and control super easy.

In addition, you can even program the AlaMode directly from the Pi. Or, turning things around, think of Raspberry Pi as a highly capable ethernet and display shield for the Alamode!

Features

- Fully compatible with Arduino, including Arduino shields;
- Plugs in to Raspberry-Pi GPIO header;
- Voltage safe Bidirectional translator automagically converts between 3.3V for Raspberry-Pi and 5V for Arduino;
- Same form factor as Raspberry-Pi;
- 5V Micro-USB socket for Power In Servo Headers with alongwith GND and 5V headers for easy connection of 3 wire servos;
- Micro-SD card for data storage and Arduino use;
- High precision RTC chip with battery backup (CR1632 battery);
- Possible to set time on Raspberry-Pi without Internet connection;
- Convenient headers for FTDI, ICSP, Analog Reference (3V3 or 5V0), GPS module, 
- Can be powered independently, or via the Raspberry-Pi 5V supply;
- Compatible with Raspberry Pi A+,B,B+;

In this video, I will make all the soldering.

Here is what you will need:

- Alamode - Arduino Compatible Raspberry Pi Plate;
- UartSBee v5' is FTDI cable compatible USB to Serial adapter;
- GPS Bee kit;
- Raspberry Pi (one only);
- IDC Connector;
- USB ISP Programmer;
- WiFi Dongle for Raspi;

Here is the video:

**Warning*** 
This video is too long. 
It is intended for electronics aficionado only :)
You can choose to keep the audio track at the original pace, 
or change the speed together with video (or mute the audio altogether:)
I decided to leave the footage in its original extension just to show some techniques
I used while soldering.I did my best:)
This is totally up to you!
In soldering, practice is paramount!