https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/raspberry-pi-build-hat-lego-education/ [ ] * For Industry * Hardware * Software * Documentation * News * Forums * Foundation News All news * Archive * RSS Meet the Raspberry Pi Build HAT: create with Raspberry Pi and LEGO(r) Education [6087bf] * 19th Oct 2021 * Richard Hayler * 23 comments Today we have huge smiles on our faces as we announce the Raspberry Pi Build HAT, a brand-new product that for the first time makes it easy to integrate LEGO(r) Technic(tm) motors and sensors with Raspberry Pi computers. We've designed it to enable fun and creative learning experiences for young people, teachers, and makers. Photo of a Raspberry Pi with a Raspberry Pi Build HAT fitted, mounted by its mounting holes to a large, flat, bright pink LEGO element lying on a desk. Cables connect three of the Build HAT ports to LEGO devices out of shot, and a few other LEGO components are connected to or adjacent to the construction. A Raspberry Pi camera module connector is connected to the Raspberry Pi through a slot in the Build HAT. Raspberry Pi Build HAT The Build HAT is part of an exciting new collaboration between Raspberry Pi and LEGO(r) Education to increase the impact and reach of STEAM learning. We're really thrilled about the possibilities this new team-up will bring, as is the LEGO Education team. "We are excited to work with Raspberry Pi to provide tools for students, teachers and makers all over the world to expand their creative digital skills and discover hands-on learning experiences," said Andrew Sliwinski, Head of Product Experience, LEGO Education. Angled photo of a Raspberry Pi Build HAT: an approximately square green PCB with through holes for a 40-pin header, four LPF2 ports, a slot for a Raspberry Pi Camera Module connector, a barrel jack power connector, and a mounting hole in each corner. The Raspberry Pi logo and the words "Raspberry Pi Build HAT" are printed on the board. Raspberry Pi meets LEGO(r) Education The Build HAT (Hardware Attached on Top), priced at $25, is a new add-on board for your Raspberry Pi. It connects to the 40-pin GPIO header and can be used to control up to four LEGO(r) Technic(tm) motors and sensors from the LEGO(r) Education SPIKE(tm) Portfolio. The new HAT works with all 40-pin GPIO Raspberry Pi boards, including Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi Zero. With the addition of a ribbon cable or other extension device, you can also use it with Raspberry Pi 400. * [Raspberry-Pi-Build-HAT-minifig-500x376] * [Raspberry-Pi-Build-HAT-mini-breadboard-500x376] The cool design of the Build HAT means that all the components are on the bottom, leaving room on the top of the board for LEGO Minifigures to hitch a ride, or for a mini breadboard. You can connect the HAT directly to your Raspberry Pi with the attached header, using 9mm spacers to ensure a stable fit, or you can add an extra-tall header to keep the unused GPIO pins accessible. Whichever method you choose, make sure you position the Build HAT the right way round when installing it on your Raspberry Pi! Close-up photo of part of the Raspberry Pi Build HAT, showing the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microchip Like Raspberry Pi Pico, the Raspberry Pi Build HAT uses the RP2040 chip developed right here at Raspberry Pi. The power of LEGO(r) bricks with Raspberry Pi The LEGO Technic motors are really powerful. And like most motors, to drive them you'll need an external 7.5V power supply. Fortunately, the Build HAT isn't the only new product we are launching today: we've also created a brand-new power supply for the Build HAT that's reliable, rugged, and perfect for making the most of those motors. It's priced at $15. Photo: a white Raspberry Pi Build HAT Power Supply is plugged into a standard UK electrical power socket. The power supply is connected to a Raspberry Pi Build HAT mounted on a Raspberry Pi, itself mounted on a large, flat, bright pink LEGO element. If you just want to read from motor encoders and the SPIKE force sensor, you can power your Raspberry Pi and Build HAT the usual way, via your Raspberry Pi's USB power socket. The SPIKE colour and distance sensors, like the motors, require an external power supply. LEGO(r) Education SPIKE(tm) Prime The LEGO Technic devices included in the SPIKE Portfolio are perfect for rapidly prototyping your next robotics or physical computing project. The available sensors include a distance sensor, a colour sensor, and an incredibly versatile force sensor. The angular motors, which come in a range of sizes, include integrated encoders you can query in order to find their position. That means you can precisely control your creation's movement, or use the encoders as input devices in their own right. Photo: an ensemble of LEGO SPIKE Prime motors and sensors and a Raspberry Pi Build HAT, along with some LEGO bricks and an attractive indoor plant You can get LEGO Technic devices as individual items, or together with a collection of really useful stuff in the SPIKE Prime and SPIKE Prime Expansion sets. The latter includes an exclusive LEGO element, the first-ever designed to connect to something that isn't another piece of LEGO: the Maker Plate. The Maker Plate is designed to make it super easy to add a Raspberry Pi to your LEGO construction. But don't worry, there are plenty of other creative ways to mount your Raspberry Pi if you don't have a Maker Plate. Top-down photo of a Raspberry Pi mounted on a large, flat, bright pink LEGO element which we now know is the LEGO Maker Plate. A varied selection of other LEGO elements, along with a Build HAT, are scattered around it. We've compiled a list of all the compatible LEGO elements you can use with the Build HAT, so you can check what will work best for your project. New Build HAT Python library To make it really easy to build prototypes that combine Raspberry Pi's computing power with your LEGO brick collection, we've created a Python library for the Build HAT that should feel familiar to anyone who has used other Raspberry Pi libraries like gpiozero or the one for the Sense HAT. The Build HAT library already supports all the LEGO Technic devices included in the SPIKE Portfolio, along with those from the LEGO(r) MINDSTORMS(r) Robot Inventor kit and other devices that use an LPF2 connector. [LEGO-LPF2] Brand-new Build HAT projects There are loads of amazing educational projects available using SPIKE Prime. Adding Raspberry Pi and a Build HAT into the mix gives learners more options for creativity and flexibility in their projects, enabling them to go even further and take their making adventure to the next level: now they can have a programmable, networked computer with access to online data sources at the heart of their build, plus they can easily add more electronic components via Raspberry Pi's GPIO pins. A robot face built using LEGO Education SPIKE Prime elements. It is a large, flat, square face with eyes, eyebrows, a nose, and a mouth. A Raspberry Pi Camera Module is visible mounted just above the face, and a Raspberry Pi and Raspberry Pi Build HAT are placed either side of it. To support learners to get started using the Build HAT and programming their LEGO Education builds, we've got five brand-new online Build HAT project guides that will help them gain confidence as makers. You'll find the projects fun, accessible, and engaging! Follow them to make your own DIY game controller and get hands-on with some retro-gaming action, or to create a robot buggy that you steer with your phone via Bluetooth. A robot buggy built using SPIKE Prime elements, with a Raspberry Pi, Build HAT, and jumper cables visible at the top of the build. It sits on a desk beside a Raspberry Pi, scattered LEDs and jumper leads, a mobile phone, a mug, a Build HAT, and a plant. Then explore the topics of computer vision and machine learning by building an expressive robot face, and look at new ways of representing local and online data by creating a plotter or data dashboard. We're already working on more Build HAT project guides for learners. In the meantime, we'd love to see what you will make with your Raspberry Pi computer, Build HAT, and your much loved collection of LEGO bricks. Share your favourite creation using the hashtag # BuildHAT. Credits and thank yous It's fair to say that creating the Build HAT and everything that supports it has been a massive project over the last couple of years. Here's a necessarily incomplete list of people we want to thank for contributing to the Build HAT and the Raspberry Pi Build HAT projects: Lauren Hancock, Anthony Morton, Mark Owen, Dominic Plunkett, Simon West, Carrie Anne Philbin, George Boukeas, James Robinson, Marc Scott, Mark Calleja, Greg Annandale, Chris Richardson, Martin O'Hanlon, Rik Cross, Faye Magellan, Sam Alder, Helen Lynn, Jack Willis, Brian O Halloran, Jan Ander, Olympia Brown, Sarah Millar, Rhodri James, Gawain Edwards Plus our friends at LEGO Education: Marianne Nytoft Bach, Jane Damgaard, Jesper Elling, Eva Guldmann, Arthur Sacek, Peter Thesbjerg, Ralph Hempel, Tobias Thyrrestrup, Zoe Bergeal, Gitte Gronborg, Andrew Sliwinski Share this post * Post to Twitter * Post to Facebook Latest posts [Screenshot] Raspberry Pi Pico solar system display [Screenshot] Raspberry Pi project wins North America's largest hackathon [Screenshot] Meet Agnes Jones: sculptor and a blacksmith [Screenshot] These Raspberry Pi Zero-powered hands are passive-aggressive Previous Post [Screenshot] Raspberry Pi Pico solar system display Share this post * Post to Twitter * Post to Facebook 23 comments Jump to the comment form Avatar przem 19th October 2021, 8:43 am Do BOOST/PoweredUP motors/sensors work with BuildHAT ? Reply to przem Avatar Raspberry Pi Staff Liz Upton 19th October 2021, 9:48 am We've got a list of everything that works with the Build Hat in the documentation. Reply to Liz Upton Avatar Christian Treczoks 19th October 2021, 9:55 am The links to the documentation PDFs (https:// datasheets.raspberrypi.com/build-hat/buildhat-serial-protocol.pdf and https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/build-hat/ buildhat-python-library.pdf) are 404. Reply to Christian Treczoks Avatar Raspberry Pi Staff Liz Upton 19th October 2021, 10:05 am We are just fixing that - there was a .com/.org flub caused by an inelegant use of search and replace which introduced a hyphen. (Alasdair noticed independently about the same time you did!) So the urls you pasted above aren't the correct ones any more and have been replaced: if you're going in via the documentation everything will work now. TL;DR: last-minute hyphen crisis. Reply to Liz Upton Alasdair Allan Raspberry Pi Staff Alasdair Allan 19th October 2021, 10:09 am Total last minute hyphen crisis. Now fixed. Mea culpa! Avatar Raspberry Pi Staff Liz Upton 19th October 2021, 2:54 pm Oh - and I should mention, you can run PoweredUP motors/sensors direct from the Raspberry Pi using Bluetooth. Reply to Liz Upton Avatar Anton 19th October 2021, 8:45 am YES! THANK YOU! Reply to Anton Avatar Christian Treczoks 19th October 2021, 9:50 am Are those HATs stackable, i.e. can I use more than one on a RPi? Will the communication protocol between the RPi and the RP2040 running the HAT be documented and published? Reply to Christian Treczoks Alasdair Allan Raspberry Pi Staff Alasdair Allan 19th October 2021, 10:31 am The communication protocol between the HAT and the Raspberry Pi is fully documented, https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/build-hat/ build-hat-serial-protocol.pdf. Linked from the main Build HAT documentation which lives at, https://www.raspberrypi.com/ documentation/accessories/build-hat.html. Reply to Alasdair Allan Avatar Stewart watkiss 19th October 2021, 11:07 am A great idea. It's just a shame it's out of stock everywhere. I guess the sold out as soon as they went on sale, as is often the case with Raspberry Pi products. It looks really good. I can't wait to get hold of one and have a go! Reply to Stewart watkiss Avatar Raspberry Pi Staff Liz Upton 19th October 2021, 12:12 pm Hi Stewart! If you can make it to the Raspberry Pi store in Cambridge, we have some in stock there. Many of our Authorised Resellers have set up pre-order processes or will notify you when stock comes in, too. (Say hi to the kids for me!) Reply to Liz Upton Avatar Stewart Watkiss 19th October 2021, 5:49 pm Thanks - as much as I'd love to come to Cambridge (it's a lovely city) it's a bit far to go to buy a HAT. I've registered to get notified when they are in stock. [The kids are getting quite grown up now - I'll pass on your greating]. Reply to Stewart Watkiss Avatar Pavan Mani 19th October 2021, 1:44 pm When will Raspberry Pi 5 coming Reply to Pavan Mani Avatar Smartifahrer 19th October 2021, 2:00 pm Unfortunately not for the "old" Power Functions motors in my Lego box and the many, many out there. Reply to Smartifahrer Avatar Harry Hardjono 19th October 2021, 3:45 pm I still have Lego Mindstorm EV3 that I'm about to sell. Is that what you mean by "old"? Or do you mean the previous version? Reply to Harry Hardjono Avatar CleoQc 19th October 2021, 6:01 pm If you have EV3 and NXT, you can look at the BrickPi. It's been around for years and offers more ports. Reply to CleoQc Avatar Harry Hardjono 19th October 2021, 9:38 pm I have Brick Pi from years ago. Unfortunately, I was never able to get it going. Reply to Harry Hardjono Avatar thinh 19th October 2021, 2:13 pm Where we can buy "the Maker Plate" for mouting Lego, I dont want to use 3D print part Reply to thinh Avatar Raspberry Pi Staff Liz Upton 19th October 2021, 2:23 pm The Maker Plate only comes as part of the Spike Kit from LEGO Education, so a 3D printed version might be your best bet. (This is all in the documentation - it's worth having a quick skim of it!) Reply to Liz Upton Alasdair Allan Raspberry Pi Staff Alasdair Allan 19th October 2021, 2:31 pm The product code for the SPIKE Prime Expansion Set that included the Maker Plate is 45681. Reply to Alasdair Allan Avatar Josh Kelahan 19th October 2021, 5:36 pm This is awesome. If rpi4's come in stock anytime soon, I think I might grab this and play around. When I was in college (many moons ago) I took a robotics class where we built robots using legos and the MIT handyboard. It was so cool. I remember at the time looking into getting my own, and it was over $200 way too much for a student. I don't think they make those anymore, and why would they. The pi's are just so much better all around. Keep up the good work! Reply to Josh Kelahan Avatar Jo 19th October 2021, 7:52 pm Hello, Is there also a Schematic Diagramm of the Build-HAT available ? Jo Reply to Jo Avatar Esbeeb 19th October 2021, 11:14 pm Surely it's a matter of time until someone designs a Rapberry Pi-powered AI bot which auto-buys up the stock of newly-released Raspberry Pi products, before they get vaccumed up like has just occurred today. Just saying. ;) Reply to Esbeeb Leave a Comment Name (Required) [ ] Email address (also required) [ ] Website URL [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Your comment (required) [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] D[ ] Submit Follow us * Sign up to newsletter * Twitter * Facebook * YouTube * Instagram * LinkedIn About Raspberry Pi * News * Contact us * Trademark * About us * Accessibility * Cookies * Licensing * Terms and conditions of sale * Privacy * Security For Industry * Raspberry Pi For Industry * Powered by Raspberry Pi * Design Partners Hardware * Computers and microcontrollers * Cameras and displays * Add-on boards * Power supplies and cables * Cases * Peripherals Software * Raspberry Pi OS * Raspberry Pi Imager * Raspberry Pi Desktop Documentation * All categories * Product information portal * Datasheets Forums * All forums Raspberry Pi Store * Cambridge Store Raspberry Pi Press * About Raspberry Pi Press * The MagPi * HackSpace * Wireframe * Custom PC