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I'm new to the rpi. I have a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ that has 40 GPIO pins. I also have a HAT and a PIR motion sensor. The problem is, the HAT covers all 40 GPIO pins, and the motion sensor requires 3. Could someone walk me through it like I'm 5 years old on how to access the other pins? Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I cannot solder anything

  • Does the HAT actually use all 40 pins or does it just cover the pins? The only HAT I can think of that does use all the pins is the Hyperpixel screen from Pimoroni. In this case you would be stuck as all pins are used so you could not control any expander chips! –  May 30 '20 at 21:18
  • It's doubtful a HAT would need all 40 pins so the underlying question may be how do I access the needed GPIO with a HAT. You need to give more details of what you have and want to connect (in the body of your question). – joan May 30 '20 at 21:19
  • its the https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/boards/hifiberry-dac-zero/. it does use all 40 –  May 30 '20 at 21:24
  • Looks like it only uses 4 pins for the sound interface https://www.hifiberry.com/docs/hardware/gpio-usage-of-hifiberry-boards/ – CoderMike May 30 '20 at 21:36
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    The hifiberry is an I2S device so it needs very very few active connections but comes with a normal 40 pin connection as the used pins are spread all over. This simplest way is to fit https://thepihut.com/collections/raspberry-pi-hats/products/pico-hat-hacker on top of the Pi headers THEN put the hifiberry on top so you can add extra devices using different GPIO pins as needed. –  May 30 '20 at 22:51
  • the problem is i cant solder anything @Andyroo –  May 30 '20 at 23:17
  • Perhaps try stackable hats: https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/104705/how-to-tap-tee-fork-the-rpi-gpio-pins-covered-blocked-by-a-hat-phat-bo. Cheers. – tlfong01 May 31 '20 at 00:42
  • @Rishi Could you give us a picture of the hat so we can get a better idea of how to solve the problem? – UNKNOWN May 31 '20 at 20:06

1 Answers1

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Given the card is a small 'phat' style card and you cannot solder, this will limit your options.

The simplest way would be to buy another Pi (every house needs more than one as they get lonely) and just use one for playing music and one for other things.

The other option that can possibly solve the issue (depending on what else you need to plug in) is the pHAT stack expansion from Pimoroni. The two issues are power and possible pin use clash but there are many working options on the page that can give hours of fun :)

One way of telling if you have a clash is to use the Pinout.xyz site and see what card use what pins - it's not been updated for a long while but covers a fair number of cards.

Like you, soldering is not my greatest skill so I jumped on eBay on bought a through hole solder kit with lots of components to practise on for a couple of pounds. I managed at the start with jumpers and basic breadboards but now you can lots of sensors and screens in a breakout format that is simple to plug together.