The Raspberry Pi is a beloved inexpensive, single-board Linux computer created to inspire those curious about electronics projects and programming, arming them with a ready-to-go tool for invention within the context of a stable operating system. We at Adafruit are huge Pi fans and have done our best to create and stock the best kits and accessories available for the Raspberry Pi!
Scan through some of the past entries in our weekly #piday series that highlights the latest news and products in this community. And, here are a few holiday shopping suggestions from Adafruit and beyond for the Pi fan, new or old!
Adafruit Kits To Make and Give
Raspberry Pi Starter Pack – Includes a Raspberry Pi Computer: You want to get hacking with your Pi fast, right? Get everything you need to start with the Adafruit Starter Pack for Raspberry Pi. It’s the perfect accompaniment to your new Pi, everything you need to get a distro image loaded and running. We pre-assemble the Cobbler for you, no soldering required. This pack includes a single Raspberry Pi Model B 512MB RAM, two USB ports and a 10/100 Ethernet controller. (read more)
Adafruit Pi Box – Enclosure for Raspberry Pi Computers: Keep your Raspberry Pi® computer safe and sound in this lovely clear acrylic enclosure. We designed this case to be beautiful, easy to assemble and perfect for any use (but especially for those who want to tinker!) The case comes as 6 pieces that snap together, made of crystal-clear acrylic. This ingenious design has no screws or standoffs and there are cute little feet cut into the sides so that it stands up above your desk. There are engraved labels on all the connector slots. You can use all of the connectors on the edges of the Pi: HDMI, Audio, Video, SD slot, micro USB power, Ethernet and the two USB ports. We also added a slot so that you can connect a 26-pin IDC cable to the GPIO breakout pins on the Pi and pass it though the case. For more advanced hacking, the enclosure is designed so that you can remove the top piece and plug any sort of cables you wish into the breakouts in the middle. The case is airy enough that no additional vents or cooling is required – we tested the enclosed Pi over a 24 hour period at full load with no significant increase in temperature. (read more)
Adafruit Prototyping Pi Plate Kit for Raspberry Pi: Now that you’ve finally got your hands on a Raspberry Pi® , you’re probably itching to make some fun embedded computer projects with it. What you need is an add on prototyping Pi Plate from Adafruit, which can snap onto the Pi PCB (and is removable later if you wish) and gives you all sorts of prototyping goodness to make building on top of the Pi super easy. We added lots of basic but essential goodies. First up, there’s a big prototyping area, half of which is ‘breadboard’ style and half of which is ‘perfboard’ style so you can wire up DIP chips, sensors, and the like. Along the edges of the proto area, all the GPIO/I2C/SPI and power pins are broken out to 0.1″ stips so you can easily connect to them. On the edges of the prototyping area, all of the breakout pins are also connected to labeled 3.5mm screw-terminal blocks. This makes it easy to semi-permanently wire in sensors, LEDs, etc. There’s also a 4-block terminal block broken out to 0.1″ pads for general non-GPIO wiring. Finally, we had a little space remaining over the metal connectors so we put in an SOIC surface mount chip breakout area, for those chips that dont come in DIP format. (read more)
Adafruit Pi T-Cobbler Breakout Kit for Raspberry Pi: Now that you’ve finally got your hands on a Raspberry Pi® , you’re probably itching to make some fun embedded computer projects with it. What you need is an add on prototyping Pi T-Cobbler from Adafruit, which can break out all those tasty power, GPIO, I2C and SPI pins from the 26 pin header onto a solderless breadboard. This mini kit will make “cobbling together” prototypes with the Pi super easy. Designed for Raspberry Pi Model B Revision 1 or Revision 2. This Cobbler is in a fancy T-shape, which is not as compact, but is a little easier to read the labels. We also have the more compact original Cobbler. (read more)
Low-profile microSD card adapter for Raspberry Pi: Make your Pi a little slimmer with this microSD card adapter board. It slides in where the SD card goes but is half the length. Pop in a microSD card for a sleeker machine. The microSD card holder is a push-push type so you can push on the edge that sticks out to remove the card when necessary. (read more)
Adafruit Blue&White 16×2 LCD+Keypad Kit for Raspberry Pi: This new Adafruit Pi Plate makes it easy to use a blue and white 16×2 Character LCD. We really like the 16×2 Character LCDs we stock in the shop. Unfortunately, these LCDs do require quite a few digital pins, 6 to control the LCD and then another 1 to control the backlight for a total of 7 pins. That’s nearly all the GPIO available on a Pi! With this in mind, we wanted to make it easier for people to get these LCD into their projects so we devised a Pi plate that lets you control a 16×2 Character LCD, up to 3 backlight pins AND 5 keypad pins using only the two I2C pins on the R-Pi! The best part is you don’t really lose those two pins either, since you can stick i2c-based sensors, RTCs, etc and have them share the I2C bus. This is a super slick way to add a display without all the wiring hassle. This pi plate is perfect for when you want to build a stand-alone project with its own user interface. The 4 directional buttons plus select button allows basic control without having to attach a bulky computer. (read me)
Miniature WiFi (802.11b/g/n) Module: For Raspberry Pi and more: Make your Internet of Things device cable-free by adding WiFi. Take advantage of the Raspberry Pi and Beagle Bone’s USB port to add a low cost, but high-reliability wireless link. We tried half a dozen modules to find one that works well with the Pi and Bone without the need of recompiling any kernels: its supported by the Bone’s Angstrom installation that comes with each Bone as well as the Adafruit Occidentalis distribution. You’ll have wireless Internet in 10 minutes! Works great with 802.11b/g/n networks. (read more)
Board Edge Mounting Kit – Pack of 4: Having difficulty attaching a PCB? This kit is especially useful when there are no mounting holes – as with the original Raspberry Pi. Instead of gluing, taping, epoxying, etc. use these elegant standoffs. They have these round hook things that are designed to grip standard 0.062″ thickness PCBs either by the edge or by the corner. Comes in a pack of 4 with matching #6 thread forming screws. Ideal for use with up to 1/8″ mounting material. We have these as part of the Pi Dish kit and they work really well!. (read more).
Stacking Header for Raspberry Pi – 2×13 Extra Tall: Stack multiple plates, breakouts etc onto your Raspberry Pi with this custom-made extra-tall and extra-long 2×13 female header. The female header part has extra spaces to make it 13.6mm tall: when placed on your Pi, a PCB will clear the Ethernet and USB jacks. The stacky pin part is also extra-long, 9.7mm, so that when a standard 1.5mm thickness PCB is installed, there will be 8mm remaining, plenty to plug into. You’ll get one header per order. (read more)
Adafruit Pi Dish for Raspberry Pi – Includes Breadboard: By popular demand! We now have a way to attach a Raspberry Pi computer to a plastic ‘dish’ with a full-sized breadboard. We designed it carefully to make it as easy as possible to attach and detach the Pi. Since the Pi computer does not have any mounting holes, we use these nifty plastic edge ‘grabbers’ – they are incredibly strong but will not damage the Pi circuit board. There are two ways to mount the Pi on to the plate – one if you want to use the HDMI output primarily and one if you plane to use the composite output (they’re on opposite sides of the board so its not possible to have both easily accessable) Next to the Pi is a spot for a full sized breadboard, plenty of space for your project even if you’re using an Adafruit Cobbler breakout helper. We also include 4 rubber bumpers to attach to the bottom. (read more)
Slices of the Pi of Others
Rainbow PiBow – Enclosure for Raspberry Pi Computers from PiBow: The Pibow is a colorful, durable and fun case for the Raspberry Pi® computer that is perfectly in touch with the ethos of the Raspberry Pi. The case is crafted out of seven unique colorful layers with a transparent top and base. Each layer is laser cut from colorful high-quality cast acrylic and once stacked they securely contain a Raspberry Pi while leaving the primary ports accessible. Weighing only 92 grams the case is lightweight and ideal for mounting to any surface. Held together by nylon bolts no tools are required for assembly or dissasembly. (read me)
Pi Holder milled aluminum case for Raspberry Pi from Barch Designs: This gorgeous and indestructible Raspberry Pi™ Case is as awesome as it is functional. Made in the U.S.A. by Barch Designs from Solid 6061-T6 Aircraft Grade Billet Aluminum which protects your Raspberry Pi from damage and also keeps your Pi running extra-cool by acting as a thermal heat sink. (Please note: heat sinking is not required to use the Pi, but some people like having their Pi run cold). The Pi Holder case is milled by Barch Designs on a CNC machine to exact tolerances. This allows just enough room for the Raspberry Pi to slide down into the case. Any bigger and the Pi would be loose and any smaller it would bind up. (read more)
Raspberry Pi User Guide by Gareth Halfacree and Eben Upton from Wiley: Raspberry Pi User Guide contains everything the reader needs to know to get up and running on the Raspberry Pi. Written by Gareth Halfacree and Eben Upton, the co-creator of Raspberry Pi, the book shows how to:
- Connect the Raspberry Pi to other devices — keyboard, mouse, monitor
- Install the necessary software
- Learn basic Linux System Admin in order to understand files systems etc.
- Configure the Raspberry Pi
- Set-up the Raspberry Pi as a simple Productivity computer
- Set-up Raspberry Pi as a web server
- Write basic programs in Scratch and Python
- Create simple hardware projects
- Set up the Raspberry Pi to drive a multimedia center
Raspberry Pi User Guide is an ideal companion when starting out using the Raspberry Pi board. (read more)
Programming the Raspberry Pi: Getting Started with Python by Simon Monk from McGraw Hill/TAB: Create innovative programs and fun games on your tiny yet powerful Raspberry Pi. In this book, electronics guru Simon Monk explains the basics of Raspberry Pi application development, while providing hands-on examples and ready-to-use scripts. See how to set up hardware and software, write and debug applications, create user-friendly interfaces, and control external electronics. Do-it-yourself projects include a hangman game, an LED clock, and a software-controlled roving robot.
- Boot up and configure your Raspberry Pi
- Navigate files, folders, and menus
- Create Python programs using the IDLE editor
- Work with strings, lists, and functions
- Use and write your own libraries, modules, and classes
- Add Web features to your programs
- Develop interactive games with Pygame
- Interface with devices through the GPIO port
- Build a Raspberry Pi Robot and LED Clock
- Build professional-quality GUIs using Tkinter
Boast Your Pi Skillz!
Raspberry Pi – Skill badge, iron-on patch: You are learning to use the small Linux based board, the Raspberry Pi! Adafruit offers fun and exciting “badges” of achievement for electronics, science and engineering. We believe everyone should be able to be rewarded for learning a useful skill, a badge is just one of the many ways to show and share. This is the “I made something with a Raspberry Pi” badge for use with educators, classrooms, workshops, Maker Faires, TechShops, Hackerspaces, Makerspaces and around the world to reward beginners on their skill building journey! This beautiful badge is made in the USA. (read more)
SHIPPING DEADLINES
Here are your 2012 shipping deadlines for ordering from Adafruit. Please review our shipping section if you have specific questions on how and where we ship worldwide for this holiday season.
UPS ground (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
UPS 3-day (USA orders): Place orders by Wednesday 11am ET – December 19, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS 2-day (USA orders): Place orders by Thursday 11am ET – December 20, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS overnight (USA orders): Place orders by Friday 11am ET – December 21, 2012 – Arrive on 12/24/2012.
UPS International: Place orders by Monday 11am ET – December 17, 2012. Can take up extra time due to worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
Please note: We do not offer Saturday service for UPS.
Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012, Christmas, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013, New Year’s Day, no UPS pickup or delivery service.
United States Postal Service, First Class and Priority (USA orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012 – Arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
USPS First class mail international (International orders): Place orders by Friday – November 23, 2012. Can take up to 30 days ore more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner, but not a trackable service cannot be guaranteed to arrive by 12/24/12.
USPS Express mail international(International orders): Place orders by Friday – December 14, 2012. Can take up to 15 days or more with worldwide delays and customs. Should arrive by 12/24/2012 or sooner.
Gift Certificates are always available at any time.
When in doubt contact us!
