The Bit:2:Pi enables you to re-use all those hundreds of Raspberry Pi addon boards and HATs.

Simply plug your Micro:Bit into the edge connector and the required Raspberry Pi Hat onto the GPIO connector, then program your Micro:Bit to control the new board. Most Raspberry Pi boards are very simple to program as they are controlled by simple on/off signals on the GPIO connector which are easily copied in the Micro:Bit. Also used is "Smart RGB" LED HATs (eg. Unicorn from Pimoroni) with great success and are happily communicating via I2C as well.

Selecting which Micro:Bit pin is connected to which GPIO pin, is via a set of configurable jumpers. There is a default set of connections that works for the most common boards, including I2C and SPI connections, but it is a simple matter to unplug a jumper or two, and replace it with a longer wire jumper (4 included) to connect your preferred pins.

Current boards tested are

• 4tronix: PlayHat, Picon Zero, PiStop, motor controllers
• Pimoroni: Pibrella, Unicorn pHat/HAT. Explorer, Enviro pHat, Blinkt, Scroll pHat

Power is supplied to the board and the micro:bit via the micro-USB connector on the side, but there is also an option to add a battery holder to allow completely wire-free operation.