Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 1-1.
A simple prototype station
Retro Fahnestock clips were installed and carefully wired to a connector on header
strip P1 (the wiring was the most labor-intensive part of this project).
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Fahnestock clips can be economically purchased at places like
www.tubesandmore.com
(part # S-h11-4043-6).
Tip
A small PCB for the RS-232 interface was acquired from eBay ($2.32 total) and
mounted at the end of the station. Wires from the RS-232 PCB were routed back to RX/TX
and +3.3 V clips and simply clipped into place (this allows you to disconnect them, if you
wish to use those GPIO pins for some other purpose). The RS-232 PCB is permanently
grounded for convenience.
The RS-232 PCB is necessary only for those who wish to use a serial console or
to interface with some other serial device. The PCB acquired was advertised on eBay
as “MAX232CSE Transfer Chip RS-232 To TTL Converter Module COM Serial Board.”
The converter (based on the MAX232CSE chip) will work with TTL or 3.3 V interfaces.
Connecting the RS-232 converter's VCC connection to the Raspberry Pi +3.3 V supply
makes it compatible with the Pi.
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Do not connect the rS-232 converter to +5 V, or you will damage the pi.
For additional information about this, see Chapter 9 of
Raspberry Pi Hardware Reference
(apress, 2014).
Caution
