Low cost Raspberry Pi board improves power management

10th November 2014

Mick Elliott

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The Raspberry Pi Model A+ has been launched by element14. It features a 40-pin extended GPIO header, a Micro SD Card port to protect the SD Card from damage, and improved power management making it possible to drive ‘power hungry’ USB devices directly from the Raspberry Pi. The board is powered by the 700MHz Broadcom BCM2835 CPU with 256MB RAM.

The first 26 pins remain identical to the original Raspberry Pi Models for 100% backward compatibility, whilst the full 40-pin is the same as that found on the Pi B+ to ensure universal support.

Measuring only 6.6cm x 5.6cm the new board’s reduced weight and advanced power management features will enable Raspberry Pi enthusiasts and new users alike to try out a whole new scope of projects.

Claire Doyle, Global Head of Raspberry Pi, said: “The A+ board is an extension to our ever growing portfolio of RPi boards from element14 which saw the launch of the B+, Compute Module and Compute Module Development Kit earlier this year. The A+ is the next exciting Pi board product release in the range opening up greater solutions and usability to customers worldwide.”

The A+ includes 1 x USB 2 port, 4 pole Stereo output and Composite video port, full size HDMI, CSI camera port for connecting the Raspberry Pi camera, DSI display port for connecting the Raspberry Pi touch screen display and a micro SD port for loading the user’s operating system and storing data.