Access to UART0 (and other GPIO) and USB-C port

#1

With the current QUAD SATA Hat you lose access to the GPIO’s, for example the UART0 that is so useful for troubleshooting. Perhaps in a next revision of the product + case you could provide access to the non-used GPIO pins by for example

  • providing a 90 degree angled female GPIO-pin block facing the case wall with a slot/opening in the case so you could access the available GPIO positions from the outside
  • extending the pins on the top of the HAT and having a small slot/opening in the case so you could connect a ribbon cable to the GPIO pins
  • extending the pins on the top of the HAT and extending them with a ribbon cable to the top of the case

What might also be nice is access to the USB C port of the Pi which is able to function in OTG mode.

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#2

Good idea. We’ll think about it.

#3

What you want, is a “raspberry pi gpio splitter”:


(also available in other shapes from other places)

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#4

Yes, that looks good. Now I only have to slice/drill an appropriate hole in the case :wink:

#5

Please note that this adapter will lift the QUAD SATA board a little bit and doing so, you may end with a problem with the USB piece adapter that connect from RPi to QUAD Sata board, not being able to connect the 4 USB ports. If you go with this, you also need to buy 2x USB 3.0 male to male cables.

#6

Is only for power, not sure you can connect a device, risky.

#7

The USB C is definitely not only for power, just like with other Pi’s (where it’s micro-USB of course) you can use it as OTG port as well. And with the SATA HAT having its own power supply you do not even need to worry about the PC’s USB port not being able to power the Pi.

E.g.: https://learn.adafruit.com/turning-your-raspberry-pi-zero-into-a-usb-gadget/overview

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#8

setq can you confirm USB-C connector is no longer used for powersupply because SATA HAT provide another power entry. Then with appropriate hole in case we can connect another disk by USB-C. thant will give capacity to add fast external disk :slight_smile:

#9

I can confirm that USB C is not used for power supply.

rpi-type-c
201278938.jpg2268×4032 1.06 MB

And I successfully used ethernet gadget following this post Howto: ethernet gadget on Pi4B USB C

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#10

but the sata enclosure effectively blocked off access to usb C without hardware hack…

#11

We will consider adding a slot to the next version.

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#12

Awersome news :slight_smile: many people complaint about losing all USB3 port with this SATA HAT Quad :slight_smile: but it’s false ! only 1 :slight_smile:

#13

Actually, while the physical port is USB-C, it’s not USB 3 speeds, only USB 2.

#14

damned, but always 1 more port available :slight_smile:

#15

“In short, if you have a USB 3.1 5 or 10 Gbps cable, chances are that it it is “electronically marked” while USB 2.0 cables are just fine. The high-speed cables require two pull down resistors on the Type-C port, because they use two lines to talk to the system. The original Pi 4 had only one resistor so these cables won’t work with it. Considering that the Pi 4’s USB-C port is only usable for charging, chances are that you wouldn’t want to use a high-speed data cable with it anyway.”

#16

Sorry, but I’m not sure what your point is. It helps if you ask a question. But if what I infer from the bold ’ Considering that the Pi 4’s USB-C port is only usable for charging’ text is right and you are trying to say that the USB C port of the Pi can’t be used for anything else than charging, there’s quite a few posts on the internet that tell you it can be used for connecting devices, both as Client (so presenting itself as Mass Storage, Ethernet device, serial port, …) and for Host mode (allowing you to plug in a USB device). For example the post from @setq in this thread. Or the comment from user ‘evnglst’ on the post from your link. Or with more detail this post on the Pi forum.

But the best way to find out of cours is to try it out yourself.

Which I just did and I am experiencing the corruption mentioned at the end of the thread on the Pi Forum :frowning: So apologies for leading you astray, it appears that this is not fully working for USB drives.

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#17

no problem :slight_smile:

#18

I did some testing and it looks like it works OK if you upgrade the kernel to 5.4.45-v7l+ #1321 via ‘rpi-update’. I did have to manually install Adafruit-BBIO from the github though before the OLED wanted to work.
More info on what I tested here.