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Routing Continues, and whats with HAT anyway?

A project log for PoEPi: Pi Zero Power over Ethernet with PHY

It can power the Raspberry Pi Zero over Ethernet. The board also adds an Ethernet Phy to the Raspberry Pi Zero to give you full Ethernet

julienjulien 02/07/2016 at 06:190 Comments

The routing and placement of this board is going pretty well. There is still some discussion about where the Ethernet connector will go and how it will be configured. Most likely it looks I will use a generic foot print so multiple connectors can be used as well as having a small connector for external mounting (maybe).

I have managed to pack everything in pretty tight and have kept most of the routing on the top layer. I have been carfull with the power planes as well, there are a lot of magnetics in a tight space :S. There should be lots of space on the bottom layer for people to add there own designs as well. So far I would like to do the following and I am looking for more ideas if you want to throw in (or contribute to the project :D). These are all different boards:

- A ws2812 driver and connector (we can run almost 100 ws2812s from the basic PoE). This is the one I am working on right now.

- an 8w mono speaker driver (maybe for an intercom system)

- high power LED driver for a single LED, or maybe tri color LED

- servo driver for who knows what reasons (probably pan and tilt). Going to have to add current limiting for servo stall condition.

A quick note about Hats. The more I design with the idea of the HAT specification in mind the more I realize it is pretty pointless, it fate may be the same as the OSHW logo. People are selling things that are not HATs at all and calling them HATs, there is no enforcing of these parts going on. And because the hardware of most "HATs" is not open its hard to actually check if they meet the standard. The Raspberry Pi foundation may be able to afford buying these boards and checking them for there "HATness". Then there can be an offical list and blacklist of boards. I like the standard and I think its handy in some applications but probably not this one. Long story short Im losing the eeprom unless anyone has any objections?

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