Homemade GPIO breakout for the Raspberry Pi / PiFace!

My home made adapter allows access to all the GPIO pins while using the PiFace! 

Problem: I have a Raspberry Pi with a Pi Camera.  I would like to install a PiFace to control some of the robot's parts direct from  the Raspberry Pi, but I would also like access to the GPIO pins so I  could also add an arduino via I2C or even SPI.  The Piface does not have a pass-through port or any access to individual GPIO pins (even though you can use 4 PiFace boards together, there is no way to connect them to each other or add any additional hardware.)  I would love to use the PiFace with any other GPIO hardware! 

  My solution: a few inches of ribbon cable,  2x 26 pin (2x13) female plugs and 1x 26 pin (2x13) male plug. A couple dollars and the PiFace is shifted up and a little to the left,  no longer crushing the Pi Camera's cable.  It also allows me to use my original Pi case (can't be used with the stock PiFace) and now I have full access to all 26 pins of the Pi's GPIO port. 

 Tomorrow I will need to mount the board with a couple well placed plastic bolts since the PiFace does not have mounting holes (relied on pin and socket electrical connection of the GPIO to hold it in place!)  This arrangement is so much better than the original configuration!  One added benefit is the space between boards.  I think I will take advantage of it to mount a cooling fan to provide airflow between both boards. 

 You can modify this in many ways,  you could run several male or female plugs to make several GPIO sockets or you could terminate it on a circuit board as I am and build a custom circuit/controller for the Pi.  Make your own sensor shield or just relocate add-on boards.  Very easy and very inexpensive! 

 Tomorrow I plan to assemble a level shifter onto the board shown connected to the GPIO cable.  This will connect an arduino board. I will also start designing a power supply to power the 3 different boards (Raspberry Pi, Arduino 328p and even a Mosfet h-bridge motor controller that is on a slow boat from China.. Literally!  4-6 weeks delivery from China!!!) 

  If it isn't clear what I am doing,  I have some grand plans for a remote robot using both the Raspberry Pi and Arduino.  The build gets bigger with each piece I complete,  so I am going to try and slow it down and get the test platform working well (via Radio Control) and then I  will move on to sensors, communication and automation. 

  

 As always,  if you have any questions on any part of this build, or you have any info that you think will make this easier (or any suggestions), please feel free to comment. 

Robotic power supplies and Raspberry Pi USB controller!

I haven't posted here in a while since I  have not played with my Raspberry-Pi much.  I have been working on a couple arduino controlled robots and this week I made a nichrome plastic bender that is powered by a computer atx power supply that was converted into a robotics lab power supply with extreme accuracy in 1.25-11 volts DC using a LM350 voltage regulator IC.  I'll add some pictures of that below. 

  I had planned to add my Raspberry Pi to the Arduino robot via I2C and a level shifter.  But I think I may have found a way to make the RPI have more direct control.

Installing the Gertboard Software and ATmega328P

First I would like to mention a site for anyone new to linux. http://cli.learncodethehardway.org/book/ I consider myself a newbie although I ran a multi-line Dial-up BBS (1200Bps!) on DOS back in the late 80's early 90's and used a linux shell account to import Internet e-mail and Usenet newsgroups for my users.   Now that I am starting with the Pi,  I have to learn the basics all over again.  Anyhow this site is a really quick read, just over an hour and I think I am up to speed with the basic shell commands again.  Someone with no experience with CLI might take a bit longer, but it is a free site and very informative. I  Absolutely recommend it to the beginner. (I am now using the sister site for Python learnpythonthehardway.org/book/ ..looks like it will take a bit longer to complete, but just  as "easy going"!)
Now for what I have been doing the past few days with the Raspberry Pi.  I have fully installed the Gertboard and all of the related software.  It has taken a lot of research and hunting since the software and details of the complete setup are in several different sites.  I read and did ALL of the sample projects in the user manual. (Python Samples, not the "C".  I also got both the RPi.GPIO and the WiringPi for Python versions working so I could try all the examples!)