Knowledge Base
The AB Electronics UK Knowledge Base provides support solutions, tutorials and troubleshooting guides.
Connecting Expansion Boards to the Raspberry Pi 400
Expanding the Potential of Your Raspberry Pi 400
The Raspberry Pi 400 is a compact all-in-one computer with a quad-core 64-bit processor, 4GB of RAM, wireless networking, and dual-display output. But what sets the Raspberry Pi 400 apart is its 40-pin GPIO header, which allows you to add even more functionality to your computer with expansion boards.
This guide will show you how to connect your Raspberry Pi 400 expansion boards.
The Benefits of Adding Expansion Boards to the Raspberry Pi 400:
Increased functionality: Expansion boards can add new capabilities to your Raspberry Pi, such as analogue-to-digital and digital-to-analogue conversion, real-time clock functionality, and additional GPIO pins for connecting more sensors and devices.
Simplified connections: Expansion boards make it easier to connect sensors and other devices to your Raspberry Pi, reducing the complexity of wiring and making it easier to connect and disconnect devices as needed.
Enhanced performance: Expansion boards can improve the performance of your Raspberry Pi by offloading certain functions and allowing the CPU to focus on other tasks.
The Raspberry Pi 400 runs the same Raspberry Pi OS Linux distribution as the other Raspberry Pi models, and the 40-pin GPIO header uses the same pin configuration.
All the Raspberry Pi expansion boards from AB Electronics UK are compatible with the Raspberry Pi 400. They can be connected directly to the GPIO header on the back of the computer or using a 40-way ribbon cable available in our online store.
The photos below show how to connect your expansion board directly to the back of the Raspberry Pi 400. The board needs to be connected with the circuit board pointing upwards and the components facing away from the Raspberry Pi.
You can use a ribbon cable to connect the expansion boards externally, as shown in the photos below. The red line on the ribbon cable should align with pin 1 on the Raspberry Pi GPIO header and the expansion board.
After installing the expansion board, turn on the Raspberry Pi and configure the Raspberry Pi OS using the tutorials in our knowledge base.
- For I2C-based expansion boards, use I2C Part 2 - Enabling I²C on the Raspberry Pi.
- For SPI-based expansion boards, use SPI and Python on Raspberry Pi OS.
- For Serial-based expansion boards, use the Serial Port setup in Raspberry Pi OS.
Related Expansion Boards
Related Expansion Boards
1 Wire interface for the Raspberry Pi
8 Channel 18-bit Differential Analogue to Digital converter for the Raspberry Pi
8 Channel 17-bit Single-Ended Analogue to Digital converter for the Raspberry Pi
2 Channel ADC and 2 Channel DAC for the Raspberry Pi
Analogue, Digital and RTC Expansion Interface for the Raspberry Pi
32 channel MCP23017 digital I/O expander for the Raspberry Pi
Real-time clock for the Raspberry Pi
RS232 Serial Port for the Raspberry Pi
Suitable for the Raspberry Pi 40 pin GPIO port
Related Articles
How to use a static network IP Address on the Raspberry Pi
How to use a static network IP Address on the Raspberry Pi
Static Network IP Address Setup on the Raspberry Pi
Expanding the Potential of Your Raspberry Pi 400
