Raspberry Pi essentials: Accessories to take your single-board projects to the next level

Got a Raspberry Pi? Here's a selection of essential accessories that are guaranteed to take your projects to the next level. And accessories need not be expensive, with some starting at a few dollars.

Disclosure: ZDNet earns commissions from some of the products featured in this gallery.

See it now: The Pi Hut

This is the simplest way to allow your Raspberry Pi or Arduino to keep time when disconnected from the internet or after a power cut. This module doesn't even need a battery, as it is powered by a super-capacitor.

• Tiny GPIO accessory
• Works in 3.3V and 5V
• Supported by Raspberry Pi and Arduino

Price: Around $5

See it now: The Pi Hut

The 6 Degrees of Freedom motion sensor can detect acceleration in three axes using its built-in accelerometer, and can also detect three axes of magnetic heading. This makes it perfect for projects such as robots, rockets, and rovers

• ±2/±4/±8/±12 gauss magnetic scale
• ±2/±4/±6/±8/±16 g linear acceleration
• 16 bit data output
• 3.3V or 5V compatible
• Reverse polarity protection
• Compatible with Raspberry Pi 3B+, 3, 2, B+, A+, Zero, and Zero W

Price: $10

See it now: The Pi Hut

If you want to put a Raspberry Pi at the heart of a robot, then that robot needs to have sensors, and one of the easiest to incorporate is a simple IR line-follow sensor.

• 5V DC 
• Detection distance: 10MM
  

Price: Around $2

See it now: The Pi Hut

If you want to put a Raspberry Pi at the center of your automation project, then the Automation pHAT makes that a breeze.

• 1 x 24V @ 2A relay
• 3 x 12-bit ADC @ 0-24V
• 3 x 24V tolerant buffered inputs
• 3 x 24V tolerant sinking outputs

Compatible with Raspberry Pi 3, 2, B+, A+, Zero, and Zero W.

There's a Python library available to allow you to start using the Automation pHAT with the minimum of fuss.

Price: $17 

See it now: The Pi Hut

This is how you add sensors to your Raspberry Pi project. The Enviro pHAT offers four different sensors giving you access to:

• Temperature
• Pressure
• Ambient light level and color
• 3-axis motion
• Compass heading
• Analog inputs

Compatible with Raspberry Pi 3, 2, B+, A+, Zero, and Zero W.

The Python library means that you don't need to do much work to get the Enviro pHAT working.

Price: $22.50

See it now: 

The Pi Hut

Forget status lights and add a high-quality, 2.8-inch, 320x240 16-bit color resistive touchscreen to your Raspberry Pi project.

Compatible with Raspberry Pi Zero, Pi 3, Pi 2 or Model A+, B+.

Price: $50

See it now: The Pi Hut

For those who want a bit more information than a status light can offer, the Display-O-Tron HAT gives you a lot more options.

• 16x3 character LCD display (full ASCII character set and eight custom glyphs)
• Fully controllable six zone RGB backlight
• Six bright white bar graph LEDs (individually dimmable)
• Six capacitive touch buttons
• Power, I2C, SPI, UART, PWM, and five GPIO pins broken out
• SN3218 LED matrix driver chip (drives the RGB backlight)
• Microchip CAP1166 capacitive touch driver chip

Compatible with Raspberry Pi 3, 2, B+, A+, Zero, and Zero W.

Price: $31

See it now: The Pi Hut

Break away from mains power and use a convenient LiPo or lithium-ion battery to power your Pi project.

• 0.8mm thick PCB
• Shaped to sit as low as possible on the Raspberry Pi
• 2-pole JST connector ideal for most LiPo/LiIon batteries
• Power and low battery LED indicators
• Supplies up to 1.5A continuous current (15uA quiescent current)
• Low battery warning at 3.4V (asserts GPIO #4 low)
• Automatic shutdown at 3.0V to protect your battery
• VBAT+, GND, and EN pins available to break out
• 2x6 0.1" female header (optional, for non permanent installation)
• Includes rubber foot to space LiPo SHIM away from your Raspberry Pi

Chis is compatible with Raspberry Pi 3, 2, B+, A+, Zero, and Zero W.

Price: $13.90

See it now: The Pi Hut

Add a handy RS232 port to your Raspberry Pi board to expand the possibilities of what you can hook up. Not only is this handy if you have a device that has an RS232 port you want to control, but it also allows you to connect to devices you've built yourself.

The sky's the limit!

Price: $17

See it now: The Pi Hut

This add on adds what feels like magic to a Raspberry Pi project -- 3D gesture sensing at up to 15 centimeters away from the sensor surface using near field gesture technology.

You can even place it behind non-conductive material such as wood or acrylic and it will still work.

Compatible with Raspberry Pi A+, B+, 2B, 3B.

Price: $28 

See it now: The Pi Hut

Adding an eye to your Raspberry Pi project has never been easier. This tiny camera connects directly to the camera port that's built onto the Raspberry Pi Zero.

The 8 megapixel camera supports 1080p30, 720p60 and 640x480p90 video and can take 3280 x 2464 pixel stills.

Price: $33.50

See it now: The Pi Hut

Forget having to use a fixed camera in your Pi projects by giving it pan-and-tilt motion using this already assembled module that fits right on top of the Pi.

• Pan-tilt module (180 degrees motion through each axis) with two servos
• HAT with two servo channels, one PWM or NeoPixel RGB (or RGBW) LED channel
• Right-angled header pre-soldered to underside of HAT for servo and LED channels
• Slot to route servo, LED, and camera cables through
• Acrylic mount to hold Pi camera and NeoPixel strip (with diffuser) in place
• Comes fully assembled

Compatible with Raspberry Pi 3, 2, B+, A+, Zero, and Zero W.

Price: $41.75

See it now: The Pi Hut

Add a handy full-sized USB connector to your Pi Zero or Pi Zero W. Not only does this turn your little Pi into a USB dongle, it can also seriously reduce the cabling you need when connecting it to a PC.

Compatible with Pi Zero V1.3 (with camera connector) and Pi Zero W.

Price: $7 

See it now: The Pi Hut

A great way to get into prototyping and handling analog inputs and outputs and controlling motors and Arduinos, without hassles or running the risk of blowing up your board.

• Four buffered 5V tolerant inputs (perfect for Arduino compatibility)
• Four powered 5V outputs (up to 500mA total across all four channels)
• Four analog inputs
• Two H-bridge motor drivers (up to 200mA per channel)

Compatible with Raspberry Pi 3, 2, B+, A+, Zero, and Zero W.

Price: $14 

See it now: The Pi Hut

A matrix of 32 super-bright RGB LEDs that can be used for all sorts of applications, from mood lighting to status lights.

Compatible with Raspberry Pi 3, 2, B+, A+, Zero, and Zero W.

Price: $14