CarPiHAT PRO 5 – Car Interface + DAC for Raspberry Pi 5

The CarPiHAT PRO 5 is the next generation of the original CarPiHAT PRO, designed to handle the increased power requirements of Raspberry Pi 5 whilst still being compatible with earlier boards such as Raspberry Pi 4.

The power stage has been re-worked with higher quality inductors and a new power switching IC, with improved power conversion and filtering that provides up to 5A that Raspberry Pi 5 (sometimes) requires. The PRO 5 has been tested with a Pi 5 running at full load, with various USB peripherals (including a touch screen), as you might see in an automotive environment. The PRO 5 comes with a shroud and fan by default, due to the HAT’s increased cooling requirements.

The PRO 5 offers the same core functionality as the standard CarPiHAT, whilst also integrating a high-quality audio DAC (with 3.5mm jack) alongside the power improvements for Pi 5. This removes the need for an additional DAC HAT or a USB-based DAC and offers a true all-in-one solution for automotive Raspberry Pi projects. This all-in-one approach also reduces space requirements, an important factor in automotive projects.

The CarPiHAT PRO 5 is equipped with a 192kHz/24bit Burr-Brown digital-to-analog converter, offering best-in-class sound quality for your next OpenAuto installation.

Plus the standard CarPiHAT features!

The HAT includes a 12V to 5V buck converter to power your Raspberry Pi and touchscreen, safe shutdown circuitry, a low (< 1mA) current draw when switched off, dedicated reverse/illumination/aux 12V inputs, 2x general-purpose opto-isolated 12V inputs (5 in total), 2x high current high side switched 12V outputs (@1A) ideal for switching relays/lights, an independent CAN bus port, RTC, I2C bus, 1W for temperature sensors etc and 5V out for displays and other components.

The HAT conforms to the official Raspberry Pi specification and is compatible with any Raspberry Pi with the 40-pin GPIO header, although it is primarily designed for use with non-zero variants.

The HAT comes with a 6-way Molex NanoFit pigtail, standoffs and screws. We also stock Molex NanoFit 4-way pigtails compatible with the board’s connectors, for making easy terminations to existing wiring (useful for connections such as I2C, CAN etc). Need more IO? Check out the CarPiHAT IO Expander!

A note on cooling/active coolers

The included standoffs and spacers are designed to maintain the most compact configuration possible, however this leaves no room for an Active Cooler.

Should you see a need to add an Active Cooler, we recommend using this GPIO Riser along with 20mm M2.5 standoffs combined with 12mm M2.5 screws from the top, and 8mm M2.5 screws from the underside.

A note on Touch Display 2 compatibility

The Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2 has a new block connector rather than the previously used jumper wires. This makes wiring a little awkward!

To power the display, you can either snip the connector and solder directly to the CarPiHAT’s 5V/GND pads (or solder a pin header to those pads and create a jumper solution), or use this handy USB Power Breakout from Eplop.

Features

• New for PRO 5: re-worked with higher quality inductors and a new power switching IC – can provide 5A to Raspberry Pi 5
• 12V -> 5V buck converter to power the Pi and touchscreen, with fuse and filtering
• Safe shutdown circuitry to allow the pi to control its own power
• High Quality Audio DAC
• 3.5mm jack DAC output
• < 1mA current draw when switched off
• Dedicated reverse, illumination and aux 12V inputs
• 2 general purpose 12V inputs (for a total of 5 12V inputs)
• 2 high current, high side switched 12V outputs (@1A – great for switching relays, lights etc)
• 1 independent CAN bus port
• Real-time clock to maintain system time across reboots
• Broken out I2C bus
• Broken out 1W for temperature sensors etc
• 5V Power Output for displays and other 5V devices

Who might use a CarPiHAT PRO 5?

Any situation where you require high-quality audio output from the Raspberry Pi in an automotive (or other 12V) environment. Particularly useful in situations where the additional size of a CarPiHAT + DAC stack would be prohibitive.

Since the HAT allows the Raspberry Pi to take control of its own power supply, corrupted SD cards (due to unexpected power loss) are a thing of the past! A simple script, or service, running on the Pi allows you to monitor a 12V feed, and gracefully shut down when this is removed.

At a more advanced level, the additional peripherals on the HAT would allow you to connect any number of inputs or outputs to the system. The 12V outputs allow you to control lights, amplifiers, relays, solenoids, you name it! The CAN port allows the connection of an IDrive controller for a great human interface experience, or even interrogate your car’s ECU with some custom software. The I2C and 1W ports allow you to connect any number of external devices such as light, temperature or environmental sensors, or even external microcontrollers!

There’s a project log and inspiration page here including a link to the designer’s very own project build.

How to use the CarPiHAT?

The designer has set up a GitHub page with full information (see sidebar), including a Quick Start Guide to get you started. The BlueWave Studio forum is also a useful resource.

DAC setup

The CPH Pro 5 contains a high-quality digital-to-analog converter IC, that allows for higher-quality audio output via the 3.5mm jack on the HAT. The easiest way to enable the DAC is by using the ‘HiFiBerry’ dtoverlay, as below:

Add the following to ‘/etc/modules’

dtoverlay=hifiberry-dacplus

Pinout

Shows the same pinout as the previous model, as the pinout has not changed. Ignore the version numbering!

Package contents

• 1x CarPiHAT PRO 5 Board
• 1x 6-way Molex NanoFit Pigtail
• 4x Metal Standoffs
• 4x Metal Screws

Raspberry Pi not included