ESP8266 + RasPi + USB Host

Let's attach random stuff to the GPIO header of a Raspberry Pi for fun and no profit whatsoever!

Julian Calaby

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Description

I use my Raspberry Pi B (rev 1) as a low power desktop by hooking a USB WiFi dongle and a wireless keyboard + mouse to it through a USB hub. After reading on Hack-a-day about how a ESP8266 board could be modified to be used as an SDIO WiFi card, I'm planning to upgrade to a A+ (not a Zero) and ditch the hub by hooking equivalent peripherals up to the GPIO header instead. Essentially turning the setup in the first photo into the setup in the second with crazy soldering and some form of SPI => USB host solution for the keyboard and mouse.

Details

Long term goals involve experimenting with implementing bit-banged USB host on either the ESP8266 or an ATMEGA328 to hopefully reduce the costs as the USB host shield I'm waiting on from SparkFun is quite expensive relative to the rest of the hardware.