Pimoroni
Picade X HAT USB-C
The Picade X HAT turns your Raspberry Pi into a retro arcade console by adding joystick and button inputs, a 3 W I2S DAC/amplifier for audio, and a safe powe...
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The Picade X HAT turns your Raspberry Pi into a retro arcade console by adding joystick and button inputs, a 3 W I2S DAC/amplifier for audio, and a safe power on/off system — all through a single HAT that powers your Pi via USB-C (no separate power supply needed).
Female Dupont connectors make wiring straightforward: plug in a joystick, up to 10 player and utility buttons, and a speaker, then install the one-line software driver and you're ready to play.
Key Features
- USB-C Power Input – Back-powers the Raspberry Pi through the GPIO header
- I2S Audio DAC + 3 W Amplifier – Mono output with push-fit speaker terminals; blends both stereo channels
- Safe Power On/Off – Tap to start, hold 3 seconds to safely shut down and disconnect power (prevents SD card corruption)
- 4-Way Digital Joystick Input – Standard arcade-style directional control
- 10 Button Inputs – 6× player, 4× utility, plus 2 additional breakout pins
- Soft Power Switch Input – Dedicated input for an external power button with LED output
- Plasma Button Connector – For illuminated button support
- Breakout Pins – Power, I2C, and 2 extra button inputs
- Female Dupont Connectors – No soldering required for joystick and button wiring
- Compatible with All 40-Pin Raspberry Pi Models – Including Raspberry Pi 4
Software Installation
curl https://get.pimoroni.com/picadehat | bashReboot after installation. The installer configures controls, safe shutdown, and audio.
Ideal For
- DIY arcade cabinet builds with Raspberry Pi
- RetroPie and retro gaming setups
- Custom button-and-joystick interfaces with audio
Jargon buster
Plain-language definitions for the technical terms used above.
- breakout
- A breakout board carries a small or fine-pitched component and brings its connections out to standard, breadboard- and header-friendly pins. Describing a part as a breakout means it can be wired into a project without soldering directly to the component's tiny contacts.
- DAC
- A digital-to-analogue converter turns numbers from the microcontroller into a real analogue voltage. It matters if you want to generate simple waveforms, audio-style signals, or variable control voltages rather than just on/off outputs.
- GPIO
- General-purpose input/output pins are microcontroller pins you can set in software to read signals, switch devices on and off, or connect to peripherals. The number of GPIO pins matters because it limits how many buttons, LEDs, sensors, and other parts you can wire directly to the board.
- I2C
- I2C is a two-wire communication bus used by many sensors and small modules. It matters because several I2C devices can share the same two wires, but each device needs a compatible address and your controller must support I2C.
- I2S
- I2S is a digital audio interface used to send sound data between chips, such as from a microcontroller to an audio amplifier or DAC. It matters if your project needs cleaner digital audio output than a basic buzzer or PWM signal can provide.
- LED
- A light-emitting diode (LED) is a small electronic component that emits light when current flows through it in the correct direction. Because it only conducts one way, its polarity matters, and a through-hole LED must be soldered the correct way around to light up.
- USB-C
- USB-C is a small, reversible USB connector that can carry power, data and, on some devices, video over a single cable. The same connector can range from charging only to high-speed data, so the functions a given port actually supports vary.
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Related Tutorials
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