SHOE USB for Raspberry Pi Zero now on Kickstarter

By default, the Raspberry Pi Zero, comes with a single micro USB port forcing you to use lots of wires and adaptors or even a traditional USB HUB (which are larger than the Pi Zero) making the entire device more bulky than previous models (B-, B+ and 2) and with lots of cables. If you want Wi-Fi in the original Raspberry Pi Zero if you want Wi-Fi you will loose the only USB available.

All these problems are solved with the USB SHOE for Raspberry Pi Zero: it adds 3 USB ports, one of them is internal and the rest are accessible from the edges.

The format is designed to integrate in a housing and leaving inside the internal port: why would you want to unplug the Wi-Fi connectivity?

Requires no wires, no special skills and no knowledge: simply mount the spacers and screws under the Raspberry Pi Zero and it will work with the new USB ports.

To maintain funcionality of the Raspberry Pi Zero one of the USB ports take the form of microUSB which can fulfill a double function: power input or data output, in other words it can be used as the original ports on the Raspberry Pi Zero named as “USB” and “PWR IN”.

What are the advantages of the USB SHOE?

• Adds more USB ports to your RasPi Zero
• 2.0 USB port with the most common USB connector
• Special port to add Wi-Fi, Bluetooh or what you consider indispensable
• Full access to GPIO ports (the USB SHOE does not use any GPIO)
• Ultracompact format: your Raspberry Zero will not grow its size
• And does not require any driver, overlay… Only plug and play.

Common USB devices fits in the internal port. For the inner compartment we recommend devices with a width less than 16mm (maximum of 19mm) and that overhangs less than 10mm from the USB connector border.

NOTE: the port named “USB” on the Zero is inoperable when the USB SHOE is connected to the Raspberry Pi Zero. It is recommended to power the entire system through the USB SHOE using the microUSB port (power using the “PWR IN” is also allowed).

Currently we did a prototype which it is tested and works perfectly but we need your help to go one step further and we can acquire the necessary components for the small redesign to fit the industrial requirements. We will have another sample batch made before the final production run. The performance will be identical because the redesign is only cosmetic, the components will be the same.

Video from Kickstarter:

Resources used in the video: Sound 1, Sound 2, Sound 3, Sound 4, Image B1, Image B2, Image B3, Image C1, Image C2, Image C3, Image C4, Remmina for the remote access y la VLC install on Raspberry from our raspiPRENDE instructions.

Press downloads: Lots of photos in High and Low resolution (99MB) and only the Low resolution (7MB). Here you can read the text translated to Spanish.