The Raspberry Pi Sense HAT is the best way to learn about environmental conditions and space science, alongside computer programming. It sits directly on top of a Pi and opens up the possibilities of the powerful computer board. The Pi Sense HAT is the perfect way to add sensors to your Raspberry Pi board.
The Sense HAT also features an 8 x 8 LED display which can be used to feedback information from the on-board sensors. You can use the display to create shapes, icons and messages in every different colour.

What’s on board?
• 8x8 RGB LED Matrix
• Barometric air pressure sensor
• Temperature sensor
• Humidity sensor
• Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) — essential for velocity, orientation and gravity measurement of a space craft, the IMU combines an accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer into one chip
• 5-button joystick that serves as an on-board keyboard and mouse

What can you make?
The Sense HAT gives you the opportunity to interact with the world that surrounds us, and to create amazing inventions. The range of on-board sensors enable you to gather data on orientation, air pressure, humidity and temperature. Then, with the help of the RGB LEDs, you can create really cool, visual feedback.
There’s tonnes you could do with a Sense HAT, including creating an interactive robot or IoT around your home. You can even use it to create old school games like Snake and Tetris. We would love to hear what you make and you can post it on DesignSpark at: https://www.rs-online.com/designspark

Getting Started
The Sense HAT connects to your Raspberry Pi board via 40 GPIO pins. Once the HAT is connected with your Pi board, you will need to install Astro Pi software. You can now start to program — the Raspberry Pi Foundation provide great examples to start programming with such as showing a rainbow of colours on the LED display or rotating the LED display. Channel the Tim Peake in you...
See https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/astro-pi-guide/

Astro Pi
You may recognise this add-on board from the Astro Pi mission. Astro Pi is an amazing programme which enables young people to write their own computer programs, and run them on Pi boards on the International Space Station.
Astro Pi is run by ESA Education and the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The Raspberry Pi Sense HAT forms part of this mission.

Need a Raspberry Pi?
The Sense HAT is also compatible with the previous model Raspberry Pi 3B (896-8660).