It gains a lot of weight because of it, but having sound support is always good

Mar 12, 2014 12:55 GMT  ·  By

The Raspberry Pi has done well as prototyping board, and means to turn normal TVs into Smart TVs, but it always seems to inspire new things, in this case an accessory that has really been a long time coming.

At CeBIT 2014, the trade show that took place in Hannover, Germany, the UK Prime Minister was present and even gave a speech.

As grand an occasion as it was, it would not have been complete without some show-and-tell. After all, this was supposed to be a trade show.

Also, David Cameron went there to talk about the technological innovation in Britain. As it happens, the Raspberry Pi is one of the most successful products manufactured there.

It's pretty funny actually, all told. Originally, the Raspberry Pi was handled by Element14 (the inventors) through Taiwanese and Chinese manufacturers.

Manufacture moved fully to the UK, however, to Sony’s Pencoed factory in Wales, after a deal with Sony UK Tec.

So, even though the Raspberry Pi was, technically, not invented or originally produced in the UK, the device is very much part of that country's market now, and exports.

So since he was there, David Cameron talked about the success of the device, and also played the role of excellent usher for the newest invention from Element14: a sound card for the Pi.

Powered by the Wolfson audio processor, the sound card can play sound in a resolution of up to 24-bit / 192KHz.

A direct connection can be used to play the sound, over a 3.5 mm line out cable, but a digital S/PDIF output can be used as well.

Meanwhile, a couple of MEMS mics can be used for audio recording. So, depending on what sort of device you build with the Raspberry Pi, you'll be able to save voice files or implement voice recognition and control.

Previously, you needed DACs or other USB peripherals to use some of the features, but the Wolfson Audio Card has them all, and will still let you experiment. After all, the add-on card only takes up the P5 pins and leaves everything else alone.

The Wolfson-based sound card from Element14 has a price of $33, which means €23.81, according to exchange rates. The link also leads to the few documented tests of the device that exist online. The overview video seems to be 4 months old, which shows just how long the thing has been in the making, if nothing else.