The Sense HAT is a pre-assembled board for the Raspberry Pi, specifically designed for the Astro Pi mission. It features an 8×8 RGB LED matrix, a five-channel joystick, and includes the following sensors:

• 3D Gyroscope
• Altimeter (Yaw, Pitch & Roll)
• Magnetometer
• Temperature
• Barometric Pressure
• Humidity

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has created a Python library that provides easy access to all the features included on the board.

Sensor Technical Specifications:

• Pressure / Temperature (ST Micro LPS25H)
  • 24-bit measurement resolution for pressure (260hPa to 1260hPa)
  • 16-bit measurement resolution for temperature (0-125°C)
• Humidity / Temperature (ST Micro HTS221)
  • 16-bit measurement resolution for humidity (0-100% relative humidity)
  • 16-bit measurement resolution for temperature (0-60°C)
• Acceleration / Gyroscope / Magnetic field (ST Micro LSM9DS1)
  • 9 degrees of freedom (Independent X, Y, Z axes for all sensors)
  • ±16 g range for acceleration measurement
  • ±16 gauss range for magnetometer measurement
  • ±2000 dps range for gyroscope measurement

Each of these sensors features a measurement channel with 16-bit resolution.

All sensors support periodic sampling, including internal FIFO memory. The LPS25H and HTS221 have a maximum sampling rate of 25Hz, while the LSM9DS1 can sample up to 952Hz.

LED Matrix: The LED matrix is controlled by a combination of a constant-current LED driver and an Atmel ATTiny88 running custom software that provides an 8×8 display with 15-bit RGB color resolution.

Joystick: The Atmel handles the joystick sampling. Joystick readings are updated at approximately 80Hz, matching the refresh rate of the LED matrix. All sensors (and the basic software for the Atmel) are accessible from the Pi via I2C.

To get started, connect the Sense HAT to the Raspberry Pi via the 40 GPIO Pins. Then, you will need to install the software.