[bmp280 issue] detached metal canopy

Support
1

Hi,

Last evening, I finally unpacked my enviro phat and plugged it on a brand new install (Rasbian) of my raspberry pi Zero W. While following your great tutorial page I encountered the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "Pimoroni/envirophat/examples/all.py", line 6, in <module>
    from envirophat import light, weather, motion, analog
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/envirophat/__init__.py", line 13, in <module>
    weather = bmp280(bus)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/envirophat/bmp280.py", line 104, in __init__
    if self._read_byte(REGISTER_CHIPID) == 0x58: # check sensor id 0x58=BMP280
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/envirophat/bmp280.py", line 131, in _read_byte
    return self.i2c_bus.read_byte_data(self.addr, register)
IOError: [Errno 121] Remote I/O error

Apparently, as soon as I try to import the envirophat library, the bmp280 part of the __init__.py create an error. I tried to comment out the line 13 of __init__.py to prevent it from loading the bmp280 and now this little example works perfectly:

#!usr/bin/python

import time
from envirophat import light, leds #test modules other than weather (bmp280)

try:
    while True:
        lux=light.light()
        leds.on()
        rgb=str(light.rgb())[1:-1].replace(' ', '')
        leds.off()
        print('%f\t%s'%(lux,rgb))
        time.sleep(1)

except KeyboardInterrupt:
    leds.off()

I looked at my board and noticed that the bmp280 chip (baro/temp) doesn’t look like the one of the boards you can see online. Mine is missing a little metal box on top of it. I’ve found the metal box in the bottom of the ESD static shielding bag the board came in (cf. picture).

bmp280
envirophat.bmp280.jpg2650×2422 642 KB

Might this be the reason why the bmp280 doesn’t work? Is there a way to fix this problem, fix the metal box back to the chip?

Best,

rqz

2

I’d say that’s a reasonable assumption. I’d expect the canopy being knocked off the bmp280 is more a symptom than the cause, though, and would guess that whatever happened to knock it off probably didn’t do the chip much good. You should drop an email to support@pimoroni.com with your order number and a link to this thread asking for a replacement.