Fancy case with battery & switch for InkyPhat

Hello all. CyberchuckTX here. I’ve posted a project called “InkyPhat Badge” which borrows heavily from existing materials (acknowledged throughout the project descriptions).

https://hackaday.io/project/159554-inkyphat-epapereink-display-for-badges

I have the gorgeous PiBow case from Pimoroni but would like to do a COMPLETE project by having a wearable badge around my neck. What’s missing is a battery and off/on switch.

I want to design / find a case that has the switch and battery built-in. Has anyone done this yet?

Please join my project & contribute if you’re interested.

Something close to what I would like is the "PiZero timelapse camera project

But with the InkyPhat display instead of the camera.

Anyone done this yet?

Charlie in Houston AKA CyberchuckTX

Have you see the pHAT-Badge?

This thread talks about how to add the on-off SHIM so that it’ll work correctly (it won’t out of the box apparently, although I haven’t tried myself).

Have fun.

Simon.

Yes, I saw the pHAT-badge, but according to the website (when I last looked awhile back) it was indicated as “Out of Stock, don’t know when it will be available again” so I gave up on it.

Beside, this does NOT accomodate a BATTERY. I am looking to make this is nice sealed environment and having a battery dangling down (or a USB cord handing on the badge) doesn’t seem very aesthetic.

I just asked on the of-off SHIM how it works with the Inky pHAT … I’d like to see other angles on the pictures to understand how the SHIM works. Given thethe pHAT appears to connect to ALL GPIO pins I don’t understand how the shim works “in the middle”.

Thanks for responding. Go ahead & respond on this thread or join my project & post in the discussions there.

Hiya,

I too had forgotten about that badge, until I read your post.

Just ordered two, so they are definitely in stock now.

For a discrete power supply I guess you are looking at a LI-PO battery.

Pimoroni do a LI-PO shim for that, but it’s a off / battery low shim, not an on/off switch.

I’m sure some other people here with more tinkering skills that I will be able to help out.

Cheers,

Simon.

Yep. That’s why I posted here in the forums (more experienced folk than me). Once again I want to have the following:

  1. On/off switch
  2. A way to plug in a rechargeable battery preferably with a microUSB interface
  3. A case that’ll contain ALL : #1, #2, the InkyPhat pHat and the PiZeroW

Anyone got a solution out there? Particularly the case?

Charlie,

I’ve been working on the same thing on my own:

I wrote some code in Python that will change the image on the inkyPHAT approximately every minute, and I’m to the point now where I’m trying to figure out how to wire in the two switches I’ll need (one to shut down the Pi and the second to cut power altogether so the battery can be removed and recharged).

I don’t really understand all the ins-and-outs of wiring up the switches (what pins to use on the GPIO, or how to “ground” the LiPo); this stuff feels a lot harder than it seems when you look things up and people have a tendency to talk to you like you already understand some of the lingo. :)

I’m happy to share my code if it will help your project (it’s really short).

pete

Send me contact information (SKYPE/Google/phone/etc) and we’ll chat at some point (we could set up a ZOOM or Google Hangout if others are interested).

Wiring in buttons is pretty straightforward; there are plenty of step-by-step tutorials on this at (for example) arduino.cc.

I can help you with switches & LIPO. I’m really interested in a CASE that’ll accomdate ALL the pieces:

  1. PI Zero with power switch
  2. LIPO battery

Feel free to reply to this reply and we’ll get a discussion going.

Charlie in Houston (aka CyberchuckTX)

Here’s where I’m at right now:


I know what I want the case to look like, but I’ve never done any 3D design, so I get to learn how to do that too. :)

I admit, my particular implementation of this concept has a unique form-factor because of the actual name-tag I use at work; however I can see a more conventional form-factor as well – one that’s about the size of the Pi Zero but deep enough to house the battery.

I did choose that battery specifically though to be about the same size as the Pi Zero board itself; it’s a 3.7v 1200mAh LiPo.

What would be truly lovely is if Pimoroni would design and build a ZeroLiPo that has charging capability built in. The shim is so much easier (and less expensive) to add into a project than the equivalent from Adafruit.

And it really sucks that the On/Off shim uses one of the same GPIO pins as the inkyPHAT does – it’s like they never envisioned people wanting to stack a few shims behind an inky… :) LOL.

Look forward to hearing back from you.

pete

Pete:

Wonderful! I was tripping over myself to do some sort of fancy case; putting the pieces on an existing badge as a base is a GREAT idea!

I can do some simple 3D design stuff. If you’re interested, try out TinkerCAD from Autodesk ( https://www.tinkercad.com/ ). You can sign up for free and it runs in most browsers. There are also some really excellent tutorials and a huge community of users.

Once you do a design you can export to STL (3D print format) and print to your heart’s content.

I’m going to take a stab at a case around the badge this week if I can …

Charlie in Houston

I found this THINGIVERSE badge holder and am going to modify it in TinkerCAD (the STL file) - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:867049/files

OR I can use OpenSCAD (programmable objects). Download the “.scad” file and open in OpenSCAD.

Wow! Thanks! I’m very flattered you like my idea/application so much. For me, it’s driven more out of the limitations of what I have to wear at work than anything else.

As far as dimensions, the badge itself is 2.75" x 4". I was thinking of a two-piece case; one to frame the actually inkyPHAT on the front, and then on the back, something to encase the Pi and the battery; but it also needs somewhere to put two switches (the momentary to shut it down, and the switch to cut power altogether) – or maybe not. Maybe it just needs to be able to come off easily to then reach the switches and unplug the battery from the ZeroLiPo for charging.

I"ll look into TinkerCAD for sure.

Thanks again!

I hope you have some success with it. It looked to me like something designed for a regular plastic RF badge though.

I’m curious to see what you come up with.

pete

Um, that’s the point: take what you’ve got and add a “pouch” on the back or something.

I’ll let you know what I come up with. Thanks for the dimensions.

C