My first HAT: enviro pHAT or BME680 breakout?

Hello:

I’d like to sense temperature (at least) in the upper level of my house. I have a Raspberry Pi 1B, 2B, 3B+ and 4B2 but since I’d like to access it remotely, the 3B+ would be best due to its built-in wireless networking (and the 4B2 I’d like to still play around with!)

The Raspberry Pi SenseHAT is too expensive and has lots of sensors I don’t need.

The enviro pHAT or BME680 breakout would be more what I’m looking for. Both have all I’d want, but the BME680 looks a little more interesting with its newer sensor with air quality sensor.

Which one would be better?

Reading around I get the distinct impression the BME680 is better/newer/cooler. It’s a little more pricey here but does seem a little more interesting.

How well do these work with Raspbian Buster?

I’m not familiar with Python, how hard is it to get these working?

And finally, will I need additional hardware, connectors, etc. to connect either of these to the Pi?

Thank you!

I have two BME680’s wired to Pi A+'s (A+'s not 3A+'s). I’m not using the air quality sensor, not yet anyway. I have male headers on the BME680, then female to female jumpers going to another male header on a Proto Hat. I wanted to put some distance between the Pi and the sensor so heat from the Pi’s SOC doesn’t affect the temperature readings. You could just plug the jumpers right into the Pi’s GPIO pins and skip the Proto Hat. I have a RTC module connected to mine a header for an LED Shim.

The Python part I didn’t find overly complicated, I just display my values locally on the Pi though. I’m not sending my data anywhere else over a network. That Pi doesn’t even have a network connection, it just runs headless sitting next to the TV in my living room. It just endlessly runs a repeating scrolling message with date time temp etc.
Once you run the one line installer you’ll have a Pimoroni folder on that Pi. In there, there will be a BME680 folder, with an examples folder, with python code to test with etc.
The examples are also here
https://github.com/pimoroni/bme680-python

EDIT: I better mention that I am not running Buster on those PI A+'s. It’s either Jessie or maybe Stretch. I’m a if it ain’t broke don’t fix it type of guy. I won’t try Buster until one of them crashes and won’t boot up anymore.

Thanks for the replies!

Yes I’ve been reading how it would be best to put a bit of distance between the sensor and the Pi so that the Pi’s heat does not affect the sensor reading.

If I was to connect the breakout board (or the HAT) directly to the GPIO pins, does it need to be soldered to the pins? I don’t mind soldering, just want to know.

Thanks.

I soldered a stacking header onto the proto Hat. The 11mm one here

Female header part on the bottom and male pins on top. Then it just plugs into your Pi, and a hat on top of it.