I have some ideas.
•Solar Power Hat: Use solar power to run RPi
•RasPhone(RasTablet): Kit to make smartphone(or Tablet) with RPi. With SIM Card support
•FAH Contributor: Kit to contribute to FAH(https://foldingathome.org)
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And “Auto grow kit”: water plants instead of notifying
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I really like the phone Idea.
As far as the solar hat; I think a battery bank that is 5.2v (or 5.1) with 2 ports total capability 4+amps.
A power bank that can charge while running power out as well (like Kanos power bank).
A pack that will accept a low threshold for charging (for 5v solar outputs)
But something with enough juice to power a pi4 plus a small LCD (like the pi 7") and perhaps enough juice to put out another amp or 2 for USB or hat devices.
This would solve a solar solution as well as could be used in laptop or lapdock builds, robots and more.
You can buy small solar panels with the 5v charger.
That could be easily resolved with an MCU and doesn’t need to be a new product (my opinion) as you could run the pin thats pull up/down for the notification to any MCU (with relay) to do such a task. There is probably a large number of instructables that has code links to cut and paste from for the relay or similar tasks.
How much current you can get is a limiting factor with solar panels. Especially if you want something portable. Recharging a Lipo battery is doable, but recharging and running a Pi at the same time can be troublesome, especially if its a Pi 3 or 4.
Adafruit have this, Adafruit Universal USB / DC / Solar Lithium Ion/Polymer charger [bq24074] : ID 4755 : $14.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits
- Up to 1.5A charge rate
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They now have the cables and pumps etc for the Grow Hat Mini, which can run the pumps and auto water the plants. Not sure if there is an example python file for it though?
I’d like to see more stuff based on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module. And not just here.
IMHO it would make a good tablet. Or laptop etc. I’m kind of hoping the Pi Foundation comes up with a tablet or laptop based on the Pi 4 / 400 SOC. I have a Pi 400 and like it a lot. The next step (IMHO) is the addition of a built in screen.
A proto board for the module would be ideal. A pcb that is labelled perf with all of it broken out.
This would be a bridge to many projects. Perhaps a labeled perf break out for either or both the module’s ports individually as seperate boards(cm4). maybe some low profile springy pins too so you can stack with other pref board creations without much hassle.
There are a lot of pins to breakout on a CM4. I’m not knocking your idea, just an observation. I very often use Proto Hats in my projects. I have even stacked them when I have run out of room on just the one.
The Compute Module 4 IO Board isn’t too bad for a hobbyist.
Its a shame there isn’t a better connection set up for the CM4 for compact DIYery. I like the cm3 and pine64cm format, I understand there is are too many I/O pads for that.
Getting back to a cm4 host unpopulated most broke out PBC perf board, labelled best possible. How many of the most useful can you fit on a foot print not much bigger then the cm4? Quite a bit. And maybe various model breakouts towards what people want specifically, like one for PoE, one for a custom pi with all the basic options & usb3; one with pcie port so one and so forth. Problem is this changing footprint . The idea of using RAM module foot print works for one major reason, I can solder directly easily. I plug in any $7 iron with any dripping tip while I have a momentary clear space and rare free time and solder directly to the cm1-cm3 .
A perf board that plugs together i can take off, make it what I want and then easily snap together, that be great.
Best PCB shapes would be pi b+/2/3 PCB foot print with unpopulated usb3 pad, TV pad, hdmi ribbon pad, … use your imagination. An pi A+ footprint too… all with the old 40 gpio unpopulated holes where they should be.
I liked the pi zero TV hole over the pi0w2’s TV pad. Just saying
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Custom smaller boards are starting to show up for the CM4. I have a bunch of Pi camera setups so I’ve been looking at this.
StereoPi v2 Standard – Pimoroni
And this
PiCam Module for Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 [Camera & Compute Module Not Incl] : ID 5247 : $39.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits
I have an 8 gig Pi 4B dedicated to my HQ Camera. The PiCam & CM4 would slim that down considerably and let me use the Pi 4 for other things.
I like the modules new and old. Its really the most practical in many situations for a professional looking build/project.
Problem is the footprint. There needs to be a standard theme. A standard pinout and connection area that can be cloned. Soon we would see rk3366 or whatever ARM predecessor processor by the various companies, and along with that more addons, no longer “shields/caps/HATs/pHATs” but anything that can host a modules connector via ribbon or direct.
RAM module was a good idea for the cm3 & earlier. Too bad it couldn’t be extended for a longer connector. Seems like intel/amd motherboards expansion slot format engineering sovles that issue that smaller ones can work in the larger slot be it the existing connections align.
The switch to the cm4 footprint I am on the fence with. Its cool, but a cm4 in cm3- footprint
Would be greatly appreciated and sought, being backwards compatibility works. Some ports or inboard/onboard addition maybe required for further then pi 3 functionality but keeping that standard footprint for the community brings a quality of innovation from more of the community in hardware.
The 26 and 40 pin header are now standard and its great. I wish we had a compute module format that wasn’t retired so quick
A cm4 board with a DSI with other then a usb-C, unpopulated extras like a/v, csi, usb, gpio or what else have you on that pcb. But to have an extremely thin tablet would be ideal with the official pi touchscreen. Perhaps paired with one of those power supply/LiPo PCBs and a case.
Searching for the smallest lowest profile for a cm4 tablet I found Waveshare “nano base board(B) for cm4” which is the closet to that idea pcb. Except it has an ethernet port and few extras.
If the PCB was an all in one that incorporates what is on the current display driver board, it could be nice and thin. Right now you have display, display driver board then Pi, each stacked on top of the other.
Plus, the current official touch screen, IMHO, needs an upgrade. Bigger and with a higher resolution. I could be wrong, but I “think” its still using the old depreciated driver?
Check this out, saw it posted on twitter.
Retro Lite CM4: a Compute Module 4 gaming console - Raspberry Pi
I think there are solutions for the official pi screen and cm4. A new LCD driver board for the official 7" (and what other may come). One that could be used traditionally with a B+ footprint (dsi cable) but also functions as a CM4 carrier. This board could be sold seperate from the LCD as an upgrade.
The one idea which I have 2 forms of for the CM4 that I been brewing on, and started investigating making an order of custom PCBs I will share.
One is something of the CM3 /cm4 adapter board but with ribbon cable connections for the lack of connections lost from the cm3 footprint.
This seems the easiest and most useful in a universal way.
Another was a carrier board (same footprint as the cm4 so super small) with a series of 1x20 ribbon connectors breaking out all the cm4 connections. This is just a printed PCB with the ribbon connectors and the cm4 connectors
It could come completely populated or unpopulated (excect for the cm4 connection). Choice solder pads could fill extra space (like a/v port,usb,power,microSD). So one may not even need the ribbon ports in some instances. I could easily embed a cm4 in my lapdock and such project ideas.
And on any of these designs , if there is room the addition of wide range power stenciled with schematic labels would be an added awsome.
If I make progress on these designs I will share them but most likely I will not find time to pursue the above PCB ideas into custom fab. So best to who does.
I think it would be really interesting to see a classic Pimoroni take on the MCP2221A!
For example, a new Breakout Garden I2C (maybe in the same 6-port HAT or 3-port pHAT form factor that we all know and love to keep some costs down) but with a USB female edge connector instead of the current 40-pin header perhaps? (and, if possible, maybe also exposing some of the MCP2221A’s GPIO pins in addition to the I2C BG female connectors; perhaps also Stemma QT / Qwiic (edge?) connector(s) if that would make sense for you business-wise).
Or perhaps something even smaller, like a direct USB(-A?) male to BG female connector adapter (cf. like this but with USB male instead of QT female, and (IMO) preferably mounted all “vertically” if so possible), making it possible to plug directly into any regular computer with a USB port. Bottom line, potentially extending the market for Pimoroni I2C Breakouts and the overall Breakout Garden ecosystem beyond typical SBCs.
EDIT: I know there is the FT232H too, which also does SPI (cf. BG I2C+SPI?) , but it is also quite a bit more expensive. Not sure which of the two has the better SW support overall, but I’m assuming it would be the MCP2221A?
Thanks for the airtime :)
PS. https://github.com/xoblite/BreakoutGardener (long time since the last update but still going strong)
A product I haven’t seen, but would love to is a GPIO extension ribbon that uses a shim form the female end. I’ve had a lot of ideas for projects that involve two hats. These projects start to get ridiculously tall once you account for the typically massive GPI connectors that are included on each board. A ribbon that can fit in between the RPi and the first hat without eating up much real-estate would be perfect
I would love to see a larger display (1.9 to 2.4" ) on enviro plus pHat.
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