In short:
I want this:
Yet with two of these to show low-res photos:
Pico Display Pack 2.8"
In long:
Hello Gurus of Pimoroni,
My next project is a cyberdeck that’s 1800’s themed (perhaps sans-steam punk, yet maybe a brass mini-lamp for the morse code-style keyboard). An accessory that makes sense for this project is a digital stereoscope viewer. This will actually help me as I rebuild this oldish project:
VR-Ready Stereo Pairs and Gifs From Library of Congress Stereocard Collection (VR from the 1800’s!!)
The goal is to take snapshots of actual stereograph images and convert them to something suitable for VR, and that can preview in this viewer. Lower-res is fine as it’s nice enough to see if the image was converted properly.
Question:
How could I power these and the Pico W boards without the USB cable? Having two USB cables with this viewer could be awkward. I bet I could apply 3.3v to a couple of Pico endpoints? I haven’t used these displays and haven’t used a Pico yet. I like the surface area of these displays, and the wireless capability may help sync with a socket server or something wirelessly to detect and load new images (separately via an attached Pico per display). 🤷
I’m running two Display Packs on a Pico with just one Micro USB power supply.
Memory usage (display buffer) was an issue for me, I had to resort to some trickery. Using a Pico 2 may help as it has more memory.
Need to run two Pico Display Packs - Support - Pimoroni Buccaneers
Custom wiring for the power and signal to the Display Packs. Picture of the front view at the bottom of this thread.
Code runs fine from Thonny, but not as main.py - Support - Pimoroni Buccaneers
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You can power the Picos just by connecting VSYS and GND to a power source. The Pico (W) is not picky about voltages, it accepts something like 1.8V - 5.5V. So a good LiPo will work fine and depending on you runtime needs also two AA batteries.
When powering via VSYS/GND, don’t attach an USB-plug at the same time.
For powering with a LiPo, you can add something like a LiPo-shim from Pimoroni, which adds a charger circuit and protects the LiPo as well. The note above is not relevant in this case.
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I love your setup! Thanks for sharing and for your thinking out loud code where you answered yourself a few times. I appreciate you sharing your learnings.
Pico2! I will look into this.
Awesome. Thank you! I think that should get me going.
