Stacking - Pico Shims

Hi, my name is John, I have been a fan of Pimoroni products for several years. My hobby is physical computing and building robots for CodeClubs, DoJo’s and electronic clubs.
I have hit a problem that I cannot get my mind around… I have a pi Pico and trying to stack a Motor Shim(PIM617) and LiPo shim (PIM557). The documentation for each product is excellent but singular stacking pico to Motor shim or stacking pico to LiPo shim. I cannot find any thing that explains how to stack all three devices together. (Part of the problem is the order for the shims) I am loathed to damage the kit by soldering it all together without some guidance.

A secondary question ( if that is acceptable), do I need Cpt Resetti as there are several buttons of the above devices that may do the same thing when I boot up the kit with Thonny.

I would appreciate some support Thank you (Psion739)

There are a couple of ways to do this. One is with an Omnibus
Pico Omnibus (Dual Expander) - Pimoroni
or
Pico Decker (Quad Expander) - Pimoroni

Another option is to use a stacking header on one of the shims.
Pico Stacking Header Pack - Pimoroni

Thank you for your suggestions. I am very limited in space and the Omnibus and Decker are two big for my model. I have focused on the header solution and hence my enquiry, I would like to use the header with both shims if this possible? The LiPo shim shows assemble artwork to artwork sides of the pico and shim. Summarily the Motor shim shows assembly artwork to artwork on the pico and shim. That is confusing me. If I stack two shims on the pico one is going to round the wrong way. Psion739

This is what I did to get as small a footprint as possible.

How I soldered on my PICO LIPO Shim - Discussion / Projects - Pimoroni Buccaneers

On the Pico, its male headers on the back / bottom. On the first shim its female on the back / bottom, male on top. Then female on the back / bottom of the second shim.

It is confusing, compared to how its done on a Raspberry Pi. On the Pico they mate back to back. The Pimoroni shims do anyway. It gives you access to the Boot button on the Pico, and makes a display plug in with the viewing side facing out.

Thank you for your help. I am pleased you found it confusing as well. Maybe support will pick up your solution and make it cleared for Buccaneers buying these items. Psion739

If you use a Pico Lipo instead of a stock Pico. you don’t need the Lipo Shim. Just FYI.
Pimoroni Pico LiPo - Pimoroni

Thank you, I will try that… I assume the motor shim can be attached in the same way. Once again thank you for your support. Psion739

Yeah, the Pico Lipo has the same pinout etc as a Pico. I have two of them here. I’ve used them with several different Pimoroni shims.

We stacked Motor and LiPo SHIMs together when making our little pink robot!

We soldered our LiPo SHIM to the Pico back to back, with the short end of the pin headers going through the Pico and LiPo SHIM to make a really slimline package. We then soldered socket headers to Motor SHIM so we could plug it into the long end of the header pins on the Pico. Let me know if you’d like me to try and get you some better photos!

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Thank you Hel, without looking at the bot I assume you cut a slot in the chassis for the lipo and motor shim and placed the pico on the top, it is difficult to see how all three bits are held in place. I will try that myself, although I do like the solution offered by alphanumeric using the pico lipo, so I will try both methods. The small motors and shims were assembled as per your text.

This is a great site thank you both for your suggestions. Psion739.

Sorry for the spam. I got confused by the pics on the motor shim product page and posted some misinformation. There its using a Pico Lipo, not the Lipo shim. And shows two different ways of attaching it to the Pico Lipo?
Motor SHIM for Pico - Pimoroni