My general tinkering Pi zero 2 w has the button shim soldered under the board, it’s a little messy, but works well. I’m thinking of removing the header and the shim then putting it together again with the shim between the coloured header and the board.
Then I thought about putting the LED shim on there too. Has anyone stacked the LED shim on top of the button shim? How close tegether can they be? Are the buttons still acessible?
I’m also thinking of getting the Pibow Zero 2, obviously this configuration isn’t supported, but I think only Layer 2 would nbeed to be modified. The simplest option would probably be to cut the rear section.
Could someone post a photo of layer 2 (the one that sits on the zero PCB)? I’m just trying to work out how to fit things.
Thanks :)
I’ve modified the Pi Zero Pibows a few times.
I have some Pi Zeros with 90 degree female headers on the back side. I just cut out what I didn’t need, very carefully, with a dremel and thin cutting wheel.
I’ve also mixed and matched layers from the Zero and Zero W Pibows to get an almost all red case for my Zero W’s.
If it was me, I think I’d mount the button shim on the backside / bottom of the Pi Zero. And the LED shim on the top. It will IMHO look OK and the buttons would be accusable. Test fit everything before soldering. Reversing the male header so the short pins are up, and the long side down, may work out better for you. Assuming your not going to be plugging anything into the top of the GPIO header when its all finished. The extra length on the back side gives you something to solder the Button shim to, and you’ll have just what you need on the top to solder the Led Shim to. Solder the header to the Pi first.
How good are your soldering skills? Unsoldering a 40 pin header is no easy task, even for those of use with good soldering skills. There is a good chance of damaging something in the process, Just a FYI, from somebody that been there tried it and failed.
That’s how I attached the button shim, I’d already attached the header, so I just soldered it to the pins sticking through. I had to shave the PI’s PCB a little because the controller chip gets in the way.
The only way to remove a header is to cut it and then do one pin at a time. Though you might be right and I should just put hte LED shim on top of the header, though I really wanted the header colours to show.
Ah, OK your one step ahead of me already.
I remove the black (in your case colored) plastic bit that holds the pins together. Then unsolder them one by one letting them drop out. Then clean up what solders left with a solder sucker, or a quick wipe with a wet sponge while the solder is melted.
Your button shim may actually be bonded / soldered right to the pads on the Pi? That will make it really tough to remove.
Now that have the LED shim I can see the button shim doesn’t fit under it very well. The LED shim is wider and so gets in the way of the buttons. It’s going to be better to leave it off that pi. I’m still considering attaching it directly under the header on a different pi. It’d be nice to have an all in 1 solution.
The two LED Shims I have are remote mounted with wires. I wanted a vertical orientation instead of horizontal, and needed some spacing between them and the Unicorn Hat HD that’s on the Pi. No button shims here though, not yet anyway.
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That’s a great idea! It’s only 4 pins too.
It’s a shame you can’t bend a circuit board, but I think I’ll work something out.
5 wires, sort of kind of. Pin 20 also needs to be grounded or it won’t work.
I just connected pin 20 to pin 6, and then one wire to ground on the Pi.
LED SHIM at Raspberry Pi GPIO Pinout
