I have bought the scroll bot kit recently and a zero lipo. Can I incorporate the zero lipo on this kit to use battery power? Will the scroll pHAT hd be using the same GPIO pins with the zero lipo? Can I solder the zero lipo at the bottom or should I sandwhich it between the scroll pHat and the rasp pi zero W? Sorry if this came up before but reading on the other post here about the zero lipo, I couldn’t quite determine how exactly to incorporate the zero lipo on this kit.
Greatly appreciate any help on this. Thanks!
Hi there,
You should be fine to use both the Zero Lipo and Scroll pHat HD on the same Pi, since neither of them use the same pins other than 5V power and ground; see https://pinout.xyz/pinout/zero_lipo and https://pinout.xyz/pinout/scroll_phat_hd
Sure, you could solder the shim on the bottom, so long as you have long enough header pins. :D
I’m unfamiliar with the kit actually is, and as such, any space issues you may have, but the shim is pretty small and easy enough to incorporate into most designs.
Hope this helps!
@RaspberryPicardBox, Thank you very much. That certainly helped and a relief to know that they don’t use the same pins on the pi zero w. I think I have an extra long header pins in my tool box. Here is the kit that I have bought. https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/scroll-bot-pi-zero-w-project-kit
Thanks again!
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Up to 1.5A out so it should supply enough current to drive everything… I run a Pi A+ with Sense Hat from a powerboost 1000c. It has the same up to 1.5A out rating. I have my Sense Hat LED matrix showing a continuously scrolling message.
Just be aware that the Zero Lipo won’t recharge your battery. You’ll have to unplug it and then plug it into a separate LIPO battery charger.
The more MAH the battery has the longer it will run. More MAH means bigger battery too, so its a trade off if you want to keep things small. Size wasn’t an issue for me so I went with a beefy 6600 MAH battery
Thanks @alphanumeric. I have a 1600 Mah and a beefy 6600 Mah lipo batts as well that I’m planning to use. I just have to recharge them on down time when not in use. Just out of curiosity, how long does the 6600 Mah last with your Pi A+? I think the powerboost 1000c can recharge the battery while plugin, correct? :Thumbs up on that.
So far I’ve only run it for about 2 hours or so, no where near draining it. I haven’t timed how long it takes to recharge, just made sure it was recharging and reached full charge. Yes my powerboost can recharge when the power pack is plugged in. I have mine setup so I can run my Pi directly from the power pack or off of the powerboost. I usually run the Pi directly from the power supply when its plugged in. In that mode I turn the powerboost off so only the battery charger section is running. I do that by sending a signal to the EN pin on the powerboost, a ground if memory serves me correctly. This saves wear and tear on the powerboost. It gets hot when trying to charge the battery and run my Pi at the same time. I’m using a 5V 4A power supply. It has a barrel connector instead of the micro USB. Easier to plug in and more robust. It’s not easily damaged etc. Then I just used the matching panel mount barrel jack with solder terminals on my case. Nice beefy wires so no voltage drop. pictures here if your interested, https://1drv.ms/f/s!AjOYwiwlwDtpgq8_0VrdS3_H5xL_AA
Thumbs up @alphanumeric. Thanks for letting me know. I’m intrigue with the barrel connector change.
I do have to agree on this. I can’t view the link but will take a look later when I’m on my home laptop.
I see you have built quite few projects already with different Pi boards… Cool! Thumbs up!
Are those stands all 3D printed? Nicely built! I see the senseHat is used for temp monitoring?
I have been contemplating on getting a 7 inch screen for my Pi 3. I would like to make it portable and mobile but that will be in my future projects.
Thank you very much for sharing all these!
The black frames are Open Beam extruded aluminum beam. I bought a kit years ago from Adafruit, https://www.adafruit.com/product/1275 I’ve bought more brackets for it, still have some of the beams left over from the original kit though. The bread board rig is portable enough that I can take it out on my deck in the summer to tinker with. The Pi foundation touch screen worked out well for that rig. Just big enough that I don’t get eyestrain using it but small enough to not make that rig too big to move around. No having to have a separate power pack for it either.
The sense hat shows the Day, Date, Time, Temp, Humidity, Barometric Pressure and UV index in a continuously scrolling message on the LED matrix. I call it my portable weather clock. The different elements change color based on conditions. The temp reading will change to Blue if the temp is below 0c. for example. and Red if its above 25c. Green is good, Yellow not so much and Red is bad. I use a SI1145 light sensor to read the UV index. I also use the ambient light reading to adjust the display brightness automatically. In a dark light conditions the LED matrix switches to low light mode and the secondary display with the 10mm LEDS is turned off. In normal sunlight the display goes to normal brightness and the 10 mm LED’s are enabled. In very bright sunlight some colors are hard to see, Red and Blue especially, so I toggle all text to bright white which is easier to read in bright sunlight. The 10mm LED’s I can use for what ever I want with an edit of my python file. Right now I use them for a quick Temp display. The Blue LED is on if the temp is below 0c, Yellow if above 0 but below 13c. 13 to 25 is Green, and temps above 25C turn on the Red LED. I can override the auto light selection with the sense hat joystick. I also use that to turn the Pi off. I added a DS3231 RTC board to that so it keeps accurate Time without an Internet connection. I used a Pi A+ as it draws less current than the 3B does, and is smaller. It didn’t need to be any bigger than the Sense Hat. I could have used a Zero but already had an A+. The A+ ia also easier to mount to the back of the sense hat. All the mounting holes line up perfectly.