Hello all, I picked up a PiSugar to battery power another Pi but that didn’t workout for irrelevant reasons. So now I’m wondering if I would be able to slap this into my Picade without GPIO conflicts.
This is the PiSugar: https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Platform-Raspberry-Accessories-handhold/dp/B09MJ876FW/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=20NAY9MQCWRX0&keywords=pisugar3&qid=1645581959&sprefix=pisugar3%2Caps%2C199&sr=8-3
There is an I2C chart for the PiSugar but my understanding is fairly limited, so if someone can explain it that would help out a lot.
My second question is what battery capacity is reasonable for a stock clock Pi4 in the Picade? The PiSugar comes with a 5,000mah battery, but it can be swapped out. For some context I would hope for at least 2 hours battery life. I don’t plan on making this portable it’s only so I don’t have to be tethered to a wall.
Bonus question ( I don’t expect this to get answered here, but while I’m here…) is anyone familiar with adding a power switch to the PiSugar?
If anyone is able to help I would greatly appreciate it.
Going by the pinouts for the Picade hats, they don’t use i2c.
Picade X HAT at Raspberry Pi GPIO Pinout
And the Pi Sugar doesn’t use any other pins other than power and ground.
So no pin conflicts that I can see.
Space might be an issue if its a Picade cabinet. Is there room to mount it under the Pi?
And do you need access to the jacks on the Pi Sugar?
@alphanumeric
Thank you for the quick response. Yes it fits well. My pi in the Picade is free floating because I once broke off the USB-C connector on the Picade board by heavy using and plugging and unplugging. I bought a new board and kept the old one as backup just incase I decide to solder it back on.
I have a USB-C extension cable plugged in with the other end sticking out and I plug into that, just to ensure that connector does not break off again. I think once I have the PiSugar in I’ll drill new holes for standoffs so the pi can sit slightly further away from the back if that makes sense.
I’m excited to Test it out and install the PiSugar software. The only thing is there is a power button on the PiSugar board itself. To access it I would need to constantly open the Picade up. It would be convenient to rewire the power button the PiSugar or to somehow keep it the way it is but have the ability to power on the device.
If all works out I’ll post pictures.
Once again thank you for answering my question!
Check the documentation to see if a remote button can be added. I had a look but didn’t see a header for one. There is a spot to add a header marked with an N at one end. You’d have to read up on what that’s for and if its usable for a button / switch.
@alphanumeric
Thank you for your help, I figured it out. I checked the documentation and these two points need to connect to the button.
I tested it out by shorting (I think that’s the right term) the two connections and it acted as if I pushed the power button.
After installing the PiSugar software and enabling software shutdown, the power button on the PiSugar board safely shuts down the pi as well as boots it up. For context if the button is plugged into the Picade x hat will not turn on the device (obviously because there is no USBC plugged into the board) and will not fully shut the system down.
So I will have to solder. I think I’ll solder two female dupont connected wires to the PiSugar that way I’ll only have to plug in the buttons if that makes sense.
Sorry for rambling, my thinking is if I wanted to know this I figured someone else in the world might have the same questions.
Next I’ll need to test battery life with packed in 5,000mah battery.
This is what it looks like so far.
You could likely wire up the Picade power button. Assuming its a momentary contact switch and not a latching switch. Unplug it from the Picade Hat and solder the two wires to the points on the Pi Sugar board.
