Zero LiPo how to check it works

Support
1

So my Zero LiPo arrived and tonight I tried soldering it to my PiZero. I found this really tricky due to the small size and my less than stellar soldering abilities.

So I plug a LiPo in and the Zero LiPo board lights with a blue light. But the Pi isn’t powering up. The Pi works when powered by USB so the Pi itself is ok.

The solder connections appear to be ok, but I can’t guarantee it. I just hope I haven’t damaged the LiPo board while trying to solder the pins.

So my question is, what’s the best way to test if the Zero LiPo is working properly?

2

Do you own a multimeter? You could check the voltage across the 5v and ground pins to check if it’s supplying the proper voltage when a lipo cell is connected. Pinout is here: http://pinout.xyz/pinout/zero_lipo

3

I don’t but I’m sure I have a friend who has, thanks!

4

how did you go with this? Seeing the same situation here :/

Some decent installation instructions would be lovely, don’t you think?

5

Did you check the lipo was definitely charged? I’ve installed a couple in the last few days and installation has just been a case of dropping it on to the header pins and blobbing on some solder. (I basically followed Sandys firefly tutorial using extended headers. It’s pretty straightforward (IMHO)

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6

Any chance you could post a photo of the soldering so that we can have a quick look at it and check that it all looks pukka?

7

I ended up having to purchase another Pi and another Zero LiPo as I couldn’t get the Zero LiPo to work and I couldn’t even get the Zero LiPo off the Pi without completly ripping it apart (Which I ended up doing).

The second time around I was able to use the solderless header kit and I attached the Zero Lipo to it’s little header attachment and not directly to the Pi this time, to cut down on me possibly damaging everything again. This now works but takes up a little more space than I intended, luckily my Nerf blaster has the room inside.