PiJuice – testing the software and hardware plus 6W 40W solar panels video?

 python programming, Raspberry Pi Hardware, Review  14 Responses »
Oct 112017
 
PiJuice - testing the software and hardware plus 6W 40W solar panels video?

Today we’ll take a closer look at the PiJuice and how to use it. We’ll also do a bit of testing of the PiJuice HAT and the 6W/40W solar panels. This carries on from the previous post where I had an initial look at the PiJuice. It’s mostly a video review, but there will be some extra information here in the blog. Calculations Before running the testing I did some calculations to predict how long the PiJuice battery might last. The BP7X battery has 1820 mAh and a nominal 3.7V. Multiplying these gives 6734 mWh […more…]

PiJuice – unboxing, first look and why it’s 2 years late?

 Raspberry Pi Hardware  9 Responses »
Oct 052017
 
PiJuice - unboxing, first look and why it's 2 years late?

I’ve just received an early production PiJuice and two solar panels from Pi-Supply. It’s a loaner as there aren’t many of them in existence at the moment. In this video I take a first look at them and give my perspective on how/why it came to be so late. The DIP switch is to change the charge profile, not the i2c address as I said in the video. It all looks very nice so far. I will start “playing” with it today. I’ve got this to play with for a few more days. I’ll publish […more…]

Playing With Papirus Zero

 Raspberry Pi Hardware, raspberry pihardware, Review  13 Responses »
Aug 052016
 
Playing With Papirus Zero

A few weeks ago I did a “mailbag” video/blog and ran a poll on which product(s) you’d like me to review. There was a clear winner right from day one. Pi-Supply’s Papirus Zero took first place and held it by a comfortable margin for three weeks. So I’m going to have a play with that one first and share my findings with you. Initial Impressions It’s a nice dainty little display. In my review pack there were two displays of different sizes; 1.44 inch and 2.0 inch. It just so happens that the height of […more…]

Gert VGA 666 review and video

 Electronics, raspberry pi, Raspberry Pi Hardware, Review  12 Responses »
Nov 262014
 
Gert VGA 666 review and video

Aaron Shaw from Pi-Supply sent me one of his early Gert VGA 666 adaptors for testing and comment, so I thought I’d share my findings. I followed the diagram in Gert’s manual. It’s a fairly simple build, just 20 resistors and two connectors. It took about 20 minutes, being careful to get all the resistors in the right places. The hardest part was the stacking header. The final product will ship with a slightly shorter stacking header. This should be a bit easier to solder. To get it working on the Pi, you need to […more…]

New Port ID Board for the Raspberry Pi B+ – RasPiO Portsplus 2

 Electronics, Input and Output, interfacing, raspberry pi, Raspberry Pi Hardware  7 Responses »
Aug 132014
 
New Port ID Board for the Raspberry Pi B+ - RasPiO Portsplus 2

Today I’m launching the RasPiO Portsplus 2. It’s a simple port ID board for the Raspberry Pi model B+. It’s available over at https://rasp.io/portsplus2 but full information below… RasPiO® Portsplus 2 The RasPiO® Portsplus 2 board is designed for the new Raspberry Pi B+. It labels the ports clearly for you so that you don’t need to count pins. This will help you avoid wiring errors and damage… You can slip it over the B+ GPIO header if you want, or hold it next to the header (many people tell me they do this – and this […more…]

Pi Supply – ATX style power switch for Raspberry Pi – Review

 Electronics, raspberry pi, Raspberry Pi Hardware, Review  27 Responses »
Oct 142013
 
Pi Supply - ATX style power switch for Raspberry Pi - Review

Pi Supply is an external power switch for your Raspberry Pi. I have to be scrupulously honest here and say that, when I first heard about it, I thought “well that solves a problem I haven’t got”. But in the Raspberry Pi forums, quite a lot of people complained about not having a power switch. It’s never been an issue for me. I don’t find unplugging a micro USB cable all that hard. I’ve never broken the capacitor off the Pi (although I have broken a couple of SD card slots and fried a couple […more…]