PiSugar Battery for Raspberry Pi zero

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Description

Raspberry Pi zero is very small, but it's not cute with a power bank which maybe five times bigger. PiSugar is a battery project designed for Pi zero. It's super easy to use, no need for soldering, no conflict with other piHats. It perfectly matches the size of Pi zero.Github: https://github.com/PiSugar
PiSugar1 Purchase link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R7Z2334
PiSugar2 Purchase link: https://www.tindie.com/products/pisugar/pisugar2-battery-for-raspberry-pi-zero/

Details

The Problem

Many software engineers are able to developing products base on raspberry pi, but few of them are good at soldering. Pi zero is very small, it's a good choice when you plan to create a portable prototype. But when it comes with a power bank connected, it's not longer that cute. So we are thinking if there is a portable, solderless solution to supply power for pi zero, it will be very friendly for raspberry pi beginners!

A Pi zero project to control a nikon DSLR, the power bank is much bigger than pi zero. (P.S. This is the smallest power bank I could find) Also the usb cables takes a lot of space.

How It Works (PiSugar 1)

PiSugar battery module use small spring pins to power pi zero from its backside. The 5V power is transited via two bottom pads of pi zero. Therefore it's no need to have a USB cable. Attach the battery board to the back of pi zero is the only thing you need to do.

The Li-on battery and the board have the same dimension, so it will mask the screw wholes. Also placing the battery directly on the board is not good for radiating. Therefore we use a magnet to attract the battery to the board, it keeps enough distance between the battery and the board. In another hand, when you need to use the screw wholes, you can easy move away the battery.

Move the battery slightly when installing

SPEC (PiSugar 1)

same size as pi zero
super easy to install
compatible with other piHats
micro USB charging
on-board switch
magnetic design

Full Introduction

Installation

PiSugar has a on-board switch, you can light up your pi zero anywhere with one click. Double click to turn off. Also you can use it when it is charging.

PiSugar Battery is now available on amazon and mercadolibre.

Purchase links:

US, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, UK, Brazil , Argentina, Chile, Mexico

PiSugar Cases

As our goal to make Raspberry Pi more friendly to beginners. We also develop 3D print case models for pi and battery. Also we are continuously creating caps for different piHats! It's now open-source. You can download STL files and print your own pi case.

Basic Case: https://github.com/PiSugar/PiSugar/tree/master/model

Use Cases

Download PiHat Caps: https://github.com/PiSugar/pisugar-case-pihat-cap

About PiSugar 2

It has been half a year since we started designing PiSugar 2. This time we have added lots of important features without increasing its size!

How PiSugar 2 Works

In the previous generation we use spring contact to connect pi zero’s bottom pads. However pi zero cannot interact with the battery without data connection.

Therefore In PiSugar 2, we use special designed pogo pin (sugar-pin) to connect gpio from the bottom. By connecting 5V, GND and 2 i2c pins, we are now able to reach to status of the battery....

Files

pisugar_case_pin_cap.STL

cap with gpio opening

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 512.09 kB - 04/06/2019 at 13:31

Download

pisugar_case_button.STL

Button for the battery switch

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 15.90 kB - 04/06/2019 at 13:27

Download

pisugar_nobatt_shell.STL

If you don't have a PiSugar battery, you can use this shell which leaves no space for battery.

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 315.32 kB - 04/06/2019 at 13:27

Download

pisugar_case_common_cap.STL

Common cap for both top and bottom.

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 501.06 kB - 04/06/2019 at 13:27

Download

pisugar_case_shell_xl.STL

A complete case contains a shell, two caps and a button.

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 496.47 kB - 04/06/2019 at 13:27

Download

Components

1 × Raspberry Pi zero w

1 × PiSugar battery module

1 × PiSugar 3D-printed case

Project Logs

Collapse

Hello again
Jdaie • 06/15/2020 at 14:43 • 0 comments

Long time without update. It has been crazy busy in the past 6 month! We start shipping PiSugar 2. And the Pro version for bigger Pi is on the way.
There is still one thing we did not satisfy that we can only detect the charging status according to the increasing of the voltage, which is not precise. Therefore we decide the change the charging solution to make it perfect.
Pwnagotchi with clear case
Jdaie • 12/14/2019 at 04:00 • 1 comment

Morning! Looking for new friends around....
PiSugar2 in Beta
Jdaie • 11/25/2019 at 02:39 • 3 comments

We start sending PiSugar2 beta last week for some friends to evaluate!
Since the springs are quite strong, which will make it not that easy to install as the previous version, we are considering solder four nuts on the pisugar board so that you don't have to align them while installing. The case has to be redesigned to adapt this.
The i2c address we are using is 0x32(RTC) and 0x75(power ic). I found that some led phats are using 0x75, it's a disaster to write something wrong on the power ic. But since it's i2c, it seems that we can prevent this from happening, just be careful when you have a 0x75 phat. (some phats allow you to change the address)
some progress
Jdaie • 10/26/2019 at 03:05 • 2 comments

1. We finally get qualified pin samples today... It has been almost two months since we started testing this design. The next thing is to start making new pcbs to intergrate these tiny pins. Then PiSugar 2 is about to release.
2. A working prototype of PiSugar 2 pro! ( Please ignore the 1200mah sticker, it's actually a 5000mah battery, about 12 hours battery life for rpi 3B... ) The otuput chip we used is IP5332, which claims to have 3A output capability. However, we just find out that it has only 2.6A output without charging... Which is inacceptable... So we are now switching to another chip which will have real 3A output.
Wireless Charging
Jdaie • 09/21/2019 at 01:37 • 4 comments

Just found a perfect solution for wireless charging! The size of it fits so well to the pi zero and the battery. Maybe we should add two solder pads and take this coil as an optional sub-module.
New pin samples
Jdaie • 09/18/2019 at 06:39 • 1 comment

Just get a photo of new pin parts from the vendor. These are headers, bases and springs waiting for assembling. They have produced so many units, much more than we expect 0_0'
Use Web Bluetooth to Connect Your Pi
Jdaie • 08/18/2019 at 03:54 • 0 comments
It was three days ago I found that bluetooth can be accessed by web content in Chrome! So I have written a webpage as new client for our previous bluetooth project.

First, install the server-side program on your pi, see how: https://github.com/PiSugar/sugar-wifi-conf

Then you can connect your pi through BLE with your laptop or smartphone by opening this link in chrome app: https://www.pisugar.com/sugar-wifi-conf

Get real time information and config wifi setting by web bluetooth (Android and MacBook)

Since web bluetooth has not been widely supported yet, I have tested on several devices:
- It works well with latest Chrome for MacOS and Android.
- On Win10, Chrome is able to detect the bluetooth but I am not able to open it, which is pretty strange. (If you can open it, please do tell me how)
- Chrome for iOS doesn't support web-bluetooth. There is an ios app called WebBLE which implements the web-bluetooth api. However, it doesn't works. It seems different from the standard api. I will see how to fix this later.
For other compatibility information please see here.

UPDATE

It's able to run on iOS now!

The iOS problem I mentioned above, it's because WebBLE browser only supports the early version of web-bluetooth api, which doesn't include "getCharacteristics" method. (Click here to see more detail) Therefore I had to use the old way to get characteristics when it runs on iOS.

Make sure you have install the latest version of sugar-wifi-conf on your pi. Download the WebBLE app and open this link: https://www.pisugar.com/sugar-wifi-conf

web bluetooth client runs on iOS, with WebBLE browser
Software architecture
Jdaie • 08/14/2019 at 02:56 • 0 comments
Honestly I didn't have a clear view at the beginning of the coding work, but I believe a friendly UI is always needed. As I go deeper, I found some suitable tools to achieve this goal.
The diagram below shows the architecture behind this.
software architecture
There are several ways to interact with PiSugar 2:
- shell script: if you are familiar with linux, or you want write some program that needs information from the battery, you can access it with shell scripts. It's based on UDS and you know have to go across the network layer.
- web UI : you can manage PiSugar2 through a web page. Although pi zero is able to run a desktop but I use it without screens in most of time. Web UI is accessble for other machines in the same local network.
- electron UI: electron is one of my favourites. It can build a really nice desktop app written in html5, also I can use the same code to generate the web UI. Double kill! The problem is that electron does not support armv6l (pi zero). Never mind, I can still use the web UI on pi zero.
- system tray: if you have a desktop raspbian, I do think a battery tray icon indicating power level is necessary. For compatibility with armv6l, I use pyQt5 to build the icon. ( I had tried Qt to build the main window, although it can run on pi zero, it's cumbersome. )
system tray icon
The http sever is just for hosting html and js files, most of the UI communication is based on websocket, which mean we can get realtime data such as button events, whether the RTC alarm is triggered, etc.
To be continue...
Mass production of the first generation
Jdaie • 08/13/2019 at 03:59 • 0 comments

Just recieve two boxes of PiSugar (semi-finished) today.

Since our recent work is focused on the development of PiSugar 2, it is perhaps the last mass production of the first generation! It's not easy since from design to PCB, SMT, soldering, testing, if something goes wrong we have to start over.
Coding for PiSugar 2
Jdaie • 08/02/2019 at 07:06 • 1 comment

This week we start coding for PiSugar 2.
There will be a core python program allowing you to interact with it using shell.
Also there will be a system tray icon and a nice UI build in electron.
However, I found that electron has no support for armv6l (pi zero), it can only run on pi 2, 3 ,4.
So I will build a webpage ui for armv6l as replacement.
But wait... why I need to run such program on a bigger Pi? Isn't PiSugar is just for Pi zero?
Well... maybe it will be more than that.

View all 22 project logs

Discussions

Beauregard Slim wrote 04/13/2019 at 18:12

Is this an about-to-be-released commercial product? The lack of a shutdown function is going to lead to data loss, particularly with the "beginners" you are targeting. People will hate you.

Love the 3D designs, though.

Are you sure? yes | no

Jdaie wrote 04/19/2019 at 10:23

Yeah it's actually a released product and we are still working on a newer version solving existing problems.

Are you sure? yes | no

˙˙˙ɹǝʌo ǝɯ dılɟ ʎǝɥ wrote 04/12/2019 at 22:39

Would be really useful to have a version that would take an 18650 battery; I have lots of those I got for free; the flat batteries are expensive. Also soft shutdown option would be nice but maybe you can do it in software. And it would be really clever to have a capacitor on the board to maintain power if the battery was disconnected, and if another wasn't connected within a couple minutes, soft shutdown. That way you could swap in another battery without having to shut down.

Are you sure? yes | no

Jdaie wrote 04/19/2019 at 10:18

We will consider 18650 as an option in future version. However, a capacitor to keep the pi up when switching battery will be a really big guy...

Are you sure? yes | no

˙˙˙ɹǝʌo ǝɯ dılɟ ʎǝɥ wrote 04/19/2019 at 14:36

What would be the spec for the capacitor?

Are you sure? yes | no

Jdaie wrote 04/20/2019 at 01:23

A capacitor 11mm diameter, 4.5mm height can last only 28ms.

Are you sure? yes | no

prosto wrote 04/10/2019 at 14:01

I need pizero completly offgrid for one year

Are you sure? yes | no

Jdaie wrote 04/12/2019 at 03:39

Battery won't last that long. Perhaps you should consider about solar solution?

Are you sure? yes | no

mrwho wrote 04/13/2019 at 21:16

That'd be about 160mAh (WiFi active) for 8760h = 1.401.600mA = Nnnope.

I tried it, even my 8 16680 Cells with 2800mAh won't hold longer that 3-4 days.

Add solar, at least 6W or bigger.

Are you sure? yes | no

adamc wrote 04/09/2019 at 20:57

Looks really neat, but is there a way to stop corrupting the SD card every time power is turned off. That is the number one problem i have with portable zeros?

Are you sure? yes | no

Jdaie wrote 04/10/2019 at 08:43

The current version is just power connection between the pisugar and the zero. Therefore the button is cutting off the power. We are looking for a better way to transport battery data as well, such as i2c. If pi zero can receive the data we can do graceful shutdown. We are working on this. In fact there are other ways to control a portable zero. For example you can setup a BLE service on zero, and control it using mobile phones. No needs for paring and wifi. You can send different commands to zero, including shutdown. I think it's also a good way to protect SD card.

Are you sure? yes | no

rootexpression wrote 04/09/2019 at 18:36

Whats with the red wire on pin 7 I see in one of the photos in the gallery? Looks like it is connected to something there next to the processor.Also curious if it handles shutdown in a graceful way when the battery is low to prevent uSD card corruption.This is a very cool project. I'd really like to have a few (or a few dozen) of these in my hands. Will they be available?

Are you sure? yes | no

Jdaie wrote 04/10/2019 at 09:02

Haha, the red wire is just for amplifing radio signal, I was using that pi to control a RC toy car... actually we are now working on the next version, including the shutdown problem you mentioned, let zero know the battery level and decide when to shutdown. The current version will soon be available on Amazon : D

Are you sure? yes | no

Code wrote 04/12/2019 at 04:58

Let me know when it goes for sale, looking forward to it!

Are you sure? yes | no

PiSugar Battery for Raspberry Pi zero

Description

Details