PiJuice Zero Quick Start Guide

The PiJuice is a great addition to any project, and now even more so since we have shrunk down the PiJuice HAT into a pHAT form factor to suit the Raspberry Pi Zero. Keeping all the same functionality of the HAT but excluding some buttons, headers etc we also added a neat battery connector allowing you to directly connect any single cell lipo battery straight on to the PiJuice pHAT.

This quick guide will show you how to assemble your PiJuice pHAT and connect the battery.

Whats in the box?

Inside the box you should have received the following items:

  • 1 PiJuice pHAT board
  • 8 Plastic bolts
  • 4 Plastic spacers
  • 3 Stickers
  • 1 Manual

Board Assembly

Step 1 – Unpack your Raspberry Pi. Make sure that your Pi Zero has a 40 way male header attached.

Step 2 – Before you add the PiJuice Zero to your Pi Zero you will need to insert the stand offs to the Raspberry Pi Zero. It is much easier to do it prior to inserting the PiJuice Zero pHAT. Screw the stand offs to the Raspberry Pi Zero from the bottom of the board like in the image below.

Step 3 – Insert the PiJuice pHAT on to the Raspberry Pi Zero and then secure with the remaining screws.

Step 4 – Connect your battery to the PiJuice Zero. The battery connector on the PiJuice Zero had 3 pins; VBAT, GND and NTC.

 

Available PiJuice batteries

The list below is fully comprehensive list of Lithium Polymer batteries that are compatible with the PiJuice:

  • 12000mAh – PIS-1129
  • 5000mAh – PIS-1131
  • 1200mAh – PIS-1135
  • 1200mAh – PIS-1189 (Pi Zero)
  • 1000mAh – PIS-1190 (Pi Zero)
  • 600mAh – PIS-1191
  • 500mAh – PIS-1218

Software installation

PiJuice works straight out of the box however to get the most out of it you will need to install the software packages we created.

Open a terminal window and simply type:

sudo apt-get install pijuice-gui

After a restart a new icon “PiJuice Configuration” will appear under Menu>Preferences. You will also notice a new icon in the system tray.

 

For additional information please refer to our Github repository.

 

First published at 10:21am on May 29, 2019
Last updated at 10:21am on May 29, 2019