Review
(^198) The Official Raspberry Pi Projects Book raspberrypi.org/magpi
A
portable
project
platform
for every
Raspberry Pi
PiSupply
Maker
Says
PIJUICE
ou may recall the PiJuice
Kickstarter campaign if you
have a good memory – it
was back in March 2015 and proved
extremely popular, achieving a
funding level of over 1200%. So,
why the long delay to get it into
production? Well, it seems it was
due to a combination of technical,
manufacturing, and business issues,
but here it is at last, so let’s find out
if it has been worth the wait.
The PiJuice comes preloaded
with a Motorola BP7X 1820 mAh
phone battery, which can easily
be lifted out and replaced with an
alternative if needed. The board
has a pre-soldered header so it
fits snugly onto the Raspberry Pi’s
GPIO pins, but extends them to its
own full set of GPIO pins above, so
you can still plug in another HAT or
add-on – the PiJuice only uses I^2 C
pins. Four stand-offs keep it sturdy
atop the Pi. It’s a much neater
solution than most portable power
methods – no messy wiring here.
Not only is it neater, but it’s far
smarter, thanks to its STM32-F0
microcontroller chip, real-time
clock, and Pi software. It can
therefore offer a range of advanced
power management features – akin
to those of the Witty Pi 2 – that
make it more useful than simply
plugging your Pi into a USB power
bank. It can also be used to provide
an uniterruptable power supply.
After downloading the software
(with sudo apt-get pijuice), a
battery status icon then appears
in the task bar of the Raspbian
desktop; hover over it to see the
current charge percentage, or
right-click to access a plethora of
configuration settings.
Use your Pi anywhere with this smart portable power solution
Y
LIPO SHIM
Formerly known
as the Zero LiPo,
this little shim
can be soldered
to the Pi’s GPIO
pins and hooked
up to a LiPO
battery back
and charger
(not supplied).
magpi.cc/2xyhCYH
Related
£10 / $11
PIJUICE