Translucent battery mounting clip on PiJuice blocks HATs

[claremacrae]

This picture shows how the plastic clip that holds the supplied BP7X battery in place on my PiJuice is preventing HATs from being used.

I've tested this with the following, and they all have the same problem, and the Pi does not detect any of them:

• Displayotron
• Explorer HAT Pro
• Sense HAT gets a bit closer, but not enough - gets power, to show rainbow pattern, but the pattern does not disappear - the behaviour is as described in https://github.com/RPi-Distro/python-sense-hat/issues/70

An Explorer PHAT does work, though.

I presume I'm going to have to trim back the plastic clip, but I wanted first to know how others had solved this problem, or if there us something unusual about the plastic clip on my PiJuice?

[ChristopherRush]

I've had no issues with any of the HATs I've tried. Have you tried to loosen the screw a bit? This might give the plastic a bit of leeway.

On Tue, 15 May 2018, 22:12 Clare Macrae, notifications@github.com wrote:

This picture shows how the plastic clip that holds the supplied BP7X battery in place on my PiJuice is preventing HATs from being used.

[image: pijuice hat won t fit] https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/4840096/40083447-13edc268-588c-11e8-80da-fb0d502eec91.JPG

I've tested this with the following, and they all have the same problem:

• Displayotron
• Explorer HAT Pro
• Sense HAT gets a bit closer, but not enough - gets power, to show rainbow pattern, but the pattern does not disappear - the behaviour is as described in RPi-Distro/python-sense-hat#70 https://github.com/RPi-Distro/python-sense-hat/issues/70

An Explorer PHAT does work, though.

I presume I'm going to have to trim back the plastic clip, but I wanted first to know how others had solved this problem, or if there us something unusual about the plastic clip on my PiJuice?

— You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/PiSupply/PiJuice/issues/119, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABypKnPjLOJp24nQ7DorID4rJB9_6_-aks5ty0S9gaJpZM4UASE6 .

[ChristopherRush]

Here is how one of my HATs fit

It doesn't sit all the way down because of the solder blobs, but it does make good contact. I would also say that your header looks much shorter, therefore will not sit flush with the PiJuice board. I'm assuming all these boards mentioned above still work?

[shawaj]

We have spares of the battery surrounds if your one can't be moved into position @claremacrae but as Chris has said you should be able to move it

[claremacrae]

So I think part of the issue may be that some HATs have much greater depth of plastic than others around the GPIO pins. Where a HAT has very shallow black plastic around the GPIO, it’s possible that circuitry on the underside of the HAT can clash against the bits and pieces on the top of the PiJuice.

@ChristopherRush what HAT is in your photo?

Ah - I see I have just stated exactly what you said, @ChristopherRush - thanks.

So it may be that I need to get some kind of male-to-female HAT extended, to allow the HAT to sit something like 1cm higher away from the PiJuice and then it will all work...

[claremacrae]

I’ll do some more experiments tomorrow....

[shawaj]

Yes we are actually selling some headers like that on our shop for that very reason.

Guess we need to make a note about that on here somewhere

Any testing you can do for clashes would be fantastic. We should maybe start a list here

[claremacrae]

Thanks @shawaj - is this the product you mentioned?

https://uk.pi-supply.com/products/40-pin-female-stacking-header

[shawaj]

You beat me to linking you. Yes that's it. I think we have some different height ones too but those work great

[shawaj]

@claremacrae do you mind if I use your picture above to explain this on the readme?

[claremacrae]

@shawaj Yes, no problem using the pic - thanks for asking.

[claremacrae]

I guess the thing is that once someone uses one of those stacking headers, they will then have a different problem that any stand-offs that they had previously used with the HAT will now not be high enough?

So then they’d either need to be really careful to not bend/break the PHAT or pins on the Pi, or source extra stand-offs.

So I think that using PiJuice with (some) HATs is looking a bit challenging right now?

[shawaj]

I mean, that's the limitation yes. But to be honest pretty much any HAT, even without a stacking header, will potentially need different mounting hardware. It's impossible to cater for them all unfortunately but you can by mounting hardware pretty much by the mm on Amazon and eBay for very cheap

[claremacrae]

I ordered and just received “Adafruit Black Nylon Screw and Stand-off Set – M2.5 Thread” - the cost is all adding up though, and you have to know these things exist in the first place....

[claremacrae]

OK, I think I may be wrong on this one.

The script I was using to detect if the HAT was connecting no longer works - so it's possible - or probable - that some of these HATs were connected after all...

I've logged the problem with my script here: https://github.com/claremacrae/raspi_hat_data/issues/1

[jdotbdot]

For what it's worth, a Pimoroni Unicorn Hat (the original 8x8 LED version) fits on top of the PiJuice for me. It does have a very shallow row of sockets, the pins hit the board before the surround hits the battery retainer. Possibly more helpful, the Pi 3B+, PiJuice and Unicorn Hat all fit together in a Cyntech Crystal Clear ABS case, though the PiJuice's USB socket is pushed pretty hard against the side of the case, and you would have to drill the base to be able to screw into the PiJuice supports.

[shawaj]

Thanks. We will get a note about this added to the documentation

[EricS61]

Thought I'd share the following. I purchased two standoff kits for my Raspberry Pis. You can find them on Amazon and/or Ebay, and you can get them in nylon, brass or stainless steel. For Amazon, I just did a search on "Screw Nut Assortment Kit Raspberry Pi". Kits are not expensive and nice to have when stacking multiple hats and the hardware from one doesn't line up with hardware from another, or you get no hardware at all.

[shawaj]

@ChristopherRush can you document anything here that isn't already and then close?

[ChristopherRush]

Potential solution here - https://github.com/PiSupply/PiJuice/issues/119#issuecomment-389632660