Works with Pi Zero 2

The Solar Pi Platter is a versatile expansion board for the Raspberry Pi Zero™ and Pi Zero 2 computers that provides power from a single-cell Rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery, additional peripherals including analog inputs, PWM outputs, USB ports and optional hardwired ethernet. A real-time clock allows for scheduled power cycling. Dual charging sources support both low-impedance devices like common USB chargers and high-impedance devices like Solar Panels. The Solar Pi Platter allows the Pi Zero to be used in a wide variety of applications ranging from solar-powered remote data acquisition systems to battery-backed file servers. The Solar Pi Platter sits underneath the Pi leaving its 40-pin expansion port available for other expansion boards.

I jokingly call the Solar Pi Platter a versatile power board that can run Linux for $5 (and, now $10) more. I designed it in early 2016 as a way to give the amazing Pi Zero a flexible power system and set of peripherals designed for battery powered applications where capable power management was useful. A fellow member of my local makerspace, Solid State Depot, convinced me to launch it as a kickstarter campaign and marketing. The kickstarter was successful and we built boards in the fall for an on-time delivery in December. The boards for sale here are from the initial manufacturing run.

I documented the design on the board on hackaday.io and there is a full set of documentation and demo applications in my git repository. My project partner, Mike Seiler, also wrote some python demo code which can be found in his git repository.

Features

• Single-cell Lithium Ion battery management system supplying up to 10W power at 5V
• Low impedance charging input with Un-interruptible Power Supply (UPS) functionality
• High impedance charging input for use with solar or inductive power sources
• Real Time Clock with Alarm Power Control
• Battery charged power-up control
• Automatic Low battery power-down control
• Three high-speed USB expansion ports with per-port Transaction Translator
• Power control for two USB expansion ports
• Expansion port for RJ45 Ethernet jack
• Two analog inputs with configurable reference
• Two PWM outputs with configurable period and support for Servo mode
• Simple command interface via a USB serial port
• Programmable power-on default operation
• User-accessible EEPROM configuration settings
• Watchdog Timer

Applications

• File server or router with built-in battery backup
• Solar powered web cam
• Remote control and sense applications
• Embedded system control with battery backup
• Portable computing applications
• Small robot control

Porta-Pi The USB UPS functionality, along with an inexpensive 1024x600 pixel capacitive touch HDMI monitor, is perfect for making a portable computer using the Pi Zero. See the full details in the github repository.

Special Beaglebone Version

I created a special version of the firmware to allow the Solar Pi Platter to act as a power management and expansion system for the Pocketbeagle. It is documented here. Let me know if you would like the Solar Pi Platter loaded with the special Beaglebone firmware.