What is it?

This is a simple board that can power both a Raspberry Pi Zero W and an LED strip based on the WS2812s. Power comes from either standard 5v in, or you can run it from LiPo. The unit will both power the Pi and charge the LiPo without any disruption and you can add up to a 5Ah battery.

Why did you make it?

Yeah, indeed! Why did I make it?

Well, I had this idea a couple of weeks before Christmas. Just to see if I could design, manufacture, build and sell a unique product in under a week.

A Maker Speed Run!

So, this is the outcome of that challenge. A completely unique product that was designed, manufactured, built and up for sale in under a week.

Woot!

What makes it special?

Well, you can check out the video on my YouTube channel, where I go in-depth on how I did it in under a week.

Day 1 video

What do you get?

There are, (for now), 3 units built up and more coming. The first 3 units are fully populated and tested.

All you have to do is supply a Pi, WS2812 LED strips and a 5v wall wart.

I'll be shortly uploading full GoLang source code to GitHub along with pre-built binary, but you can, of course, use any of the WS2812 Python and C libraries to control the LED strips.

Is there any weird stuff going on?

Considering that this product was part of a Maker Speed Run challenge; it was designed and sent off for manufacture in 6 hours. So there's one odd thing.

The current revision doesn't have any logic level converter, (aka buffer), for the WS2812 LED strips. So, YMMV with certain LED strips. Most LED strips should be fine with the 3.3v logic levels, but some may not.