Pimoroni

Solder this neat little square to the pins on the back of your Pico, plug in a suitable lithium-ion/polymer battery and tada - a LiPo Pico! The inbuilt charging circuit means you can recharge the attached battery by supplying power to the Pico via USB, and it includes protection against overdischarge and overcurrent. There's a power button to stop the SHIM from providing battery power when it's not needed and turn your project on and off, as well as two LED indicators - a white one that shows when the shim is providing power and a red one to tell you when the battery is being charged.

We've designed it to be as slimline as possible so it can be sandwiched underneath other add-ons and it's compatible with LiPo, LiIon and high capacity LiPo batteries.

Safety note! You should only use this SHIM with LiPo or LiIon batteries, and you should make sure that any project involving LiPos is sufficiently protected from being dented, bent, punctured or crushed.

• MCP73831 charger with 215mA charging current (datasheet)
• XB6096I2S battery protector (datasheet)
• Power button
• 2-pole JST PH connector, with polarity marked on the board
• Power and charging LED indicators
• Compatible with Raspberry Pi Pico/Pico W.
• Soldering required.
• Dimensions: approx 21mm x 21mm x 7mm (L x W x H, including connectors)
• Schematic

What's in the box?

1 x LiPo SHIM for Pico

Raspberry Pi Pico, battery and other Pico add-ons are not included!

Resources

Getting started

You'll need to solder the SHIM to the back of your Pico, with the power button at the same end as the USB port. The text on the SHIM and the pin labels on the back of the Pico should be facing each other.

Software

You can use LiPo SHIM for Pico with any Pico OS as it doesn't require any software installing to work.

We've put together a MicroPython example showing how you can read the system voltage from Pico's VSYS pin to estimate how much charge is left in the battery, and display it on Pico Explorer or Pico Display.

Notes

• The power button can also be used as a reset button, yay! Just double press it to cut and reinstate the power whilst holding down the BOOTSEL button on the Pico to get into bootloader mode, with no plugging and unplugging of cables required.
• Because Pico Display has a chunky display connector on the underside you might have difficulty sandwiching the SHIM underneath if your Pico's header pins are on the shorter side. We'd suggest picking up some longer stacking headers or a Pico Omnibus / Pico Decker if you want to use this SHIM with Pico Display.
• Alternatively, if you're ambitious in the ways of experimental soldering, you can try soldering the Pico and the SHIM both to the short end of your header, back to back. This method makes for a much more slimline Pico/SHIM package which works nicely with Pico Display, but you'll need to make sure your solder joints make good contact with the pads of both boards and the header.

LiPo Amigo is a stamp sized board with a USB-C connector on one end and a JST-PH connector at the other so you can plug in a LiPo or LiIon battery. Betwixt the two, you can find a perky red LED that will light up to tell you when battery charging is happening. Simples!

LiPo Amigo Pro is a bit larger and has some additional tricks up its sleeves. It's got two JST-PH connectors so you can charge your battery and power your device at the same time (and switch seamlessly between USB and battery power). It also has a power on/off button and extra built in battery protection.

Both are compatible with any LiPo, LiIon or high capacity LiIon batteries (batteries are sold separately).

Features

• MCP73831 charger with 200mA* charging current (datasheet)
• USB-C connector for power
• 2 pin JST-PH connector for plugging in a LiPo/LiIon battery
• Charge LED
• XB6096I2S battery protector (datasheet) (Pro only)
• Additional 2 pin JST-PH connector for powering an up to 4.2V tolerant device** (Pro only)
• Power on/off button and associated LED (Pro only)
• Comes fully assembled.
• LiPo Amigo Pro schematic
• LiPo Amigo Pro dimensional drawing

Obligatory Lipo Warnings

LiPo and LiIon batteries can be dangerous if not treated with respect! You should only use LiPo Amigo boards to charge 3.7V LiPo or LiIon batteries, and you should make sure that any project involving LiPos is sufficiently protected from being dented, bent, punctured or crushed.

We recommend only using LiPo batteries that have own internal protection against overcharge, over discharge and short circuits (all the ones we sell do).

If you're using a battery bought from elsewhere, double check that the polarity of the wires matches the markings on our board (red to + and black to -) before you plug it in! Some battery manufacturers attach the JST connector the other way up.

Notes

• Measurements: LiPo Amigo - 26 x 21 x 7 mm, LiPo Amigo Pro- 36 x 23 x 7 mm (LxWxH, including connectors)
• * The pads on the back labelled FAST CHARGE can be bridged with solder to allow charging at up to 500mA (instead of the default 200mA). Don't do this if you're using an unprotected battery.
• The battery protection IC on LiPo Amigo Pro limits charge and discharge to about 1A. The pads marked NO PROTECT can be bridged to disable this (no protec, only attac). Only do this if you're using a battery with its own protection that can handle the higher discharge current. We wouldn't recommend trying to draw more than 2A from the battery, as this is the max rating of the JST-PH connectors.
• ** You should only use the DEVICE connector on LiPo Amigo Pro for powering devices that can handle 4.2V - that's the maximum potential voltage that can be supplied by a fully charged LiPo. Don't plug in things like micro:bits that can't deal with LiPo voltages!
• The DEVICE connector draws its current from the attached LiPo so it will only provide power if a battery is plugged in. There's no boost circuitry on board, so it won't power Raspberry Pi computers or other devices that need 5V.
• For connecting your device to LiPo Amigo Pro, we'd suggest using this double-ended JST-PH cable.
• Because we hate leaving unused space on our PCBs, we've broken out a bunch of other headers that you might find it useful to solder things up to.
• The LED headers can be used to connect up an external LED to show charging or on/off status - useful if you're building your battery charger into an enclosure.
• The SW headers can be used to add an external momentary on/off switch to enable and disable the power output of LiPo Amigo Pro. The battery will still charge when the power output is turned off.
• VBAT is the battery + pin (the same as the positive pin on the BAT JST connector)
• VDEV is the device + pin (the same as the positive pin on the DEVICE JST connector.

What's in the box?

1 x LiPo Amigo Pro

ReSpeaker 2-Mics Pi HAT is a dual-microphone expansion board for Raspberry Pi designed for AI and voice applications. This means that you can build a more powerful and flexible voice product that integrates Amazon Alexa Voice Service, Google Assistant, and so on.

The board is developed based on WM8960, a low power stereo codec. There are 2 microphones on both sides of the board for collecting sounds and it also provides 3 APA102 RGB LEDs, 1 User Button, and 2 on-board Grove interfaces for expanding your applications. What is more, 3.5mm Audio Jack or JST 2.0 Speaker Out are both available for audio output.

Note: This product does not include the Pi Zero board!

Features

• Raspberry Pi compatible. 
• Supports: Raspberry Pi 4B
  Raspberry Pi 3B+
  Raspberry Pi 3B 
  Raspberry Pi 3A+
  Raspberry Pi 2
  Raspberry Pi Zero
  NVIDIA Jetson 
• Dual-Microphones
• 2 Grove Interfaces: support GPIO and I2C
• Programmable Button and LED: one button and three LEDs
• Stereo Codec with Class D Speaker Driver
• Two types audio output socket : 3.5mm Audio Jack(40mW output ), JST2.0 Speaker Out(providing 1W into 8Ω loads)
• Far-field support (up to 3 meters)
• Application ideas:
  • Voice Interaction Application
  • AI Assistant
• PCB dimensions: 65mm x30mm x15mm
• Gross weight: 33g
• Product weight: 11.6g

• BUTTON: a User Button, connected to GPIO17
• MIC_Land MIC_R: 2 Microphones on both sides of the board
• RGB LED: 3 APA102 RGB LEDs, connected to SPI interface
• WM8960: a low power stereo codec
• Raspberry Pi 40-Pin Headers: support Raspberry Pi Zero, Raspberry Pi 1 B+, Raspberry Pi 2 B, Raspberry Pi 3 B, and Raspberry Pi 3 B+
• POWER: Micro USB port for powering the ReSpeaker 2-Mics Pi HAT, please power the board for providing enough current when using the speaker.
• I2C: Grove I2C port, connected to I2C-1
• GPIO12: Grove digital port, connected to GPIO12 & GPIO13
• JST 2.0 SPEAKER OUT: for connecting speaker with JST 2.0 connector
• 3.5mm AUDIO JACK: for connecting headphone or speaker with 3.5mm Audio Plug

What's in the box?

1 x ReSpeaker 2-Mics Pi pHAT

Resources

• Getting Started, wiki.seeedstudio
• Respeaker 2-Mics Pi HAT SCH, pdf
• Respeaker 2-Mics Pi HAT PCB, pdf
• Respeaker 2-Mics Pi HAT SCH, zipped file
• Respeaker 2-Mics Pi HAT PCB, zipped file
• ReSpeaker 2 Mics Pi HAT 3D, zipped file
• Seeed-Voice Driver, GitHub
• Algorithms includes DOA, VAD, NS, GitHub
• Voice Engine project, provides building blocks to create voice enabled objects, GitHub
• AEC

The ultimate desktop retro arcade machine! Picade is a Raspberry Pi-powered mini arcade that you build yourself, with authentic arcade controls, a high resolution 4:3 display that's ideal for retro gaming, and a punchy speaker to hear those 8-bit game soundtracks at their best

Picade is now Raspberry Pi 4 compatible and includes a new USB-C version of Picade X HAT!

The all-new Picade has been completely redesigned, from the inside out! There's new artwork, a new display and display driver board, dedicated power button, an all-new Picade X HAT (now with USB-C), easier wiring, easier access to the interior of the cabinet, beautiful new packaging, a bunch of extra goodies (stickers and an enamel Picade pin), and a gorgeous Picade poster and assembly instructions.

Picade comes in kit form, and it'll take around two to three hours to build. The cabinet is made from powder-coated MDF, giving it a quality look and feel similar to a full-size arcade. All you'll need to add is a Raspberry Pi, USB-C power supply, and micro-SD card.