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Electronics nerds! Related to my other post, I have a newbie q, i'm trying to figure out if i can add the following to a Pico W:
- Pico Lipo Shim
- Pico Display Pack 2.0
- RGB Encoder Wheel
I realise i'm going to need to do some soldering, as the Display Pack has no GPIO breakouts, so just wondering what can share the same pins.
The shim and display pack are OK together - but how do I figure out if the encoder wheel will be?
The wheel is i2c, and needs:
3-5v, SDA, SCL, INT and GND
afaik i can use, eg,
Pin 31 = SCL
Pin 32 = SDA
Pin 33 = GND
Pin 34 = INT
Pin 36 = 3v
...which I'd need to solder on top of the pins on the Pico.
But will this shim and wheel play OK together as some pins are shared?
@yezzer If you've got a similar lipo shim to the one I've got, then those GPIO pins aren't connected to the board, but just got _through_ it - i.e. so the shim can sit on top and the IO pins are still exposed. Maybe add a photo of the parts you have?
@rem it’s this one.
And yeah they go through, but wondering about the actual usage of lipo&wheel according to schematics
https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pico-lipo-shim
Display pack 2: https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pico-display-pack-2-0
@yezzer Right, so the lipo shim sits over the Pico (on the specific pins) but the GPIO pins are just through - and not connected to any lines on the lipo, so you're good to use them sandwiched together.
It's the LED ring that you'll need to solder with wires (it maps to a Pi but not a Pico, so you'll need to find these manually - INT goes to, in this case, GPIO4 on the Pico - but guessing you might be able to change in software).
@rem I was thinking 31-36?
@yezzer yeah, doesn't look like the display uses them so should be good.
@rem though 36 is used by the shim - I think? I’m not sure how to read the schematics.. pure guesswork. ChatGPT with image upload didn’t help much either
@yezzer that's fine, it's just voltage out - it can be shared.
@yezzer
I think it will work.
FYI ... I have been experimenting with adding extra hardware to a pico display 2, in my case MIDI in and out, and I found it really beneficial to mock it up on breadboard before soldering anything in. See image.
So I recommend trying that.
@yezzer
I used 2 rows of PCB connector pins to allow it to plug into the breadboard. See image.
The downside is that it's tricky to squeeze the Pico display 2 into standard breadboard because its too wide, so it's hard to squeeze in the wires. But it worked in my case because I don't care about the RGB LED or the 4 buttons, which meant that only the GND pin was needed on that side of the pico, so I just pent the pin on the hook up wire and it worked!
Actually very long break away headers might make it easier to hook up all the wires to the Pico Display 2 when its in breadboard, because it might give the extra clearance needed. I hadn't thought of that!
https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/break-away-headers-long?variant=7397576257
@joehogan really wish Pimoroni would sell an updated Pico Display 2 with i2c!
@yezzer
Yeah that would be so much easier!
I guess i2c doesn't have enough bandwidth for this many pixels or something?