Post by graphman on Oct 13, 2020 19:31:14 GMT -8
A few things that I have found helpful for assembling the SkyWeather kit with a RPI4 that I would like to pass on....
First, I know some will give me grief for using the RPI 4 instead of 3B, but with planned expansion and analytics, I thought I would give it a shot. It's up and running on the bench right now, so everything works. Here is what I found helpful
1) Power - was a bit of a headache. The RPI4 uses a non-standard USBC power port, and if you try to use this with an "e-marked" USBC power cord, it will either not work or you will have low voltage. Ditto with a USB 3.0 plug in port. What worked for me was a USBC 2.0 port with an attached power cord from Amazon Note that you will need a smaller hole in the box than for the recommended USB port - which I found out later and had to patch. This setup works with both a modified ATX bench power supply, a Buck converter from 12V to 5.1V 3.0A with a USBC 2.0 power cord (not USBC 3.0), and with the official RPI4 wall wort.
2) Cooling: The RPI4 tends to run hot, so my solution was to interpose a cooling HAT with dual fans and a header between the RPI1 and the Pi2Grover board. The downside is that the fans run continuously, but I am not solar powering the SkyWeather, so I can live with that for now. The other accommodation is that you need to reverse the location of the sun sensor and the camera, as your RPI4 is now taller. All the connectors easily reach, so not a problem
.
3) Mounting the electronics- This isn't really specific to the RPI4, but I found using the plastic internal panel for the BUD Box allowed me to mount everything in one place during the testing phase, and then it simply screwed into the panel. Even with the taller RPI4, there was still enough room with the camera relocated. I did have to either enlarge or add a few holes to the grid as the PCB mounting holes do not align with the grid spacing, but this was simple. Now the whole think can lift out if needed.
4) I also found it useful to mount the RPI4 itself on the bottom acrylic from this case. Using short M2.5 posts between the BUD internal panel and the acrylic base, and then longer M2.5 posts to secure the base. The RPI4 was mounted on the base. Now, if I need to remove the RPI4/Fan/Pi2Grover boards together, I just unscrew the longer posts, and the whole assembly comes away, without needing to disassemble the BUD mounting panel. Handy when I realized I needed to back up the SD card after everything was configured.
Hope this helps!
First, I know some will give me grief for using the RPI 4 instead of 3B, but with planned expansion and analytics, I thought I would give it a shot. It's up and running on the bench right now, so everything works. Here is what I found helpful
1) Power - was a bit of a headache. The RPI4 uses a non-standard USBC power port, and if you try to use this with an "e-marked" USBC power cord, it will either not work or you will have low voltage. Ditto with a USB 3.0 plug in port. What worked for me was a USBC 2.0 port with an attached power cord from Amazon Note that you will need a smaller hole in the box than for the recommended USB port - which I found out later and had to patch. This setup works with both a modified ATX bench power supply, a Buck converter from 12V to 5.1V 3.0A with a USBC 2.0 power cord (not USBC 3.0), and with the official RPI4 wall wort.
2) Cooling: The RPI4 tends to run hot, so my solution was to interpose a cooling HAT with dual fans and a header between the RPI1 and the Pi2Grover board. The downside is that the fans run continuously, but I am not solar powering the SkyWeather, so I can live with that for now. The other accommodation is that you need to reverse the location of the sun sensor and the camera, as your RPI4 is now taller. All the connectors easily reach, so not a problem
.
3) Mounting the electronics- This isn't really specific to the RPI4, but I found using the plastic internal panel for the BUD Box allowed me to mount everything in one place during the testing phase, and then it simply screwed into the panel. Even with the taller RPI4, there was still enough room with the camera relocated. I did have to either enlarge or add a few holes to the grid as the PCB mounting holes do not align with the grid spacing, but this was simple. Now the whole think can lift out if needed.
4) I also found it useful to mount the RPI4 itself on the bottom acrylic from this case. Using short M2.5 posts between the BUD internal panel and the acrylic base, and then longer M2.5 posts to secure the base. The RPI4 was mounted on the base. Now, if I need to remove the RPI4/Fan/Pi2Grover boards together, I just unscrew the longer posts, and the whole assembly comes away, without needing to disassemble the BUD mounting panel. Handy when I realized I needed to back up the SD card after everything was configured.
Hope this helps!