2017-02-06 (M) Head-Mounted Display

At the suggestion of Doug [c00p3r] Copeland from the Dangerous Minds Podcast, a RedBear IoT pHAT was purchased. Adding Wifi and BLE to a Pi Zero seemed lot like spending a lot of money for and under-powered Pi 3 but the pocket-size form-factor still made the Pi 0 a good choice.

Green Pi 0 and a red pHAT

Video wires to the display were unsoldered from the top of the board. A 2x20 double-row header was soldered in place then the video wires were soldered to the bottom of the board.

 Bottom of the Pi with video wires and header

A header socket came installed on the pHAT so connecting the two was a matter of plugging them together. The acrylic case was installed around the Pi 0 so the top of the pHAT was exposed. Longer bolts were used so they would extend to the pHAT and provide some stability as well as keep it from coming unplugged. If this hardware works it may have a custom lid printed to protect it.

The video wire was tied to an empty bolt hole with a zip tie. Using a tie block proved cumbersome and it caught on fabric. This solution was temporary until a permanent configuration can be found.

Pi 0 with case and video cable

The computer was connected to a standard monitor in order to set up the pHAT. A Wifi USB card was connected in order to download updates and view the ReadMe file from Red Bear's GitHub. Their instructions were easy to follow and the hardware was easy to install. Once the firmware was updated the Wifi and BLE connections were running without a problem.

The rest of the posts for this project have been arranged by date.

First time here?

Completed projects from year 1.
Completed projects from year 2.
Completed projects from year 3.



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2017-02-01 (W)

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