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February 26, 2019

New Product: Ace4U is a cable-free USB hub for Raspberry Pi A+/3A+

Good day dear friends, today we announce our new product: Ace4U!

What is Ace4U?

We already have BIG7 USB hub for Raspberry Pi 2B, 3B and 3B+, and have Zero4U USB hub for Raspberry Pi Zero and Zero W, now we finally have a USB hub for Raspberry Pi A+ and 3A+: Ace4U!
Ace4U is a cable-free, 4-port USB hub for Raspberry Pi A+/3A+. It uses 4 pogo pins to make connection between the USB hub and Raspberry Pi, so no soldering will be required.

Ace4U can be attached under Raspberry Pi A+/3A+, and give you a compact piece of hardware:

You can also place it into an Acrylic case:

Want to Know More?

You can find more details about Zero2Go Omini in its user manual: http://www.uugear.com/doc/Ace4U_UserManual.pdf

Where to Buy?

You can order it now from our online shop. Our resellers may also resell this product.

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September 3, 2018

New Product! Zero2Go Omini is Here!

Today we proudly announce our new product: Zero2Go Omini!

What is Zero2Go Omini?

Zero2Go Omini is the second member in the Zero2Go family. Just like the first generation of Zero2Go, Zero2Go Omini is a Raspberry Pi Zero sized (or pHAT shape)  and it can work as wide input range power supply for Raspberry Pi.
 
power_sources
Zero2Go Omini supports all Raspberry Pi models that has the 40-pin GPIO header, including A+, B+, 2B, 3B, 3B+, Zero and Zero W.

What’s New?

Zero2Go Omini inherits the main features from its ancestor, and introduces a lot of exciting new features:

Multiple Input Channels

The first generation of Zero2Go has only one input channel and all input connectors are linked in parallel, which disallows you to connect multiple power supplies to Zero2Go at the same time. The new Zero2Go Omini has 3 separated input channels (A, B and C), so you can connect up to 3 different power supplies to it. All input channels can accept 3.5~28V DC, and Zero2Go Omini will automatically use the one with highest voltage.
input_abc

Auto Step-Up / Step-Down

The first generation of Zero2Go only supports “pass-through” and “step-down”. The new Zero2Go Omini  supports “step-up” and “step-down” and it will switch between these two modes automatically. When input voltage is below 5.5V, the step-up engine will be used; otherwise the step-down engine will be used. You can tell which mode is currently used by checking the LED on Zero2Go Omini: blue means step-up/pass-though, green means step-down.
howitworks

Monitor Input Voltages

After running the software for Zero2Go Omini, you can read the voltage value on each input channel.
The voltage values can be accessed via I2C interface, so you can also write your own program to read them.

Working as Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)

Now it is possible to specify a low-voltage threshold and a recovery voltage threshold to Zero2Go Omini. Zero2Go Omini will gracefully shutdown your Raspberry Pi when all input voltages are below the low-voltage threshold, and will turn on your Raspberry Pi when input voltage is higher than the preset recovery voltage threshold.
This feature is very useful for applications powered by battery, and with proper configuration Zero2Go Omini can work as a Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). You can find more details in the user manual.
ups

MCU onboard

Zero2Go Omini uses an ATtiny841 micro controller. and thanks to that, it has very low standby current (0.1~0.9mA, depends on input voltage).
Also the MCU onboard allows us to define rather complex behavior for Zero2Go Omini. If you have ever used Witty Pi or the first generation of Zero2Go, you know none of them can work with NOOBS, because NOOBS delays the booting and that cause the power cut before actual booting happens. Zero2Go Omini doesn’t have this kind of limitation, it can work very well with NOOBS because it wouldn’t monitor the TXD pin before the booting is finished.

Want to Know More?

You can find more details about Zero2Go Omini in its user manual: http://www.uugear.com/doc/Zero2Go_Omini_UserManual.pdf
zero2go_omini_doc

Where to Buy?

You can buy it now from our online shop. Our resellers may also start to resell this product soon.

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February 21, 2018

New Revision of BIG7 USB Hub

BIG7 USB hub is a 7-port USB hub designed for Raspberry Pi, and it allows your Raspberry Pi to connect more USB devices at a time. When using it with Raspberry Pi 3, you can use the 4 pogo pins (included in package) to finish the connection without using a USB cable.
Now we have a new revision of BIG7 USB hub. The newer revision looks very similar with the older one (see the picture below), and it introduces a new feature that allows user to turn on/off the power of USB ports via software or external switch.
004
From the picture you can see the new unpopulated pin header (P7), which contains ENABLE and GND pins. The ENABLE pin is pulled up to 3.3V by default, if you short it to the GND pin, BIG7 will cut off the power for all USB ports. This feature is useful when you want to save power consumption from the USB devices, or you want to fully reset the USB devices without rebooting the system.
You can connect an external switch to the P7 on board, and use it to turn on/off the power of USB devices.
external_switch
You can also connect the two pins in P7 to Raspberry Pi’s GPIO header, and control the power of USB ports via software. The ENABLE pin is in 3.3V level, so it is safe to connect it directly to Raspberry Pi’s GPIO header. Below is an example that uses GPIO-23 (BCM naming) to turn on/off the USB devices. You can use any software or library to set the status of GPIO pin.
gp23_control_power
The new revision does not include the short USB cable in the package. The pricing is the same with the older revision.
BIG7 USB Hub Rev2 is now in stock.

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September 20, 2017

New Product! Witty Pi Mini is a new member of Witty Pi family

Today we are very proud to announce our new product – Witty Pi Mini.

What is Witty Pi Mini?

It is a new member of Witty Pi family and it has pHAT shape. Comparing to its older brother Witty Pi 2, Witty Pi Mini is much smaller (65 x 30 x 4mm) and has (almost) all the functionalities.
01

What’s New?

It uses a 0.08F (equals to 80,000uF) super capacitor for off-power time keeping, and can keep the RTC time without external power supply for about 17 hours. It is true that Witty Pi 2 with CR2032 battery can keep time for much, much longer, but considering the use case of Witty Pi, that may not be necessary as Witty Pi is suppose to be connected to power supply all the time (otherwise it won’t wake up your Raspberry Pi). Sometimes you may want to move your Witty Pi to another room, or make some special wiring before powering Witty Pi again, 17 hours off-power time keeping should be enough. If you really need a much longer off-power time keeping time, you can make use of the “Vbat” testing pad on the back and connect your own battery for much longer time keeping. You can find more details on page 31 in the user manual.
Different than Witty Pi 2, Witty Pi Mini doesn’t have those colourful jumpers. However the functionalities of those jumpers still exist, but you will use them in a different way. The red and blue jumpers are replaced with two SPDT switches, and the yellow and green jumpers are replaced with zero-Ohm resistor. You can still change the pin used by Witty Pi Mini, but you will need to unsolder the R26 or R27, and wire the pad to the new pin accordingly.
Witty Pi Mini has a red LED on board as power indicator, which will light up when your Raspberry Pi gets powered. This is very handy when you use Witty Pi Mini with Raspberry Pi Zero (W), which doesn’t have power indicator on board. Raspberry Pi Zero (W) should have the 40-pin GPIO header (not included in the package) soldered before connecting to Witty Pi Mini. The plastic screws, nuts and spacers in the package can firmly fix them together.
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Although Witty Pi Mini has pHAT shape, it can also be used on other models of Raspberry Pi. In order to get reliable connection and also have access to the GPIO pins, you may need to mount the stacking GPIO header (not included in the package).
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What’s Not New?

Witty Pi Mini uses the same software with Witty Pi 2, and the process to install the software is the same.  Also Witty Pi Mini uses the same schedule script so you can our web application to generate the schedule script for it:
WP_Webapp

Want to Know More?

You may find more details in the user manual of Witty Pi Mini.
WPMUserManu

Where to Buy?

Now you can buy Witty Pi Mini from our online shop, or from The Pi Hut.

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June 14, 2017

New Revision of Witty Pi 2

Witty Pi 2 is a HAT-shaped add-on for Raspberry Pi that adds accurate realtime clock (DS3231SN) and power management, which allows you to define complex ON/OFF sequence of your Raspberry Pi with simple script. Witty Pi 2 is one of our flagship product and is becoming more and more popular recently. Today we announce the second revision of Witty Pi 2, which only has slight difference on the look and introduces a small enhancement, yet significantly simplifies our assembly process.
The figure below shows the different look of reversion 1 and reversion 2:
rev1_vs_rev2
Until recent days, both Witty Pi and Witty Pi 2 use a rather complex assembly process. The 40-pin stackable header needs to be soldered manually on the board first, and then a plastic pin holder will be pressed on the board, to make the board look nicer.
40_pin_header_assembly
Soldering the 40-pin stackable header is a huge workload, and we could hardly bear it, as the demand of Witty Pi 2 goes higher. So we take the idea from the Sense HAT, and use a surface-mounted female header to assembly the stackable header.

smd_header

Witty Pi 2 (reversion 2)


 
This SMD female header is customised, and has only 2mm plastic height (the one on Sense HAT has 3.5mm plastic height). This slim header can make sure the stackable header be hold firmly, and still has enough length of pin exposed on top. This female header increases the BOM cost, but it saves us a lot of time on soldering the stackable header.
Although the stackable header is fixed in place, you can still take it away if you wish. By doing so your Witty Pi 2 becomes a very slim board and more suitable for portable project. For example, you can connect it with Raspberry Pi Zero:
with_rpi_zero
In reversion 2, we also made a small enhancement on the design, and prolong the delay time (for 2~4 seconds) before Witty Pi 2 cuts the power. The purpose of this enhancement is to avoid “hard shutdown” unintentionally. This change doesn’t make Witty Pi 2 more NOOBS friendly, since the delay on NOOBS menu is way longer. You will still need to avoid using NOOBS, or disable the NOOBS menu to make Witty Pi 2 work. More details about this issue can be found on page 5 of Witty Pi 2 user manual.
The second revision of Witty Pi 2 is now in stock, and the pricing is the same with the first revision.

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January 2, 2017

The 7-Port USB Hub is Back with New Name!

Happy New Year everyone! We wish you all the best in year 2017!
Today we are glad to announce our newer revision of the 7-port USB hub, and this time it has a new name: BIG7!
00
 

What’s New?

Comparing to the previous revision, BIG7’s look doesn’t change a lot. You can see two more pogo pin holders near to the upstream port, which can install two more pogo pins to make data connection to Raspberry Pi (B+, 2B or 3B) without using a USB cable. As a result, your Raspberry Pi (B+, 2B or 3B) now have a very neat solution to increase the number of USB ports.
05
 
Considering the pogo pins need to connect to 4 points on the back of Raspberry Pi now,  we changed the crown head pogo pins to cupped head pogo pins, which is much easier to make the alignment.
12
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Want One?

The price is the same with previous revision (480 CZK per unit), and you can buy it now from our online shop.

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November 22, 2016

New Product: Zero2Go can power your Raspberry Pi in many ways!

Some customers have asked us if we have a product that can do power switch like Witty Pi 2 and accepts higher input voltage, now we proudly announce that we have one!
06-small
Zero2Go is a Pi-Zero sized power supply board that can accept 5~26V input and output 5V for your Raspberry Pi. It also has a button on board, so you can turn on and off your Raspberry Pi with a single tap (just like Witty Pi 2).
compare_wittypi2
Thanks to the wide range of input voltage, Zero2Go can power your Raspberry Pi with many kinds of power sources, such as power bank, Li-Po battery pack, solar panel, car battery or different kinds of power adapters etc.
power_sources
You can use the pogo pin connector (included in package) to connect Zero2Go with Raspberry Pi without soldering.
 
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Or you can solder a 40-pin header (not included in package) on Zero2Go to connect it with other models of Raspberry Pi:
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How Much? When and Where to Buy?

The price of Zero2Go is 350 CZK, which roughly equals to 12.95EUR/10.85GBP/13.65USD.
zero2go_stock
 
Zero2Go is now in stock and you can order one here.
 
 
 

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July 28, 2016

New Revision of Zero4U (for V1.3)

1

Due to the high demand of Zero4U, we have to manufacture this product faster. We made a new revision of Zero4U, which modified the layout a little bit, and use the SMD version of  XH2.54 connector and 12MHz crystal. Hence these two components do not need to be soldered manually, and the assembly can speed up a lot. The figure below shows the different between the two revisions:
rev2_vs_rev1As you can see, the XH2.54 connector has been moved to the right side, and the IC and crystal are moved to the center now. All USB ports and pogo pins are not changed. The sizing, functionality and pricing of the device are the same between two revisions.
We have the new revision in stock. If you order Zero4U (for V1.3) now, you will get the new revision.

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July 13, 2016

Witty Pi 2: the New Witty Pi

2

Witty Pi has been in the market for more than a year, and it got public praise at the first place. By integrating realtime clock and power management into one board, it allows defining complex ON/OFF sequence with simple script, which is very welcome by users. Today we go a step further, and announce the new generation of Witty Pi: the Witty Pi 2.

What’s New?

First let’s compare the appearance of Witty Pi and Witty Pi 2:

Witty Pi

Witty Pi
Witty Pi 2

Witty Pi 2

Both boards have exactly the same size. The two pictures are with slightly different scale, that’s why Witty Pi 2 looks bigger. As you can see, both boards are quite similar. The switch and micro USB connector are not moved in Witty Pi 2, so the acrylic case will still fit.
The obvious differences are the jumpers, there are 4 colorful jumpers now. The newly added blue jumper is to enable/disable the pulsing dummy load on board. If you are using power bank to power your Witty Pi 2 + Raspberry Pi, you may need this pulsing dummy load to keep your power bank alive without drawing too much current.
Also you can see a new 6-pin female header on the top-right corner. This header breaks out some important signals (+5V, LED, RTC_INT, Vbat and Switch) on the board, which makes integration with other boards become easier. You can also use this header to connect an external switch (physical or electronic) to control your Witty Pi 2. Driving an external LED is also an easy work now.
You may also notice the chips are different. In Witty Pi 2, we use much better chips (DS3231SN, AO4616L and SA555), which have much wider operating temperature range. This means your Witty Pi 2 can work outside under much tougher environment. More importantly, the new DS3231SN chip is very accurate (annual error < 5PPM), and it has temperature sensor inside! With the new software you can read the temperature around your Raspberry Pi 🙂
chips
There are some improvements that could not be found in the picture too. Witty Pi 2 doesn’t use the TXD pin any more, hence using serial port for (huge) data transaction will not have any problem in Witty Pi 2. Also the famous “dead lock” problem, which is caused by ungracefully power off, is now solved at hardware level. Without the possibility of “dead lock”, Witty Pi 2 has much better reliability than the old Witty Pi.
Also the battery life has been extended a lot, thanks to the low power consumption of the new DS3231SN chip, which only draws about 3uA current from the battery, when no power supply is connected.
It is quite safe to replace Witty Pi with the newer Witty Pi 2, since Witty Pi 2 has the same interface with Witty Pi,  and Witty Pi 2 can even work on Witty Pi’s software (but not the reverse).

How Much?

Comparing to the old Witty Pi, the material cost of Witty Pi 2 has been significantly raised, mainly due to the high price of DS3231SN chip. As a result, we have to raise Witty Pi 2’s price to 480 CZK per unit (about 17.76 EUR, or 14.88 GBP, or 19.68 USD).

When Can I buy One?

We open the pre-order channel for Witty Pi 2 today, and you can pre-order it in our online shop. We will start the shipping of Witty Pi 2 on about 20th July, 2016.

Pre-order Witty Pi 2

How About the Old Witty Pi?

The old Witty Pi is now officially retired. We will not manufacture the old Witty Pi any more, unless our customer request to make a customized batch.
 

 
Update on 2016.07.20:
Witty Pi 2 is officially in stock now.
 

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June 13, 2016

Zero4U for Raspberry Pi V1.3

On 16th May we got two news, one is good and one is bad to us. The good one is that Raspberry Pi Zero finally back in stock and it comes with a new feature (camera interface)!  The bad one however, is the PP22 and PP23 testing pads on PiZero has been moved a little bit, which makes our newly launched Zero4U product incompatible with the new Raspberry Pi Zero. The figure below is from the blog post on Pimoroni and it clearly shows what has been changed in the new PiZero.

Difference between PiZero V1.2 and V1.3

Difference between PiZero V1.2 and V1.3


On the same day we got a lot of orders on Zero4U. It was because of the fact that, many people finally got a Raspberry Pi Zero without knowing the Zero4U could not work with it. That day was a long, long day, and we updated the Zero4U product page immediately and included warning information everywhere. Also we emailed to our customers who ordered Zero4U on the same day and asked for confirmation before shipping out their Zero4Us.
Also on the same day we decided to manufacture another batch of Zero4U that can work with PiZero V1.3. The first problem to solve is to get a new Raspberry Pi Zero, so we could update our design. Great thanks to our partner ThePiHut, they kindly sent us a new PiZero on the other day. We were a little out of luck as the United Kingdom Royal Mail system didn’t work well in the coming few days, and we finally got the new PiZero after 10 days waiting. We finished the design update on the same day we got the new PiZero, and submitted it to the factory. We did our best to accelerate the process, and then wait with hope. The new design changes the position of two pogo pins so they can connect to the PP22 and PP23 testing pads on the PiZero V1.3.
After more than 2 weeks waiting, today we finally get the new Zero4U back from the factory! We still have the older version of Zero4U in stock, just in case you have PiZero V1.2 and want to get a USB hub for it.
06
We will make the testings and packaging in the coming few days, and we are expecting to begin the shipping from Thursday (2016.6.16).
Now you can pre-order your Zero4U for PiZero V1.3, so you can get one as soon as possible.
If you still want Zero4U for PiZero V1.2, you can buy it here.

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