Raspberry Pi HAT Power Shield

Overview

The Raspberry Pi HAT Power Shield is a custom power distribution board designed to interface with the Raspberry Pi. It provides multiple 12V power outputs, PWM-controlled heating outputs, and temperature monitoring through DS18B20 sensors.

Features

• 5 x 12V Outputs (Total limit: 10A)
• 1 x 12V or 8V Output (Limit: 2A)
• 2 x 12V PWM Outputs (Limit: 3.5A each, 8kHz PWM frequency)
• 2 x DS18B20 Temperature Probes
• INDI compatibility for remote control via INDI clients
• GPIO control via pigpiod for low-level hardware management

Hardware Requirements

• Raspberry Pi (Any model with GPIO support)
• Custom Raspberry Pi HAT Power Shield
• Power supply capable of providing required current
• DS18B20 temperature sensors (optional, for temperature monitoring)

Software Requirements

This project requires the following software packages:

System Packages

Install the required system packages using the following command:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y indi-bin libindi-dev pigpio gpiod

GPIO Control

This project uses pigpiod for controlling GPIOs. Ensure pigpiod is running in order to use this driver.

To ensure pigpiod starts automatically on boot, create a systemd service file:

1. Create and open the service file:

   sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/pigpiod.service

   There is a template provided in this repo.

2. Add the following content:

   [Unit]
   Description=Pigpio daemon
   After=network.target
   
   [Service]
   Type=forking
   ExecStart=/usr/bin/pigpiod
   ExecStop=/bin/systemctl kill pigpiod
   Restart=always
   User=root
   PIDFile=/var/run/pigpio.pid
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=multi-user.target

3. Save and exit the file.

4. Reload the systemd daemon:

   sudo systemctl daemon-reload

5. Enable and start the service:

   sudo systemctl enable pigpiod
   sudo systemctl start pigpiod

Enabling 1-Wire Protocol for DS18B20 Sensors

To use DS18B20 temperature sensors, enable the 1-wire protocol on the Raspberry Pi by using raspi-config or manually enabling it.

To enable 1-wire manually:

1. Edit the boot configuration file:

   sudo nano /boot/config.txt

2. Add the following line at the end of the file:

   dtoverlay=w1-gpio

3. Save the file and reboot:

   sudo reboot

4. After rebooting, verify that the temperature sensors are detected:

   ls /sys/bus/w1/devices/

   You should see directories with names starting with 28-, which correspond to the DS18B20 sensors.

Building and Running

Cloning the Repository

git clone <repository-url>
cd <repository-name>

Building the Project

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install

Running the INDI Driver

indiserver indi_rpi_pb

Usage

Once the INDI driver is running, you can connect to it using any INDI-compatible client, such as KStars or Ekos, and control the power outputs, heaters, and temperature probes.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.