LED SHIM

by Pimoroni

28 tiny RGB LED pixels in a single row that just slip right onto your Pi's pins, no soldering required! LED SHIM is ideal for status updates, notifications, a VU meter, or as a bar graph for sensor readings.

The really nifty thing about LED SHIM is that it doesn't require any soldering. We've engineered a new friction-fit header that slips securely onto the Pi's pins. Because LED SHIM's PCB is just 0.8mm thick, like our other SHIMs, you can use it at the same time as HATs and pHATs, and it'll stick out and be visible at the top of your Pi. Of course, if you want to solder LED SHIM to your Pi's pins or solder a female header to it, then you can do that too.

These are similar (but even smaller) to the RGB LEDs that we use on Unicorn HAT HD, being driven by the same IS31FL3731 LED matrix driver chip that's on Scroll pHAT HD. Coding LED SHIM is just like coding a Blinkt! with more pixels, so if you've used Blinkt! then it'll be very familiar to you.

Features

  • 28 RGB LED pixels
  • IS31FL3731 LED matrix driver chip
  • Solderless, friction-fit header*
  • Super-slim SHIM-format board
  • 0.8mm thick PCB
  • Can be used with HATs and pHATs
  • Compatible with all 40-pin header Raspberry Pi models
  • Python library

* Note that variation in manufacturing tolerances on both headers and boards can affect the tightness of the friction fit. If you find that yours is not making a good connection, you could try bending the two rows of GPIO pins away from each other very slightly to improve the fit.

Soldering the SHIM (either to the Pi's GPIO directly, or to a socket header) will provide the most robust connection.

Software

We've put together a one-line installer to install the LED SHIM Python library. You'll be up-and-running in a jiffy! There's a bunch of example programs to show you what's possible with LED SHIM, that you can learn from and adapt to your needs.

To install the software, open a terminal and type curl https://get.pimoroni.com/ledshim | bash to run the one-line-installer.

41 customer reviews

2 years ago
Perfect for testing out I/O ports along with a couple of Button Shims for inputs ... shame they don't do an 8-switch Button Shim, or even a combined I/O Shim with 8 LEDs and 8 buttons.
by John about LED SHIM via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
This is perfect for testing software in unfashionable languages that needs to manipulate the GPIO.
by Jonathan about LED SHIM via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
If you need a mess-free LED control without breadboards, resistors and jumper cables to deal with this is a perfect solution. You will however need to use its library if you're coding in Python. It will also need some additional coding to control directly from a GPIO pin unlike a simple on/off state through code. Plenty of examples are provided to use as a starter for any custom programming. For this price, it's highly recommended.
by Anonymous about LED SHIM via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
The shim led work great even on a slim mod of gpio pins
by Anonymous about LED SHIM via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
The press fit is awesome, saves time and allowed me to add led status lights to my project in like 20 minutes.
by Jack about LED SHIM via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
LED Shim worked perfectly and arrived within days in Canada from the UK. Couldn't be happier! This is a great addition to my robot and will give visual insight into what the sensors are seeing. thanks!
by Marcel about LED SHIM via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
This works very nicely and the Python examples provided are a great starting point for my own ones. I calculated though that using it to count seconds in binary would take about six years! If I hadn't read earlier reviews I might have been surprised at the small size and lack of brightness of the LEDs but I have other high-brightness displays so this is perfect for me. Pimoroni also seem to have cracked getting post through to the EU without problems which is great. Some other suppliers are still struggling.
by Anonymous about LED SHIM via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
I fitted the led shim to a Pi Hut "Ethernet and USB HUB HAT", that I had attached to Pi Zero. The fit wasn't perfect and required a bit of persuading - probably not the led shim's fault. I use it to flag the status of other devices in the internal network, with different colours to indicate "good response", "slow response" and "no response". Some colours are better than others, but choose the right ones and it works well
by Ian about LED SHIM via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Great little SHIM. I do wish though there would be more form factors and sizes.
by Michael about LED SHIM via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Great value for the price, glad that it works without soldering!
by Michael about LED SHIM via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Very cool shim. Several examples, or code your own. Easy setup.
by Mark about LED SHIM via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Easy to program, and easy to attach to a bare pi, but very hard to fit with certain cases. The fillets near the GPIO connections don't fit into the GPIO cutouts on a lot of cases. Assuming there isn't a case in the way, the fitment is fantastic and it's really easy to add these LEDs into your program
by Tom about LED SHIM via REVIEWS.io

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