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.