LiPo SHIM for Pico

by Pimoroni

This SHIM provides a convenient way of powering your Raspberry Pi Pico from a LiPo/LiIon battery. You can recharge the battery easily by providing power to the Pico's USB port.

Solder this neat little square to the pins on the back of your Pico, plug in a suitable lithium-ion/polymer battery and tada - a LiPo Pico! The inbuilt charging circuit means you can recharge the attached battery by supplying power to the Pico via USB, and it includes protection against overdischarge and overcurrent. There's a power button to stop the SHIM from providing battery power when it's not needed and turn your project on and off, as well as two LED indicators - a white one that shows when the shim is providing power and a red one to tell you when the battery is being charged.

We've designed it to be as slimline as possible so it can be sandwiched underneath other add-ons like our Pico Packs and Bases, and it's compatible with any of our LiPo, LiIon and high capacity LiPo batteries.

Safety note! You should only use this SHIM with LiPo or LiIon batteries, and you should make sure that any project involving LiPos is sufficiently protected from being dented, bent, punctured or crushed.

  • MCP73831 charger with 215mA charging current (datasheet)
  • XB6096I2S battery protector (datasheet)
  • Power button
  • 2-pole JST PH connector, with polarity marked on the board
  • Power and charging LED indicators
  • Compatible with Raspberry Pi Pico/Pico W.
  • Soldering required.
  • Dimensions: approx 21mm x 21mm x 7mm (L x W x H, including connectors)
  • Schematic

Raspberry Pi Pico, battery and other Pico add-ons are not included!

Getting started

You'll need to solder the SHIM to the back of your Pico, with the power button at the same end as the USB port. The text on the SHIM and the pin labels on the back of the Pico should be facing each other.

Software

You can use LiPo SHIM for Pico with any Pico OS as it doesn't require any software installing to work.

We've put together a MicroPython example showing how you can read the system voltage from Pico's VSYS pin to estimate how much charge is left in the battery, and display it on Pico Explorer or Pico Display.

Notes

  • The power button can also be used as a reset button, yay! Just double press it to cut and reinstate the power whilst holding down the BOOTSEL button on the Pico to get into bootloader mode, with no plugging and unplugging of cables required.
  • Because Pico Display has a chunky display connector on the underside you might have difficulty sandwiching the SHIM underneath if your Pico's header pins are on the shorter side. We'd suggest picking up some longer stacking headers or a Pico Omnibus / Pico Decker if you want to use this SHIM with Pico Display.
  • Alternatively, if you're ambitious in the ways of experimental soldering, you can try soldering the Pico and the SHIM both to the short end of your header, back to back. This method makes for a much more slimline Pico/SHIM package which works nicely with Pico Display, but you'll need to make sure your solder joints make good contact with the pads of both boards and the header.

About Raspberry Pi Pico

Raspberry Pi Pico is a flexible, low cost microcontroller development board from the folks at Raspberry Pi, based on their very own chip - the RP2040. It's easily programmable over USB with C/C++ or MicroPython, and ideal for using in all sorts of physical computing projects, devices and inventions - we're so excited to see what you make with it!

We've called our Pico-sized add-ons packs, as they're designed to attach to the back of your Pico as if it were wearing a very stylish back pack (or a miniature jet pack, if you prefer). We've also got Pico bases (larger add-on boards with a space to mount your Pico on top) and some other boards that let you do interesting hackerly things like using multiple packs at once - click here to view them all!

Your Pico will need to have male headers soldered to it (with the pins pointing downwards) to attach to our add-on boards.

40 customer reviews

7 days ago
The Lipo shim module worked as expected. And fits in perfectly. But I had some hard time soldering the pico to shim (I am bad at soldering). Wish there had been an option where it snaps in or plugs without any soldering.
by Nabin about LiPo SHIM for Pico via REVIEWS.io
6 months ago
Attached this to my Pico for a battery on a water pump project and makes it super easy to connect power and have a power button to cycle it.
by Matthew about LiPo SHIM for Pico via REVIEWS.io
7 months ago
Works really well. Great fit for the pico. My only issue is that it seems to have developed a high pitch whine a week or so after I got it on a breadboard. Doesn't seem to have caused any issues though.
by Joseph about LiPo SHIM for Pico via REVIEWS.io
9 months ago
It was magic! Just plugged it in, and next thing I know I've got a battery powered Pico!
by Adam about LiPo SHIM for Pico via REVIEWS.io
10 months ago
Very good! Helped me tons with my project! Awesome product would highly recommend!
by Anonymous about LiPo SHIM for Pico via REVIEWS.io
a year ago
These shims are great. They sit well under the Pico (whether a wireless one, or one without wireless) and enable it to charge and then run without being connected to the USB power supply. I can also read the state of the battery through the analogue input, even when I'm using Microblocks.fun as the programming environment. A very useful product. I can now build a number of battery powered Picos, including using one for a GCSE Design and Technology Product.
by Ivan about LiPo SHIM for Pico via REVIEWS.io
a year ago
Really easy to use, and with a little kapton tape on the back of the Pico it can be very low profile.
by Anonymous about LiPo SHIM for Pico via REVIEWS.io
a year ago
Such a handy little device for the Pico board and others(with some different soldering, check out Adafruit's video on it for use with a board thats not a Pico). I have DOZENS of these and they work flawlessly. Would love to see what an "upgraded" model would look like and do! hehe. Excellent device!
by Federico about LiPo SHIM for Pico via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
Love this. So easy to use and is really effective with one of the lipo batteries. My only concern is you can't get the battery charge info if WiFi is active on the Pico W, apart from that an absolutely superb bit of kit
by Anonymous about LiPo SHIM for Pico via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
Excellent product. Works exactly as it is supposed to with no issues. Delivered quickly too.
by Steve about LiPo SHIM for Pico via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
Really good and easy to install, good to know it has protection against plugging in the battery backwards. My only issue is that the button is too low profile as it doesn't match how far the usb port sticks out, meaning once I've put it in a housing, I can't press the button without using something to poke it. In a V2 I'd love to see some pads or holes for attaching wires for your own power button, and maybe status LEDs. Really solid product tho, will be buying more
by Leon about LiPo SHIM for Pico via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
The shim itself is great, but the documentation, not so good. I am using this in a project that uses a Tiny2040 due to the shim's tiny size, but I had to compare the shim to a normal RPi Pico to figure out what all the pins on it do instead of being able to look at an image or document that tells me what each pin does. For anyone else in my position, I found that pins 1 and 2 control charging and discharging. When bridged together, this shim automatically knows when to provide power and when to charge the battery. Pin 3 is ground. 3 other ground pins correspond with the ground pins on the normal RPi Pico. All the other pins appear to do nothing (which is good). I like this shim but it would have been nice if there was better documentation so I could have just hooked it up without wondering if I'm about to fry it.
by Michael about LiPo SHIM for Pico via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
Great for adding that portable power to take your project anywhere in a slimline form.
by Chris about LiPo SHIM for Pico via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
Get these when you can! After ordering a couple of Pico's a few weeks ago I was sad to read that these shims were out of stock. After dutifully signing up for the back in stock notification I was pleased when the email came through. I ordered 2 of these LiPo shims and they arrived in next to no time. The shims are of great build quality and are perfect for connecting your LiPo's to your Pi Pico's. The overall service of Pimoroni has been faultless and I will continue to use them for all my Pi needs.
by Craig about LiPo SHIM for Pico via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
Perfect design for pico. But makes soldering to other protoboards impossible without extra headers
by Eduard about LiPo SHIM for Pico via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
This is a brilliant little widget that turns a Pico or Pico W into a properly mobile-ready device. A few quick solder joints and you've got a device that'll look after it's own state of charge, managing the battery, switching to mains if it's available and what's more it includes a power on/off switch worth the cost of admission alone.
by Matthew about LiPo SHIM for Pico via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Great idea to keep the Pico running on LiPo batteries with quick connect for the battery you can swap them out once charged or keep the battery connected as it auto cuts out once full. Like the little power button too which is well positioned for an enclosure.
by Calum about LiPo SHIM for Pico via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Worked great! This was exactly what I needed and I couldn't find it anywhere else.
by Kevin about LiPo SHIM for Pico via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Simple to attach and it just seems to work, and now I have a pico that can go places where there are no plug sockets.
by Richard about LiPo SHIM for Pico via REVIEWS.io

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