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🎉  Happy 13th Birthday Raspberry Pi!   🎂   1,000+ deals in store!   🥳

LiPo SHIM for Raspberry Pi

by Pimoroni

The tiny little LiPo/LiIon power supply shim for all versions of the Raspberry Pi!

We love mobile projects but having a discrete, slick, and tidy power supply solution is always tricky. LiPo SHIM (formerly known as Zero LiPo) aims to give you the most compact Raspberry Pi power supply possible.

You can either solder the 0.8mm thick PCB directly onto the GPIO pins on your Pi for a permanent solution, or solder on the provided 2x6 0.1" female header which will allow you to remove your Zero LiPo at any time (but will block the GPIO pins).

We use the TPS61232 step-up boost converter from Texas Instruments that offers up to 96% efficiency. The board includes power on and battery low indicator LEDs. During shutdown (due to under-voltage or external selection) the quiescent current is just 15uA sip.

The MagPi described LiPo SHIM as "a slick bit of kit" and "a great option for providing safe power for a portable project" in their four star review.

Need a battery? Check out our range of LiPo and LiIon batteries!

Features

  • 0.8mm thick PCB
  • Shaped to sit as low as possible on the Raspberry Pi
  • 2-pole JST connector ideal for most LiPo/LiIon batteries
  • Power and low battery LED indicators
  • Supplies up to 1.5A continuous current (15uA quiescent current)
  • Low battery warning at 3.4V (asserts GPIO #4 low)
  • Automatic shutdown at 3.0V to protect your battery
  • VBAT+, GND, and EN pins available to break out
  • 2x6 0.1" female header (optional, for non permanent installation)
  • Includes rubber foot to space LiPo SHIM away from your Raspberry Pi
  • LiPo SHIM pinout
  • Compatible with all 40-pin header Raspberry Pi computers
  • Requires soldering
  • Battery not included

Software

We've put together a one-line installer that will initiate a clean shutdown when the low battery warning is triggered and GPIO #4 is pulled low. More details are available here in the GitHub repository.

Notes

This is not a charger. You will need a separate charger to keep your LiPo/LiIon batteries topped up! We recommend the Adafruit Micro Lipo or PowerBoost 1000 Charger.

The VBAT+ and GND pins that are broken out can be used as alternative way to inject power, for instance if you wanted to solder on your own JST connector with wires to make it stretch a bit further.

The EN pin can be pulled to ground to cut the power output from LiPo SHIM.

30 customer reviews

3 years ago
Works a treat. I'm now using old lithium batteries I scavenged from a vacuum cleaner to power my raspberry pi 4, save in the knowledge that the shim will keep my pi safe!
by Graeme about LiPo SHIM for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Great little device. Fits perfectly on the Pi and works as advertised. The low voltage pin allows the pi to shut down safely before the Shim turns the power off totally. Really handy for lipo use with its low quiescence current once the shin shuts down.
by Neil about LiPo SHIM for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
I got this as a shim for the Raspberry Pi Pico. Whilst this has solder points for the pinouts on a standard Raspberry Pi, these don't match the pins on the Pico, but this is not a problem, as it comes with everything you need to use jumpers instead. The low battery GPIO is a nice touch too.
by Ed about LiPo SHIM for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
A great lightweight solution to put my Raspberry PI zero into a rocket and get some great photos from above.
by Philip about LiPo SHIM for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
The perfect power source for your Raspberry Pi Zero W HQ Camera combo! https://github.com/PaulZC/Pi_Zero_HQ_Camera_Adapter
by Paul about LiPo SHIM for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
It is a practically necessary piece of kit all things considered. I strongly recomment using it coupled with the stacking headers, so that you can still take advantage of the pins which aren't used by the shim
by Savvas about LiPo SHIM for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
6 years ago
Limited. This is a bit too basic. OK there's no charging, so I have a separate board for that. But you also can't power the Pi without a charged battery plugged into this, else the low-battery light is lit up and Pin pulled low - so if you're using the auto-power off (and you will be because there's no other way with this board to monitor battery voltage) - this means the Pi will auto shutdown every-time you have no charged battery plugged into this. Which is a right pain in any situation other than when this is deployed in full production.
by Mark about LiPo SHIM for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
7 years ago
Great product as always! Wanted to add a lightweight power source to my raspberry pi zero robot and using this circuit with a LiPo battery was just what I was looking for.
by Sam about LiPo SHIM for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
7 years ago
I soldered it directly to the Pi header allowing a control with screen. Everythig in order. 1 issue: when i use with clean-shutdown i lost my wifi connection, in fact although Pi is connected (with Putty) when i validate with password (raspberry) connection is refused. When i disable clean-shutdown, no connection problem. Any idea to correct. Thanks
by BernardC about LiPo SHIM for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
7 years ago
this really nice piece of hw ;-) How is low bat LED working. My pi is shutdown when I ques battery get low. But blue power LED is still on and low bat LED is off. maybe for future development, you could combine this with ON/OFF shim thank you
by janci about LiPo SHIM for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
8 years ago
I'm using one of these with a Zero W and a ScrollPhatHD to display messages at work and wear it as a badge with 2500 mAh lipo as it has a more compact profile and form.When it comes to soldering I have to admit I'm a bit of a NInja and a total perfectionist (no I don't want a job soldering - that's what machines are for) so getting this very thin little power board the fit on the male headers with the ScrollPhatHD on top using female headers was no problem and resulted in a very secure fit.
by Dominic about LiPo SHIM for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
8 years ago
I love all its features so I bought it without 2nd thought. I have been thinking if I should solder it directly or to the 2x4 female header for quite sometime. Ideally, I solder it directly, then stack a pHat DAC (on another 11mm header), then stack a Touch pHat. The problem is I cannot find a case to accommodate it, even w/o the DAC. Any plan to further modify PiBow so that it can accommodate a directly soldered Zero LiPo will be very very very good.
by Savio about LiPo SHIM for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
8 years ago
This is a great piece of kit - you can either solder the board directly to the Pi's GPIO (like I did) or attach female headers that you can pop onto the Pi's headers if you want to remove it later on. I've also soldered a switch to the board, so that I can turn it on and off... well, at a flick of a switch! This makes a battery powered, yet compact, Raspberry Pi!
by Wesley about LiPo SHIM for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
8 years ago
I need for my RPI3 occassionaly more than the 1.5 A deliverable by the Zero lipo. Pity, but - I now need to look further for a 2.4A power source LiPo and perhapps for a 12V car battery for much longer power requirements. A battery low detection is a must! Any help with this would be most welcome
by Nigel about LiPo SHIM for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
8 years ago
When I first saw this thingy, I ordered it right away. And now it's working perfectly well with my Pi Zero. I soldered it directly to the Pi's pins and experienced one little design flaw: The nearer big capacitor prevents ribbon cables to fit on the pins, because the plastic nose will bump against it. I'd like to have the same board with an I2C-ADC to monitor the voltage and probably a charging circuit on it. But BAT+ is broken out, so I guess I can achieve this on my own. There is a little typo: Battery warning assets GPIO #4 low, it's high > 3.4V One more thing: I'd love to have the schematics and pcb layout of this thing. Thanks!
by Dennis about LiPo SHIM for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
9 years ago
If you're already using items like the Adafruit Powerboosts to power your Pi but become annoyed with how to attach it to your Pi Zero, then this is what you're looking for. You can solder this directly on to the Pi header pins and still fix a HAT or pHAT on top. The soldering is a little tricky - be careful not to touch any of the components on the ZeroLipo with the tip of the soldering iron. Also make sure that you don't get too much solder spread along and up the pins themselves as this may prevent you seating a HAT on top afterwards. Keep the tip of the soldering iron on the hole until it's nice and hot and then carefully introduce the solder - this way the solder should pool only around the pin.
by Richard about LiPo SHIM for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io

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