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Sleepy Pi - A Sleep mode and Arduino I/O board. A Call For Volunteers

fuffkin

I’ve been testing some of my Sleepy Pi prototype boards and am just about to order a number of next revision boards.

 

I’d love to give out some of this next batch of boards to the community to test out.

 

I actually designed this as an add-on to a humane Mouse-trap. These are all well and good, but if you don't check them every day, the poor mouse still snuffs it.  The idea of the Sleepy Pi is that it'll implement a "Wake-n-mouse" (as opposed to Wake-on-lan image) and take a photo of the captive mouse and either tweet or email it to me.

 

In terms of functionality the Sleepy Pi is essentially a Smart Power Management board for the Raspberry Pi that includes a low power Arduino that stays powered when the Raspberry Pi is off. In this way it can reduce the overall power used by the RPi, particularly when powered from batteries in applications where the RPi doesn’t need to be on all the time. You can think of it as adding a “Sleep” mode to the Raspberry Pi, because the Arduino can periodically wake the  RPi up to perform a task and then put it back to sleep. As a side benefit you also get some Arduino I/O to play with, like Analogue Inputs and PWM’s.


Key functions:

  • Reduce the effective Power consumption of the Raspberry Pi
  • Power directly from batteries up to 17V
  • Adds Arduino I/O to the Raspberry Pi such as Analogue In or PWM
  • Break out the Raspberry Pi GPIO & Arduino I/O to screw terminals
  • Prototyping area and expansion headers for daughter boards
  • Power button for manual switch on/off
  • “Wake” or “Sleep” in response to events or triggers such as:
    • Analogue value crosses a threshold
    • Digital input changes
    • Specific time to “wake” via Real-time Clock

 

Is this something people could use? Can you think of an applications you'd use one for?

 

I would love to hear any feedback. You can contact me either through the forum or on my blog at http:www.spellfoundry.com

 

Jon

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  • in reply to fuffkin

    Jon

    I note your site has no pricing for the latest version.

    Have you been able to trim the costs to bring it down at all?

     

    Do you have the option for battery voltage monitoring in the software to also initiate a shutdown.

    This voltage monitor could also output to a 'charge controller' output to shut off the solar/charger if the voltage rose above x. (jumper for 12/24/48?? v)

    This gives you the ability to have these do the controlling on a solar powered site.

     

    Software that configures an input for 'reboot' would be a good idea.

    You may need to shut it down for maintenance (ie change batteries, remove power), and having a button with led allows this to be simple.

    A 1 or 2 sec delay on startup allows the person to wait and then remove power.

     

    I note that your pictures show the GPIO is extended which is good, but is there still room to get the PiCamera (and maybe the DSI cable ...when it arrives) out from underneath.?

     

    Have you considered adding mounting holes, so that you can mount the SleepyPi and then plug the RPi onto it ... since there's few options short of a case for mounting RPi.?

     

    If you want to send a beta, I am willing to try it out.

     

    Thanks

    Mark

  • in reply to mcb1

    Mark,

     

    Some cracking suggestions there and very much appreciated.

     

    On the voltage monitoring side one of the Arduino analogue inputs is hardwired for battery voltage measurements. For big solar cells the voltage is limited to what the regulator can handle which is about 17V. Anything below that should be ok.

     

    There are handshaking lines between the Arduino and RPi that can be used for command shutdown / reboot etc.

     

    There is a manual switch that can trigger shutdown / reboot etc and a header to allow you to remote mount it.

     

    The Sleepy Pi shares the same mounting holes as the RPi, so you can mount straight through from the RPi board to a case.

     

    I haven't tried the fit for the camera yet, but I can say that the GPIO header is the extended variety so the board clears the Ethernet connector etc, so could be ok on that score.

     

    Price-wise I'm trying to best the cost down as much as is practical and I need to do the revised revision costs. As a ballpark it's going to be in a similar vane to a Gertboard price.

     

    I hope that answers a few of the questions.

     

    Mark, I'd love to talk more with you so please message me or email via the website etc.

     

    Jon

  • in reply to fuffkin

    jon

    It sounds like you've already covered the bases .... well done.

     

    A simple voltage divider should be all thats required for larger solar arrays.

     

    PM sent

    Cheers

    Mark