This is a Raspberry Pi B+ Hat PCB that supports:
- Three MAX31855 Thermocouple Converters for remote temperature sensing
- DS18S20 1-Wire Thermometer for local hat temperature
- DS3231M I2C Real Time Clock for keeping the time when Raspberry is not connected to the internet
- Magnetic Buzzer/Alert (Added with Rev 1.1)
PCB is designed in KiCad which is a great free EDA toolset and is based on RPi_Hat_Template by XESS Corp.
- Rev 1.2 PCB has been ordered from OSH Park but has NOT been tested yet.
- Added R7 to prevent the Alert Buzzer from sounding when powered on.
- Added Analog Power LDO Regulator to help with noise on the MAX31855's temperature readings. Not clear if this will help.
- You can order parts from Mouser using this shared BOM.
- You can order the PCB from OSH Park using this link.
- Rev 1.1 PCB added an Alert Buzzer and has been ordered from OSH Park, assembled, and tested.
- The Alert Buzzer sounds as soon as the board is powered. Adding a pulldown to base of NUD3124 fixes the problem.
- There is occasional noise in the temperature readings from the MAX31855's.
- Rev 1.0 PCB has been ordered from OSH Park, assembled, and tested. It is fully operational.
This setup makes two key assumptions. First you are using Raspbian Jessie. Second Python3 is the target programming environment. Python3 should be installed by default but if it isn't run sudo apt-get install python3-dev.
Raspberry Pi Hats require an ID EEPROM with data that uniquely identifies every hat ever made. Start by cloning this repository on your Raspberry Pi, building the EEPROM tools, and make the the eeprom_settings.eep file.
cd ~/Documents
git clone https://github.com/mikelawrence/RPi-Hat-Thermocouple
cd ~/Documents/RPi-Hat-Thermocouple/eeprom/
make all
./eepmake eeprom_settings.txt eeprom_settings.eep
The next command writes the freshly generated and unique eeprom_settings.eep file to the EEPROM but you must push and hold the write switch on the hat before executing this command. By default the EEPROM on the hat is write protected. Pushing the write switch allows writes to occur while the switch is pushed.
sudo ./eepflash.sh -w -f=eeprom_settings.eep -t=24c32
You will see the following if writing to the EEPROM was successful.
This will attempt to talk to an eeprom at i2c address 0x50. Make sure there is an eeprom at this address.
This script comes with ABSOLUTELY no warranty. Continue only if you know what you are doing.
Do you wish to continue? (yes/no): yes
Writing...
0+1 records in
0+1 records out
117 bytes (117 B) copied, 2.31931 s, 0.1 kB/s
Done.
This is what you will see if there is a problem communicating with the EEPROM.
This will attempt to talk to an eeprom at i2c address 0x50. Make sure there is an eeprom at this address.
This script comes with ABSOLUTELY no warranty. Continue only if you know what you are doing.
Do you wish to continue? (yes/no): yes
Writing...
dd: error writing ‘/sys/class/i2c-adapter/i2c-3/3-0050/eeprom’: Connection timed out
0+1 records in
0+0 records out
0 bytes (0 B) copied, 0.0539977 s, 0.0 kB/s
Error doing I/O operation.
If you succesfuly wrote the EEPROM there is nothing else left to do here.
For this Hat you will need to enable the SPI, I2C and 1-Wire interfaces. From the command line type
sudo raspi-config and follow the prompts to install SPI support in the kernel.
Now follow the same actions but enabling the I2C and 1-Wire interfaces.
It's time to reboot your Raspberry Pi with sudo reboot.
Now let's see if the RTC is is present on the I2C bus by running sudo i2cdetect -y 1. If you get a command not found you will need to install it with sudo apt-get install python-smbus i2c-tools. Looking at the output of the i2cdetect command you will see 68 in a field of -- when the RTC is detected on the bus.
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo i2cdetect -y 1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f
00: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
10: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
20: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
30: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
40: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
50: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
60: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 68 -- -- -- -- -- -- --
70: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Enable kernel support for the DS3231 RTC by adding a device tree overlay by running sudo nano /boot/config.txt and adding the following to the end of the file. Don't forget to save the file.
# Enable Real Time Clock
dtoverlay=i2c-rtc,ds3231
Reboot again. Now when sudo i2cdetect -y 1 is run we see:
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo i2cdetect -y 1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f
00: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
10: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
20: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
30: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
40: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
50: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
60: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- UU -- -- -- -- -- -- --
70: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
The UU at address 68 means the RTC is currently in use by a driver or in other words we have success! Now disable the fake hwclock because it will interfere with our new RTC. Issue the following commands.
sudo apt-get -y remove fake-hwclock
sudo update-rc.d -f fake-hwclock remove
Next run sudo nano /lib/udev/hwclock-set and comment out the following lines. This puts the original clock script back to normal.
#if [ -e /run/systemd/system ] ; then
# exit 0
#fi
First make sure you have installed the CR1225 battery on the Hat. Next verify the Raspberry Pi has the correct time by typing date.
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ date
Fri Mar 10 16:52:48 CST 2017
If the time is not correct connect the Raspberry Pi to a network via Ethernet or WiFi and allow it synchronize with Internet time servers or set the time manually. Once the time is correct issue this command sudo hwclock -w. This will set the RTC time to current system time. The next time the Raspberry Pi is booted it will get it's time from the RTC.
Here is a nice 1-Wire python library that also supports command line reading of the temperature. If you get a 'command not found' then install it with sudo apt-get install python3-w1thermsensor.
Now test the Thermocouple Hat's DS18S20 temperature sensor with pi@raspberrypi:~ $.
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ w1thermsensor all
Got temperatures of 1 sensors:
Sensor 1 (0008033f727f) measured temperature: 32.312 celsius
The Thermocouple Hat design gets around the Raspberry Pi limitation of only two chip enables for the hardware SPI0 interface by adding a 74LVC139A 2to4 Decoder to CEO. The address lines of the 2to4 decoder are connected to GPIO24 and GPIO23 so when SPI0.CE0 is sent low only one of the Thermocouple converters will be selected according to the following logic.
| GPIO23 (Pin 16) | GPIO24 (Pin 18) | Thermocouple |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | TC1 |
| 0 | 1 | TC2 |
| 1 | 0 | TC3 |
| 1 | 1 | Invalid |
Spidev is a commonly used Python library for Raspberry Pi SPI programming. This library is most likely already installed but if not install it with sudo apt-get install python3-spidev. Assuming you already cloned this repository issue this command ~/Documents/RPi-Hat-Thermocouple/code/test.py to see the DS18S20 PCB and thermocouple temperatures. Note when I ran the test on my board there was only one connected thermocouple so the other MAX31855K's show as 'No thermocouple connected'.
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ~/Documents/RPi-Hat-Thermocouple/code/test.py
Press Ctrl-C to quit.
Testing alert buzzer...
DS18S20 on PCB: 28.88C / 83.97F
Thermocouple 0: 21.63C / 70.93F
Thermocouple 1: Error - No thermocouple connected
Thermocouple 2: Error - No thermocouple connected
Adafruit released a guide to configuring a RTC on a Raspberry Pi that was extremely helpful is setting up the DS3231M RTC. The MAX31855 code is based on an Adafruit library.
Adafruit has breakout boards for the key chips on this Hat here: RTC and MAX31855. They support the open soruce/hardware community so support them.