July 18, 2025: A tiny AllStar node with the UCI90, Raspberry Pi Zero 2W and a K-1 speaker-mic. Also, a new HF antenna is coming soon, plus a full-duplex handheld!
The Pi Juice UPS HAT is a pretty nice addition to a Raspberry Pi that needs to stay online while mobile. I have several, although they were about half the price I see on Amazon this afternoon. They can run on a battery that was used on a Motorola phone, or you can wire up a few 18650 cells into pads on the HAT.
I should have mentioned the various RPi UPS hats available. Thank you for filling in this gap! I was going for low cost so I skipped right on by them, but a UPS hat could solve a lot of problems, not the least of which is assuring a stable 5V supply to the RPi.
The PiJuice hat looks like a great product but it appears to be no longer available from that source. The PiShop has it (https://www.pishop.us/product/pijuice-hat-a-portable-power-platform-for-every-raspberry-pi/). Even though the RPi Zero 2W platform is not explicitly identified as being compatible, it probably is. My issue is spending $90 for the UPS hat when a power bank that one may already have on hand and a momentary on-off switch might do the trick for far less out of pocket.
Oh, and the prompt for the AI was something like: write an upbeat song in a jazzy style that talks about how amateur radio connects people all over the world, across cultures, and celebrating the Random Wire newsletter as a way to help make those connections.
The Pi Juice UPS HAT is a pretty nice addition to a Raspberry Pi that needs to stay online while mobile. I have several, although they were about half the price I see on Amazon this afternoon. They can run on a battery that was used on a Motorola phone, or you can wire up a few 18650 cells into pads on the HAT.
https://www.crowdsupply.com/pi-supply/pijuice-zero
I should have mentioned the various RPi UPS hats available. Thank you for filling in this gap! I was going for low cost so I skipped right on by them, but a UPS hat could solve a lot of problems, not the least of which is assuring a stable 5V supply to the RPi.
The PiJuice hat looks like a great product but it appears to be no longer available from that source. The PiShop has it (https://www.pishop.us/product/pijuice-hat-a-portable-power-platform-for-every-raspberry-pi/). Even though the RPi Zero 2W platform is not explicitly identified as being compatible, it probably is. My issue is spending $90 for the UPS hat when a power bank that one may already have on hand and a momentary on-off switch might do the trick for far less out of pocket.
WaveShare has a much less expensive product at $24 but the onboard battery is rather small: https://www.waveshare.com/ups-hat-c.htm. That device is also available on Amazon for almost $10 more: https://amzn.to/46cdMbE
Finally, DFRobot has one for $20 but it doesn't include the battery, so some additional procurement would be necessary.
I love your jingle. Please share the platform and cue
That was a very quick, first pass by the AI with no refinement by me. I used Songer: https://songer.co/?ref=uNBGrmjsqd&utm_source=referral&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=referral_2c
Oh, and the prompt for the AI was something like: write an upbeat song in a jazzy style that talks about how amateur radio connects people all over the world, across cultures, and celebrating the Random Wire newsletter as a way to help make those connections.