A low priced on/off board for the RPi.

[DaOld Man]

Adafruit has a board similar to the mausberry switch that allows you to safely shut down your RPi
At 6.95 it's less than half the cost of the mausberry.
I havent tried this yet, so I cant review it.
One thing I noticed right off the bat is that it takes up 12 GPIO pins even though it's only (probably) using 4.
It also appears to supply power to the RPi through the GPIO pins, which means it bypasses the on-board fuse.
They show it with a Pi zero, so not sure if it will work with the RPi 2 and 3, but dont see why it wouldnt, unless there is a power issue.
If anyone tries this, please post your results and opinions.

https://www.adafruit.com/product/3581

I checked out the site that actually sells them (40 cents cheaper too), and it looks like it will work with the RPi 2 and 3.
But it says it will not work with Raspian Wheezy OS.

https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/onoff-shim

[lomoverde]

Does this just remove the need for the shutdown script widely available now? seems like you still have to source power buttons yourself,and still use a momentary switch?

[DaOld Man]

If you use this, you only need the script provided by the company.
Most of what Ive seen exampled on here does not shut the power down to the RPi after it shutsdown.
There is probably nothing wrong with that, except you will have to turn off the power then turn it back on to start it back up. IE turn off power switch or unplug power cord.  (Please someone correct me if Im wrong.)
Also, AFAIK, if you are powering something else from the GPIO  that you want to shutoff when RPi shutsdown, the power to the RPi will have to be broken. (Again, correct me if Im wrong.)
I guess it all depends on what you want to do with your setup.

[lomoverde]

I can imagine this being a nice addon for a pi sat on a desk or under a tv as is.Not sure whether you could use a fan for cooling or use your existing case.
 i think some,well me anyway,use the safe shutdown script with momentary switch somewhere on outside of cab to shut the pi down,then flick main power for marquee buttons whatever,which also totally powers off pi.
 i would deffo use one for my desktop pi i fiddle with often tho.

[DaOld Man]

Well, you could use it on an arcade or console build, but you could not put it in the cases-made-for-RPi.
Im sure someone will come up with a case that will work with it.
Im thinking about ordering this for my Photobooth, since the micro USB plug is messed up and I had to solder in another plug, this could eliminate that plug rig.
But Im using both the +5 and + 3 pins to power master relay and fan control.
So Im not sure how that would work, if I had to jury rig something else I may as well use what I already got.
I was concerned about this board bypassing the RPi poly fuse, but the picture of it shows what appears to be a fuse onboard it.
But of course with no schematic to study, I cant say for sure. Since it is rated for 2.5 amps max, Im sure there is a fuse to protect it, and hopefully the RPi too.

[lomoverde]

you can use it in a cab,but would you still be wiring in a momentary switch to pins?
also would it hinder airflow to the heatsinks?
nice clean solution but not needed in most cab builds i think.

been looking at your photo booth thread by the way,fantastic build,and i had the faulty hdmi to vga issue on a build,so frustrating,seems u caught it a lot quicker than me.

[DaOld Man]

You know I didnt think about blocking air flow to the cpu, that could be a problem, and yes, even though this board has a switch on it, you would still have to solder two wires and run them wherever you mounted the add on switch.

Thanks for the comments on the photobooth.
I killed about a whole day on that screen blanking out problem. I used one of  those HDMI-VGA adapters on the first photobooth I built (however not same model, that one did not require external power). As far as I know that one has not been a problem.
I was reading up on how the self powered (passive) ones get their power from the Rpi (through HDMI jack) and this is not a good thing, because it can suck more than the RPi can put out safely.
I thought  at first that might be the problem Im seeing now, since I didnt have it powered, it worked good until now so I didnt think i needed extra power, but got to thinking maybe I do.
So I added 5 volts from the USB hub (usb hub is powered from 5 volt power supply) and it still blanks out every now and then, just not as often as it was when i first noticed it.
I will see what the new one does.
It would be nicer if my monitor had a DVI port on it, but it dont. I am not real happy with that monitor, the viewing angle left to right is very short, you have to stand right in front to see the picture real sharp, but I guess it wont matter since people will be standing in front of it anyway. But this monitor would not be good for a arcade cab or jukebox.

[barrymossel]

nice clean solution but not needed in most cab builds i think.

People are using master-slave power bricks to not have to turn off multiple devices in their cabs. This is quite the same, as you will only need one button, instead of two (power down script button - wait - and the power everything down button).

[lomoverde]

[/quote]
People are using master-slave power bricks to not have to turn off multiple devices in their cabs. This is quite the same, as you will only need one button, instead of two (power down script button - wait - and the power everything down button).
[/quote]

1 button but still 2 actions required.Not a great timesaver,or simplified system really.i like the rocker switch behind cab totally powering down,flip it on and everything comes to life.

[barrymossel]

People are using master-slave power bricks to not have to turn off multiple devices in their cabs. This is quite the same, as you will only need one button, instead of two (power down script button - wait - and the power everything down button).

1 button but still 2 actions required.Not a great timesaver,or simplified system really.i like the rocker switch behind cab totally powering down,flip it on and everything comes to life.

2 actions? Use a master-slave block with this board and everything turns on with 1 buttons (1 action). Same for turning it off.

[pbj]

Does a Pi draw enough power to toggle one of those power strips?  I have problems with just flat screens used as the master.

[DaOld Man]

This is a little off topic, but since I discussed the monitor blanking issue on my photobooth a few comments back, I thought I would put an update here.
I got the new HDMI to VGA converter installed and the screen hasnt blanked off yet, but now I have another issue.
The HDMI-VGA box has power fed from the arcade cabinet power supply Im using.
The 5 vdc is turned on and off by a relay, and the relay turns off when the power from the RPi goes off.
I am using a mausberry circuit to shutdown the RPi, it issues a shutdown command to the Rpi, when RPi is shutdown, the mausberry circuit turns off the power to it.
Now Im seeing where the Rpi is shutting down, but power is staying on (Orange light on RPi stays on.)
This keeps the relay turned on, which keeps the power turned on to everything else, including the HDMI-VGA converter (box).
If I unplug the power to the HDMI-VGA box, the pi turns off completely. Relay turns off, monitor and speaker amp turns off.
So I gather from this that the HDMI-VGA box is back feeding 5 vdc to the RPi.
I dont like this. From what I gather on the net, there should be a device on the RPi that blocks back flow from HDMI to RPi.
So either this device has failed, allowing power to pass in both directions, or something else going on.
I just dont know why the old box didnt act this way, unless maybe the power socket for it was broke, not allowing power to flow from the relay to it?
May be why it still blanked monitor even with external power plugged in.
My next step is to test this on another RPi I have in my genesis console conversion.
If it acts ok on that one, I either need to cut the wire in the cable that supplies 5 v between the RPi and the box, or just buy a new RPi.
I think I will probably go with a new RPi, since the power jack on this one is screwed up anyway, and Im not crazy about cutting into a HDMI cable.

[DaOld Man]

Just tested it on two different RPi's and it acts the same. Back feeding and keeping RPi powered up.

[DaOld Man]

I took the HDMI to VGA converter apart.
I cut the red wire, which attached to pin 18 (+5vdc).
It appears to be working now.
I put a drop of hot glue on the red wires to keep them from getting into anything else.
The adapter came apart pretty easy, to my surprise. Just popped out the plastic plate that covers the VGA connector, then slid the box back along the HDMI cable.
Heres a pic of the wire I cut. I drew a white circle around the surgery i performed.