Sense HAT now in commercial release

[ShiftPlusOne]

No idea, don't have that case myself. You could just have the spacers connected to the hat itself, but not screw them to the pi.

[W. H. Heydt]

Thanks for the info, I will give that a try. Should the Pi and Sense HAT still be able to fit into the official case once they spacers and screws are in place? I have seen a photo that suggests this is the case but I can't see how the Pi will clip into the bottom of the case if screws are through the mounting holes in the corners.

I've seen a SenseHAT on a Pi in the official case, but I didn't see how they did it (in part because I didn't look or ask...this was before the official case was released and I didn't know that was going to be an issue).

Perhaps Liz or Eben can enlighten us about how they did it.

(The one I saw was at the Maker Faire in May.)

[plugwash]

I suspect shiftplusone has it right, spacers screwed to the hat but either not screwed to the Pi at all or possiblly only screwed to the Pi in the two positions that are not used by the official case for mounting.

I'm pretty sure the former will work, not sure about the latter.

[opi]

I received my Sense HAT today, and it only just doesn't fit into the official Raspberry Pi case. I had to use a knife to shave off a small amount of plastic from the inside of the top half of the case on the GPIO side. I only screwed in the spacers from the top of the HAT, and they almost felt like they clipped onto the longer of the case feet for the Pi board.

Attached images if people are interested.

[JSingleton]

I've had a go with my Sense HAT and am liking it so far. I'm using a pibow coupé case so didn't need the spacers in the end as they don't fit it.

I've written up my experience of kicking the chips here: https://unop.uk/dev/raspberry-pi-sense-hat

These are some good official resources I found useful:

• https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/buy-th ... n-in-space
  https://pythonhosted.org/sense-hat
  https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/ge ... /worksheet
  https://www.raspberrypi.org/learning/ma ... /worksheet

[WeebamNa]

I'm using a pibow coupé case so didn't need the spacers in the end as they don't fit it.

So the screws don't fit the coupé? I just got my Sense HAT from the Swag Store, and there were no screws, standoffs, or GPIO extenders.

[tonygo2]

I've got mine in but it was quite a fiddle.
You only need the two support posts on the long side near the joystick. The other long side is well supported by the GPIO pins. Leave out the bottom screws - they just get in the way of seating the Pi properly in the base. Leave out the SD card and white side piece by the GPIO pins as you put the Pi into the base with the other white side of the case loosely over the HDMI and other sockets. Make sure the Pi goes all the way down before fitting the other side.
It is a good, firm fit once in but you need both the red and white tops off to give full access to the joystick.

I got my Sense HAT from Pimoroni and it came with the spacers. If you need spacers then CPC have then for £1.99 and free postage.
http://cpc.farnell.com/ucreate/sense-ha ... st=SC13931
Best of luck - it's a great deal of fun once you get it working.

[jb0815]

Hi all,

I read about that freeze on boot problem with sense hat.
I have the same problem, but without the mentioned entry in /boot/cmdline.txt

What can it be else?

Regards
jb0815

[ShiftPlusOne]

Hi all,

I read about that freeze on boot problem with sense hat.
I have the same problem, but without the mentioned entry in /boot/cmdline.txt

What can it be else?

Regards
jb0815

Could you please elaborate? I'm not familiar with any problems of that kind.

[jb0815]

Hi ShiftPlusOne

sorry replyed at the wrong place and at the moment I can't find the original post I mentioned.
It was because I registered in between reading and answering and got into the wrong page.
I try to find it, otherweise I will post my error messages here . But I've to retry it bevore.

Best Regards
jb0815

[jb0815]

Hi again,

I've found the original post, see below.
And ShiftPlusOne, find your reply at the end.
You remember ? There was a guy with a similiar problem.
I have the same output on my raspi , but I hav'nt theese entrys in cmdline.txt

AND:
Does the LED matrix stay lit up ? -> YES
Is the red LED on the pi itself constantly on? -> YES

Any idea ?
------------ snip -------------------------------
by michaelangelo » Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:08 pm
Cannot boot up with Sense HAT.

Just got my SenseHAT today and try on my RPi2 but freeze on bootup. Below is last few lines on my console:
Of course after rpi-update.

Code: Select all
...
[ 4.170537] spi spi0.0: setting up native-CSO as GPIO 8
[ 4.237870] spi spi0.1: setting up native-CS1 as GPIO 7
[ 4.444530] rpi-sense 1-0046: Raspberry Pi Sense HAT firmware version 0
[ 4.493370] input: Raspberry Pi Sense HAT Joystick as /devices/virtual/input/input2


It freeze after input2.

SenseHAT lighted up in rainbow color on power up.

Can anyone help? Thanks.

Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2012 1:41 am

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by ShiftPlusOne » Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:32 pm
That's interesting. Are you able to pastebin all the output?
Does the LED matrix stay lit up or does it turn off?
Is the red LED on the pi itself constantly on?

[ShiftPlusOne]

Hi again,

I've found the original post, see below.
And ShiftPlusOne, find your reply at the end.
You remember ? There was a guy with a similiar problem.
I have the same output on my raspi , but I hav'nt theese entrys in cmdline.txt

AND:
Does the LED matrix stay lit up ? -> YES
Is the red LED on the pi itself constantly on? -> YES

Any idea ?

Do you use, or have you ever used an additional screen that connects to GPIO? Do you have this problem with a clean, stock raspbian image?

[jb0815]

Yes I have had played around with a touchscreen, but I commented out the driver in /etc/mudules.
Yesterday i installed a clean jessie, and the problem disappeared.
However I would like to understand what causes the problem.

[ShiftPlusOne]

Yes I have had played around with a touchscreen, but I commented out the driver in /etc/mudules.
Yesterday i installed a clean jessie, and the problem disappeared.
However I would like to understand what causes the problem.

Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing all the ways in which your install differed from stock. I expect there were changes made other than those in /etc/modules.

[jb0815]

Ok I thank you anyway.
At that point I think it's not worth to go deaper into the problem.
I will try to track the changes I make a bit more next time

[nitrologic]

Woot! I got mine Monday and it has been working like a charm.

I don't understand why the LED array uses white bezels, surely they should be black? I may try and make my own grill to try and improve black levels.

The temperature is reporting a bit warm, not sure if there is a calibration step or the hat surface is actually 32'C.

From GCC native coder point of view it would have been nice to have found the snake code when I first searched "github sense hat". The Python support feels a little too dominant / exclusive but I'm over that now