My Raspberry Pi Zero W is now a Raspberry Pi Zero WH. Here are all of the parts before the were cobbled together. This created a USB dongle for me that allows me to log into the Pi and have a Linux based environment to work in at any time. I am no expert and with this simple how to build anyone can do this project.
The first step is to solder the USB connector to the SparcFun Pi Zero USB Stem (pictured).
Once you have the main grounding legs soldered to the Stem, flip it over and solder the actual USB data and power connections. As you can see I am not using a fine tipped soldering tip but if your careful and have a steady hand you can do this fairly easy.
Once I had that all soldered together it was getting fairly warm so I set that off to the side and then started to work on soldering the header. This takes a little time to solder all of the connections and it also required some patience. This allows you to practice your soldering skills.
About 15 minutes later I had the header all soldered on and I used some Isopropyl alcohol to clean it all up. Since the Stem was now cool I fastened that to the board with the parts provided.
There is a good tutorial over at SparcFun showing how to solder castellated holes (or castellations). This might come in handy if you need to solder a module or PCB to another PCB. These castellations are becoming popular with integrated WiFi and Bluetooth modules.
Here is the finished soldered and assembled project. A Raspberry Pi Zero WH dongle. Now time for the final test. Will it power up?
Success! As you can see in the picture the new Raspberry Pi Zero WH powered up and booted with no problems. I immediately had to log in and run quick test or two.
I just ordered Pimoroni Inky pHAT for Raspberry Pi – 3 Color eInk Display and it should have it for installation in the next day or so. I wanted to have it by the time I posted it but we know how life gets in the way. Expect a post on that in the next few days.
Final Thoughts
This has been a fun project! I hope I have shown you a few things that have piqued your interest. This reason I started with the Raspberry Pi Zero WH is that out of all of the Raspberry Pi versions that are available this is what I would consider the base model. Everything I have show you so far can be, and will be used on higher models of the Raspberry Pi and other Single-Board computers. I’ll see you in the next post!