Wireless Things ARF board optional extra

[DavidC]

When buying the ARF board, WirelessThings recommended I also buy a 3.3V Power Pod for about £1. It appears to be a simple power regulator that converts anything from 4V to 16V down to 3.3V, so would sort out the 5V overload problem Lee reported elsewhere.

I did order this in addition to the Digole board in the hardware instructions. Is this of any use or should people ignore it?

[onkelmuetze]

It is an alternative to the digole board. Used it on my device to save shipping for the digole, and the powerpod itself is cheaper, also. Needs some wiring to it instead of plug and play, but it works well.

I attached a quick sketch of how it's gotta be wired if you wanna use it instead of the digole board. The numers at the bottom are the pin-numbers of the PI's connector.

[ianfallon]

There's a 3rd option too - use a Slice of Pod board from Wireless Things instead of the Digole or POD.

See the Model B thread for some pics from my build using this approach.

[DavidC]

Thanks for the wiring diagram and details.

So what's the tradeoff between these three options?

1) Digole as per original hardware instructions
2) Power Pod
3) Slide of Pod

Seems to me (2) is cheapest and most compact (about £1), (1) takes longest to arrive (3 weeks from China), (3) is least fiddly/plug and play.
I have ordered all three and will try to compare results and post my thoughts.
I hadn't realised I could complete the unit with a Power Pod only

With a bit of luck, I'll have something working to try out at the weekend...