When JuiceBox Zero sees the battery voltage reach 3.2V the “LOW BATTERY” LED lights up and causes GPIO16 to go HIGH. In order to perform a safe shutdown, do the following:
- Type:
sudo nano LowBatteryShutdown.py
This will create a python file in your current folder for the safe shutdown code.
- Copy and paste the following code into LowBatteryShutdown.py and save it.
Software for safe shutdown
# This code is complete and can be implemented as it is to safely shutdown # a Rasbperry Pi using the safe shut down feature on Juice Box Zero. # This is all Raspberry Pi 101, so it is definitely all open source. Feel # free to mix, copy, paste, change, etc. import os import RPi.GPIO as GPIO # This is going to let us use the BCM pin numbers. The number on JuiceBox # Zero is labeled # according to BCM. See https://pinout.xyz/ for more details on pinouts. GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM) # This is where you would change the GPIO from pin 16 to 25, if you needed # to do so on the # Juice Box Zero board itself. Default is GPIO 16. In order to change the # hardware, you would # need to cut the GPIO 16 trace on the board and make a solder bridge over # GPIO 25. # See http://www.blog.juiceboxzero.com/ for more details. shutdown_pin = 16 # defines pin 16 as the pin we're watching GPIO.setup(shutdown_pin, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down = GPIO.PUD_DOWN) def shutdown_callback_function( shutdown_pin ): # uncomment the following line to have the Pi tell you that the pin is # HIGH and that the callback function has been entered. This is mostly # useful for debugging. #print("the low battery pin is HIGH now, shutting down.") os.system("sudo shutdown -h now") # This is the magic line that adds pin 16 so it is always being watched. GPIO.add_event_detect(shutdown_pin, GPIO.RISING, callback=shutdown_callback_function, bouncetime=250) # Now we wait for something amazing to happen. (i.e. wait for the GPIO) while True: # Do nothing pass
- Make sure there are no errors from copying the code and then type:
Ctrl + x
- Follow the prompts that appear to save the file.
- Install a crontab job
- (see here for more details about cron) – https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/linux/usage/cron.md
- Crontab is a utility that will let you schedule things, like starting programs or running background processes like backing up files.
- Your Raspberry Pi will now automatically perform a safe shutdown when the battery attached to your JuiceBox Zero 3.2V.