About
I started out with the simple goal of wanting to automate a few things around the home starting with my vertical garden using a Raspberry Pi.
With that goal in mind I decided to make a 16 bay relay board so I could control as many devices as possible from a single point. It was then I found how much space this would take up, and how long it would take to wire up and it became impractical.
So the next logical step was to look into making my own PCB. I noticed that virtually all the devices I wanted to control ran on 12V, I also noticed how many spare ATX power supplies I had lying around and the gears in my head started turning.
Why not combine an ATX power supply and a Raspberry Pi?
So the Pi Power Board was born !!
It has 12V DC jacks on one side, an “off the shelf” 16 Channel relay in the middle, and an ATX power supply up the front powering the lot.
As time went on I developed more and more features and decided the best place for all this to live would be in a standard PC case, so I made it mountable.
I have spent the past few months growing the idea and features and now have a full circuit diagram and board layout fully designed by a professional PCB creator.
The challenge now is that I need to pay for the PCB services, such as time for PCB designer and my first prototype and board batch run.
I am now looking for anyone who would like to share in this by assisting with funding and would welcome any feedback, especially from people with more experience than me.
So how far am I along?
The circuit diagram and PCB board are complete. Shortly I will be ordering my first prototype and will begin testing. I am almost there but need little help getting it to completion. The cost of the prototype and first few boards are going to stretch my finances too far, but with your help we will get this into our homes soon.
For a technical review please watch this, or skip over and read all about the features
Read more: Raspberry Pi ATX Power Board
