Pi Zero WH with PiJuice Zero HAT and running Trixie

[Stevo52]

Hi, I am seeking some assistance from the knowledgeable contributors here to help me resolve an issue running the PiJuice interface on an RPi Zero with PiJuice Zero HAT. Toverbek? was very helpful all those years ago, with a number of niggly issues which I got fixed satisfactorily.

I built some of these device a few years ago(2019/2020), with Bookworm as the OS. The PIJuice Zero worked fine and could be monitored with NUT, along with other UPS supplies. These have been installed at a number of remote sites and are monitored using RealVNC.

One site suffered a suspected lightning strike so the RPi box was disconnected and returned to me as it was not connecting.

On the bench it seemed like the uSD was damaged as it wouldn't boot properly.

So, I set up a new uSD using the latest Trixie 32 bit OS (upgrading seemed like the appropriate thing to do) . But I don't seem to be able to install the PIJuice package using apt-get commands. NUT has installed OK and two other UPS are able to be monitored but not the PiJuice (no drivers?). While the old battery still seems to work, I have fitted a new battery to extend the service life (remote site remember) but the same issue occurs with both batteries.

Where/how can I get the PiJuice package? Will this be added to the Trixie rep soon or do I have to revert to an older OS - in Imager the only alternative seems to be Bookworm ?

Is the issue related to Trixie on the Pi Zero or is there some other reason that I am missing? I have setup a Pi4B on Trixie 64 bit and running the PiJuice app quite OK (except no taskbar app/or menu items. In NUT the PiJuice is detected though and the driver installs and does the required monitoring OK.

Trixie has some difference from Bookworm, namely the use of Wayland rather than X11 but as it all works on the Pi4B I don't understand why PiJuice fails on the Pi Zero?

I have a new Pi Zero 2WH on order in case it is that (and also to test builds for future service replacements for similar situations/faults.

PiSupply/PiJuice seems to have gone under during the Covid scramble, so I am also researching suitable UPS modules to suit the Pi Zero W and Pi Zero 2 W. But it all takes time....

[Stevo52]

tvoverbeek is the guy I remember..

[tvoverbeek]

Using the legacy option in the imager installs bookworm. The PiJuice packages are included in bookworm, but not in trixie.
For trixie you can only use the command linw utility pijuice_cli from the pijuice-base package.
pijuice_gui uses Tkinter which in turn requires X, so not recommended for current desktop systems using wayland instead of X. Tkinter is not in trixie.

You can use the following work-around for trixie:

• First install the urwid package: `sudo apt install python3-urwid``
• Download rhe pijuice-base1.8 package from github: https://github.com/PiSupply/PiJuice/blob/master/Software/Install/pijuice-base_1.8_all.deb
• install it: sudo dpkg -i pijuice-base_1.8_all.deb
  You will get a few warnings (also when running pijuice_cli) but these can be ignored (for now ...)

When I have some time I will try to get at least the pijuice-base package included in trixie.

[Stevo52]

Hi there tvoverbeek, good to see you are still here. Hope you are well?

Thanks for your help with this, the combination of changes with Pi Zero/Zero 2, moving from Bookworm to Trixie and withdrawal of the PiJuice product line has left a few holes in my dearly production items! So, time to refresh and update the design and code so I can upgrade the items already out in the field (which have performed trouble free for 4 years and more) and continue the ongoing monitoring and support..

I have just this morning created some Bookworm SD's and will be trying to reload software and my app to those later - on both the Pi Zero W and the Pi Zero 2 W hardware. With the 2 being 64 bit capable, I will try that version as well as 32 bit. So before I get too advanced into a wholesale change/upgrade process, I will try what you have suggested to see if that will work to my needs, I don't need the GUI version of PiJuice as I have gone with NUT to carry out the monitoring functions..

[Stevo52]

Hi again tvoverbeek,

I have been busy trying all sorts of combinations and options with little success.

I went back through all my development notes and various SD Images from RPi Zero W or RPi 4B Bullseye and Bookworm. The Pi's had PiJuice Zero and PiJuice HAT fitted respectively. I noted that my final design included code that utilised the PiJuice RTC feature as well as the power management so that adds to issues for a future redesign.

I have managed to cobble together an RPi4B and PiJuice HAT which works fine on Bookworm (including PiJuice GUI) and Trixie (no GUI). In both those setups the NUT software is happy, recognises the Pijuice correctly and reports full information from 'upsc pijuice_X' calls (where the X identifies the defined driver). I then carried out a manual update to Trixie (probably not the best option but I wanted to try it) - it worked as well. I then formatted a new SD-Card using Imager with Trixie and tried that but could not install pijuice satisfactorily (NUT couldn't find the driver.

I also tried the Pi Zero W and Pi Zero 2W with Bookworm and Trixie configs but couldn't get PiJuice to work.

By accident, I mixed up the cards on my workbench and put the Pi4B Trixie one into the Pi Zero 2W and that worked as far as Pi Juice was concerned, but ran awfully slow and had a few other issues - I suspect this is due to firmware/hardware differences??

My proprietary project code also worked as it was supposed to, including RTC calls so I know the PiJuice Hat and the PiJuice Zero are OK and working as they should, minus the GUI functionality which I wasn't using anyway.

So I need to figure out:
(i) How to install PiJuice onto new Trixie setups for Pi Zero 2W and Pi4B devices
(ii) If it is somehow possible to change the current RPi4B SD Card to be compatible with the Pi Zero 2W architecture but retain the pijuice functionality? (Big ask I think, need to find a way to build a custom Trixie Pi Zero 2W Image, or a standard Trixie image, but adding in the working components of the RPI4 Trixie configuration. It seems that other aspects of the Zero 2W Trixie OS are not an issue, unless there is something conflicting with PiJuice?

I need to persevere with the PiJuice hardware for now, just to be able to use the existing design as a comparison for a future replacement device.

Additionally, I am researching alternatives to the PiJuice products - but it looks it will require two devices - a UPS type device AND an RTC. Haven't been able to source a single device that combines both capabilities... it is time consuming and it might be beyond me at this age to come up with such a complete redesign ...

[Stevo52]

Finally have made some headway with this issue.

I went back to scratch, started with an RPi4B with a PiJuice Hat. and also a Pi Zero 2W with a Pi Zero.

Created a fresh Trixie installation for each Pi device. This seemed a good base point, giving similar devices to do comparisons and track issues as I went along. Fitted the SD Cards and booted them both, both Pi UPS functioned correctly for the boot up process.

I set each Pi up to run i2C, SPI, VNC. Also setup the device graphics etc so the screens were easily identified. Carried out the usual update & upgrades. Then rebooted the systems and tested that VNC worked (so I could work on both from a master PC for convenience and also for comparison purposes). On each device I modified the fstab file to setup a pair of network shared drives in each case. Everything was good so far.

My issues has been a combination of things, but mainly that NUT would not actually load the required driver for 'upsc' to load specific information from the attached Pijuice device. which had been working fine with the original design units currently in use. So that was my main aim to start with.

There were two packages involved, PiJuice of course and also NUT. So, step one was to install Pijuice on each device - ussing:

1. `sudo apt install python3-urwid``; followed by
2. 'sudo dpkg -i pijuice-base_1.8_all.deb' after downloading it.

After a reboot, both pi devices looked fine and I could find and use pijuice_cli.py in each case to retrieve data from the UPs. I also ran a small RTC test program to validate that component in each case. All goo to this point.

After a congratulatory coffee, I turned my attention to NUT which I also installed to each device. Using the shared NAS folders I copied a standard set on NUT configuration files into the '/etc/nut' folder of each Pi. Using NUT I could then evaluate whether the installs were successful. Everything seemed OK with the exception of the pijuice driver, in both Pi's.

I mentioned that I found an older version of the design and the associated card, so I booted that device and spent a long time finding where NUT kept drivers and other things. On the old device there was a 'pijuice' file in the 'usr/lib/nut' folder on this particular unit, but it was NOT present on the two new Pi's I had under test. So, I manually copied that particular file from the old Pi to the two new ones. The response from upsc pijuice commands, then changed. A small gain but still not getting the full data set. A bit of reading suggested trying the 'sudo upsdrvctl start' command, which I did. After that (without a reboot) the upsc command returned all the pijuice data on both machines. I was happy, I can work with that and it also works in the NUT graphical interface after setting that up, including Apache 2. Some of the UPS data seems to be reporting incorrectly - specifically (i) battery.temperature: -222 (actual being 28 d.7 deg C) for example - on both UPS's and (ii) the PiZero HAT reporting ups.date: 2000-01-01 (pretty sure it wasn't built then). I think I can work on those.

The setup has been powered off for periods and rebooted several times without requiring the driver start command again and the ups.time is following as it should.

So, thanks for your help - I thought you might like to hear some positive result. At the same time as I worked on this, I have also been researching alternative modules for a future redesign. Pretty much settled on DFRobot DFR0494 and DFR0528 UPS HATS and DFR0386 RTC modules at this stage. Common design, code etc being major reasons. But I am still looking :-) Shame about the PiJuice products, but at least I have got them working to a stage where I can use either type for comparison against the future design.