Stacking Boards Difficulties

[GMW1988]

Something is not working with my stacking of the boards- there is a gap with the battery board and the main board with the standoffs. I am not sure if it is poor solder work that is presenting difficulties or if I am not using the correct hardware. The standoff that I used said 23mm. Some of my boards looked crooked a little and I understand this may due to poor soldering. The battery board looks like the solders work on the pins was done well so it should be fine for connecting the other board to it. I included photos of my stacking. Any ideas what may solve this trouble?

[alanbjohnston]

Hi,

All the stacking GPIO headers in the CubeSatSim are the same size. There are four of them in total: one on the Battery board, one on Main board, one between the Battery board and the Main board, and one between the Main board and the Solar board.

This photo of yours shows three of them:

The bottom two are the correct part (Adafruit 2223, although Adafruit has been out of stock for a while now. You can get them here right now: https://www.pishop.us/product/gpio-stacking-header-for-pi-extra-long-2-20-pins/) but the top one is not the right size. The correct one is in the green box, the too tall one is in the red box.

You can see that the black plastic part of the header is taller, and that extra height is why there is a gap on the standoffs.

The good news is that it doesn't really matter. There is enough room inside the 1U frame. You will just need a few extra standoffs to put in series with the 23mm standoff so the next level of standoffs can connect.

Check your fourth stacking GPIO header to see if it is the right one or the too tall one, or you will also need to add extra standoffs. You could buy a M2.5 standoff kit such as this one https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BP6LT76V so you can make them whatever height you need.

Good luck!
Alan