Ribbon cable between RPi and Heatermeter? My first attempt didn't go well.


 

Nolan P

New member
I'm looking into a way to patch a cable between the heatermeter and the RPi. My first attempt didn't go well. I used some breakaway headers and a 26 pin ribbon cable, plugged it in as what I thought was the correct orientation, but only the backlit screen turned on. I panicked and pulled the two pieces apart because I thought I had it backwards. In my infinite wisdom, I flipped the cable around and tried it again.

My RPi got some voltage on a pin that wasn't supposed to have voltage, and I fried it. I have a new one on the way, and i'm hoping to not fry this one. Is there any reason why a cable wouldn't work if the pins all lined up correctly? I'm thinking my ribbon cable may have a short in it, and that's why the first orientation didn't work properly.

Thanks!
 
Not all ribbon cables are the same. An IDE cable is different than a floppy cable. With an IDE cable for example, one row of pins are all ground, while the second row are data. So if you hook it up wrong, you just short all the pins together.

check the cable with a multi-meter to understand how they are hooked up.

dave
 
Not all ribbon cables are the same. An IDE cable is different than a floppy cable. With an IDE cable for example, one row of pins are all ground, while the second row are data. So if you hook it up wrong, you just short all the pins together.

check the cable with a multi-meter to understand how they are hooked up.

dave

I did the same but did not short out the rPi. If you mount the header to the button side of the heater meter board the pins will line up using standard ide cable not floppy cable. The pin header normaly goes on the otherside so you can plug straight down into rpi board.
 
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So I found some good news resulting from my experiments -- my HeaterMeter is fine. I soldered on the stand-alone regulator, and it fired up without a problem.

I also figured out why the cable didn't work in the "good" orientation. I took the advice to use a multimeter, and I discovered that the top and bottom row of pins are flipped/reversed. I only lined up the first pin, and didn't check to ensure the other pins matched up (lesson learned, i'm a newbie). So i'm searching for a new cable now. If anyone has done this before and has a cable that provides the correct pin orientation, I would very much appreciate it you could post where I could get one.

Thanks!!!
 

 

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