Large Pi-based Thermometer and Clock

Build a large LED Thermometer / Clock using a Raspberry Pi

by Simon Monk

published April 03, 2013, last edited January 21, 2025

posted in Sensors/ Temperature & Humidity Raspberry Pi/ Pi A+, B+, 2, 3 LCDs & Displays/ Character Displays

Intermediate

Project guide

Hardware

This guide works with all versions of Raspberry Pi except the compute modules which do not have a header. Older Raspberry Pi revisions 1 and 2 will require a 26-pin Cobbler and newer versions make use of the Cobbler Plus 40-pin GPIO connector. We provide wiring diagrams for both 40-pin and 26-pin below.

The RTC will allow a Raspberry Pi to know the time, even when not connected to the Internet. As such it is not essential to this project if your Raspberry Pi is going to have an Internet connection.

The diagrams show GND connections in blue, +5V in red and +3.3V in purple.

The I2C bus connections use orange wire for SDA and yellow for SCA.

40-Pin (A, B, B+ and Zero) Cobbler Plus Schematic

temperature___humidity_Large_Pi_Based_Thermometer_Clock_bb.png

26-Pin (Raspberry Pi Rev 1 and Rev 2) Cobbler Schematic

You may also like to look at separate tutorials for the RTC http://learn.adafruit.com/adding-a-real-time-clock-to-raspberry-pi and temperature sensor http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruits-raspberry-pi-lesson-11-ds18b20-temperature-sensing

When everything is assembled, you can connect the ribbon cable to the GPIO connector. Remember to have the red or white band of the ribbon cable towards the SD card on the Raspberry Pi.

Page last edited March 08, 2024