Qwiic SHIM for Raspberry Pi Hookup Guide

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Contributors: El Duderino, Ell C
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Introduction

The SparkFun Qwiic SHIM for Raspberry Pi is a small, easily removable breakout to add a Qwiic connector to your Raspberry Pi. The SHIM (short for Shove Hardware in the Middle) design allows you to plug directly to the Pi's I2C bus with no soldering required and the thin PCB design allows for it to be sandwiched on your Pi GPIO with other HATS. The Qwiic SHIM works great when you do not need the full capabilities of the Qwiic pHAT for Raspberry Pi or if you want to add a Qwiic connector to your Pi but do not have room for yet another HAT.

SparkFun Qwiic SHIM for Raspberry Pi

SparkFun Qwiic SHIM for Raspberry Pi

DEV-15794
$1.50
14

Required Materials

To follow along with this tutorial, you will need the following materials. You may not need everything though depending on what you have. Add it to your cart, read through the guide, and adjust the cart as necessary.

Single Board Computer

You will need Raspberry Pi with 2x20 male headers installed.

Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (4 GB)

Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (4 GB)

DEV-15447
$55.00
21
Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (2 GB)

Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (2 GB)

DEV-15446
$45.00
4
Raspberry Pi 3 B+

Raspberry Pi 3 B+

DEV-14643
$35.00
40

A Pi Zero W will also work but you will need to make sure to solder some male headers to it.

Raspberry Pi GPIO Male Header - 2x20

Raspberry Pi GPIO Male Header - 2x20

PRT-14275
$1.05
Raspberry Pi Zero W

Raspberry Pi Zero W

DEV-14277
$15.00
48

Or you could connect it to any single board computer (like the NVIDIA Jetson Nano) that utilizes the 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO header footprint.

NVIDIA Jetson Nano Developer Kit

DEV-15297
13 Retired
Google Coral Development Board

Google Coral Development Board

DEV-15318
2 Retired

Qwiic Board

Now you probably wouldn't buy the Qwiic SHIM if you didn't have any Qwiic products to use with it, right? If you don't have any Qwiic products, the following might not be a bad place to start.

SparkFun Atmospheric Sensor Breakout - BME280 (Qwiic)

SparkFun Atmospheric Sensor Breakout - BME280 (Qwiic)

SEN-15440
$16.50
2
SparkFun Proximity Sensor Breakout - 20cm, VCNL4040 (Qwiic)

SparkFun Proximity Sensor Breakout - 20cm, VCNL4040 (Qwiic)

SEN-15177
$7.50
1
SparkFun Qwiic Keypad - 12 Button

SparkFun Qwiic Keypad - 12 Button

COM-15290
$11.50
11

SparkFun Micro OLED Breakout (Qwiic)

LCD-14532
7 Retired

Finally, you'll need our handy Qwiic cables to easily connect sensors to your Qwiic SHIM. Below are a few options.

Qwiic Cable - 100mm

Qwiic Cable - 100mm

PRT-14427
$1.50
Qwiic Cable - 50mm

Qwiic Cable - 50mm

PRT-14426
$0.95

Qwiic Cable - 200mm

PRT-14428
Retired

Qwiic Cable - 500mm

PRT-14429
1 Retired

Required Setup Tools

If you are using your Pi (or other single-board computer) as a desktop, these peripherals are required:

Suggested Reading

If you aren't familiar with the Qwiic system, we recommend reading here for an overview of everything Qwiic:

Qwiic Connect System
Qwiic Connect System

We would also recommend taking a look at the following tutorials if you aren't familiar with the content covered in them.

I2C

An introduction to I2C, one of the main embedded communications protocols in use today.

Serial Terminal Basics

This tutorial will show you how to communicate with your serial devices using a variety of terminal emulator applications.

Raspberry Pi 3 Starter Kit Hookup Guide

Guide for getting going with the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B and Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ starter kit.

Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi Zero Wireless

Learn how to setup, configure and use the smallest Raspberry Pi yet, the Raspberry Pi Zero - Wireless.