iUniker USB Dongle Expansion Breakout Module Kit for Raspberry Pi Zero/W， Both Front & Back Side Can Be Inserted

*UPDATE* I have removed my original photos, which showed this dongle in use during initial setup of my PiZeroW(before I had a wireless keyboard+mouse, AND prior to me setting up VNC and SSH) and added photos in its current use case. Its plugged into my ASUS RT-AC1900P running PiHole(will also likely be running HomeBridge in the near future). As you can see, while plugged into the USB 2.0 Port in my ASUS 1900P, its certainly drawing enough power to run(I mention this because I have heard some routers limit USB power to 500 mA). Another FANTASTIC feature of this breakout dongle, is that its reversible, so you can plug the USB into the port EITHER WAY. That helped me in my use case, because I also have a USB 3.1 Flash Drive in the ASUS 1900P’s USB 3.0 port for personal cloud storage. The PiZeroW can fit even with the Heatsink facing the Flash Drive, however, theyre basically touching with almost no space between them, and that also causes more concentration of heat, with the Dongle Breakout USB kit turned the other way, the heat dissipation is far better. This ASUS router(and most ASUS routers for that case) are KNOWN to run WARM, and even with that, the PiZeroW runs below 40 degrees Celsius at all times unless under very heavy load like running Rasbian updates. Utilizing the USB port on the router also minimizes the distance WiFi has to travel since everything on the network is filtered through PiHole(while this didnt make a huge difference from its previous location, elsewhere in the same room as the router, it did make a small improvement and adds piece of mind that its in a safe place that wont be touched or powered off). This USB Dongle Expansion Breakout kit for the Raspberry Pi Zero W is absolutely fantastic! Although there are near no instructions to speak of, if youre the type of person who owns Raspberry Pi’s, you shouldnt have any problem figuring out how to assemble this kit. It looks great, was easy to assemble(even without any real instructions) and makes powering the PiZero 1000x easier. While there were no assembly directions to speak of, the ‘instructions’ that it does come with, give you 2 very important things to do in order to set it up to pull power from the USB-A rather then its MicroUSB port, as well as setting up SSH incase you havent already done that, so that is extremely inportant. Simply Plug it into any normal USB-A 5V/2.4A charger and youre good to go. Almost everyone will have a charger that meets these specs, basically if you have a phone or tablet charger that is more then 1amp, it will likely be 5V@2.4A. Not only does this make the PiZeroW easier to power up, it allows you to simply plug it into almost any USB charger and forget about it. If you need to do anything, SSH in, or set up VNC server...so no cables are needed the device will just sit on its own anywhere(currently mine is plugged into my router, but originally I had it plugged into a 12W iPad charger in the same room as my router). This kit is also great, because rather then wasting money on a ‘Basic Starter Kit’, ‘Complete Starter Kit’ or anything of the like for the PiZeroW, just buy the standalone board, a MicroSD card, and this kit, all in all it will run you around $20-$25 and you have everything needed to get going, and save yourself the unneeded case, power supply, cables and dongles. Some may choose not to attach the heatsink to their PiZeroW when using this kit, but I find that this chipset does get quite hot/warm being that its extremely small, and not an overwhelmingly strong processor, so I did apply my heatsink to help with cooling. For people who will be constantly moving this Pi, maybe its not for you, but for someone like me who will use it to run Homebridge and/or PiHole, it will be stationary, and cooling is more important then 2-3mm height difference. I cannot recommend this kit enough, I know for me, every single PiZeroW i buy moving forward will be a stand alone board and MicroSD card accompanied by this kit, no question. This design beats having a case and wires running everywhere hands down...in my opinion theres no point in having such a small form factor ‘computer’ when it has bulky peripherals and wires running all over from it. JUST BUY IT, YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!!!

This is a great addition to a raspberry. Pi 0 adds much more functionality, easy to use highly recommended. Lots of fun.

This case works perfectly. I did not have to modify it in anyway. Just opened up the package and screwed it together as pictured above and it worked immediately. Very convenient to have this to plug into the glovebox of my car rather than a whole case with a dongle USB cable. It's durable and well made and came with everything you need (except the RPi) to get going. For the people who wrote bad reviews, you must not be assembling it correctly. The mental contacts on the bottom have to line up with the contacts on the board. If you install it the wrong way, it won't make contact with the board and won't work. You can buy this with confidence and know that it works great. Cons: As some others have said, the blue light does not turn off and I don't know of a way to disable it short of removing the diode. Fortunately, this will be in my glovebox and it won't matter, but if this was going to be somewhere that it would bother me, I'd look for an alternate case.

Like others have mentioned, assembly instructions are narrowed down to just a few pictures, but after about ten minutes I got it working. I originally purchased this for my Pi Zero (V1.2) but even with the contacts aligned correctly it did still did not boot when plugged into a USB power source. I compared the two boards and they looked quite similar, so maybe there is a larger issue with my Pi Zero that I need to address. Swapped it out with my Pi Zero W and it booted up straight away off the USB slot on my UPS.

This is a great dongle for Raspberry Pi Zero W. The LEDs make it look gorgeous. Many negative reviews are due to incorrect assembly. Unfortunately, the instructions how to assemble are not good. The board has four contacts that suppose to connect to test points on the Raspberry Pi Zero W. Judging by some reviews people think that those contacts have to go to the Raspberry’s header. This is a mistake. Initially I though that the contacts suppose to go to the header too. However, after taking a close look, you can see that the contacts do not fit into the header. If you just turn the board around, you can see that the contacts fit perfectly to the KT points on the other side of the board. Another thing that I was wondering is what people mean by “can be inserted either way”. What does exactly “either” mean in this particular case. It turned out that it means that they figured out how to make standard USB-A connector work as if it is USB-C, i.e. can be inserted with any orientation. I’m impressed to see this working! Very cool idea.

Wow, i purchased a cheaper usb case for my rasp pi zero, totally sucked, this thing is great and i had it assembled in like 3 minutes, 2 minutes of which was grumbling and removing the wax paper on the frame, its connected to a usb hub, and via hdmi to my 3rd monitor, voila! Excellent job, good quality !

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: "Frank Applin" <frankapplin I want to say that this is a great idea, but there is no way you tested this with lots of users of different ages with the instructions that come with the package. I am 57 years old and a programmer by trade. I have tinkered with Arduinos for over a decade and both the Beaglebone Black and Raspberry Pi since inception. So, I know my way around electronics. First, no one without some experience would ever be able to figure out how to put this thing together. I was using a magnifying glass to look at the few pictures just to see if I was heading in the right direction. There is nothing about peeling the paper off of the clear plastic pieces at all. A break a part diagram with arrows would be useful. I didn't have the luxury of the internet while putting it together nor should I have to. Last - two of the nuts wouldn't thread the bolts at all. So, a couple spare pieces would also be helpful. I ended up using small zip ties to hold it together. Such a shame to have a really good idea, but such horrible instructions. Frank P.S. It does work, though. So, I'm thankful for that.

Very well done board with very high quality, not the usual Chinese poor quality electronics. Works well and assembles easily. The only downfall is apparenly RNDIS drivers on Windows is required, if you don't have admin access to install the drivers this will not work on enterprise computers (typically RNDIS is not included on large corporate deployments) . Works great on my home Windows machines and my Mac. I wish I could turn off the light but if it really bugs me I will desolder the LED.

I thought this board would add a second USB port, but it turns out that RPi Zero only has one USB data port, this board only provides a different connector to the same usb port.