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I purchased a Waveshare Motor Hat because it has the nice Pi Zero size, extra long headers, and already has headers and blocks soldered, all for less than $13. https://www.waveshare.com/motor-driver-hat.htm I didn’t realize when I bought this that it stated: Power supply: 6V~12V (VIN terminal) This seems outside of standard 5V 4AA cases and most portable LiPos. I’m just powering two DC Drive Motors (drive with 3-6VDC, 200-400 mA run, 1.5A hard stall)on this Adafruit round mini platform: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3216

I’m pretty new to electronics so apologies if I’m missing something basic. Advice on power options is appreciated.

I don’t think this is a repeat post as many of the others wanted a single pi and hat power option. I just want to figure out what works for the hat and motors and that’d fit on a small chassis. Thanks.

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    This is not a Pi question. You need a supply to match your motors.
    – Milliways
    Commented Jan 31, 2019 at 4:27

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I ended up using the 4 x AA battery holder option. Power goes in to the VIN connector, ground to the GND. Unfortunately these don't have terminal blocks (everything else does), so to create a truly no-solder option I used the very-hacky technique of wedging toothpick tips into the solder holes suggested on another forum.

If anyone's interested in using the Waveshare (I wasn't able to find a single post about this product online), I used it in creating a low-cost platform for building a Raspberry Pi Robot controlled over Wi-Fi via an iOS App, I've put together a parts list & step-by-step tutorial (videos and web guides) at: https://gallaugher.com/lets-build-a-robot/

I'm still very new at this, but as part of materials put together for my new-to-code-and-robotics undergrads, there are options for full size & Pi zero form factors, and Adafruit (more powerful, but requires soldering) as well as the WaveShare DC Motor Driver HAT (cheaper, no-solder option, but not as well supported, and I had to hack CircuitPython libraries to support this - all described in tutorials with callouts if you use this option).

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Something like a 6x AAA holder is probably what you'll want. I had a Makeblock robot kit for the kids with one on it driving 2 DC motors and the Arduino and it worked great. Just don't try to run the pi directly from it, if you want a single power source you will have to add a DC to DC step down like this one from Adafruit

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