The new power unit arrived, but now I have another problem. First, I need to be able to SSH into my Pi, but SSH is not enabled by default. I think that's a mistake, but you know, who am I? My big problem is I do not have an HDMI to micro-HDMI cable, so no monitor, hence the need to telnet into the device via SSH. The solution is to edit the SD card with the Pi's operating system on it, and create a file called 'ssh' in the root of the boot partition, which is enough to enable SSh when the Pi boots up. That's when my next great adventure began.

Things are never easy, are they? My Windoze computer doesn't have an SD card reader, but my Linux one does. Unfortunately, the card came with NOOBS already installed (I thought that was a good idea at the time) and permissions won't let me do what I want. Solution: format the SD card and install the latest version of Raspbian. Having formatted the drive, I should have permission (I hope) to create the ssh file. Time to download and install Etcher.

Having flashed the SD card, I was able to acess the boot partition and create the SSH file. I plugged an ethernet cable into the Pi and booted, and to my delight, it worked. My router gave the Pi's network address, so I used PuTTy to telnet in and configure the Pi with a new password (because I'm paranoid like that), update the software packages and enlarge the disk space to use all the card. I also installed and ran VNC server.

Loading the desktop up remotely, I was bemused to find the Pi wanted to go through some configuration hoops, including changing the password. Ho hum. I reset it to what I'd changed it to, and it was happy with that. Next, it was time to play with the touchscreen.

On the website manual for the touch screen, it explains how to configure the cables (which pins connect to which pins), but also states that the screen powers the Pi, not the other way around. Hmm. On the online manual for teh case, there is no mention at all of connecting the GPIO pins to the screen, but they provide a split cable that powers both the screen and the Pi.

I tried it both ways, first by powering up the screen with the cable connected. Yup, it fired up the Pi too. Nice. Then I tried it without the cables and found that the split power cable had to be attached to both units. Ah, so, glasshopper. Things start swimming into focus. It is time to move on to the next stage: putting the Pi and the screen back into the case.

One thing I had noticed from the earlier time I put all this together, is the split power cable doesn't play nice, and wants to come out of the screen. At least now I have another option, if the jumper cables are long enough…

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