Ok... made some progress and want to share my insights.

If you want to use different than the default pins to connect the powerblock to the rpi you should NOT use the range of GPIO1 to GPIO8 for the status pin. These are per default driven HIGH. The others (including the defaults used by power block) are driven LOW. I tried to change that behaviour using the gpio=... and gpio_poweroff=... commands in config.txt without full success. After switching now to GPIO9 and GPIO25 the power block works (I disables SPI just to be sure because GPIO25 belongs to SPI per default).

@Boum-01 Thanks! I will use this to further improve the driver.

@StuMcBill Hi, I will update the driver! See also https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/299255.
Sorry for this awful delay.

I have just updated the driver. It comes with better checks for GPIO tools now and should restore compatibility to previous RPi models.

@gerb45 I did a little bit of testing with Raspberry Pi OS on a Pi Zero 2w and a PowerBlock. This should work for a RPi4. You can add the following to config.txt to emulate the driver. (This way you don't have to worry about startup scripts.)

dtoverlay=gpio-poweroff,gpiopin=17,active_low=1,inactive_delay_ms=0 dtoverlay=gpio-shutdown,gpio_pin=18,active_low=0,gpio_pull=down

It seems to work identical, except that it indicates boot finished before boot actually finished. (Can anyone confirm this please?)

Got it working without the GPIO expander,

I used GPIO19 for the status pin, which really needs a 'regular' GPIO, not an I2C pin.

Then I used a gpio= statement in config.txt to set GPIO3 (which is an I2C pin) to low on bootup. GPIO3's then used as the shutdown pin for the PowerBlock.

This arrangement works fine.

@petrockblog -- perhaps the documentation could be updated to make clear that GPIOs with hardwired pullup resistors (such as the I2C pins) cannot be used as the status pin?

Thanks,
Chris

I know this is a pretty old post, but I am at least now, so that it can be of any help in the future:

The buttons should work with the PowerBlock! Also the PowerBlock already comes with a resistor on the LED signal line so that you should be able to directly connect the LED pins with the corresponding LED pins of the button.

@sstallion Hi! Yes, the PowerBlock does some software debouncing. Please contact me at contact (at) petrockblock.com and I can send you a firmer with the momentary button support disabled. I have this, in fact, already prepared.

@bpugh Ah, yes. I misread your previous post and had the 5V IN pins in mind. I bet higher gauge wires from 5V OUT to the Raspberry 5V IN and GND will do the trick.

Thanks for your help @ByteThis . I tried for about 3 hours yesterday and simply couldn't get it to work. I have decided to abandon the Powerblock and build my own from scratch. thanks agin for you help. regards Cliff

@petrockblog Hello! Thank you for the fast answer. Unfortunately I've already tested those scenarios and the hat is not working. I don't have an order number because I bought the board from another seller. I just wanted to know if I'm doing something wrong or not. I'll contact them about this.

Thank you again!

@polly Glad to hear that!

@petrockblog thanks.

The powerblock arrived quicker than expected, and removing the mausberry script is easy enough.

so that's what I did.

I know that by default they use different pins, but that can be changed in the configuration settings or simply connect to the same pins.

The mausberry pins are labeled IN and OUT and the powerblock pins are labeled S1 and S2

so it is just a matter of testing if IN means S1 and if OUT means S2 - or the other way around.

that'll be a test for another day. For now it is working with the default powerblock installed bash.

On a side note, it would be nice if the 2x6 female header was offered optionally as unsoldered for those of us that don't use it and want the board to sit low and flat in the case.

I am sorry, must have overlooked your question.
Do you still have this issue? I could take a look into it then.

@douga Glad to hear that things are working for you now!

@petrockblog, I took a chance, from reading from other posts, to no connect the PowerBlock directly to the RPI but instead run wires to the respective pins. Thanks for the advice as it works as expected with my UPS. Not sure if you've thought about this but I think it would be a good idea to sell the PowerBlock without the black 12 pin connector (as an option) and allow users to solder. I guess users could just solder it off if needed. Anyway. Thanks for you help.