|
Awhile back, I posted about a cheap composite LCD I bought for the Pi, and last month I picked up a 5000mAh USB battery pack from a daily deal site. An alternative is the 3,300mAh Digipower battery pack that Adafruit sells and is stocked by Newark element14. I wanted to show off the Pi at a lunch with some colleagues last week, so I decided to throw them all together along with an Adafruit Pi Box to make a portable Pi:
My USB battery pack has two USB ports. The 2.1A port was connected to the Pi's micro USB port while the 1A port was connected to the LCD. The manual for the LCD stated that it required 6V-20V for DC inupt, but thankfully it works ok at 5V. Since the DC input was barrel jack, I used Adafruit's Male DC Power adapter - 2.1mm plug to screw terminal block and chopped one end off an old USB cable:
Another helpful part from Adafruit is their RCA male-male coupler which removes the need for a seperate RCA cable:
To complete the compact setup, I added a wireless mini keyboard from Amazon:
I should note that I have noticed some inconsistent behavior with the touchpad where sometimes the mouse pointer will get "stuck" at the bottom of the screen. However, another person at my hackerspace who ordered his unit from that same Amazon link reported no problems with his. Thankfully though, the keys on the keyboard have been rock solid for me.
The setup is actually useful for using the command line in LXDE with the font size increased in LXTerminal. It's also a nifty way to play Quake!
I ran the hello_triangle OpenGL ES demo program (from /opt/vc/src/hello_pi) continuously with the battery fully charged, and the battery died somewhere between 4 and 5 hours. I'm planning to do a more exact test in the future to gauge exactly when power runs out.
Cheers,
Drew
| Product Name* | Description | Supplier | ||
| Raspberry Pi Model B | Raspberry Pi model B | Raspberry Pi |
| |
| Rechargeable USB Battery Pack | 3300 mAh Li-Ion battery pack with USB outputs and included cables | Adafruit |
| |
| Pre-programmed 4GB SD card | 4GB Class 4 SD card preloaded with Debian 6 Linux | Samsung |
| |
| Adafruit Pi Box | Clear acrylic enclosure for Raspberry Pi | Adafruit |
| |
| 3.5 Inch TFT LCD Monitor | 3.5 inch TFT LCD monitor, 6-20v and composite video input. | Imported | ||
| Mini Wireless USB Keyboard and Trackpad | Wireless Mini Keyboard with Trackpad and USB Reciever | Adafruit |
| |
| 2.1mm Plug to Screw Terminal Block | Male 2.1mm plug to screw terminal block adapter | Adafruit |
| |
| USB A to micro B cable | 1 meter USB A male to micro USB B male cable | Pro Signal |
| |
| Male to Male RCA Coupler | Compact male to male RCA coupler | Distributed By MCM |
|
*Products and resources listed are listed to help members build their own Pi Projects. They are suggestions and listed for educational purposes. For substitutions of any parts, please post a question asking the original author.
