Raspberry Pi lapdock tricks

RE: Raspberry Pi lapdock tricks

Former Member — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 18:09:42 GMT

I am running a Pi 2 on my lapdock 500. I've found two pre-built cables that no longer require the stack of adapters to make everything work...

AFUNTA High Quality USB 2.0 Micro 5 Pin Female to Standard USB Male Extension Cable for Data Transfer -5 inch -- available from Amazon and elsewhere, and

CY 20cm Type D Micro HDMI Socket Female to HDMI Male Adapter Cable for Tablet & Cell Phone -- also available at Amazon and elsewhere.

This reduces attaching a Pi to a lapdock (either a 100 or a 500) to nothing more than plugging it in, assuming you're not trying to keep the Pi running when the lapdock is closed, which I don't care about.

The only sad thing is that the supply of lapdocks appears to be drying up and prices are increasing.

RE: Raspberry Pi lapdock tricks

Former Member — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 10:55:42 GMT

is Pi 2 capable of using the dock?

RE: Raspberry Pi lapdock tricks

Former Member — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 00:44:48 GMT

Surgery free supercap mod for pi/lapdock

I wired two 2.5 volt 1.0F supercaps in serial, cut the end off a usb plug and soldered the cap to the appropriate red & black wires on the usb plug. Some hot glue and heat shrink to make the package somewhat secure and with this charged and plugged into the usb port there's enough power to avoid the black out when closing the lid of the lapdock.

I didn't think it worked at first but I left it plugged in to a usb port overnight and now it seems to work fine. It appears to re-charge fairly quickly now, I don't know why it took all night at first. I'm planning on just leaving it plugged into the pi.

RE: Raspberry Pi lapdock tricks

johnbeetem — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 13:45:04 GMT

By default, RasPi is configured for a Great Britain ("gb") keyboard. I first used my RasPi with a Logitech K120 keyboard with a USA layout, using the Debian "Squeeze" distribution. I had to switch the "gb" layout to "us" using the instructions at the RasPi TroubleshootingWiki

When I hooked up my Lapdock, the "us" layout was correct and I didn't have to change anything. I don't know if all Lapdocks have the keyboard configuration, so you may need to play around with the setting.

RE: Raspberry Pi lapdock tricks

Former Member — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 03:07:10 GMT

Please forgive such basic questions, I have my Raspi hooked up and it does look great, just two things, which keyboard do I choose? Tons of options I tried a few and the @ and " we reveresed. I also would like to know how do I set it up so the when i start it up it goes out and gets the correct time?

thanks everyone

RE: Raspberry Pi lapdock tricks

fustini — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 01:20:10 GMT

Detailed photos of how the super cap is connected. Jay Hopkins from my hackerspace, Pumping Station: One, has the negative lead of the super cap going to ground on the micro USB connector shell. The positive lead is soldered to 30 guage wire which runs to a power switch. The other side of the power switch is connected to the positive side of the power input poly fuse on the bottom of the Pi.

Jay charges the super cap with the Pi on and no SD inserted. It is a 1.5 F super cap. More photos at: https://picasaweb.google.com/117542001281850354871/NERPMeeting8#

[View:/resized-image/__size/640x480/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-d55f37bb-ea90-4e81-9436-cfc7bae25a25/contentimage_5F00_175047.jpg:640:480]

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RE: Raspberry Pi lapdock tricks

Former Member — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 02:35:56 GMT

Opps. In my haste I didn't give it a chance to boot completely. Tonight I had OpenELEC running from Berryboot, and was streaming video from the internet via a network cable. So the Pi was working with the lapdock closed. This would have been great if the Pi didn't reboot when you open the lapdock. This all worked with my previous configuration, using the dual mirco usb cable.

So I think With your configuration and the "fresher" Pi (I am jealous)[View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-d55f37bb-ea90-4e81-9436-cfc7bae25a25/contentimage_5F00_938.png:16:16] you could hook up your small LCD and use your mini keyboard powered via the lapdock.

RE: Raspberry Pi lapdock tricks

Former Member — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 06:53:43 GMT

Wow! That capacitor mod looks to be quite useful. I have a usb battery pack, and will use that for now.

As a side note on this. I had my Pi connected to the lapdock, and also composite out to my tv. When I closed the lapdock the Pi was still powered, and displaying info on the tv. It looked like it was trying to reboot, but only went so far and stopped. I'll have to look at that again when I have more time.