Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Battery pack

I used a Fuel 2600Ah charger for the portable battery. I bought it at a electronics store for $10. Upon use I realized that the output power was more than the input. Turns out that it was pushing 5.2V out while taking in only 5V. This means that if you plug in your pi while charging, eventually the battery will run out and shut down your pi. Thus I recommend getting a battery pack that is small (the cylinder design really worked nicely for me), and it has at least input and output.
One more thing. Get a battery pack that is not red! Instead purchase one with a less intrusive color such as blue or green, so that their is less of a chance of it being confused with a bomb.

Monday, July 3, 2017

Lazer Spanner

Meet my new friend! It reminded me of something from Doctor Who. After hunting around on Doctor Who Wikis I discovered this item. It was only alluded to by a Doctor in an episodes, but never actually seen. Thus I decided to dub it, "Lazer Spanner". After construction, however, almost everyone and anyone who has seen it says it looks like a bomb.
Here are the pros and cons of building one.
Pros:
-Automatically increases perceived IQ by at least 10pts
-Completely modular (including the OS)
-Not too expensive
-Fits in big pockets
-Great conversation starter
Cons:
-EVERYONE THINKS ITS A BOMB!
-Terrible at web surfing
-Bulky



Now that you are convinced, on to the actual build!
I used:

-Raspberry Pi 2
-Custom 3D printed case (you can see a model of it in a previous post)
-2600mAh portable battery with 5V output
-IPhone 5 keyboard case
-Wifi dongle
-Bluetooth dongle
-PiTFT adafruit touchscreen (I call it a Pit Fit)

This whole setup cost me about $90-$100.
The installation is quite self-explanatory. The touchscreen goes on the pi's GPIO pins. The dongles attach to the USB ports. The Pi and touchscreen placed inside the case, and the case on the IPhone keyboard. I placed my battery pack on the right of the Pi case and on top of the IPhone case, but you could place it underneath or on top. Finally hold the whole conglomerate together with a few pieces of Duct Tape.

Have fun, and do not go into airports or stadiums with it.

Tell me how your build went. If you know someone who would be interested in this project, send him this way.















Saturday, July 1, 2017

Progress update

Wow I did a lot! The next blog posts will be tutorial format so you can follow along, and not make all the mistakes I did.

Battery pack

I used a Fuel 2600Ah charger for the portable battery. I bought it at a electronics store for $10. Upon use I realized that the output power...