Re: General discussion chat Being a PC guy I can relate to this... I've known people who wouldn't understand how to move a window.
Re: General discussion chat I know... Some people just need a high five. To the face. With a chair. Twice. From the Hulk.
Re: General discussion chat Back in the UK now. Our car has a usb output that charges devices but its only works at something pathetic like 200ma. But i did use that while we were in the car just to help out a bit. But my dad doesn't let me use any of that if the engine isn't on because "my phone will drain the battery", while i would have to disagree that a 1650mah battery could drain the cars battery, especially after a 12 hour 40 min trip to get there meaning it should be pretty decently charged. But oh well, back now. Strange you say about those tesco chargers actually. We have had two of them and neither have worked, im not entirely sure what causes that as well, but all they do is get incredibly hot and dont even charge my phone in the process. I know the 12v output on the car works since it charged the gameboy advance sp just fine. Must be my phone since i tried multiple cables. As for battery power, i can really recommend this http://www.amazon.co.uk/EasyAcc®-12000mAh-Portable-Capacity-Smartphone-Black/dp/B008YRG5JQ Its the battery that i am using and it is flawless at providing the power it says it will and at £25 it provides way more value for money than the tesco one you mentioned. The only cons are that it is a reasonably large unit (not massive since it fits in most pockets, its about phone sized but thicker) and that the case is a black shiny cheap plastic that is quite soft meaning it will scratch every time the wind blows. But i decided when i got it to give no cares about how scratched it is since it is a purely functional device and i don't need to look at it. But now i am back in the UK i am back to enjoying cereal with proper milk, none of that UHT stuff that is so popular in the area of France we went to. My final conclusion: [the area of] France [ that we went to] is like wales but with more flowers On the topic of raspberry pi battery, i will test this one to see if it works with my rasp pi model B. It should provide 5v output and it shuts of if more than 3.5A is drawn from the battery so it should be totally fine, but you never know. Just need to put a little power into the thing first.
Re: General discussion chat Sold my old ford pickup and got a 1.5l 2005 vw polo. My parents wont let me anywhere near it with a screw driver never mind mod (camber carbon hood etc.) Nice car though.
Re: General discussion chat This charger is a single cell LiPo which would normally give between 3.0 and 4.2v output which isn't enough for a pi so like most of these portable chargers it has a boost converter to 5v on the output. It does work for powering the pi absolutely fine on its own. But I have a robot I am building with the pi which currently has a 3300mAh 6 cell NiMH as its only battery, the battery voltage goes directly to the motor drivers allowing unrestricted power (perfectly fine, the motor driver can take higher voltages than that) and then I have a 4.8V UBEC supposedly for running RC airplane electrical systems from 2S LiPo (I personally think a 6v UBEC is a better choice for those guys, most receivers are 6v rated and then hobby grade servos are designed for 6v, heck, most ESC's will have a 6v UBEC built in and then the gas/nitro users can just get a 5 cell NiMH in the first place) to run the pi from. The pi is very happy to run from 4.8v, it only actually uses its 5v input to run the USB ports and the 3.3v regulator, the 3.3v regulator has a 1v dropout so theoretically should run down to 4.3v (I've only had success as low as 4.5 though), the onboard USB hubs integrated ethernet controller actually functions as low as 3v too and the USB wireless adaptor I am using seems entirely happy at 4.8, so no biggy there. My only problem is that once the motors are done churning through the battery then the pi shuts down too and I am not a fan of multiple batteries. I was hoping I'd be able to connect the 4.8V ubec to the portable charger to charge that battery and then its output to the pi with the vain hope that when the main battery is charged then that main UBEC voltage would be piped straight through to the other side and run the pi, when the main battery cuts out I'd then be running the pi from the portable battery. The portable battery is quite happy to charge from 4.8v too, but when it has a charger connected the boost regulator shuts down and the battery output is then the raw battery voltage which the pi won't run from so unfortunately that plan didnt work. I'd prefer not to have 2 seperate batteries. What I might do instead is simply monitor the main battery voltage and prevent motor usage when it gets too low so the pi can remain on afterwards or go through a controlled shutdown rather than simply turning off, oh, and get a battery bigger than 3300mAh Or perform the mod to run the pi from external regulated 3.3v power or add an external 5v boost controller. - - - Updated - - - Actually, I wonder how long a pi would run from a supercap or 4
Re: General discussion chat That sounds cool, i must admit i didn't understand everything that was said there since my electronics knowledge is only GCSE spec (school doesn't offer A-level elec)+ Anything i have needed to learn for use of my RC buggy. As far as robots go Lego mindstorms is as good as i ever got. So yeah, probably cant help you much other than saying if you need a larger battery those ones work and are cheap . But here goes... When i have needed to power a picaxe chip (5v) i have just used a 9v battery connected to a 7805 voltage regulator with a couple of capacitors to smooth out the power and called it a day. 9V (pp3) batteries aren't that huge so i guess you could use one as a backup battery with a 7805 thrown into the circuit. They are also easily available and rechargeable options exist and are flat so you can easily attach one with Velcro . It wont supply power for long before it is empty though since they usually only have a bout 500mah worth of capacity but that's well more than enough to keep a pi going for long enough to do a controlled shut down. Alternatively you can create a circuit that will alert you when the battery is running low but you would need that to have direct access to the battery so unless you pull that battery apart its a no go. Then you use it to detect when the voltage gets too low and it should send an output high to the gpio on the pi. You can then use this to tell the pi to do a controlled shutdown (i think your program will need super user for that, but its not as if that's much of an issue).
Re: General discussion chat 9v batteries can't supply the 0.5A a pi needs to run, they are generally terrible for everything. Looks like I might have to add an MSP430 as a slave device anyway so I might just use its ADC to monitor the main battery voltage.
Re: General discussion chat lol, found this on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-UN85S9-85-Inch-Ultra-120Hz/dp/B00CMEN95U/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top dem reviews and dat price, you could buy car with a bunch of options for that money
Re: General discussion chat Are you guys talking about portable batteries? Well, nothing can beat my portable battery: http://www.amazon.com/Intocircuit®-...1407353678&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=pcastle+2600 26,000 mAh. I use it for charging my laptop on the go since our 12v to AC thing for a car melted itself to death a bit.
Re: General discussion chat Well, I was going to 1 up you by attaching a 5v UBEC to the 40Ah battery in my car, do not buy the hobbyking UBEC X3 pro, it kinda worked on a 7.2v NiMH, its officially rated for 23V, it blew up when I attached it to the car battery (did confirm polarity and voltage at 13.8v). When it kinda worked, last time I checked, 5.7v was not 5v output.
Re: General discussion chat I do have 2 alternate regulators I could use but both are in use elsewhere. 1 of the 2 has both adjustable voltage and current limits which is pretty neat, use it for driving high power LEDs
