Raspberry Portable: Turning a Raspberry Pi into a full-fledged portable PC

The Raspberry Pi is a $35 computer board that’s about the size of a pack of cards. It’s not the fastest PC around, and it doesn’t even come with a case — but you can build some pretty nifty projects from the little computer — including a portable, battery-powered PC with a tiny keyboard and display.

SK Pang Electronics took a few off-the-shelf components, attached them to a custom, laser-cut base, and ended up with a portable Linux PC that you can carry like a briefcase.

Components include a standard battery that you would normally use to charge a phone or other device over a USB connection, a small TF monitor like one you’d pair with a rear view camera for an automobile, and a wireless mini-keyboard with a built-in touchpad, which you can pick up from Amazon for about $27.

The trickiest part seems to involve hacking the monitor to work with the power supplied from the battery pack and splitting the charging cable so that it runs to both the display and the Raspberry Pi computer.

via Geek.com

Posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013, 6:00 pm by Brad Linder | 9 Comments

BMW2015

Why? At least $200 worth of kit for a complete mess.

Why not buy a Nexus 7 or a Chinese 10″ dual core tablet with 50 times the power, portability and battery life.
drjayphd

As is usually the case with these sorts of projects, the answer is “because you can”. Kinda like the guy who made the 3D-printed palmtop based around a Raspberry Pi. It’s more expensive than existing ones, but it’s cool.
strider_mt2k

You have missed the point entirely.
It’s a DIY project, a hack, not a product.

LOL

Anyhoo…

Looks like an interesting collection of hardware.
Not your typical droid lapdock either, so points for originality!
boo

For upgradability and education, maybe?
BMW2015

I would have zero problems with this if it actually adds technically to development, innovation, usability, progress or any other function.

It does not, in fact it is similar to powering a laptop by connecting it to a steam engine.

I admire the guy for trying, but there are so many other avenues for his skills that would benefit himself, his family, his country and indeed humanity!
strider_mt2k

You must be a hoot at parties…

A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.
Try it some time.
Arrdee

Yeah, its a hoot.
Not a big “Pi” fan i guess. I think the growing number of cheap Android platforms make far better embedded systems and learning tools, but choice is always a good thing.
Nitin

nice effort but honestly, it looks lame and doesnt seem practical unless you have all these parts lying around unused and an itch to do something with them
PortableSounds

For all those bashing this, it’s actually quite useful, especially if you already have a few things around the house anyways. Plus, if you didn’t mount it on that plastic and just had it like a little laptop, that makes sense. It would fit better in a case than a nexus, and plus it’s made especially for linux. Definitely a great educational tool and honestly just a cool looking little project. It’s like a tiny laptop!

Raspberry Portable: Turning a Raspberry Pi into a full-fledged portable PC

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