I have a couple of raspberry pi projects on the go at the moment, one is badger cam which is coming together nicely, the other is my shed computer. I have solar power out to the shed, it was charging the ride on fire engine until that stopped working, so now I have a solar panel and a 6v batter doing nothing. That should be enough to power the raspberry pi! So I bought a UBEC1 which I hope will regulate the power from the battery / solar panel to the pi:
This small and lightweight UBEC features a high efficiency switching mode BEC, providing better heat dissipation when compared to linear voltage regulation. The shielded PCB design and output EMF coil provide a stable, low noise voltage output. The HKU3 also features built-in reverse polarity protection.
I was thinking I'd have to open up a micro-usb power supply to charge the pi, but I see I can power it directly through the GPIO pins. And the UBEC comes with a connector that is the same standard, so it just plugs straight in, sweet!
I am making a big assumption that the two 5v pins on the GPIO are going to be the same, and I'm about ready to go. Got the afternoon off today, so am home now. Just in case this goes bang, I'm going to wait until number two son is up from his nap before I go out to the shed and try and wire it up. number two son can open the doors, and the stair gate now, so I'm assuming he's smart enough to phone 999 and say "Daddy is in the shed unconscious and it is on fire" clearly enough. Or maybe I'll wait until Number one son is home too.
Here is an interesting related video:
raspberry pi: Credit card sized super cheap computer, awesome.
Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in Hythe near Folkestone. Wed + father to two, I am a full stack web engineer, + I do js / Node, some ruby, other languages etc. I like pubbing, parkrun, eating, home-automation + other diy jiggery-pokery, history, genealogy, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, + TIME TRAVEL.