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Aw, yes, the Raspberry Pi Computer, a credit card size mini PC that only cost $35. There are so many possibilities and uses for these small nano PCs. People have made them into PVRs (personal video recorders), retro gaming machines, weather stations, in-car PCs, jukeboxes, and so many more creative ideas. When I started this project four weeks ago, I just wanted to see if it was possible to make an ultra portable, mobile Raspberry Pi that you can take to-go. As I was building my Pi-to-Go I kept saying to myself, it would be cool if it had this, and then I would find a way to make it happen.
My mobile Raspberry Pi Computer is now complete and because this is an open source project I wanted to show you everything, including how to build one yourself. I will even provide links to the parts I needed to purchase and the 3D printer STL files to print your own case. So here we go!
Just a quick blurb about myself. I am the founder and CEO of Parts-People.com, Inc. which specializes exclusively in Dell Laptops; and specifically Dell replacement parts, Dell laptop repair, and Dell laptop refurbishing. So I have more than 10 years experience in repairing and building laptops. Okay, lets move on.
LCD Screen
The LCD I used is from an after market backup camera system that can be installed in a car. The screen is a low resolution and I hope to find a better upgrade for my next version of the mobile RPi to-go. So for this proof of concept, it works just fine. The screen is 3.5" using a 4:3 aspect ratio. It uses a composite input and is able to display a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels.
Battery Pack
First off, be very careful when messing with lithium-ion batteries. Neither Parts-People.com, Inc nor I are responsible for any damages caused by this tutorial. Proceed at your own risk. Because I own a company that sells only laptop parts, it is only natural that I would use a laptop battery for this build. Laptop batteries are built in such a way that you cannot just plug something into them and use them for a battery pack. I knew it would be possible but I just needed to figure out the best way to get power out of it and how to charge it back up in the best and safest manner. I ended up using a battery for a Dell Latitude D600 laptop and just removed it from the Dell battery case. The battery was about the right size, it had the right voltage, and I had plenty of them. Those batteries have a standard Dell 9 pin battery connector. To get power out of this battery, you will need to connect pins 1,2, & 4 together for negative / ground (-) and pins 8 & 9 together for positive (+). Be sure to connect the correct leads. See picture for pin outs.
Charging the battery was easy, I just purchased an after market laptop battery charger. It connects directly to the battery's 9 pin connector and also has a battery level indicator built-in.
Internal Powered Hub
One major problem with the Raspberry Pi is a lack of power. The RPi is powered by a micro USB 5v with at least 750ma, 1A is better. But the problem is not there, it is that the USB port can only supply in the neighborhood of 120ma per port, which is not enough to run much. So I found a super small 7 port USB hub that is powered and took it apart. I needed to power 5 things: a wireless WiFi dongle, a bluetooth dongle, an SSD hard drive, a keyboard/mouse transmitter, and the Raspberry Pi itself. The power from the battery pack is 11.1 volts and the power required for the USB hub was 5 volts. What I did was connect the battery to the LCD screen which had an input of 9v-13v, and I knew that the LCD screen would have some components that would require a 5v power source (LED LCD back light for example). All I had to do was find the onboard voltage regulator and solder on leads across the 5v capacitor and solder those to the 5v input on the powered USB hub. Easy as Pi. Now we have clean regulated power for all of our devices.
Extended Storage
64GB SSD, yes I did! I wanted to add a linux swap partition because of the lack of RAM. The Raspberry Pi itself has 256MB (model B version 1) or 512MB (model B version 2). If I simply just installed a larger SD card and added a large swap file, or swap partition, I would eventually burn out the SD card. SD cards have a very limited number of read/writes and SD cards are slow. I opted for a 64GB Sata II solid state hard drive made by Samsung (model # MMBRE64GHDXP) and again I have a bunch of those in stock so it was convenient. I used an external USB hard drive caddy's circuit board to connect the SSD sata HDD directly to the internal power USB hub. I setup a 1GB (1,024 MB) Linux swap partition, and have the rest formatted in ext4 for extended storage.
Built-in WiFi & Bluetooth
I wanted to build in as many features as possible, so I got a nano USB WiFi dongle and a nano USB bluetooth dongle to install inside the mobile Pi. These are also soldered directly to the built-in powered USB hub.
Operating System
I'm using stock Raspbian Linux downloaded from raspberrypi.org. The only tweaks I made were to the config.txt file and added the Linux 1GB swap partition. I modified the config.txt file to make the LCD screen display properly and fill the whole screen.
config.txt changes
overscan_left=8
overscan_right=-40
overscan_top=-30
overscan_bottom=-30
sdtv_mode=2
Keyboard & Touchpad Mouse
I purchased a wireless 2.4Ghz USB keyboard & mouse combo. I would have preferred a wired USB but this one was the right size and price. The keyboard slides in and out via the access door on the left side of the machine. The access door also exposes the on/off switch and mini USB charge port for the keyboard too.
Overall Specs
The Raspberry Pi board I am using is a model B (revision 1) but you can use the model B (version 2) for this build.
| CPU | Broadcom BCM2835 ARM11 700Mhz |
| Memory | 256MB (shared with GPU) |
| Main Storage | 4GB SD Card (OS Installed) |
| Extended Storage | 64GB Sata II SSD (1GB linux swap) |
| WiFi Wireless | Built-in B/G/N Card |
| Bluetooth | Built-in Bluetooth 3.0 |
| Peripherals | 1 Powered USB Port |
| Video Output | HDMI Port |
| Keyboard / Mouse | QWERTY Keyboard with Touchpad Mouse |
| Weight | 1.65 lbs. |
3D Printed Case
Using Google sketchup, my 3D printer, and a little creativity I was able to create a case for this mobile Pi to-go. There are five parts to the case and I have made all five parts available for download from thingiverse.com.
Download Pi-to-Go 3D files (STL) Here
Everything is made to snap together except the back access door is held on by four screws. The back of the case has a Raspberry Pi logo cut into it and it is illuminated when the device is powered on. I used a back lighting LED and the acrylic strip from the back of a backlit laptop keyboard. I cut it to the shape to fit just behind the RPi logo and soldered leads that connect to 5v power. This was not needed but I thought it was a nice touch.
Where to buy the parts
As promised I will provide links to purchase all parts needed and I have already provided the links to download the 3D printer files (STL) above.
- LCD Screen - bought on amazon for $17.95 - here
- Raspberry Pi - bought on Newark/Element14 for $35 - here
- Mini Keyboard/Mouse - bought on amazon for $29.95 - here
- Standalone Battery Charger- bought on amazon for $75.00 - here
- Powered 7 Port USB Hub - bought on Parts-People.com for $14.95 - here
- 64GB SSD Hard Drive - bought on Parts-People.com for $69.95 - here
- Dell D600 Battery - bought on Parts-People.com for $88.50 - here
Schematic
Here is a schematic to show how everything is wired together. 
Please share this build and if you have any questions or need help, please comment.
More Pictures
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AWESOME.. great job! Hope to try it myself one day. Thanks!
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My hackerspace, the Hoboken MakerBar, is just raving about this thing. Thanks for putting up the render files for the case, we’ll run one off.
Very creative to use the screen’s regulator to power the Pi – we have lots of old laptop batteries we can salvage too.
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What 3D printer do you have?
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Thank for the amazing post!
In the schematic, why do you wire the USB postives with F3?
Did the LCD include a power adaptor?
What would be a better display to buy?
Thanks!
I am using that lead to power the Pi. On the newer version you can just back feed the USB port with power, but this is the first version and the Pi will not run right like that.
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Great project! And well document. I like your solution to get the 5v from the monitor pcb. Clever!
Any ideas about a bit bigger display, possible with a resistive touchscreen? I’d like to use it for a XBMC station in my kitchen.
Thanks, I have already started looking into version 2. I will probably go with a 7″ screen, and touch would be a great option too. I will see what I can come up with.
For version two could you please try to keep the price down.
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I really wonder if one 1GB swap on a 32GB micro sd card would damage it quickly…
It probably wouldn’t do anything for a while but do you really want to waste a 32GB SD card?
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Really like the 3D printed case and soldering directly to the USB port on the PI leaving the other one to be exposed!
IIRC the 512Mb Pi’s USB current is only limited by the power supply.
I wonder what kinda current the regulator in the LCD can supply without getting hot? If you want a good switched regulator board for stepping down ~8-40v to 5v then the PCB from in car phone chargers are pretty good, iPad ones are often rated to around 2.1A and android ones are perfect for the Pi at around 1A with microUSB.
Sounds great. I will go pick one of those up and give it a try. Thanks
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It reminds me of the linux pandora game console except fatter cheaper and i can get one in less than 5 years
You win, Sir. I wanted Pandora soo badly. Unfortunately there was no Kickstarter back then.
pandora have been available to buy for a wile now but there price is to steep and are simply old tech when a android smart phone can do the same thing cheaper.
No it cant, and also you are comparing vastly different things.
The pandora is not a game console, it’s a PC.
Also, it’s available in a week, and it’s much more powerful than the pi, from a hardware point of view, and much more powerful than any phone because it’s a true open device with tons of software.
how do i purchase a pandora???
Go to their website and buy one.
lol
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How did you connect the LCD screen to your raspberrypi, why do I miss always those important descriptions 🙁
It’s completely straightforward – the lcd connects directly to the composite-out port on the Pi. The RCA socket would have been removed from the Pi and the cable soldered directly just for space reasons.
I did even need to remove the port. I just soldered to pins on the back of the board.
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This is an awesome project c: I can imagine such a small laptop with some emulators, and joystick input, would be great for some retro gaming on the go. The case is fantastic, too – the backlight LED is a great addition.
A small typo: “The Raspberry Pi board I am using is a model B (revision 1) but you can use the model B (version 2)”. The first model mentioned should be Model A. 😉
No. The B has had 2 revisions. The 2nd doubled the RAM from 256 to 512mb
You are correct. I am using model B of the first version.
I am now working on a gamepad that will slide in and replace the keyboard transforming it into Picade-to-go.
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Awesome project – can you upload all .stl files to Thingiverse please so we can fork/change them?
I will get it done today.
All STLs have now been uploaded to thingiverse.com
Awesome!
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Please make a video showing us the device, super cool !
I will try to get a video posted next week.
It’s been almost 2 weeks lol :p
Raspberry Pi-to-go Video has been uploaded. Enjoy… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E89s2h9swIc
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How much was your 3d printer, and what model is it?
I used my pp3dp 3d printer that cost $1500.
it is not really clear how you connected the screen to the rpi. Can you show a picture of that?
The screen has a composite input and I soldered that input directly to the back of the RPi’s composite connector. I did not need to remove the connector but will most like on my next version to make it thinner.
The raspberry pi that I have does not have a composite video connector… only an HDMI output. How do I connect this without an adapter?
Look again, of course it does have a composite out. At least mine has and any other I have ever seen. it is a RCA connector.
I have the RCA connector, but how would I use this LCD? I was able to get an RCA male-to-male connector but that won’t work, I would imagine not enough power. Is this only working because you have a larger batter attached? Or is there another (reversible) way to connect this exact LCD to the Rasp Pi? Thank you so much in advance for the help!
This is brilliant! I am going to have a go at my own version! Thanks!
So I’m I
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What you use wifi and Bluetooth? Or which card is the best for this?
I think it’s more, why wouldn’t you have WiFi and Bluetooth Bluetooth allows you a mic, speaker, a lot. WiFi…why wouldn’t a portable computer have WiFi?
He’s trying to ask what bluetooth and wifi modules were used. Answer: It looks like a Ipazzport for the keyboard which comes with a small bluetooth dongle that will work for most anything but you’d need to hook up a USB keyboard or another BT dongle etc. to use BT a headset or something.
As for the wifi adapter- any will do as long as it’s small and reliable and has a good range.
I guess I misinterpreted it.
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Looks like a classic Apple design that was just ripped off!
go super troll!
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I’m going to buy a wireless keyboard&mouse and a OTG cable. It’s just 20€, an puggled to my phone turns it into a computer.
And if I’m at home I just have to connect it via HDMI to my screen.
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could you provide some information about the weight of the pc?… ah yeah.. great work!
1.65lbs
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No video of it working?
I will have a video up next week. The pi runs great and even my 3 year old has used it.
Has the video been uploaded anywhere, yet?
Sorry for the delay. Here is the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E89s2h9swIc
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this is incredible. How proud can i be that you invented yet again!
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Nice, maybe add a touch screen based on linear CCD?
Adding a multi-OS feature by using 4 chips switched to a single SD controller would be
handy, maybe use 4 microSD cards with common data pins and a software driven switch triggering a reset and bank switch to the next card.
You Can Use BerryBoot to put multiple operating systems on one SD Card
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Interesting how long is it going to live on this battery, any benchmarks?
Battery last a little more than 10 hours. I have not run any benchmarks on it to see how much better it preforms using an SSD hard drive over non-SSD models although I can tell a small improvement in speed.
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Can you put this on amazon?
This is not for sale, it is only a proof of concept.
Can you take orders for the case? Or can I volunteer as an independent tester of the case? Don’t have the tools to make it, can do the other parts.
I know there are companies online that will print it for you, if you upload the design, but I’d like to get it straight from him as well.
I meant, can you put the finished product on amazon?
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I have the keyboard you use in this project and it is quite uncomfortable to type on as the trackpad gets in the way. They also make a version with the keyboard split and trackpad in the center. I havent tried it because this one works for its intended purpose (htpc) and I’m sure the kids will break it sooner or later.
Also, this keyboard does work on a wired connection if you choose to use it. So you could hardwire it to a usb port.
You couldn’t’ give a link for that keyboard, could you? Is it cheap?
The links to purchase all parts are in the article.
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could any power supply work or do i have to buy a dell battery/charger ?
If you use a standard Dell laptop battery like it did. You will have to buy a standalone battery charger that can charge the battery without a laptop. The charger will have a 9 pin battery connector on it. I have included a here to the cheapest one I could find.
I think for the operating system you should use some mobile operating system like Android.
I heard android isn’t very stable on Pi yet.
Nice compact build, I have a LCD from a Dell Laptop, is there a way to use it as the screen?
I have 100s of those sitting around too, and I’m sure it is possible with some sort of Chinese adapter/converter card. I looked into it briefly but opted for a simpler solution that anybody can do.
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Insert the needle Pogo make her marks on iPad minute you as possible. If you are a graphic designer, artist, painter or looking to draw on the fly, and this pencil will do the trick.
Surely there are better deals to be had out there for $391.30
actually it’s $331.30
not if you take shipping into account.
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Would it be possible to save space by opting for a 64 gig thumb drive? Is there really much of a difference, as aren’t both flash and SSD the same technology?
If i recall correctly, SSD and Flash are very similar mediums for storing memory, but SSD can be re-written more, and is significantly faster, but much more expensive.
But the USB connection it’s connected by is too slow to take advantage over using a thumb drive, and the price difference is worth it if it EVER wears out, which I’ve never had a thumb drive do.
Isnt the speed difference of SSD-on-USB versus USB thumbdrive still quite noticable? I have an external USB HD (USB 2.0) and it can move files at least twice quicker than my other good thumb drives (also USB 2.0). I wouldn’t put my trust on a really big 64GB thumb drive as there is a possibility that it’s a multilayered (I’m not sure of the specific term but I read about it before) one which eats up the r/w capacity faster.
Using a normal flash drive is the better choice in my eyes. I don’t know why they go for SSD, because USB can only do a small fraction of the transfer speed that a SSD can do, so you waste a lot of money for nothing, like putting wings on your Mack truck: although they might make a plane fly, they will not do that for the truck 😉
I love how they use sd cards as storage, easily removable! 😀
Looking forward to see the video. When you build your next version, you should make a short video showing how everything works.
Great Work! Let me know if you can recharge the battery while using the device or not.
Marco
Yes the Pi-to-go will still function while charging the battery just like a regular laptop. I made sure of that…
Thanks for the reply. Can i see the battery level without the battery is in charge? When you will post new cheaper solution?
When the battery is charging, the charger does not display charge level. When charger is unplugged from wall but still plugged into battery, it will automatically show charge level. As for cheaper solution, I messing around with a few things not sure when I will complete it.
im not sure where to solder exactly.
Can I use some other hard drive, like the Dell Z600 E4200 (R075R)?
It’s cheaper, and I’m trying to cut costs.
Z600 / E4200 uses a uSATA drive. That is not compatible with most external hard drive caddies. I am working on getting some more of the drives I used for the build and I think I will be able to sell them for $69.
Does the unit have a clamshell design, with hinges?
If it does not, that would be a great feature to incorporate into the second version of the design!
No hinges, but I may make a version with hinges that is much thinner. I will see what I can come up with.
I think its a great build Im going to build it as soon as I get my pi congrats for making such an ingenious design
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Great man!
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this linux looks almost like windows. Does it also place running task on the taskbar like windows? That would be great.
Yes, it looks and feels like just like Windows, taskbar and all.
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Thanks for the tutorial, but is there a way you can do this with a cheaper power supply? Also how mucg time can you get on a full charge with the power supply you have made this? Thanks
working on a cheaper solution. I wanted to be safe before being cheap.
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could you please post more pictures?
sure, what would you like to see more of?
The negative connection from the battery to the LCD screen. I am in the process of making one of these and i don’t want to screw anything up. Also, if it’s not too much of a pain, I would like to see the connection between the usb to LCD as well.
I just added a new image that shows in more detail how everything is wired.
You are the man! thanks!
I bought the LCD screen you recommend but it came with very poor instructions about connection. It has 3 wires red, yellow and white each with a connector. Which do I connect the 12V to and which is the composite signal input from the RPi? There are no other connection points.
I just added a new image to the article that shows in more detail how everything is wired.
So what can I do when there is not a single 3d printer around in my country?
Do the side panels of your design come off easily to expose the USB and charge ports?