Motorola Lapdock + Pi = PiBook?

mathematical · 2012-05-26T17:46:37.396457+00:00

Well they'd need that Webtop thing I think. I believe only a few motorola phones have a desktop application, so only they would work by using extensions. I bought the original Lapdock with the Pi in mind, so I never really investigated its use with phones.

mathematical · 2012-05-26T17:20:25.947315+00:00

They work perfectly. I haven't tried any function keys yet, but so far the keyboard seems to work for typing, along with CapsLock. I'll test out some other key combinations during the battery test later and see if there's anything missing. The trackpad works like a trackpad on a budget laptop, but can quickly turned off and on by double-tapping the top left corner, which is handy for typing on that tiny keyboard.

Edit: For some reason I didn't read your whole post. Yes, the Y-cable powers the Pi and connects the trackpad/keyboard. It does not let me take advantage of the two additional USB ports on the Lapdock, however.

mathematical · 2012-05-26T16:58:45.485547+00:00

Ugh. More battery testing? Last time that took forever!

I'll be sure to test it out. I just put the Lapdock back on the charger, so I probably won't have results until tonight or tomorrow. I'll post an update here once I have some numbers.

mathematical · 2012-05-26T16:54:51.526106+00:00

Here's the parts list I posted for shirro:

Parts:

Motorola Atrix Lapdock - Often goes on sale for $65 or less on different sites.
Micro-HDMI Coupler - Only available from China via eBay.
Micro-HDMI Cable - The shorter the better.
Micro-USB Short Extension - One I ordered from China linked, but these are available in the US.
ANY Spare USB Cable
Electrical Tape + Heat Shrink Tubing (tubing optional)

Only real techie step is making that Y cable that splits USB data and power. No ground for the data portion needs to be connected, you you just split the green and white from the Micro-USB extension and twist them with the green and white from the USB cable, wrapping it in electrical tape and finishing with heat shrink tubing for durability.

mathematical · 2012-05-26T16:37:44.426689+00:00

The keyboard and trackpad work perfectly. It's not too impractical except that my pi is uncased. With a case and a micro wireless receiver, this would be work fine. Parts were found on eBay, shipped from China. Unfortunately, there's no other way to get a micro-HDMI coupler.

Parts:

Motorola Atrix Lapdock - Often goes on sale for $65 or less on different sites.
Micro-HDMI Coupler - Only available from China via eBay.
Micro-HDMI Cable - The shorter the better.
Micro-USB Short Extension - One I ordered from China linked, but these are available in the US.
ANY Spare USB Cable
Electrical Tape + Heat Shrink Tubing (tubing optional)

Everything plugs right up, but you're need to graft the regular USB end for data into the Micro-USB extension, which is for power.

vilette · 2012-05-26T09:17:25.480097+00:00

I have one from RS. One from Farnell is supposedly coming eventually, and hopefully they won't charge me $60+

WhereIsMatt · 2012-05-25T23:45:54.975611+00:00

Just out of curiosity, why Skype for voice chat? The in-game chat seems fine to me.

bzilla · 2 days

I was around level 110 when I finally got it. So you are fortunate. Still I hate avatars like this that happen by chance.

Sailer · 3 days

Ran my pi for 35.93 hours on a 108Watt-hour battery, which means it came to about 3.01W average consumption. I had ethernet and a keyboard/mouse wireless adapter plugged in the entire time. I was on and off browsing reddit, and when it wasn't in use, the screensavers were running (some bumping CPU usage to 80%).

will121000 · 4 days

A state school will run you about 40k for tuition, so it's an exaggeration of that. Private schools will easily run you over 100k though, so unfortunately, no.

Granted he's almost guaranteed a full ride, so he can buy a corvette or some other fast car with that money.

SantaKlouse · 4 days

Bought a (used, but nice) car August 25th of 2010. I was rear-ended on the highway three days later. It was a hit-and-run. Because it was used and I had just bought it, they treated it like a fraud case, and I found out things hadn't been fixed months later. Good times. Also, screw you Progressive.

andreicek · 4 days

Got the code early Thursday morning, received it the following Thursday. I didn't have any correspondence from RS during that time. If you've already waited a week, you're probably due to get it in the next couple of days.

moogoesthecat · 5 days

I have that exact same sweater. I think it looks better on the dog though...

mathematical · 6 days

The little transformer was much more efficient than I could have hoped for. Also, it seems that wireless adapter didn't consume too much power, though it was idle most of the time. Posted this as a update to my original question, but I figured you'd want a notification of when I had a number.

________________________________________________

UPDATE: Total run time on this 12V 9Ah battery was 35:56 or 35.93 hours.

The battery was 108Watt-hours, and lasted 35.93 hours, meaning the Pi consumed an average of 3.01 Watts over the time period. The raspberry pi had a network cable, HDMI cable, and wireless keyboard/mouse adapter plugged in. I was using a Lenmar car charger to step down the voltage.

mathematical · 6 days

I posted this as an update to the original post as well. Here's the update now that it finally died.

________________________________________________

UPDATE: Total run time on this 12V 9Ah battery was 35:56 or 35.93 hours.

The battery was 108Watt-hours, and lasted 35.93 hours, meaning the Pi consumed an average of 3.01 Watts over the time period. The raspberry pi had a network cable, HDMI cable, and wireless keyboard/mouse adapter plugged in. I was using a Lenmar car charger to step down the voltage.

mathematical · 7 days

Installed. Didn't realize it was already a package available.

andreicek · 7 days

I'm surprised there's been no takers. Seems like most people won't be getting theirs for a while, and RS ships fast.

edit: Also, $40 shipped for me in the US. Since Farnell wants to rape you with shipping costs, getting this and cancelling your farnell is the way to go (though you probably shouldn't cancel until you actually receive the Pi.)

mathematical · 7 days

It's been bouncing around because of the screensavers, to simulate a person using it. When it loads something like this, the CPU will be pegged around 80%. There are a few other screensavers that are similar in loading the CPU. Still others are very basic and may sit at 20%. So in this case I fear it won't be too different, but I can give it a go.

Now back to power. Others have said that the Pi pulls down about 3 watts, which mine could be higher because of the wireless keyboard adapter and the loss via the transformer.

Watt-Hours = Volts * Amp-Hours

So this battery should have 108 Watt-hours in it. Even including the loss from the car charger, I don't think I'd be consuming much more than 4 watts. We can call it 4.2W to give a little extra. Based on that, I can expect to see 25.7 hours operation. I think. :p

So for a 100% load test, IIRC, there's a command in debian for pegging a CPU to 100%. If not, I'll just keep the heaviest hitting screensaver active for the entire time. It'll be a few days before I get that data (since I'll need to recharge the battery and obviously the lifespan is near a full day), but I'll edit this post and message you once I have it.

mathematical · 7 days

They're pretty intense screensavers. I think it hits around 80% or better when it is rendering the fibre lamp. There's also particle screensaver that thrashes the CPU. Of course some are much lighter, but I feel this is ideal for simulating actual usage, since someone might browse the web for a little bit, but then go back to doing something else that doesn't have the CPU pegged the whole time.

mathematical · 7 days

Will do. It's almost to 18 hours now, and I'm thinking it should still go for a little while, but we'll see. I'll update you and this post once I have a solid number. So far: 18 hours

mathematical · 7 days

You can if you live in Arizona during the dry season. We get clouds maybe one day out of every two weeks. That will change in about 1.5 months when the monsoons roll through almost every day, but for now I don't have to worry about it.

Clouds will be somewhat important though. I'm going to be checking to see if I can still charge this thing when monsoons start, or see if I need to bump up the panel size. I'm going for minimum cost, so I'm hoping a 30W panel will suffice, though honestly a 45W panel is probably what I'm going to have to go to for a 24/7 device.

mathematical · 7 days

You forgot about transforming. When I transform 12V down to 5V, I'm getting a nice bump in amperage, so that amp hour ratng should at least double. I'm sitting at 17:45 right now, and I should be able to make it to the 20's on this battery.

mathematical · 7 days

I found this program last night after implementing the solution from Sicks3144. I might work on implementing uptimed once I start testing solar. That way I can see if it's going down at all.

mathematical

TROPHY CASE

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