There is no doubt that the Raspberry Pi is one of the mini PCs or development boards that have more utilities, and more if we take into account the infinity of available accessories that exist.
However, it is rare that until now there was no method to convert a Raspberry Pi into a portable item, right? This has already been completed, given that thanks to its low consumption there are already accessories that allow us to use it anywhere without the need to connect it anywhere.
We certainly have multiple options for this. It would be enough to use a portable battery to power the Raspberry Pi, since we only need a USB power source to make it work. However, these portable batteries are often large, heavy, and uncomfortable to wear in conjunction with a Raspberry Pi as they don’t fit their size very well, and there is no way to “hook” them.
Two AA size batteries is all we will need to use this “dock” for the Raspberry Pi that will allow us to use it for hours and hours (since it consumes so little), and which of course is compatible with rechargeable batteries that we can recharge only by connecting the Raspberry Pi to its usual micro USB connector.
This board connects to the Raspberry Pi through the usual 40-pin port, and also adds functionality that the device itself does not have, something as basic as the power button (which in this case is not a button but rather a switch). Until now, just connect the Raspberry to a power source it turned on automatically, but with this accessory we can turn it on and off at our whim.
The Gumstix board also incorporates a Bosch MBI160 module that integrates a 3-axis accelerometer and a 3-axis gyroscope for motion detection, which would even allow us to manufacture our own drones or whatever we can think of.
This device can be purchased for $50 on the author’s website.
We have already seen how to add a battery to the device so that it has its own autonomy of operation, but logically we will still need some elements to make it totally wireless, right?
As you can see in the video above, you can use a Raspberry independently and wirelessly. Either we add a WiFi module or we use a Raspberry Pi Zero W that already has it integrated and we will have wireless communication. Then it is a matter of having the necessary software to, for example, transmit the video from a docked camera.
On the Gumstix Github page you can even find the source code for the demo that we have put above the video.
We could also have a portable monitor and, along with a Raspberry with this “battery”, we could use it to watch series and movies anywhere just by connecting the screen to the device with an HDMI cable. The possibilities in any case are very wide and, with a wireless Raspberry, the limit is set by everyone’s imagination.