Where to get various parts for my idea?

Tsukeo

Member
Hello. I wanna make myself a portable media player based off of a Raspberry Pi. The problem is.. that I don't know what screen I should buy - a screen I can wire to the existing hardware, and also - how to provide batteries. I have a friend who is studying electronics atm, so he could probably help me, but I need to provide the parts for him to do it.. so.. where do I get various tools and parts? I do want to save money, I HAVE around 2500 $ (15000 NOK), but I want to save most of it.

Thanks in advance for any advice. :tophat:
 
You can get a screen that's intended for car backup monitors on eBay. Look up 4.3" TFT or 3.5" TFT. They have no speakers, but run about $20.
 
Ahh, du snakker norsk?

And that's about all I can say in Norwegian. And that was likely bad grammar. I can also say I can't speak Norwegian, and the word shark. And a few other small words here and there.

At any rate, any screen that has composite input will work, as the Pi outputs composite. Alternatively, if you can find a small screen that takes in HDMI (this likely wouldn't be that cheap), that would work, too. I found a 7 inch one by a quick search on the internet here, and I guess it's not that expensive all things considered. But you would need to build a separate audio amp.

And as far as batteries go, you're going to want to go for lithium ion or lithium polymer batteries. That screen I linked you to is probably a 12 volt screen and when it says 12 volts it means 12, so you'd either have to have a step up regulator and 7.4V batteries, or have higher voltage batteries (or put more 3.7V in series. You can get ~14.8V by putting 4 in series, but this would have a pretty small mah rating) and a step down regulator to 12 volts (assuming the device can't handle 14.8V, I'd give it a quick go at 14.8 with a fuse in line to see if it'll work or not, but I would imagine it should if it's designed to work on a car, as the car battery voltage varies from just under 12 V to like 14.4V or so).

As far as input goes (you didn't mention it, but this is important), there are several small USB keyboards that can be implemented, and you could likely get a 7 inch resistive digitizer and find compatible linux drivers to get it working on the Pi. If there are no compatible drivers I suppose you could make them custom for the Pi, but that'd be a pain. Keep in mind, before you plan on putting some piece of hardware to interface with the Pi, make sure there is already a driver for it, or else it will be lots of messing around with stuff to get it to work.

Errr, yeah. Any other questions feel free to ask.

Also, what part of Norway are you from, out of curiosity?

Edit: I'd likely look to buy everything online, I know things in Norway are ridiculously expensive. I was talking to a Dane and Swede at the university, and told them that my friend who lived in Norway said she would go to Sweden to get buy cheap stuff, the Swedish guy said he would go to Denmark, and the Dane said he would go to Germany.
 
Thanks! I will try getting those, and I will post my result, when I am done! :D

I am from Northern Norway, and by the way - there was NOTHING wrong with your grammar at all! :D

Yes, it is ridicolously expensive, BUT we earn alot more than you guys. A normal worker at a behind in a little shop will earn approximately 530$ a month, as we earn around 15$/hour, and we work around 35 hours a week.

And those 2500$ I was granted from my school, so that I could buy supplies. But, heck, I am using those money on a Wii U. (They're EXPENSIVE here, in saturation to you - there, they cost 299? HERE they cost 550$)
 
Alright, I'm excite to see what this will yield! As far as screens go, there're probably better ones than what I searched for, I just did a quick Google search. Just look around for screens that accept HDMI. I picked 7 inch, because it's a standard size, and that's about the screen size in many tablets and stuff. It'd be a large pmp with that size screen. Just search around :p

Oh, I know your minimum wage is much higher than ours, but in general things are still more expensive from what I've heard from about every Scandinavian I've talked to. :p
My friend who lived in Norway now lives in Germany and she is living pretty well on the money she had saved up in Norway that would have lasted her a few months tops.

Also, like Sápmi North, or like Trondheim? Also thanks, I was just cutting out the kann when you ask the question normally, wasn't quite sure if that was proper to do in Norwegian like it is in the English vernacular. And as a side, I pride myself in pretty much being able to pronounce jeg correctly.
 
I have relatives in Sápmi North, but I am from Bodø, a little town in Northern Norway with about 47000 people. Trondheim is more south, so it isn't in the northern parts of Norway. :p

'Jeg' is pronounced 'jæi', 'æ is pronounced like the 'ae' in aestetic.'

But, thanks for all help!
 
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