the new power supply puts too much wattage through one of the resistors and it uhh well causes problems. so i had to redo the resistor layout which i will finish tomorrow. on a more positive note, ive got the bluetooth dongle in and i've managed to get the apple wireless keyboard paired but for some reason i cant get the magic trackpad to pair. the magic mouse works, but no juice on the trackpad. anyways i might have to just not use a trackpad.

i got mad at the magsafe being sketchy at best so i hacked my own and it works great! outputs 20v instead of 16 but thats a minor detail that i will remedy by changing a couple of resistors on the charging circuit. it looks kinda not so amazing but im over it. point being, there is not an ounce of sketch in this it just charges without any hassle so yay!

(wow i didnt realize how bad that pic was)

well today has been a very busy day!

i had to replace the battery because i broke one of the terminals and couldnt repair it (whoops) anyways this one is probably better actually because its a bit smaller. also pictured below is ive added a UV LED as the power indicator for the 5v out. im going to make all the LED indicators UV. why? because its awesome thats why! like Cave Johnson said, "science isnt about why, its about why not!" anyways im getting off track. you cant really tell its UV but it is. also it seems i've misplaced the picture of the new battery so ill upload that tomorrow

so good news i've got the charger working! i plug in the magsafe and that works too yay so the next thing im going to have to do is make a cable to connect from the power supply too the pi and one for the usb hub. pics below of my success!

so many alligator clips. 

i love my TO-220s. also i got those sweet solid top caps from a dead motherboard. they work though so yay!

hey there again internet, its been a long couple days working on the power supply. i've built one already, but it hasnt worked because 1. my board design was flawed and 2. one of the 7805's was defective (naturally) anyways so ive designed and printed off a new board. this one is double layer, its only the second two layer board ive make and i'm pretty proud of the alignment on it. i've also figured out the magsafe pin configuration and applied that to the new board.

pics below of my progress, stay tuned!

(the values on this one are wrong for the 317 circuit just a heads up)

ps: tomorrow ill post more pics of the board (assuming this one works)

Hey internet! i've updated to what i think is a better layout. tomorrow when i get to school ill be able to build the power supply board. im also going to have to double up on the 5v regulators to compensate for the extra current that the new USB hub is going to pull. ive also bought a bluetooth apple keyboard and trackpad!

finally got on the internet and did updates! tomorrow im going to print off templates! stay tuned!

Good news! I have received my new raspberry pi! New one on the left and old on the right

Schools canceled today too. I was going to build a circuit board for the power supply but I need all my stuff there. But I have also realized I want internal speakers and an 1/8" jack. So I'm going to have to build an audio controller. I've never done that before. Schematics coming soon

UPDATE! well my raspberry pi that was supposed to come today didnt. i assume its because of the freezing rain and stuff we're getting so its supposed to be here tomorrow. on the bright side, i have already prepared my raspbian image and put on a 16gb sd card

so thanks to popular demand (namely my cat) i have made this outline of the magsafe adaptor since the internet is less than helpful.

pretty simple actually.. well for the most part anyway

Well today's the grade 10 literacy test day in Ontario. if you're from somewhere else the literacy test it basically this: a 2 hour english essay that somehow magically tells the bigshots at the school board i know how to english properly. anyways point being, they cancelled it today for fear of freezing rain so i can't go to school and work on my computer thing while the 10s are doing there thingie. but i can at least show you this beta board design for a Raspberry Pi Power Supply and battery charger!

on a second note, i'm going to use an Apple MagSafe magnetic power plug for charging the battery. brilliant right!

K so i have had a BETTER IDEA! i can use the clear part of the old Apple keyboard (the one that can with the iMac G4 and the G4 Cube and stuff.. anyways point being i was able to separate the clear piece from the keyboard itself (haha!)

this is the clear part beside an upside down aluminum keyboard.

anyways i'm mostly sure that i can fit the rest of the electronics inside there as well such as the power supply that i'll custom build for the Pi. one more photo for your viewing pleasure then i'm gone till tomorrow

i'd say it fits pretty ok!

Hey there internet!

Essentially people have been bugging me to start a blog for like 2 months and as you can tell by the existance of this post, i've finally given in.

I have been experimenting with the Raspberry Pi for a few months now and the main project i've done with it is building a robot. but now is not the time to get into that cause its been months and its too late to start a blog about that one. Nope this is a much different project. So on Monday i came to the realization that my MacBook Pro is essentially a done turkey and being a poor student, i can't afford to buy a new one. At this point i figure you're wondering what this has to do with a RPi, so get ready: i'm going to build a laptop powered by a Raspberry Pi! I know it's brilliant right! anyway anyway so getting to the chase, what i'm going to do is strap a battery, RPi and whatever other accessories to the bottom of an Apple keyboard i've got lying around. Minor problem though, my second Pi (the one not on the robot) is uh.. well dead. I expect to get it in the mail tomorrow. fingers crossed

Picture below shows the broken Pi. im just using it for sizing ATM.. also, that's an upside-down Apple Aluminum Keyboard