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This is one of the projects I had in mind for the RPi 2. I've already got the RTL-SDR stick and it works great on my workstation, but having it portable would b

This is one of the projects I had in mind for the RPi 2. I've already got the RTL-SDR stick and it works great on my workstation, but having it portable would be even better. I'm happy to see that the RPi 2 can handle the workload. It will be interesting to see if the Pi can also handle trunk tracking.

AceJohnny2 12y ago
How does one handle portable power for a RPi2? Does a normal USB Power brick (as increasingly used to top up phones) suffice?
- wlesieutre 12y ago
  Yup, if it charges a phone it should power a Pi. http://www.adafruit.com/products/1566 http://www.adafruit.com/products/1566 is sold specifically for this purpose, and it has some interesting notes about how it behaves (like output fluctuation when the battery is simultaneously charging and providing power) that might be worth noting. If all you do is run off a battery, then unhook the battery to charge it, you shouldn't have those sorts of issues.
  - AceJohnny2 12y ago
    Those are some very interesting notes, Adafruit excels again. Thanks for the link!
  - nearengine 12y ago
    500mA and up will charge a phone (assuming you're not also doing power-intensive things on it), but you'll probably need 1-2A to power a Pi and a SDR reliably.
    - wlesieutre 12y ago
      Ah, looks like power consumption west up. B+ listed 600 mA typ, 2B is 800. http://linuxgizmos.com/raspberry-pi-gets-quad-core-soc-keeps-same-price/ http://linuxgizmos.com/raspberry-pi-gets-quad-core-soc-keeps...
      - nearengine 12y ago
        Yep! Plus the tuner card itself can use 200mA or so, and if you want to use any other USB accessories they'll be drawing power as well. I unfortunately have too much experience using "phone chargers" that had enough current to run it 90% of the time, but under hard load would cause enough voltage drop on the 5V rail to reboot the Pi.
- johnchristopher 12y ago
  No, a `normal USB Power brick´ doesn't suffice. It has to reliably provide 5 volts and at least 700mA (depending on your Pi model and peripherals). The Pi is more sensible to the voltage than the amperage. See http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals#Power_adapters http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals#Power_adapters for reliable information about that. The Raspberry Pi forums are filled with "90% of the time it's the power supply not up to the specs, please check the specs" messages for any power and `random crashes´ related problems.

AceJohnny2 12y ago

How does one handle portable power for a RPi2? Does a normal USB Power brick (as increasingly used to top up phones) suffice?

wlesieutre 12y ago
Yup, if it charges a phone it should power a Pi. http://www.adafruit.com/products/1566 http://www.adafruit.com/products/1566 is sold specifically for this purpose, and it has some interesting notes about how it behaves (like output fluctuation when the battery is simultaneously charging and providing power) that might be worth noting. If all you do is run off a battery, then unhook the battery to charge it, you shouldn't have those sorts of issues.
- AceJohnny2 12y ago
  Those are some very interesting notes, Adafruit excels again. Thanks for the link!
- nearengine 12y ago
  500mA and up will charge a phone (assuming you're not also doing power-intensive things on it), but you'll probably need 1-2A to power a Pi and a SDR reliably.
  - wlesieutre 12y ago
    Ah, looks like power consumption west up. B+ listed 600 mA typ, 2B is 800. http://linuxgizmos.com/raspberry-pi-gets-quad-core-soc-keeps-same-price/ http://linuxgizmos.com/raspberry-pi-gets-quad-core-soc-keeps...
    - nearengine 12y ago
      Yep! Plus the tuner card itself can use 200mA or so, and if you want to use any other USB accessories they'll be drawing power as well. I unfortunately have too much experience using "phone chargers" that had enough current to run it 90% of the time, but under hard load would cause enough voltage drop on the 5V rail to reboot the Pi.
johnchristopher 12y ago
No, a `normal USB Power brick´ doesn't suffice. It has to reliably provide 5 volts and at least 700mA (depending on your Pi model and peripherals). The Pi is more sensible to the voltage than the amperage. See http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals#Power_adapters http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals#Power_adapters for reliable information about that. The Raspberry Pi forums are filled with "90% of the time it's the power supply not up to the specs, please check the specs" messages for any power and `random crashes´ related problems.