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Thomas Brittain
Thomas Brittain

Posted on • Originally published at ladvien.com

Pi Power -- How I Made a Battery Powered USB Hub

As I prepare to start adding peripherals to my Pi Bot, I wanted to be sure to get around the 700ma power budget the Pi has. After searching for a cheap battery powered USB hub and finding little, I decided to hack up a few cheap(ish) parts and make my own.

  1. USB Hub: $1.39
  2. 5000mAh Battery: $17.93
  3. DC-DC Converter: $2.76

Total: $22.08

The Battery Hack:

Step 1

Crack it open

Step 2:

Find POWER and GND

Step 3:

Wire it up

Step 4:

Make a small hole for wires and bring wires out

Step 5:

Solder the respective leads to the DC-DC converter.

Step 6:

Smile, then sit through my way too long of a video to make it into the HUB.

Hope all are well. :)

Notes:

  1. Regarding the error at the end of the video. Don't panic (that's what I did). I actually found out this had nothing to do with my hub, it had to do with plugging an iPhone into a Raspberry Pi.
  2. NOTE2: I realize I used the wrong "hearty," my brain has problems typing homonyms and parahomonyms. :P

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