12 Volt Entertainment Center

[johnny5c]

So after upgrading the A/V system in my friends RV I ended up with a 32" Jensen 12V TV and I was thinking about building a entertainment center for my families hunting cabin that only has battery power.  The cabin is a 2 mile ATV ride from the road and I hate hauling in my laptop every time.  I was thinking of using a RPi3 for games and some movies but would like a way to play DVDs too.  One option I'm kicking around is using a car DVD receiver built into a cabinet with a couple speakers, would sound a hundred times better than the TVs speakers but would also add a couple hundred to the cost.  So wondering if anyone has any ideas for not just the DVD player but for the overall project and also what's the best way to power a RPi from 12v.

[Dargenfire]

You can use a RPI-3 with Debian or Ubuntu, and just buy an external USB DVD drive.

[johnny5c]

5 minutes ago, Dargenfire said:

You can use a RPI-3 with Debian or Ubuntu, and just buy an external USB DVD drive.

That would be ideal because the less power it uses the better and I have a external slim LG drive I'm not using, the cabin has two 12v batteries wired in parallel but only two small solar panels that recharge the system over a week or so.  Can the RPi3 power a external USB drive that doesn't have it's own power supply?

 

For powering the RPi3 I was thinking something like this instead of modifying a lighter plug USB charger or something.

https://www.amazon.com/uxcell-Waterproof-Converter-Voltage-Regulator/dp/B01CUA5OVW/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1475544457&sr=8-11&keywords=12v%2Bto%2B5v%2Busb%2Bconverter&th=1

[DragonTamer1]

That power supply is rated for 3A but the Pi is listed as being able to pull 2.5A. I would look into maybe a 4 or 5A power supply. You want to look into something similar though because of the efficiency of that circuit.

 

I think the Pi has USB 2.0 if I'm not mistaken which is only rated for 500mA to 1A or something along those lines. I would look into getting an external power source for the slim drive.

[johnny5c]

48 minutes ago, DragonTamer1 said:

That power supply is rated for 3A but the Pi is listed as being able to pull 2.5A. I would look into maybe a 4 or 5A power supply. You want to look into something similar though because of the efficiency of that circuit.

 

I think the Pi has USB 2.0 if I'm not mistaken which is only rated for 500mA to 1A or something along those lines. I would look into getting an external power source for the slim drive.

Yeah the reviews for that power supply said it's overrated and puts out nowhere near 3A so I found a 10A version on ebay for about the same price, should run nice and cool plus I may want to add a amp board or something in the future.

 

After thinking it through a little more I think I'm going to go with a standalone 12V DVD player because my father and his friends won't learn a new OS/program just to watch a movie.  The TV has a HDMI input for the RPi3 and a composite input for the DVD player so it'll be easy for anyone to use.

https://www.amazon.com/Electronics-ND-842-Portable-Player-Function/dp/B007WRPCN4

[Dargenfire]

17 hours ago, DragonTamer1 said:

I think the Pi has USB 2.0 if I'm not mistaken which is only rated for 500mA to 1A or something along those lines. I would look into getting an external power source for the slim drive.

You can get external drives that draw power by using two USB 2.0 ports instead of an external power supply.

[johnny5c]

2 hours ago, Dargenfire said:

You can get external drives that draw power by using two USB 2.0 ports instead of an external power supply.

I've been reading up on it and it should work if I use a powered USB hub, now I have to just figure out how to run a hub off 5 or 12 volts. 

 

I also talked to my family about upgrading the power system at the cabin, probably going to double the battery capacity and add a few more solar panels because we're using it more these days.  Thought about getting a hardwired DC to AC inverter but the place is only wired for DC and has 12v LED light fixtures.

[WEEEEEE]

You can use a buck converter to step down 12V to 5V. They are commonly available on eBay and Amazon with a simple search for "buck converter".

Check out this one and this one and this one (of the 3, the 3rd seems to be the highest quality, however they are all cheap converters from China. The 2nd looks like the same as the 3rd, so probably a clone or made by the same manufacturer).

As far as hardrives go, you can just get an enclosure and put a standard 3.5/2.5in drive in one (these are usually powered off of 12V or 5V for 2.5in). There are quite a few external hardrives that don't require power other than USB, and the ones that do usually take 12V in (since they are just regular PC HDD's inside of a nice looking box). 

You can find USB hubs that are powered off of 12V. This one from anker is a good example.

EDIT: The 1st buck converter only has an output of 5A, so you may not want to get that one.

 

Edited October 9, 2016 by WEEEEEE

[johnny5c]

1 hour ago, WEEEEEE said:

You can use a buck converter to step down 12V to 5V. They are commonly available on eBay and Amazon with a simple search for "buck converter".

Check out this one and this one and this one (of the 3, the 3rd seems to be the highest quality, however they are all cheap converters from China. The 2nd looks like the same as the 3rd, so probably a clone or made by the same manufacturer).

As far as hardrives go, you can just get an enclosure and put a standard 3.5/2.5in drive in one (these are usually powered off of 12V or 5V for 2.5in). There are quite a few external hardrives that don't require power other than USB, and the ones that do usually take 12V in (since they are just regular PC HDD's inside of a nice looking box). 

You can find USB hubs that are powered off of 12V. This one from anker is a good example.

EDIT: The 1st buck converter only has an output of 5A, so you may not want to get that one.

 

Thanks for the reply!  I found a 5 amp 12V to 5V converter at Axe Man for $3 that seems to work pretty good with the RPi3.  I was going to run a 5V amp board but found a 20w one from adafruit the runs off 12V, going to use it with a pair of Pioneer bookshelf speakers.  Won't be the best sounding thing ever but should be a lot better than the TV's speakers.  Also going to wire up a switch to switch between audio from the RPi and the 12V DVD player I ordered.

Amp - https://www.adafruit.com/products/1752

 

The hub you listed should be perfect, not sure if I'm going to use a ODD with the RPi3 because I'll have the standalone DVD player but it'll work great for USB drives, Xbox controllers, and for charging phones. 

 

I ordered a large project box to house the RPi, 5V converter, and the amp, going to use a couple 60mm CPU fans for cooling and install switches for power and audio source plus the volume control for the amp.  Also ordered RCA, power, and speaker jacks to clean everything up a bit and make it easy to connect.

 

 

 

 

[WEEEEEE]

On 10/9/2016 at 0:52 PM, johnny5c said:

-snip-

All right, good luck!