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Low Power Media Center Suitable For Solar

RVMike
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Hi everyone,

 

Like the title says I'm looking to build a media center for my RV which runs on solar.  As far as specs go I'm not too concerned as long as I can play HD content from an SSD drive without buffering.  The most important part here is going to be the power draw.  I don't really want to turn on and off my system and wait for boot up every time I want to watch a movie so it would be great to leave it on stand by without killing my battery.

 

So far I'm thinking that a Raspberry Pi 4 connected to an SSD drive would basically do the trick here (for one TV at least). I have two TV's so I'm not sure if this is going to be the best solution.

 

Any input here would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure someone here has designed a system with solar power in mind.

 

Thanks

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Get a Ryzen 4000 series laptop when they show up... some of the processors in the series have 15w TDP and some of the laptops will have 10h+ battery life... so they'll consume less than 20-30w with the display on. If you configure to output to TV they'll consume way less.

 

You can get an inverter and charge it or you can get a usb type-c charger that's powered from 12v / car battery or whatever to minimize conversion losses (so you won't have to use an inverter to generate 110/220v then convert back to dc)

 

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3 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Get a Ryzen 4000 series laptop when they show up... some of the processors in the series have 15w TDP and some of the laptops will have 10h+ battery life... so they'll consume less than 20-30w with the display on. If you configure to output to TV they'll consume way less.

 

You can get an inverter and charge it or you can get a usb type-c charger that's powered from 12v / car battery or whatever to minimize conversion losses (so you won't have to use an inverter to generate 110/220v then convert back to dc)

 

That's a pretty cool idea actually. Hadn't even considered a laptop to run everything. That might be better since I won't need to power the SSD separately and everything will be nice and clean looking.

 

Thanks

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18 minutes ago, RVMike said:

Hi everyone,

 

Like the title says I'm looking to build a media center for my RV which runs on solar.  As far as specs go I'm not too concerned as long as I can play HD content from an SSD drive without buffering.  The most important part here is going to be the power draw.  I don't really want to turn on and off my system and wait for boot up every time I want to watch a movie so it would be great to leave it on stand by without killing my battery.

 

So far I'm thinking that a Raspberry Pi 4 connected to an SSD drive would basically do the trick here (for one TV at least). I have two TV's so I'm not sure if this is going to be the best solution.

 

Any input here would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure someone here has designed a system with solar power in mind.

 

Thanks

i LOVE solar :)  If you just want to watch movies...get an old laptop with a big screen...like 17"...they are going to draw the watts cause a lot of stuff is going on in the pc that has nothing to do with watching movies.  If you get a HD 19" from wally world...I think they draw as little as 24w...add to that a huge external drive to load movies on.  If it's a smart tv you can play movies directly from an external storage device.  If it's a dumb tv...you can hook up a roku and then plug external storage into the roku...make sense?  I'm guessing the least wattage you can pull even from a super efficient setup is like 35w...with converter inefficiencies probably 50w at the battery terminals.

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I also recommend finding a laptop with a lower end processor. But you also have to make sure you can upgrade the storage or at the very least, make sure it's expandable.

 

If all you're doing is shoving 1080p content, even a potato processor can handle this easily now.

I have a blog! And a list of guides I've posted

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1 minute ago, Stu_Bear said:

i LOVE solar :)  If you just want to watch movies...get an old laptop with a big screen...like 17"...they are going to draw the watts cause a lot of stuff is going on in the pc that has nothing to do with watching movies.  If you get a HD 19" from wally world...I think they draw as little as 24w...add to that a huge external drive to load movies on.  If it's a smart tv you can play movies directly from an external storage device.  If it's a dumb tv...you can hook up a roku and then plug external storage into the roku...make sense?  I'm guessing the least wattage you can pull even from a super efficient setup is like 35w...with converter inefficiencies probably 50w at the battery terminals.

I actually have a ROKU TV in there already. I think it's only like 50 watt. Can I hook up an SSD to that somehow and just bypass the whole computer idea?

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1 minute ago, RVMike said:

I actually have a ROKU TV in there already. I think it's only like 50 watt. Can I hook up an SSD to that somehow and just bypass the whole computer idea?

I think so...I've not worked with a tv that has roku built inside...only the roku thingy that connects via usb.  Easy enough to test out...just get the usb thingy that connects a SSD externally to a comuter...plug into your tv...search for external media in your tv/roku menu...

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Just now, Stu_Bear said:

I think so...I've not worked with a tv that has roku built inside...only the roku thingy that connects via usb.  Easy enough to test out...just get the usb thingy that connects a SSD externally to a comuter...plug into your tv...search for external media in your tv/roku menu...

Cool man! Thanks for the sweet idea. Going to test it tonight when I get home.

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2 minutes ago, RVMike said:

Cool man! Thanks for the sweet idea. Going to test it tonight when I get home.

Good luck!  This reminds me of my camping days in the Ozark mountains...huddled around a small 19" tv watching scary movies in the middle of the woods...fun times.

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37 minutes ago, RVMike said:

Hi everyone,

 

Like the title says I'm looking to build a media center for my RV which runs on solar.  As far as specs go I'm not too concerned as long as I can play HD content from an SSD drive without buffering.  The most important part here is going to be the power draw.  I don't really want to turn on and off my system and wait for boot up every time I want to watch a movie so it would be great to leave it on stand by without killing my battery.

 

So far I'm thinking that a Raspberry Pi 4 connected to an SSD drive would basically do the trick here (for one TV at least). I have two TV's so I'm not sure if this is going to be the best solution.

 

Any input here would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure someone here has designed a system with solar power in mind.

 

Thanks

What is your battery type, voltage and how much Ah are they?

To be an expert is to know more about less.

  • 2014 Build --> FX 8350 4.7GHz {} ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer {} Reference GTX 980 4GB {} 2x4GB 1866MHz HyperX {} Seagate 2TB 7200rpm {} 840 EVO 120GB {} XFX PRO850W {} Noctua NH D14 {} Fractal Define R4 White Windowed
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38 minutes ago, greeatzy said:

What is your battery type, voltage and how much Ah are they?

12 Volt AGM (Lead Acid) batteries. I have 300 Ah so in reality I have about 150Ah of usable power on a full charge.

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15 minutes ago, RVMike said:

12 Volt AGM (Lead Acid) batteries. I have 300 Ah so in reality I have about 150Ah of usable power on a full charge.

What do you think about this? - https://www.lenovo.com/ca/en/desktops-and-all-in-ones/thinkcentre/m-series-tiny/ThinkCentre-M75q-1/p/11TC1MTM73Q

 

ThinkCentre M75q Tiny - 65W 88% which would give you at least 25+ hours on the battery.

 

Processor AMD Athlon PRO 300GE (3.40GHz, 2 Core, 4MB Cache)

Operating System Windows 10 Home 64

Memory 4GB DDR4 2666MHz

Graphics Integrated AMD Radeon Vega graphics

Hard Drive 500GB HDD, 7200rpm, 2.5"

To be an expert is to know more about less.

  • 2014 Build --> FX 8350 4.7GHz {} ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer {} Reference GTX 980 4GB {} 2x4GB 1866MHz HyperX {} Seagate 2TB 7200rpm {} 840 EVO 120GB {} XFX PRO850W {} Noctua NH D14 {} Fractal Define R4 White Windowed
  • 2018 Build --> Ryzen 7 2700X {} ASRock Fatal1ty X470 Gaming K4 {} Gigabyte RTX 2070 8GB {} 2x8GB HX Fury 3200MHz {} Toshiba P300 2TB {} Kingston 480GB A1000 {} Corsair RM750W {} Enermax LIQMAX II 240 {} Fractal Focus G
  • 2021 Build --> Ryzen 9 5900X {} ASUS ROG Strix X570-F GAMING {} ASUS GeForce RTX 3080Ti ROG STRIX OC {} Gigabyte AORUS RGB DDR4 32GB {} Kingston KC2500 M.2 2280 NVMe 2TB {} Seasonic FOCUS GX-1000 {} ASUS ROG Ryujin 240 AIO {} NYXT H710i
  • Laptop --> ASUS ROG STRIX G713RS {} Ryzen 9 6900HX {} 32GB DDR5 {} RTX 3080 {} 1TB NVMe {} Win 11 Home
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5 hours ago, Stu_Bear said:

Good luck!  This reminds me of my camping days in the Ozark mountains...huddled around a small 19" tv watching scary movies in the middle of the woods...fun times.

Just a quick update on this. I plugged a small usb stick with some video files on it and the roku tv had no problem playing anything. I don’t have an external ssd with a usb right now so I can’t try that. I don’t have think it should be a problem though, I looked through the documentation on the tv and it said it can power external devices from the usb. Looking forward to trying with a full size drive.

 

Thanks again for the advice.

 

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12 hours ago, RVMike said:

12 Volt AGM (Lead Acid) batteries. I have 300 Ah so in reality I have about 150Ah of usable power on a full charge.

So, you have 2x 150Ah 12 volt batteries wired parallel?  There's a little efficiency to be had by wiring them in series for 24v...24v DC to 120v AC inverters are slightly more efficient me thinks...and charging 24v DC is more efficient if you have solar panels that operate at or above 27 volts...just food for thought.  Downside you'd have to buy a new inverter and maybe a new charge controller depending how flexible the one you already own is.

 

Squeezing every drop of efficiency out of a solar generator is not unlike squeezing all the performance out of a gaming pc ;) 

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