Bought a Raspberry pi to go with my OBi
azrobert:
Quote from: giqcass on April 05, 2014, 09:33:31 pm
I bought the CanaKit Raspberry Pi model B with clear case and USB Power Supply. I'm thinking about throwing incredible PBX on there. I've got an Obi110 and a Obi202 I'll hook up to it. Just waiting on delivery. This should hopefully provide weeks of tinkering fun.
I couldn't let giqcass have all the fun, so I bought a Rasp PI on sale at Newegg for $38.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4641E08083&nm_mc=EMC-GD042314&cm_mmc=EMC-GD042314-_-index-_-Item-_-9SIA4641E08083
You can buy a Rasp PI for $35, but with the free shipping this is 3-4 dollars cheaper.
I already have a 5v power supply from an old router, an SD card and a USB WiFi adapter, so all I need is an enclosure.
drgeoff:
Quote from: azrobert on April 23, 2014, 10:04:10 am
I already have a 5v power supply from an old router..
Over the last two years I have more than 2000 posts on the RPi forum, the majority of them in the Troubleshooting section. A very significant fraction of people's problems turn out to be an inadequate power supply. Those originally intended as mobile phone chargers are particularly bad. Also, even if the supply itself is OK, some of the aftermarket USB to micro-USB cables drop too much voltage because they are too thin, too long or use wet string instead of copper. Checking that the voltage between TP1 and TP2 is at least 4.75 and preferably not more than 5.3 is the first thing to do if getting no or erratic operation.
azrobert:
drgeoff,
Thanks for the info.
I just ordered the PI today, so I haven't tested it.
It's a 5V 2.0 amp power supply from a Buffalo router, so I think its high quality.
The problem is it has a barrel connector.
I've been thinking about buying a PI for awhile, so I converted the PSU using a USB to Micro USB cable.
I might have problems because the cable is cheap.
I have the female part of the barrel connector.
Would it be easy to solder it to the PI?
As you can see I'm super cheap and don't want to spend $10 for a PSU. LOL
giqcass:
So far the best feature of the Raspberry PI as a PBX has been AsteriDex. I don't think I have mentioned this before but I have been legally blind since August of last year(not completely blind though). AsteriDex let's me dial 411 and say the name of the person I want to call. Having my own dial by name directory is just incredible since I can't see the phonebook on my telephone without a magnifying glass.
I think the next feature I want to get figured out is outbound faxing. I send very few faxes. Maybe 1 or 2 per year but I plan to get that set up soon because you never know when you might need it.
drgeoff:
Quote from: azrobert on April 23, 2014, 06:21:40 pm
drgeoff,
Thanks for the info.
I just ordered the PI today, so I haven't tested it.
It's a 5V 2.0 amp power supply from a Buffalo router, so I think its high quality.
The problem is it has a barrel connector.
I've been thinking about buying a PI for awhile, so I converted the PSU using a USB to Micro USB cable.
I might have problems because the cable is cheap.
I have the female part of the barrel connector.
Would it be easy to solder it to the PI?
As you can see I'm super cheap and don't want to spend $10 for a PSU. LOL
There are several options.
1. If the USB to micro-USB cable looks weedy (is that term understood your side of the pond?) then just use a short length of it with the wanted micro-USB plug. If necessary extend that with a length of decent weight twin core.
2. You can fairly easily solder a short length of twin core to the underside of the RPi. The two ground legs of the RCA video out phono socket are an easy place for the negative. Positive side to the end of F3 nearest the edge of the board. Solder your barrel connector to that twin core. (I was taught that the sex of a coaxial connector is defined by the centre pin.)
3. The GPIO header (the double row of pins) has pins where you can take 5 volts supply in or out of the board. However that point is on the circuitry side of F3 (a poly-silicon self resetting fuse) so you you don't have the little bit of protection from mishaps that provides.
4. You can feed power in via the full size USB sockets. PSUs don't come with cables with the appropriate type of USB plug to do that. However if you are using a powered USB hub, many of those (in blantant disregard of USB specs) do feed power out of the socket that connects to the host device. Many people power their RPis that way.
Whatever DIY you do, make absolutely sure before applying power that you have the polarity and voltage correct. The RPi's tend to be not very forgiving of mistakes. Also, if you are ever tempted to connect things to the GPIO lines, those are also quite fragile with no buffering from the chip internals. Mistakes there frequently take out more than just the abused GPIO and make the RPi a write-off.
Two more things which almost no-one knows before they purchase a RPi:
a. The USB implementation has some issues which means that some USB devices don't (and probably never will) work as well as they do when used with a PC or Mac.
b. Bus powered USB devices which take a lot of current (eg hard drives) can be a problem if the RPi is conventionally powered (via the micro-USB socket or other input on the 'non-circuitry' side of F3). Irrespective of the capability of the PSU, the F3 fuse mentioned above limits the total current which can be supplied to the RPi itself and any peripherals plugged into its USB sockets. Flash drives, normal keyboards, mice, most Wi-Fi adaptors are OK. Things like illuminated keyboards, keyboards with built-in USB hubs, hard drives without their own supplies etc may not be. Use a powered hub with those.
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