Low Profile SD to MicroSD Adapter for Raspberry Pi

Here's something I've been looking for.  This permits you to use a microsd card on the PI and also eliminates the SD card sticking out of the back past the pc board.  

Unfortunately the shipping at MCMElectronics is silly - so this device costs 9 bucks to ship which makes it impracticsl =(

When I get this sorted out I'll post it.

The absolute best arcade game controller in the world.

If you haven't already met it, I'd like to introduce you to the best arcade controller in the world.  I've had mine for well over 15 years and it's going strong.  Not a single switch broken, and I angrily pound the crap out of it.

X-Arcade Tankstick + Trackball

This controller has everything you ever need to run MAME and run it like a pro.  Don't know what MAME is?  Why, please step over here.

I've ordered an "RSMMC" card from MemoryTen to use as a boot loader for my raspi.  It's 128megs and a slightly different format than the memory that is usually used on raspberry pi - so there is some experimentation to do to see if this will work to boot my pi. It was 5 bucks, so not a huge loss if it doesn't turn out to work.

 

All I intend to store on it is the /boot partition, with a cmdline.txt that points to my actual root drive.  In my case, my pi uses a USB HD as the primary drive so my cmdline.txt looks like :

dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=ttyAMA0,115200 kgdboc=ttyAMA0,115200 console=tty1 r
oot=/dev/sda3 rootfstype=ext4 elevator=deadline rootwait

The important to notice change here is "root=/dev/sda3" - or the third partition on my USB Hard drive.  I have reserved a boot partition and I use /dev/sda2 as swap.

With this configuration, the only thing my raspi uses the SD card for is load the bootcode and kernel, and then mounts my USB HD as the root drive.

I've found a perfect solution to the half length mounts for a boot device for the raspi.

Norcent microSD Trio Memory Card w/USB/SD Adapter

 

If you notice, it has a perfect half-length microSD adapter with a usb 'tail' which can be safely removed, leaving us with only a tidy half-length SD adapter.  Now the only problem is finding one, as they seem to be sold out everywhere.

Once I get my hands on one I'll document my modifications.

I'm always looking for self-powered, very small form factor USB hubs that I can jam into a housing with the raspi.  This post is intended to be a collection of some of the more interesting ones I discover.

This is the NZXT IU01, which is a bareboard USB hub with 6 'internal' connectors.  These internal connectors are useful because they can be broken out with standard PC front panel USB connectors to permit mounting external USB ports on an enclosure.  USB ports mounted on an enclosure are considerably more rugged than USB ports directly on the board, as damage would be limited to the connector and not potentially the controller PCB.

NZXT IU01 Internal USB Hub [IU01]

I stumbled across this article while looking for a mini USB hub that I could disassemble for the power for my raspberry pi.  In it, the author has done pretty much what I'm considering doing which is to reduce the resistance on the incoming power connector, and make a better connection to power for the raspberry pi as well as power the whole kit via a powered USB hub with ~2A PSU.

The basic theory here is that he has unsoldered the power input usb thus :

and then soldered a connector directly from his raspi to the USB hub :

The idea then is to use a very small form factor USB hub with a decent power supply like the VAKOSS 4-port which can be dismantled :



... and wire the raspi directly to the hub, eliminating resistance from the microjack.  The other improvement is that all of the power in the system (keyboard, mouse, USB HD, etc.) all now come from the usb hub, rather than passing through the raspi.

Happy hacking!

One of my raspis is intended to be an electronics experiment, using the logic from the pi to manipulate TTL.  Towards that end I am looking for some tools that help that kind of experimentation, and I've found these things :

Cover with Breadboard Area for Raspberry Pi - Large

Once you have that together, you'll need a breakout cable for the raspi - like this :

How to make a breakout adapter (instructibles.com)

Or alternately you can buy one from adafruit.com :

Adafruit Pi Cobbler Breakout Kit for Raspberry Pi 

To wrap it all up - let me present to you a simple project put together by the good folks at liminastudio.com.

Tutorial: How to use your Raspberry Pi like an Arduino

Until next time kids, happy hacking and remember - you don't stop playing because you get old, you get old because you stop playing.