I had a little solar powered power bank from Blackberry cybersecurity that i decided to tear apart and build into this.
It uses any 11.5 mm momentary switch for power.
The power bank I used and disassembled seems to be this model.
Be sure to print the bottom half with the front (the side with the pi USB and ethernet) facing down and print with supports. printing it in that orientation takes longer but uses less filament and doesn't flood the battery slot with filament. any orientation on the top half will do.
Needed components:
-11.5mm power button
-spare USB male (sap power for pi)
-power bank
-pi 3 (any model should do)
-double sided tape (not thin, paper-like but thicker and rubber or foam like)
-4x m2 screws (10mm-14mm should suffice)
-at least 2x M3 screws to secure the pi.
-at least two DuPont female connectors
Assembly:
-mount pi at any point before lid.
-disassemble bank
-extend connections for the panel and the battery by around 90mm.
-slide battery into slot underneath the pi
-mount BMS board under the lid with the micro USB port poking through the hole above the pi IO. this is for charging indoors. Use double sided tape for this.
-push the solar panel into the top section. I would recommend not taping/gluing the panel down until AFTER you have secured the lid using 4x m2 10mm or greater screws.
-create the power cable by using the USB male. splice the negative wire to the power button, and then splice the power button to your negative DuPont header. splice the positive to the other DuPont and install onto the ground and 5v GPIO pins.
OPTIONAL- remove the LED from the power bank to make it a bit more compact. you shouldn't need to wire the power button on the bank since it turns on/off when something is connected to the USB port (hence using the momentary switch)
Im running Alpine Linux on mine.
If you have any questions, leave a comment and I will try my best to answer them.
If you make one, be sure to post a make!
The author marked this model as their own original creation.