Wanted: Better power adapter for Pinebook.

[MarkHaysHarris777]

It'd be great to get a better power adapter for the Pinebook (e.g. longer cable, in-line power brick instead of wall wart). <snip>

   

This is a pice (above) of the 2m cable (80 inches) from the Pine store. With the cable is pictured my 3000mah 12v SLA with CPT (car power technology) dc-dc converter;  modified for usb output. The SLA has the CPT package taped to the case, and the usb female connector is adapted using standard header pins & connectors. 

I designed this to be used with my pine boards aboard the sailboat, but it works equally well camping or from the office (Caribou Coffee House). The SLA is recharged via solar panel ( for those of you living off the grid ) and the batt-CPT combo is used to extend the range of the Pinebook by about 4-5 hours.

The way to use this setup is to have the SLA CPT batt plugged in to the Pinebook with a full charge on both!  The SLA is drained first, and then at some opportune moment the SLA is unplugged and the internal lipo takes over.  This gives me all day at the office without any extension cords.  ( or all day anchored at a cove on the sailboat )

At home we have mains extensions permanently installed at various strategic locations (lazy boy chair, kitchen table, library reading chair, etc).  The wall wart works great in those places;  but, you may be missing the entire point of the Pinebook;  inexpensive portability !  There should be no in-line power adapter bricks ...  just an opinion of course.  And, actually, I have found that with suspend and between use bootups I actually get several days from my Pinebook without any external power whatever.

One last thing to keep in mind;  your lipo batt is going to want to be cycled !  This is very important;  don't just plug that thing in and run it from mains all the time-- that will ruin the lipo and|or shorten its life !