My Rock Pi X Lunchbox build

#1

Hi, I’m Steve and I’m new here.
I’m Starting a new thread to share by Lunch box build, hopefully I can answer some questions, Hopefully I can find answers to some questions.

Here is what I am building. the goal is a battery powered self contained windows 10 , touchscreen PC based on the Rock-Pi X single board PC platform .

Here is a picture of one of the first mock ups to see if this whole thing is going to be possible.

IMG_20201227_193021826%5B1%5D
IMG_20201227_193021826[1].jpg4096×3072 1.78 MB

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IMG_20201227_193237411[1].jpg3072×4096 2.1 MB

I’ll address the specifics as I run into / solve issues.

My current struggle is learning how to UPS ( Uninterrupted Power supply) this new board.
I did purchase a Pi Juice battery pack hat and it works out of the box to supply power to the board without a wall power supply attached.
However, the battery it comes with does not have enough output to power the touchscreen at the same time so I have to power the the screen separately from the wall.
I have some ideas on how to overcome that, some hardware is on the way and i will update as to successes or failures as that evolves.
I am having a hard time figuring out how to get windows to recognize the battery power, it would nice to have a an onscreen monitor like nearly all cell phones and laptops have but windows recognize the PiJuice hat as a laptop type power supply.

The Pijuice hat comes with downloadable software that will give me a GUI to do all of these things but it is a Linux based Gui so it doesn’t play nice with windows.

Any input on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks to the community for your time…

2 Likes
#2

Check any powerbank that have pass-through charging.

But as for how to be able to monitor % of charge… that’s indeed is not simply task, taking in account that we don’t have library to work with GPIO on Window yet

#3

Powerbank is on its way I think that will solve my portability issues, thanks .
I also read about the forthcoming libraries, maybe by the time I’m ready, they will be too.
Yup the battery monitor is going to be an issue, but not a deal breaker. I know the board is new and so is it’s following, I’m patient and wee will just have to see how it grows.

#4

How warm does it get inside? I was kind of surprised you’re not backing the X’s heatsink up to one of the sides of the lunchbox as a radiator.

#5

Not sure how warm it gets when fully enclosed still in the testing phase.
I tried to use the Radxa heat sink but it caused mounting issues , i chose instead to use a n Rasberry pie 4 heat sink with attached fan, so far no heating issues, will test it soon with a power bank as a power supply and be able to close it up and see if heat becomes an issue.
Will keep you updated.