How-To: Build a Solar Powered Raspberry Pi

While messing around with a bunch of parts I purchased from Adafruit, I ended up building a solar powered Raspberry Pi.

The build is pretty simple once you get everything soldered on correctly.

I’ll be following up this tutorial with another post detailing the ‘why’ behind this project, the final product design, as well as some really cool software I’m building to demo what this device is capable of.

To get started building your own solar powered Pi, check out the materials list below. Once you’ve got that down, watch the video for a step-by-step tutorial on how to put it all together.

*Note: this is not a full tutorial – there are several installation steps involved that I do not cover, but you can find existing tutorials on how to acomplish this on learn.adafruit.com.

Build List (Hardware):

Raspberry Pi: https://www.adafruit.com/products/998
Pi TFT 2.5’ Touchscreen: https://www.adafruit.com/products/1601
PiBow PiTFT Acrylic Case: https://www.adafruit.com/products/1723
8 GB SD Card w/ Noobs: https://www.adafruit.com/products/1583

Mini Wifi USB (802.11b/g/n): https://www.adafruit.com/products/814
Mini Wireless Keyboard w/ Touchpad: https://www.adafruit.com/products/922

Solar Panel (2W, 6V): https://www.adafruit.com/products/200
DC / LiPoly Charger: https://www.adafruit.com/products/390
LiPoly Battery (3.7V, 2500mAH): https://www.adafruit.com/products/328
DC Power Adapter (2.1mm): https://www.adafruit.com/products/369
Powerboost 500 (5v USB @ 500mA): https://www.adafruit.com/products/1903

How to Build: