Raspberry Pi Mini Desktop

Intro

So with this project, I decided to use up my pretty much useless raspberry pi that I haven’t used at all and make something actually kinda useful. I ended up spending about 80 dollars on it, not including the tools nor the raspberry pi which is the heart of this machine. I use it mainly for python programming and I plan on using it as a mini emulator station to take to school and play with my friends when it is a slow day.

Materials

Waveshare 5 Inch Screen ~40$

Screen Back

Edimax Wifi Dongle ~10$

Wireless Keyboard ~15$

RIght Angle USB, Male Header x 2 Micro USB, USB Power Switch

Monoprice 7 Port USB Hub ~10$

Rasperry Pi ~25$

The Pi Desktop 

Without Keyboard

With Keyboard

Boot

Desktop

MCPI

MCPI Front

Notes:

I wanted to show how to install the Drivers for the touchscreen without having to use the included CD, just in case the disc is not included or if you want to use a different version of Raspbian other than the version included

After you install NOOBS on your Raspberry Pi, you can go into the config.txt in /boot/config.txt from your browser, or uses ssh and type in sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Then you need to modify the text in the file to include this set

# uncomment if hdmi display is not detected and composite is being output
hdmi_force_hotplug=1

# uncomment to force a specific HDMI mode (here we are forcing 800×480!)
hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=1
hdmi_mode=87
hdmi_cvt 800 480 60 6 0 0 0

start_file=start_x.elf
fixup_file=fixup_x.elf
gpu_mem=128

You need this to make sure you force HDMI and have the right resolution or else your raspberry pi will not display anything.

The screen would look broken if this was not inputted into the config file.

Now install the drivers for the LCD screen by installing the touch screen drivers with this like http://www.waveshare.net/w/upload/7/73/LCD-show.tar.gz

Or optionally, google LCD-show.tar.gz

After the file is in your RPi, type in this code

cd /home/pi/LCD-show
sudo ./LCD5-show

After the install, the RPi should reboot and then you would need to run the calibration, by typing into the console

cd /home/pi/LCD-show
sudo dpkg -i -B xinput-calibrator_0.7.5-1_armhf.deb
su pi
DISPLAY=:0.0 xinput_calibrator

Koss Sportapro Full Review : Cheaper PortaPro, or a Failure?

TL;DR: A great pair of headphones that are really easy to listen to, with a great sound stage, and very comfortable on the ears, except for when the headband is folded back.

---

When I was shopping for a a cheap pair of beater headphones when my Tascam TH-02 pair broke, I did my normal run to the Head-Fi forums and looked at the recommended list of headphones. The most appealing headphone to me at the time was the Koss PortaPros, which had great reviews telling of a abundance of warmth and fun sound signature. I added the PortaPros to my cart, but then I saw the SportaPros, which kind of caught my eye. They were built specifically with exercise in mind, which is very relevant to me, as I tend to like working out. In addition to that, they were about 20 dollars cheaper than the PortaPros at the time (20 dollars to 40 dollars), and came with a fairly nice headphone bag. I looked up the reviews and lo and behold, there were almost no complete reviews, only small paragraphs explaining not much about the overall headphone. Nevertheless, I took the risk and bought it anyways because I wanted to experiment on and review a pair that nobody really knows about.

I’ve had these for about two months of heavy use, using them almost every day for both exercising and general music/gaming. They’ve held up great in that regard, with them honestly looks just as how I took them out of the packaging. As for the audio quality, I haven’t even heard a difference between then and now, as it sounds just as good, so a burn in might do little to nothing to the audio quality. As for the total quality, these headphones are a joy to listen to. They are pretty well rounded, sounding generally very warm overall. Songs like u by Kendrick Lamar sound great, with the bass not being to boomy, but a bit muddy. The highs are great as well, with songs like i by Kendrick Lamar able to deliver the full depth of the high electric guitar riffs. Overall. they are a very good sounding pair of headphones, and in my opinion, better sounding when compared to the TH-02’s, albeit without as much bass, but much better overall. As for the comfort, these headphones start to be very comfortable after a couple hours of wear and do not feel over-clamping on my head at all. I could easily wear these headphones for 12+ hours without any fatigue. One gripe I have is when the headphones are folded back. For me, the driver sits only partially on my ears, with the only the edge of the driver not hovering. This results in the headphones not as secure on my head as I would like, so I use the headphones folded up, which is what I prefer anyways. Another con of these headphones is the isolation. You could hear much of everything that is going around you, as they don’t provide much protection from outside noise. Other people could also hear my headphones to an extent, as in sitting next to me on the bus while I am absolutely blasting music, but it’s not that bad as some other earphones, for example the Superlux 688. The last thing I dislike of these headphones is that they are so UGLY. They look incredibly cheap despite not sounding so, and resemble the headphones that you would find for 5 dollars at Big-Lots. I never wear them outside of exercising and my house, and that is a shame, because I prefer the sound of these compared to my Xiaomi Piston 3’s much better.

Pros 

Very Portable

Great Sound

Fairly Comfortable

Cheap ~23 dollars on amazon

Cons

Very Ugly

Bass can be muddy at times

Isolation can be bad at times

My Naive Review:

8/10

Surface Transducer – Beginner Electronic Project

This is a project I did last year for my physics teacher, when I first realized that I should probably start experiencing what I plan on doing with my life in the future, and I sure did enjoy it! This project involved using a surface transducer, which works much in the same way that a speaker driver does, but without the cone. Essentially, it can almost any object or material into a speaker! This project was still when I was very new to soldering, so my soldering is very bad, but it is a great way to get a beginner like me some experience with electronics and circuits.

Adafruit Medium Surface Transducer

MAX98306 3.7 W Amp, which drives enough power to make the transducer produce enough sound

And this 3.5 mm breadboard jack to plug in an auxiliary audio cable.

I also used an assortment of jumper cables, battery holders, a breadboard, and plexiglass for the case

It was pretty easy to assemble this, just solder the amplifier together according to the circuit diagram on the adafruit website, and then solder your power source and transducer to the amplifier.

The objects that work best with the transducer are large, solid objects. Glass works very well, in fact, the best out of all the surfaces. Wood is still able to drive an accurate sound, however it sounds muffled and a lot more quiet than glass. Metal surfaces display the full sound,but the sound is very distorted and echoey.

So if you want to find out how to do this, just follow this adafruit instruction video, with not exactly the same components, but should work perfectly with any of the transducers on the adafruit website.