Reddit reviews SmartiPi Touch 1 - Case for The Official Raspberry Pi 7" Touchscreen Display - Adjustable Angle

It really depends on the level of complexity you want to get into.

Want something that will take you 4 minutes to put together? Here's what you need:

• Official Raspberry Pi screen
  
• Raspberry Pi screen and board case - There's 2 major options here. Option 1 or Option 2
  
• A portable battery pack - This one is just an example, there's so many to choose from with size and weight being the biggest factors.
  
  Again, this is hassle-free and the quickest route to go. What you'll still need:
  
  
• Bluetooth controller
  
• Headphones
  
  I can go into more detail if you're interested in something like this.
  
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  EDIT: Sounds like there's some interest, so here's my additional notes.
  
  First off, let me say that I do not take any credit for this idea. I was pushed-over-the-top by this Reddit post. With that said, I can add my personal experience onto things.
  
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  About the case - Like I mentioned earlier, there's 2 major options for the case, both with pros and cons. In no particular order ...
  
  Option 1: LoveRPi Premium Black Case for Official Raspberry Pi 7" Touch Screen Display and Camera
  
  
• Pro - The case is very compact. There's room to affix a small battery onto the backside of it.
  
• Pro - The case comes with shortened cables (when compared to what's bundled with the Official Screen). This keeps the wire clutter down to a minimum.
  
• Neutral - Upon installation, the screen needs to be flipped (sudo nano /boot/config.txt ... add "display_rotate=2" to it). This isn't a deal breaker, but it was necessary for the case's functional design.
  
• Neutral - There's no easy way to have the HDMI port become the active visual output upon cable connection. There's no simple toggle for this.
  
• Con - The viewing angle is very difficult at times. With most portable consoles, you adjust the screen to meet your head's angle. Although possible, it's not easy.
  
  Option 2: Case for the Official Raspberry Pi 7" Touchscreen Display - Adjustable angle
  
  
• Pro - The case allows for 3 major viewing angles. Although it's not 100 adjustable, it's better than nothing.
  
• Neutral - There's no easy way to have the HDMI port become the active visual output upon cable connection. There's no simple toggle for this.
  
• Con - For 100% portable gaming users, the solution isn't fully enclosed. You can poke the ribbon cable. You can touch a GPIO pin.
  
• Con - Size. It's bit bigger than the other case and there's no room to flush mount a battery pack.
  
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  About the audio output - The 3.5mm headphone jack becomes your primary audio output. There's a way to control the volume output on the RetroPie's menu screens. Unless you have in-line volume controls on your headphones, you may need something like this..
  
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  Personally, I went with the LoveRPi Premium Black Case, Aukey battery, a shortened power cable, and the Koss VC20 Volume control.
  
  I don't have pictures with me, but the setup is pretty efficient. I didn't have to solder, cut any cables, or anything crazy. Connect the bits, tuck the cables, and go.
  

Make an all purpose travelpi.
Get a PI3, load it up with raspbian or your preferred OS and throw it together with this Screen and case combo. Add some heatsinks to keep it cool, put emulation station on there for all the downtime gaming action you could ask for. Then have some fun playing with accessories. Here's a bluetooth vehicle diagnostics monitor you can use with pyOBD to monitor any 96 and up vehicle to check gas mileage and check error codes. Here's a GPS module for logging miles and checking locations and for the times you just absolutely must get wifi no matter what heres an adapter and antenna that will reach out and touch someone in the next country.

Edit: game pads

Kerberos IO is optimized for Raspberry PI, so you can set up a cron script to run nightly and move or delete files older than a certain age.

I have not set that up myself yet, but so far that is my leading contender.

http://amzn.com/B06XTPY13N

http://amzn.com/B075HDVG28

http://amzn.com/B01HV97F64

http://amzn.com/B0153R2A9I

http://amzn.com/B00D0L5BH8

I built a similar project. I used this display and this case and have been thrilled with both.

the arm is just a small tv mount from fry's. I designed a bracket to attach the arm to the printer. the keyboard is a generic bluetooth keyboard with a 3d printed bracket to attach to the screen.
Here's the one used.

https://www.amazon.com/Case-Official-Raspberry-Touchscreen-Display/dp/B01HV97F64/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1539997299&sr=8-3&keywords=raspberry+pi+touchscreen+case&dpID=41kEuUfLUKL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

I'm currently using a LiFePO4wered/Pi+, specifically the model with the larger 18650 battery and stackable headers. It can be bought on Crowd Supply.

And according to the creator, it has been tested and is capable enough to work with a Pi4. I would probably be best to put a small heatsink on the unit for continuous high loads like with a Pi3B+ or Pi4.

This unit will not power a Pi3B+ or Pi4 for too long, maybe an hour at best at full load. I get around 2-3 hours of just general use on a Pi3B. However, it offers some huge advantages:

1. Powering a Pi from most portable USB batteries designed for cell phones might present a challenge. Quality differs on these, so YMMV. Sometimes you will get a voltage dip on the output when you plug in a charger which might cause the Pi to hang or crash.
   
2. There are also other UPS units out there for the Pi, but I haven't seen any that can put out a constant 5.0v 2A like this unit can. Some are rated for 1.5A only which might be fine for a Zero, Pi2, or Pi3... but could struggle with 3B+ or 4. This will depend on the device you use. Hopefully in the future there will be more choices.
   
3. It uses a Lithium Iron Phosphate battery (LiFePo4), which has significantly more charge cycles at the cost of slightly less capacity when compared to other Lithium battery types.
   
   So what I recommend doing is combining a UPS unit of your choice (although the one I listed is highly recommended) with a separate power source such as any large USB battery or any USB phone charger. This will prevent interruptions in power when swapping batteries or plugging in power. It will also mean you have a power button with software assisted safe-shutdowns.
   
   On my setup I am currently using a Pi3B (non+) with the LiFePo4wered Pi+ (with 18650 battery and stackable header option), and an Anker PowerCore Fusion 5000mAh battery with built-in charger. Since I have my Pi3B inside a SmartiPi case with the official 7" touchscreen (similar to the other Cyberdecks built here) and I put a large heatsink on the Pi, it isn't possible for me to mount the LiFePo4wered Pi+ directly on top of the Pi like other HAT's. I bought the LiFePo4wered Pi with the stackable header option and a 40pin GPIO cable to link the 2 units and mounted it down below the screen. For those of you that might attempt this same setup with an Offical 7" LCD, make sure you install software for the LiFePo4wered Pi unit BEFORE you plug-in the hardware. Having both the touchscreen and the LiFePo4wered Pi unit installed without the software will cause a hardware or software conflict and the Pi and screen will lockup at EXACTLY 600 seconds (10 minutes).

• 7" Touchscreen
  
• Touchscreen Case
  
• 15+ hour battery
  
  The screen draws its power from the Pi's 5v GPIO, so you should only have to plug the Pi into the battery. With this setup plus a USB/Bluetooth controller, you should have a fully-portable setup with no nasty wire mess!
  
  Hope that helps!

I have the official case from Raspberry Pi and its pretty good. It doesnt come with a way of mounting so I am currently working on mounting in my car but it won't benefit anyone else unless you have a 08' Hyundai Elantra...

There is the SmartPi Touch case that has two different kinds of mounting feet that might work for most people

Official: https://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Pi-7-Inch-Touch-Screen/dp/B01GQFUWIC

SmartPi Touch: https://www.amazon.com/Case-Official-Raspberry-Touchscreen-Display/dp/B01HV97F64/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_147_tr_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=VFWHH7QV2N9FSQ96NS6V

I am using the Smartipi case which comes with the Y adapter. https://www.amazon.com/Case-Official-Raspberry-Touchscreen-Display/dp/B01HV97F64/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1521139404&sr=8-1&keywords=smartipi

Boot up is 10 seconds max. Works great.

If you check they're website there you can find a 7" monitor I think it's a mini hdmi not sure though
you can buy this so it'll be like 7" thick tablet or something

Ah ok. The "magic mirror" thing was what got me. I might have to do this as well, though I have done mountable cases I got from a kickstarter. Idk if it's available over there. SmartiPi Touch case for The Official Raspberry Pi 7" Touchscreen Display - Adjustable Angle https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HV97F64/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_MCf3Cb1HGK598

Looks promising, will try soon, do you know how I would fit it all in with this case? (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HV97F64/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_jyJ6BbX8BJSFP) It is alot different and don't know if I can get to the GPIO pins with it.

Be careful - the Mega is not fully compatible with all shields made for the Uno. The SPI pins are not in the same place, which means that display shields don't always work as intended. The display that I have, for example, has a micro SD card slot on it but a pin mismatch means that the card slot doesn't work on the Mega. Everything else works, though.

You don't have to use shields/hats/whatever. You can just use sensors attached with wires - IMO it's actually easier this way. A normal Arduino resistive touchscreen only takes up like 6 pins, even though a hat could block all the pins on the Uno.

The only real problem is finding something to mount all the different parts to, but a piece of plastic and some double-sided foam tape is usually good enough. If you do it this way, the Pi is actually way easier to deal with, especially if you use something that can be attached using a ribbon cable.

Combine these items (below), for example, and you get a propped-up touchscreen display that still leaves the GPIO pins exposed on the back. There are like 17 pins available, not including I2C and SPI, which are what you'd use for your sensors.

Control of the pins on the Pi is pretty easy using wiringPi library; not a lot different from Arduino.

https://www.amazon.com/Case-Official-Raspberry-Touchscreen-Display/dp/B01HV97F64

https://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Pi-7-Touchscreen-Display/dp/B0153R2A9I

It might be fun to have your Arduino attached to sensors and a radio transmitter that sends to a Pi, which has the touch screen and control software on it, and communicates with a different Arduino that controls valves/sunlight/whatever.

I want to get a raspberry pi that I can use as a word processor while I'm laying in bed with my keyboard. So far I know I've got to get the pi 3 model b, the official 7 inch touch screen, and then this case.

Besides cables, a power supply, sd card, is there anything else I'll need to get?