by daveesl77 » Fri Dec 09, 2016 9:19 am
I got my PNY 128GB SSD in yesterday and that changed everything. The test I've been running is having BerryBoot (the opsys selector program) running on an old 4GB, class 4, SD card and the 5 operating systems I'm testing running on the SSD. The SSD is in an old 2.5" external HD case with USB 2 to sata board inside.
I'm using a multi-tap USB power strip, with each of the 6 ports capable of delivering 2.4 amp. Each port has its own on/off switch and is powered by 12v.
As in all previous dual power tests I've done, I run a direct power line to the Pi and a data/power line from the USB and the Pi to the SSD. BerryBoot is up in about 5 seconds. Gnome Mate 16.04 takes perhaps 15 seconds to fully boot, OpenElec about 20 to boot and load all the options I've put on (like OpenVPN), LibreElec is about the same. Raspbian is about a 10 second boot, but I really don't like that operating system. Lubuntu 15 is about 15 seconds, but I don't have it loaded down yet with options.
The SSD runs absolutely cool. I ran over 6 hours of streaming 1080 over wifi yesterday and not a single problem, lag, stutter or lockup. I also cloned the class 4 to a class 10 and could not detect any difference at all in the initial boot time (BerryBoot, not the opsys). In reality, all BerryBoot is doing is just acting as a start menu for whatever you have loaded, so it has almost no write cycles. All the work is done on the SSD, not the SD. Thus the chance of SD corruption is dramatically minimized. I'm not sure I would gain anything by going with the all SSD setup now seeing how this is working.
I found a couple of videos on how to convert a 19" Phillips LCD tv I got in a trade with a neighbor to straight 12 volt operation. Looks pretty straightforward. Also for an HP 17" monitor. I'll see which one draws less power, but the Phillips has all the "TV" type stuff built in. Looking to convert one of those for full time use in the camper. EDIT: Surprisingly, the Phillips TV draws 55 watts at 120v, while the HP draws 130 watts at 120v. Got to figure a good bit of both of those numbers are the transformers and bridges that convert the 120 ac to 12 dc. More to come on this.
I'll now build a small box to hold the entire computer/media system with fan. This gives me exactly what I wanted, assuming it continues to work properly. A very small footprint, fast, stable computer, that can be easily moved from house to camper to van and uses very small amounts of power. The experiment continues, but for now, I'm impressed!
dave