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Mac mini Sans Wires - Batteries Inside the Case

Posted by timothy on from the why-do-you-ask-why dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Running Debian (or Linux generally) on a Mac mini is old news. Silas installed rechargable batteries inside the case, delivering a couple of hours of runtime while retaining the small form factor. Although it runs fine without wires, he had to plug in the monitor to be able to show that it was really up."

6 of 317 comments (clear)

  1. 4Ah 20V battery and 1:50 runtime = 40W draw? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The author says he measured 14-20W for the mac mini under load, but his 80W-Hr battery only lasted 1H:50M, implying a 40W+ power draw.

    Am I missing something?

    1. Re:4Ah 20V battery and 1:50 runtime = 40W draw? by enosys · · Score: 3, Interesting
      The author says he measured 14-20W for the mac mini under load, but his 80W-Hr battery only lasted 1H:50M, implying a 40W+ power draw.

      It's not that simple. It's not like the batteries supply 80W-Hr of power at their rated voltage and then shut down. With most types of batteries the voltage drops slowly as they discharge. Batteries also aren't perfect voltage sources. They have internal resistance, which means that if you draw more current the voltage will drop. I suspect the voltage got too low because of these two factors and the Mac Mini crashed or shut down. The batteries might still be able to power a flashlight.

  2. Re:External Batty pack + VNC by jamie · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Macs are sometimes a little too smart for VNC -- if they do not detect a monitor connected, they do not create a console display and the VNC server will fail because it does not have a display

    Old Macs, maybe. I had to plug in a display dongle to a Mac IIci server back around 1995. But the Mac mini doesn't need one. I have a mini in my basement, and it works fine over VNC with nothing plugged into its video port.

  3. Moving it to another room by Space+Coyote · · Score: 3, Interesting

    One of the things I tend to use the battery in my laptop for most is to keep the thing on when I move from one room to the other in the house and then plug in again. Seems like a sensible thing someone would want to do with a mini, to go from a desk in a study over to the bedroom or to the stereo to play some music for a while without having to shut down and restart.

    --
    ___
    Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum.
  4. Re:Yes, but by WD_40 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A small-footprint webserver with a built-in UPS.

    --

    "With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine." -- RFC 1925

  5. Re:Yes, but by danigiri · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A lot.

    I am working on a research project that deals with Augmented Reality (basically VR goggles that are see through).

    AR deals with guys that hang around somewhere and use the following simultaneously to do some shit:

    - GPS receiver: to know where one is going and have data referenced following position

    - See-thru goggles that display geographical information (coming from an VGA port)

    - PDA or some sort of input/otput device

    - Wireless: for network stuff and group behaviour

    - Database: some sort of sane data repository that can be updated

    - Bluetooth: problably to connect all these devices together and not strangle the users with cabling

    Yeah, an small/light non-custom-built machine that can deal with all this easily would be great indeed. Oh, and sane developer tools as well.

    Once proof of concept and prototyping is done, someone else will find the funding for embedded custom development.