Linux - Embedded & Single-board computerThis forum is for the discussion of Linux on both embedded devices and single-board computers (such as the Raspberry Pi, BeagleBoard and PandaBoard). Discussions involving Arduino, plug computers and other micro-controller like devices are also welcome.
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The first Raspberry Pi began a computing revolution, making it easier than ever before to buy and build a small computing device. As is often the case in computing, the first device was followed up by increasingly more powerful devices, with additional cost.
Raspberry Pi however isn't about profit, it's about use.
As such the newest device isn't more expensive,it's actually cheaper - a whole lot cheaper. The new Raspberry Pi retails for the absurdly low retail price of $5. No that's not a typo that's the price.
I have two raspberry PI's. One runs from a powered USB hub for $19.99, the other from a 1A phone charger after my son lost the phone. Both run headless and I installed the OS headless so the extra cost can still be quite low.
I got a backseat DVD player cheep from a thrift store, with inputs and an internal battery that makes a grate screen. Can always find cords there too; tho I live near lots of thrift stores, there's ebay++?
Thermionic coolers are energy pigs. If your system is meant to be portable then you would need a large power source for that system. Not very useful for a portable embed system or a remote system that would require independent power source just for the cooler. A fan that runs on 20 mA would be much better or just use a proper heat sink or heat pipe for the power hungry devices that require cooling.
Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!
The zero comes with wifi iirc, so you're not buying ethernet cables and hubs, which you would need for any of the other models. So you're still saving $30 on the price and another $10+ each on cables. Let's face it, you're probably not buying a pi for the compute cycles. Probably more to do with the pins and the option to offload tasks to dedicated computers. As in I don't want to run IRC, or an SSH "server" on my daily driver, given "other" options.
If you are going to use a Thermionic as a Thermoelectric generator (TEG) then you must size the sink area properly (TEG size). Thermal conduction for a thermionic can create issues if the sink (TEG) is not sized properly. You may need to introduce a block or heat sink. Energy created could be used to provide a small charge current that would require a charge controller that must be used for batteries to be safely used. You would not want that battery system to catch fire like the poorly designed hoverboards that are exploding when charging the lithium-ion battery. I would keep my battery system to a Ni-Cd and size for life of the system and charge cycles.
Personally, I would not use a TEG since the thermal conductivity can be low(necessary for TEG) for the materials used for the heat sink & Hot side of TEG size matching to the cooled device. Your use of a thermal paste between the TEG & device will introduce some losses due to poor heat transfer between devices, even though paste is used to maximize the transfer to the TEG, positive contact is a must have. You should use a sink to transfer between the device and TEG which TEG(area) alone would not provide maximum thermal transference for your cooled device to safely cool the device if TEG is under sized. If you oversized the TEG then there will be over lap that will not provide the best effect for the TEG.That is one reason to introduce a block between the cooled device and TEG for maximizing the transfer area.
Better off just dissipating with a heat sink the waste energy to insure device cooling. Plus a cheaper design with a proper sink sized for cooling.
Just my
Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!
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but the cables are sometimes 400% more than to make them yourself. 
