If you are really serious about running your Raspberry Pi from batteries, you will have to prepare a budget for some extra equipment. These requirements will not clear out your bank account, but I will also include more expensive solutions and their benefits. This chapter is based on the minimum required equipment, which I typically use.
The minimum requirements are as follows:
A battery charging station
NiMH battery packs
A voltage regulator
These are the minimum parts required to get a fairly decent and safe battery power source.
The battery charging station and voltage regulator can be reused for years to come, and the only further expense will be new batteries or higher quality equipment parts.
The remaining chapter will use these parts as my test rig, and the estimated price of each component is as follows:
Charger: IMAX B6 (35 EUR/40 USD)
Batteries: 2 x 1500 mAh 6.0V NiMH High power series (18 EUR/22 USD)
Voltage regulator: 3 A/5 A UBEC with capacitor (4 EUR/6 USD)