Homebrewed Laptop?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chuck
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C

Chuck

I'm looking to make a computer that will use desktop components, in a
portable format.

Most of the components won't be a problem at all. An all-in-one
motherboard removes the need for using the PCI slots, and a cheep LCD
screen could be modded to fit.

My biggest problem is that I want to make it truly portable, I will
need a portable power solution.

Does any one know of an off the shelf, or relatively easy solution for
converting power (say from a number of 9.6 volt 1800 mAh NiMh
Rechargeable Battery Packs) to something that I could plug into a
motherboard, hard drive, and possibly a LCD screen?

-Chuck. (www.wormspeaker.com)
_____________________________________________________
Spread love and understanding...
but don't be afraid to bloody your knuckles doing it.
-Alex Ross
 
Chuck said:
I'm looking to make a computer that will use desktop components, in a
portable format.

Most of the components won't be a problem at all. An all-in-one
motherboard removes the need for using the PCI slots, and a cheep LCD
screen could be modded to fit.

My biggest problem is that I want to make it truly portable, I will
need a portable power solution.

Does any one know of an off the shelf, or relatively easy solution for
converting power (say from a number of 9.6 volt 1800 mAh NiMh
Rechargeable Battery Packs) to something that I could plug into a
motherboard, hard drive, and possibly a LCD screen?
Click to expand...

Many LCD monitors use external PSU brick and thus run on 12V.

DC to DC converters for EPIA mobos:
http://www.procase.com.tw/whatnew.htm
http://www.mini-box.com/pw-60.htm
http://www.mini-box.com/pw-70.htm
Lex mobos don't need converters, they run on 12V directly:
http://www.lex.com.tw/index1.htm

However, all these mobos are not very powerful computers. The best are
equivalent to a 1000MHz Celeron.
They also require fairly steady 12V (plus or minus 5%) according to their
specs. They may have wider capability, you'd need to test. I have a Lex
CV860A on test here but no variable PSU to experiment with.
 
I'm looking to make a computer that will use desktop components, in a
portable format.

Most of the components won't be a problem at all. An all-in-one
motherboard removes the need for using the PCI slots, and a cheep LCD
screen could be modded to fit.

My biggest problem is that I want to make it truly portable, I will
need a portable power solution.

Does any one know of an off the shelf, or relatively easy solution for
converting power (say from a number of 9.6 volt 1800 mAh NiMh
Rechargeable Battery Packs) to something that I could plug into a
motherboard, hard drive, and possibly a LCD screen?

-Chuck. (www.wormspeaker.com)
_____________________________________________________
Spread love and understanding...
but don't be afraid to bloody your knuckles doing it.
-Alex Ross
Click to expand...

Look at using GelCels, 12 volts worth, and a small atx power supply
designed to run off a car battery. You will need the higher Ah rating
because desktop components draw much more power than laptop ones. I would
also look at something like the EPIA from VIA. Typical desktop processors
at the low end from AMD or Intel pull about 30 whats by themselves Add in
losses from powersupplies and regulators, motherboard electronics etc.. and
you get to 50 watts very fast, which means a 12v 7ah Gel Cell would last
you just a little over an hour of run time. NIMH battery packs would be
drained in minutes. Some of the EPIA boards are down to 10 watt range.
Might also want to look at some of the embeded computer products like
PC104, etc. They have small single board computers that will run directly
from battery.

JT
 
The reference mobo is "only" $1k As for the pricier ones, do us all a
favor! Invest the 5k, start a trend, and prices will eventually come
down. When a laptop momo will cost $65 I'll buy one. I promise.

Now, FWIW, I also have an Edinburgh URL of a co. that sells self build
laptops:

http://www.aqualaptops.co.uk/acatalog/Carcass.html

Choose as many/few bits as you want, and put it together.

Carcass does not sound inviting. I sort of see the vultures circling.
But I think it actually refers to the "box", not to dead cattle, which
is usually not intel compatible.

BR

Filippo
 
What would your home-brew do that an off the shelf laptop would not?

Be cheap :-)

Ewan
 
Ewan Sinclair said:
Be cheap :-)

Ewan
Click to expand...

Check out the ECS i-Buddie 4 notebook - it's actually a "Desknote" ie
it uses desktop parts - drive, processor, etc. but in a (very heavy)
notebook format. It can use a battery or a plug in. It comes in Intel,
AMD, Via C3, and Transmeta formats, as a barebone (no CPU, drive, or
battery). See:

http://www.ecsusa.com/aboutUs/r_p4ibuddie.html

for examples. I'm not sure about UK sources.

A cheaper alternative: Check out any of the numerous I-Flex Mini
systems such as those by Shuttle, ASUS, etc. there are some that are
TINY - I've seen them about the size of an external HDD enclosure! Add
a small LCD screen - the whole thing could be carried in a regular
backpack, or even a notebook bag - I've seen it done. Probably 25%
less than the Desknote. Downside - it needs a regular wall plugin....
"portable" in one sense but you won't be using it in the middle of a
grassy field.

Good Luck!
ECM
 
Be cheap :-)
Hard to do!

Desktops are normally cheaper to buy ready made than taylor-assembled
or self-built, all things equal.

You may want to assemble a desktop if you buy low-performance parts
(maybe high quality, but yesterday's) or if you want to spend a bit
more and buy parts you investigate and select one by one - eg for
better reliability, better drivers, better features, Linux
compatibility or whatever.

Some people (like me) dislike not knowing beforehand exactly what kind
of traps the Dells of this world will put in a box. Not necessarily a
bad thing per se, it just depends on what you're after.

In a sense, Dell assembles as you tell them, but does NOT taylor-make
computers. Go to their site and see what amount of info you can
actually get on the individual parts: do you get to know exactly what
brand and model HD, mobo, optical, NIC, FD, video, audio you are
getting? And if you do, do they give you much choice?

Depending on your job, the time you spend building and investigating
may easily be worth more than any hypothetical savings.


SUGGESTED ALTERNATIVE to a self-assembled laptop:
- Look at the secondhand market.
- Read up on older models from different points of view:
.. * reviews / epinions / newsgroups etc etc
.. * (if you care) compatibility with Linux or whatever
.. * available upgrades and spares
.. > original and third party
.. > upgrades: memory, hard disk
.. > spares: battery, PSU, screen, fan, screen DC converter
.. * manufacturer's upgrade or surgery guides (sometime they exist)

Once you can find your way around all this, you'll certainly be
comfortable chosing a 2ndhand laptop and not too shy to crack it open
and upgrade it.


Also, if you're VERY cheap, you may like the concept of living but
screenless laptop. Lappies with bad screens can be had for little $$.
Some are fixable, almost ALL (check!!) will run an external monitor
and/or make a good showing as headless home servers (file server,
firewall, whatever).


Another piece of advice: unless you are into high-FPS gaming, even a
slowpoke machine can go a very long way.


My laptop machine (the only lappie left after a burglary this August),
used for mail, web, streaming media, office productivity, music
playback etc. is an old Tosh with a 333MHz K6-II, with an aftermarket
20GB drive and just 96MB of RAM.

I run a slightly hacked (configured for discipline and survivability)
Win98FE and a stock Debian Linux 3.0 on it. Not a bolt, but quite
usable and decently stable.

Filippo
 
Alien Zord said:
DC to DC converters for EPIA mobos:
http://www.procase.com.tw/whatnew.htm
http://www.mini-box.com/pw-60.htm
http://www.mini-box.com/pw-70.htm
Lex mobos don't need converters, they run on 12V directly:
http://www.lex.com.tw/index1.htm
Click to expand...

Stay away from EPIA mobos. I bought an EPIA M10000 Nehemiah and I
regret it so much that I advise all my friends to purchase _anything_
but VIA-based products.

The VIA forum for EPIA mobos is full of _unanswered_ problems.
Apparently, VIA established users forums instead of providing real
tech support. Read on:

http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview.cfm?catid=32&threadid=46622
http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview.cfm?catid=32&threadid=44623
http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview.cfm?catid=32&threadid=47575
 
Ouch, I was about to buy one of those too. Thanks for pointing that out! I
guess I'll have to find something that actually works.

Ewan
 
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