[Arm-netbook] modifying a 7 inch notebook cabinet to accept a pc card

ronwirring at Safe-mail.net ronwirring at Safe-mail.net
Thu May 25 22:33:02 BST 2017


On another forum I asked about the practicability of modifying a 7 inch notebook cabinet to become pc card compatible. Lkcl rejected my suggestion. He argued, that keyboard, sound, batteri etc would require custom pcbs. Expenses worth thousand of eus. Doing it wrong and the computer could catch fire.   
I am not going to spend thousand of eus. I will try to modify a computer. I have no expectation, that I will be able to do it. 
I have come to think that the pc card is a raspberry pi. If your display is hdmi and other devices are usb, then you have a computer.
On youtube I found a person who had turned notebook's touchpad into an usb touchpad.
I asked him about modifying these notebook devices to usb:
speakers -> use an usb soundcard
mic -> use an usb soundcard
camera -> notebooks camera may be an usb device. Else get an usb camera.
touchpad -> many synaptic touchpads are usb compatible. I do not know what to do about the left and right buttons.
keyboard -> that will be difficult.

battery -> likely difficult. At least if you want to be able to charge and have the computer turned on at the same time.
display -> either get a lvds to hdmi converter or get a hdmi display. I do not now if a 7 inch hdmi display requires separate power.

It appears the keyboard is the biggest difficulty. On his website one person wrote about modifying a notebook keyboard to an usb keyboard. He wrote it is about getting a controller which will fit the keyboard's wiring. Then it is a matter of mapping the keys correctly. I do not know about powering the keyboard or rather the controller.

I bought a 7 inch display asus eee pc 4g. If you get to use the battery cabinet, there ought to be space for the devices. Tell me what you say?



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