http://rhombus-tech.net/community_ideas/laptop_15in/news/
just created a 5min video describing the casework: the parts for the base are now completed, i will move onto the screen next.
l.
+++ Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton [2015-07-09 15:01 +0100]:
http://rhombus-tech.net/community_ideas/laptop_15in/news/
just created a 5min video describing the casework: the parts for the base are now completed, i will move onto the screen next.
That looks really nice, luke.
How do the joins work (e.g along the top edge)? Are they screwed or slotted or clipped?
You know what looking at that case made me think of: project ara, with a nominally similar concept of a skeleton you put various components into (CPU, display, batteries etc). Looking into using the bus they've devloped to make bit-swapping more modular might be something to think about. It's all in the kernel already. The fancy magnetic hot-swap connectors will be hard to get currently no doubt, but any connector will do to start with.
The major design difference is that there is a core microcontroller on the ara design to manage the hotplugging, so that the CPU modules aren't special. Anyway this is probably a distraction as you already have a plan, but just thought I'd mention it.
Wookey
On Thu, Jul 9, 2015 at 3:44 PM, Wookey wookey@wookware.org wrote:
+++ Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton [2015-07-09 15:01 +0100]:
http://rhombus-tech.net/community_ideas/laptop_15in/news/
just created a 5min video describing the casework: the parts for the base are now completed, i will move onto the screen next.
That looks really nice, luke.
thanks. took long enough :)
How do the joins work (e.g along the top edge)? Are they screwed or slotted or clipped?
it's.... complicated :) there are eight pieces involved in the construction: left, centre and right vertical parts, then front and back edges, two each, horizontally, and then the touch panel tray.
the left and right edges have a bolt hole at each end, you can see a threaded bar sticking out horizontally from all four corners: these will be M2 phillips screw-headed bolts (or allen key hex-bolts) in the real thing.
in each of the front and back parts, a nut is placed into a channel where it can be pushed down into the right place. i'm having a leeetle difficulty with that, the channel is over 15mm deep.
the front of the vertical edge has, around the bolt hole, an indentation, and then just above it is a sticking-out bit.
the end of the horizontal edge has a corresponding sticking-out bit (bolt hole goes through that, leading to the nut channel), and it has a corresponding indentation to lock the sticking-out bit from the left edge.
both of these together lock the left and front edge absolutely solid when the bolt is in place. both sets of indentation-plus-sticking-out-bit are designed to be injection-molded using only 2-part molds.
the back edge is a little more complicated: same principle, but there has to be a channel running down the middle of the protrusion that locks into the left edge, because that's where the cable goes.
the middle part is held with M2 8mm screws. 4 at the back to hold the back-left and back-right edge. there is "stepping" in the two edges, so the screws towards the back actually go down deeper by about 4mm than the ones further towards the front. the middle part therefore has a couple of "wings" with corresponding "steps" in it. i'm going to alter this slightly to be more like the touchpanel.
there are another two screws that are *horizontal* and these go into a couple of flying wings attached to the middle part, screwing into the front edge, left and right. this was a bit of a complicated arrangement because the wings are off the ground (important when you think about 3D printing), you can't make the wings too thin because the screws would break..
the touchpanel part is screwed down in *seven* places. one is in the middle (from top) 4 are along the front edge (again top). the front of the touchpanel has a hidden strut all along its length: this fits into slots in the front edges. the idea is not to pack out the entire touchpanel with plastic (or the front edges) but to leave _just_ enough in each to give some strength so that things don't bend about due to being weak. saves the screws a bit from shearing sideways in their holes.
another 2 horizontal screws into flying wings lock the touchpanel into the front edges so that both front edges can't rotate about their main axis.
that's just the main parts - there's some internal parts for the keyboard tray, battery support, PCB support.
which is why it's taken since.... january to get this far!
You know what looking at that case made me think of: project ara, with a nominally similar concept of a skeleton you put various components into (CPU, display, batteries etc). Looking into using the bus they've devloped to make bit-swapping more modular might be something to think about.
grrr. i'm extremely disappointed and angry with google for using - and extending - a cartel there, based around MIPI. MIPI LCDs are *already* cartelled: MOQs are at least 100k units, possibly even higher: nobody wanting to do a base unit will even get the *slightest* opportunity there, despite several executives being jailed a few years ago. they just got a bit more subtle about it.
... and then google went and damn well extended MIPI with this UniPro stuff. go look up how many manufacturers of chipsets there are, there. first one in - with all the patents - will be the *last* one in.
luckily there are a couple of companies just coming out of stealth mode who have much better architectures than what google came up with. heck, the first was buglabs and that was *years* ago.
It's all in the kernel already. The fancy magnetic hot-swap connectors will be hard to get currently no doubt, but any connector will do to start with.
yes i figured using 8-pin SIM card connectors would do the job. 8 pins is just enough for USB2, power, I2C and a couple of pins GPIO. and SIM card connectors are designed to be slim, spring-loaded, you can PCB-print the pressure-points and gold-plate them... perfect.
with spring-loading you can even do a side-slide-in module, but i'd prefer a magnetic latch.
The major design difference is that there is a core microcontroller on the ara design to manage the hotplugging, so that the CPU modules aren't special.
well, USB2 is hot-pluggable. and it doesn't mind being disconnected. I2C is ok for hot-swapping if you keep it on a separate bus.
Anyway this is probably a distraction as you already have a plan, but just thought I'd mention it.
as you can see above, i have... :) the CPU module form-factor i want to use is CompactFlash. connectors are available, easily. have a 3D printer, can make casework.
i've even got a first suitable processor, for the first version: the Ingenic M150 - it has 128mb of LPDDR2 RAM *on board* in the same IC package. i'm not so bothered about the fact that it's only a 1ghz MIPS, nor about the fact that 128mb of RAM is such a small amount these days: the space in CompactFlash is unbelievably tight and i at least want to get _something_ out the door successfully on the first run that's affordable.
... but i'm still concentrating on EOMA68 at the moment.
l.
.. btw, wookey, don't laugh, but there's going to have to be a piece of string that wraps around a key in the left and right edges about 2/5ths the way along each edge, with another piece of string down the middle to pull the long one tight, in order to pull the left and right edges together.
the reason is because those left and right edges are really long (over 8 in) and quite thin, so they flex about 2 to 3 mm _real_ easily. the keyboard tray holder parts (at the front edge of the keyboard) are quite thin and flexible on their own i can make lock-in channels which stop them moving about, and they'll be backed up by the bamboo panels which stop them flexing...
... but what i _can't_ do - not without creating multi-part injection-molds or putting in more screws (and the parts are already only 3mm thick, and are non-structural, so i can't justify the plastic for a screw-hole) - is get the keyboard tray holder parts to "snap-lock" and stay attached in all 3 degrees of freedom. the lock-in channels can only stop 2 degrees of freedom.
so the only way to stop the other degree of freedom (which results in flexing of the left and right edge) is to use string *right* across the laptop, to pull the two edges together.
this is actually really really important to do, because if i don't, and the left or right edges flex even slgihtly, not only will the keyboard tray holders fall out of their slots, but the bamboo panels in the base will fall out, and the bamboo panel on the top to the right of the touchpanel will fall out, and there will be a gap down the side of the compartment lid on the left...
yes the panels are going to be held in place with 3M double-sided tape, but not everywhere. so those left and right edges being pulled in tight is quite critical.
l.
On Thu, Jul 9, 2015 at 4:58 PM, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton lkcl@lkcl.net wrote:
On Thu, Jul 9, 2015 at 3:44 PM, Wookey wookey@wookware.org wrote:
How do the joins work (e.g along the top edge)? Are they screwed or slotted or clipped?
it's.... complicated :)
and i decided to make it even more so, wookey - that'll be another 7 metres of plastic needed :) although the pieces at the front of the keyboard are quite flimsy i decided that yes, what the heck, put another couple of screws in.
perhaps wookey i will disassemble the whole thing and show how the parts fit together as a video, it'll be a few days because i have to redo these edge parts first.
l.
alright wookey, i figured reading huuuge amounts of text would be like "yeahright" so i did a disassembly video juuust for you :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27hS5PAiz2Q
l.
been meaning to say, it looks awesome luke, the pics a few posts ago and a cool smooth look. in the video the purple colour looks more like a funky purple than in the pics, I’m quite fond of a deep funky purple :).
oh with the keyboard will it be that layout or will/can it be one with a fn key next to the arow keys so you can, using one hand browser page up/down, home/end/ up,down,left,right. like on my asus 1011px keyboard. just ask for a pic if you would like one?
is it possible to get rid of the m$ logo for the super key on the keyboard on the final production units? swap it or have it as a plain,blank key or one like it with the round cycle but without the logo? maybe include a robust sticker(s) for the user to put on to there liking?
thank you muchly for all your hard work.
looking forward to having one :D
On Thu, Jul 9, 2015 at 8:59 PM, Alexander Stephen Thomas Ross maillist_arm-netbook@aross.me wrote:
been meaning to say, it looks awesome luke, the pics a few posts ago and a cool smooth look. in the video the purple colour looks more like a funky purple than in the pics, I’m quite fond of a deep funky purple :).
yeah me too, i like bright eye-burning colours for some reason. i have a colour-coordinated tennis outfit that includes a lime-green shirt, bright red shorts, blue racket used by nikolai davydenko (no, really, it really *was* his racket - custom-made), with an orange damper, bright neon-yellow tennis shoes and mis-matching socks.
i'm thinking of providing people with the option of 3d-printed "random coloured parts", as well as one that's entirely clear ABS. i think it'd be utterly cool to be able to see all the parts inside a laptop.
oh with the keyboard will it be that layout or will/can it be one with a fn key next to the arow keys so you can, using one hand browser page up/down, home/end/ up,down,left,right. like on my asus 1011px keyboard. just ask for a pic if you would like one?
is it possible to get rid of the m$ logo for the super key on the keyboard on the final production units? swap it or have it as a plain,blank key or one like it with the round cycle but without the logo? maybe include a robust sticker(s) for the user to put on to there liking?
i picked the keyboard based on its availability, and the casework has to be hard-custom-made to match it *and* then you have to arrange the PCB *specifically* to match the output connector in *exactly* the right place for that absolute specific make and model of keyboard.
later on it will be possible to custom-design keys by asking the keyboard manufacturer to make something else, but that requires a MOQ of 50,000 units and takes a long time to arrange and source.
the keyboard i picked because it is very common in a number of OEM laptops, and a number of Packard Bell laptops as well. so there is no danger of it going end-of-line for a good while yet.
l.
thank you muchly for all your hard work.
looking forward to having one :D
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On 09/07/15 21:06, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
i picked the keyboard based on its availability, and the casework has to be hard-custom-made to match it *and* then you have to arrange the PCB *specifically* to match the output connector in *exactly* the right place for that absolute specific make and model of keyboard.
later on it will be possible to custom-design keys by asking the keyboard manufacturer to make something else, but that requires a MOQ of 50,000 units and takes a long time to arrange and source.
the keyboard i picked because it is very common in a number of OEM laptops, and a number of Packard Bell laptops as well. so there is no danger of it going end-of-line for a good while yet.
ok thanks for giving me the picture. thought i recognised it as the keyboard used in dell laptops. arr well, ill still buy it (cus its a eoma laptop :D . i can always have a keyboard remapping time :).
i wonder, is it possible to get ones that are the same but for the printed letters being Dvorak or other better for heath of ones hands layout (where was another but i forget the name)? so same size, same connector position, just different printed letters on the keys?
maybe there’s a little side biz to be had by someone in removing the m$ logo from the super key hehe.
thanks as always luke
On Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 2:11 AM, Alexander Stephen Thomas Ross maillist_arm-netbook@aross.me wrote:
i wonder, is it possible to get ones that are the same but for the printed letters being Dvorak or other better for heath of ones hands layout (where was another but i forget the name)? so same size, same connector position, just different printed letters on the keys?
if the MOQ is enough or if someone's prepared to reassemble them i don't see why not.
On 09/07/2015 15:01, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
http://rhombus-tech.net/community_ideas/laptop_15in/news/
just created a 5min video describing the casework: the parts for the base are now completed, i will move onto the screen next.
l.
arm-netbook mailing list arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk http://lists.phcomp.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/arm-netbook Send large attachments to arm-netbook@files.phcomp.co.uk
Well done, really well done.
arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk