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DIY Laptop
Brietech writes "Ever felt like building your own laptop from (almost literally) scratch? This is a microcontroller-based "laptop" built from the ground up from a handful of chips and other hardware found lying around. It runs a self-hosted development environment, allowing the user to write and edit programs in "Chris++" on the machine, and then compile and run them. The carpentry looks like it could use some work, but it's a neat project!"
Yes I would like to be able to build a laptop like I build a desktop. A rickedy wooden box with a 20x4 blue & white, backlit LCD is not a laptop. Well I guess you could put it on your lap, but you know what I mean.
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
It looks amazing like an old programmable calculator with a real keyboard hacked onto it.
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
He used premade components like chips and LCD displays. That's hardly building a laptop from scratch.
With a $50 budget, he could have picked up a 486 laptop that would be much more useful. I have a stack of old thinkpads that I paid nothing for and could part with for $50/ea.
How come any old DIY PoS gets posted here.. What's next? DIY Mainframe machine build in an old refrigerator box loaded to the tits with 8086's and some VFD?
..etc.
How about some real project postings, not some crappy pic chip with a serial eeprom and hitachi display.. 4 months? I've seen 8 graders hack that together in 4 hours.
Choose a program from [0-9]?
1. THIS TEH SUCK
2. THIS TEH SUCK
3. THIS TEH SUCK
chris++
isn't that cute
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
Hope he doesn't use Sony Batteries. That sucker looks like it could catch on fire.
God spoke to me.
So easy, even a cave man could do it!
"He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
OLPC baby! Give them to the masses.
Your university bookstore sells wood? !
While it may be nothing based on modern laptops, and the title is a bit misleading, i thought it was rather interesting. What was interesting is that he took a proc chip, wrote his own os and compiler. It really was a DIY project. I dont think it needed that big of a box but otherwise it was an interesting find. I would be intrested in if we could really do laptops like we do Desktops, perhaps there is a site out there that has the parts. but over and all this was a interesting find.
string sig = llGetSig("dimentox"); llSay(0,sig);
sweet!! a laptop that runs on 4 double A's
bored? try this http://jadmadi.net/blog/2005/01/27/linux-wine-how-to-running-windows-viruses-with-wine/
So why can't there be an industry standard of handheld electronics building blocks? Instead of an iPod, how about an IMod? A cpu block that you can tack on a battery, lens, HD or CF, and headphone amp. Then you create the driving application in some sort of 90's AmigaVision drag-and-drop metaphor.
Why is it in 2007 there still is such a thing as a seperate cell phone, walkman, camera, and you need a 14 year-old with a PhD to try to get a file from one device to the other?
Even though I expected the screen to be a tad bigger and Chris++ to be a bit more high level...
...imagine a Beowulf cluster of these cigar boxen!!!1!!1
There is an interesting overview of guides to make a do-it-yourself laptop at Repair4Laptop. If you don't want to build it completely from scratch you can consider to make it as a so-called barebone or white box laptop. Barebones are also featured in a separate section of the overview.
Stripping a computer back to its bare essentials is an art. Real hot rods don't have air conditioning. Real computers don't need 3GHz CPUs, 2GB of RAM, and a 500 watt power supply to present an interactive user interface.
Less is more.
(Yawn...) Go find the 8052-BASIC code on the net, program it into a modern '51 variant like a DS89C450 or AT89C51ED2, attach a serial LCD & keyboard, and you've got way more than 256 lines a second execution speed...
Bah, the Osborne was better. Hell, the Sinclair was better. Why not use the ARM or some other cheap processor, LCD displays are cheap and available. BAH.
It's sort of like when a friend or relative introduces you to their new baby and you wonder how they managed to get that giant head on that thing, only you can't really say that without hurting their feelings because everyone thinks their baby is the most beautiful one ever. In reality it's just a baby and some of them are not all that attractive, especially to people who don't have or want kids. Which the preface to my comment about that laptop: I'm sorry, but that's just one butt ugly computer.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
The Mother-F*cker killed a tree for that?
If he was going to do a computer he should have used an ATMEL, an FPU, a full size LCD, and a few support chips and actually made something of use.
The PICAXE is in essence a Microchip PIC microcontroller with a custom bootloader to load programs into memory and execute them on reboot/reset.
I was sort of expecting a general CPU, even if a vintage chip like the ZiLOG Z80, MOS Technologies' 6502, Motorola's 6800 / 6802, or intel's 8088 / 8086 microprocessors.
It seems more suited to O'Reilly's MAKE magazine and their blog, then on Slashdot.
It may not win in looks, or processing power, or graphics, or any thing for that matter but it was a neat project. They guy spent some real time piecing things together with chips instead of just using a mini itx board. The fact he made his own language to program it is a definite plus. It isn't something I would make myself but a nice DIY project none the less. I don't quite get what all the complaints are about even if it is a glorified calculator he built it himself. When was the last time any of you built something starting with just a handful of chips?
WTF?
It would be just as easy to use a FPGA with a SoC on it and get something more powerful ( and useful ). Its also pretty easy to make a case out of *gasp* plastic, instead of wood.
Large VGA screens are obtainable on the hobbiest market.
But hey, he looks like he was bored and wanted to do something from scratch.. more power to him.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
96 bytes should be enough for anybody!
I'm sorry but it won't run Windows Vista because it doesn't have the mouse.
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
I don't care for the looks but I think the project as a whole is quite impressive, to get the essential bits to work together and roll your own software is quite a rare project!
Keep it up!
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
Seems like afrotech has some serious competition
http://www.afrotechmods.com/
Geez, 96 bytes of RAM? Who would ever need more than 64 for anything?
I notice you have the ability to actively work in 4 text documents at once. I'm sure you'll be hearing from Microsoft's attorneys shortly.
Kidding aside, that's really an amazing accomplishment: congratulations!
-Styopa
-User Memory: 96 Bytes of RAM (with plans to upgrade to 8K later)
One could spend the whole afternoon picking each line of that page and making sarcastic comments.
...does it run Linux? :(
With just a little bit bigger budget one could build something that more approximated a real laptop.
There are plenty of 32 bit MCU (Microcontroller unit) with ALU (Arithmetic logic unit) that have a lot of bonus features built on the chip like: Ethernet, USB, LCD, etc.
Though, you also get some things you would not get with a general laptop like GP IO pins, pins that could detect if a device was on or not, these same pins could be used to activate/deactivate devices as well. Most would have several AD/DA (analog to digital and digital to analog conversion).
I have thought about putting something like this together but I wouldn't make it a laptop I would instead go for a hand held device. A portable data acquisition device.
Either way why reinvent the wheel there are plenty of embedded OS out there. I would go with an embedded Linux then development would be a breeze with a SSH daemon and GCC installed.
Put in a bluetooth chip, Edge, GMS/GPRS RF, and a touchscreen and I'll destroy iPhone *lol*...
Anyone out there that can program a GUI?? (please don't say X11 as IMHO it is why there are no good GUI on UNIX, except OS X (not X11 based)). -- forget this, it is a RANT all of it's own.
Anyways, it looks like his project was a lot of fun.. though with a little thought and bigger budget one could produce a much more powerful / practical device.
Encryption: I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to encrypt it...
Does it run Linux From Scratch?
w00t
you can get 8086 emulator cheaper compared to that and it too will be able to run 'hello world' program
yet alone any version of Linux???????
You seem have to come to /. by accident, maybe you are attracted to CowboyNeal.
Go away now, it will be easier on everyone.
No, don't reply, just go.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
more of this..
How is the wetware-diy scene doing ?
All-in-one devices have been around for years in various forms. And you know what? They almost all suck. Theres no point in something being able to do 10 things if it does most or all of them badly. When I buy a camera I want a camera. I DONT want a camera come phone come mp3 player come something else. I want to know its been designed from the ground up as a camera and will do that job the best it can and isn't just "a computer with a lens.".
Also if you're all-in-one super device breaks then you've lost everything in one go.
No thanks, give me dedicated devices anyday.
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"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
I wonder if someone could write an emulator for this machine!
See what happens if you have to go through some security checkpoint. You can make as much news as the LED advertisements around Boston and other cities! It looks more sinister than they did.
At first, the idea was interesting. Then I read the details and capabilities of the device and it struck me as a huge waste of time. Buy a PSP, it is smaller, more powerful, and undoubted cheaper. That it is not as customizable (the only feature the article's system had in abundance) is more than made up for by the fact that it can be hacked, and is an order of magnitude more powerful than this post apocalyptic future version of the Osborne.
...But I digress. TREMBLE PUNY HUMANS!ONE DAY MY SPECIES WILL DESTROY YOU ALL!
I don't have a 360 and don't plan to, but if I would buy the 360 laptop this guy created.
I can't help but wonder what the guy's motivation is to spend time developing something the size of an attache case with about the same processing power as a pocket calculator.
does it run linux?
Microsoft: "You've got questions. We've got dancing paperclips."
Either it isn't really from scratch, or it was a poor choice of money expenditure. For $50.00 you could do a lot more, picking up an old laptop, and reworking it, for for example.
It's a pretty cool project, non-the-less. And I suspect the battery life is phenominal, and cheap too, being able to use commodity Double-A's
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
He could have just as easily purchased a used Ti83 and it would have had more functionality than a CigarBox Laptop...... :/
Relocating to San Francisco / Palo Alto... Hire me?
ought to be worth a half brownie-point at least. next time, VAX-in-a-handheld? the only problem would be the 8-inch boot floppy for VMS ;)
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Mine's here:
http://linuxslate.com/N770DockingStation.html
Granted, the computer is not homemade, but the laptop part is.
End Personal Website Plug.
Nice hack! The PIC CPU and 4-AA battery power are nice touches.
For extra pizazz, how about making a case out of cement, or even 2 rocks?
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Interesting idea.. maybe throw on a more powerful chip like dspic or whatever, and it would definitely be cool to upgrade to one of these:
G 320240CXTFHT_430.jpg
http://www.crystalfontz.com/products/320240cx/CFA
Darn expensive though
Ever felt like building your own laptop from (almost literally) scratch?
:)
Yes. It's a freakin pain too. But if you're a fan of an obscure computer platform like I am, you can't just go out and buy one. MiniITX has a decent footprint for the idea, but most boards are too thick/high/tall to make a sleek/trendy looking laptop out of, and you have to fiture out how to deal with all the rear-panel stuff that needs hooked up to keyboard, touchpad, LCD, etc. Making a new motherboard to fit an existing laptop is a pain and pretty expensive, especially in a nanoscopic market like what I'm into. Making amodular board to fit an existing laptop in such a way that you can use the core system module in other applications, and maybe find other uses for hte laptop-shaped carrier board is still a pain and expensive, and can end up being too thick/high to fit into a nice existing laptop after you stack up all the modular bits. Part of what I find interesting about the current state of the Amiga market is that there's plenty of things to do. But much of what interests me is also what I'm growing weary of there. I'd like a laptop for AmigaOS4, but the resources required to make such a thing don't make much sense, and thus I cannot have what I want there. Emulators exist for older 680x0-based Amigas exist, but not for the more recent PowerPC stuff. Won't be ported to Mac PPC laptops, which would be the easiest and probably best possible solution. Things I'd like to have make for neat engineering ideas, but the lack of resources or viable market to carry them out is frustrating as heck. At this point I just want to go out and buy something, and that has me using Windows or OSX a lot more than I did a year ago.
But I wouldn't want to use a wooden box, I'd want it to look like a laptop, and a reasonably nice one at that. Using a wooden briefcase would make a DIY project a great deal easier. But for what I want it's not ideal. But I also want more than 96 bytes of RAM, so call me picky.
Sounds like Tim Robbins in Team america:
"Let me explain to you how this works. You see, the corporations finance Team America. And then Team America goes out and the corporations sit there in their, in their corporation buildings and, and and see that's, they're all corporationy, and they make money. Mhm."
"So, Lone Starr, now you see that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb." - Dark Helmet
Arm based mcu, a few megs of ram, a few megs of flash and usb host would make a nice system (and it won't be much bigger!) Than you can spend your time porting linux to it...
It's kinda neat. It takes some skill involved to go past your typical Basic stamp + push buttons + LCD - he added a PS/2 keyboard and wrote a simple interpreter. Not too bad.
;-)
Is this newsworthy though? It's just a basic stamp... with an LCD and a PS/2 keyboard. It's programmed in Basic for chris sakes. Some OS.
Slow news day
What, exactly, would it mean to make a laptop "literally" from scratch? The literal meaning of the phrase has to do with a runner starting from a "scratch" on the ground (the starting line), with no head start or handicap. Or perhaps it would refer to the "chicken feed" denotation of scratch-- that would be a feat, indeed.
Even if we assume that the common usage of the phrase is its literal meaning, we still have the problem of deciding what that means in this case. Would building the laptop from transistors, capacitors and wires count as "literally" from scratch? Who made the transistors, etc.?
That's certainly true. But, does what he has done make a story worthy of being a Slashdot story? I have done far more ambitious projects both on the hardware and on the software level and I don't get a big write up in Slashdot, No.
..... but I guess it is who you know and all that.
Learning should be what it is all about I agree. But, if someone learns how to make a circular queue using a link list made up of pointers in C++ he should be happy for himself but is it something that deserves accolade from the computer community? No, I don't think so. This is how I feel about this persons project.
I built a miniature robotic submarine using multiple MCU (PIC, Microchip), developed a real time OS for it (because you can't just port Linux onto an 8 bit PIC without an ALU), developed a lossless communication protocol for controlling devices, and created a LabVIEW program to monitor and control the sub. It displays live video from the sub and can be controlled over a modified wireless XBOX controller. It plots it position on a map from data received from an on board accelerometer, as well as displaying speed, and of course acceleration. It uses pressure sensors (inside the sub) to monitor structural integrity and (outside the sub) to measure depth. It monitors temperature both inside and outside the sub. Inside in case their is overheating problems and outside for data collection.
This is just phase 1. I have already starting designing the phase 2 which will be upgrading the sub 2 16 bit controllers and add an advanced power management system. This will give me the power to program in much more autonomous features. I learned a lot doing this. This is my first project. Before this the only code I ever wrote was the type that would only update files or the display of a computer. There is something very exciting, at least for me, the first time you see your program actually interact with the real world. I did all this and this guy gets all kinds of credit for creating what could be called in comparison a steaming pile of
If I could get the kind of recognition for my project that this guy got for his project then there is a chance that someone out there would see the potential for what I would really like to see my toy evolve into. But, until then I am just some guy at some school that puts way to many hours in the lab.
Just FYI: What my vision would be for this long term would be an autonomous mini submarine that could reach the deepest regions of our planets oceans, while withstanding the extreme pressure, mapping uncharted regions of our planet. I have many of the requirements for just such an upgrade worked out but it would take a university willing to partner with someone like the DOD or some other branch of the military or government to fund it and get authorization for the required restricted components. For example, I would like to install a RTG (Radioisotope thermoelectric generator) which would require about 1 kg of 238pu (yes plutonium). But 238pu is completely useless in a weapon because if somehow fission did occur (very unlikely) a chain reaction could not be maintained. This would give my mini-sub ~100 watts of continuous power for nearly a decade. RTG does not use any active reaction like fission instead it draws electricity from heat of the natural decay of the radioactive material. This is just one of many ideas that I have. One of the most noteworthy is how to maintain structural integrity at pressures that would crush most man made objects. But, I'll keep that one to myself for now.
So, though I think what this guy has done is great and all and I am sure he learned a lot and he may have generated some interest in embedded systems but I think there are more deserving projects out there deserving of recognition. My project is one example I am sure there are many even more worthy than mine but I guess I am just confused as to who gets to decide what is worthy and what the criteria is. Is it just luck?
I doubt this will help
Encryption: I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to encrypt it...
I voted this one up in absence of more interesting DIYs. I would certainly vote your project up if you made a post in your journal and submitted it. Speaking of which, Hey, way to go man! Congratulations on your project.
However, if it is too advanced and ambitious, we probably won't get any interesting details about it, nor we would get any "How I did it" instructions or tips, right? Consequently, the fun factor goes down.
My suggestion for maintaining structural stability: do what deep sea life does: fill the innards with a liquid (choose wisely: something non-corrosive, hydrophobic, non-reactive with salt, a good dielectric, bad electric conductor but good heat conductor), so that the hydrostatic pressure is equalized and hull doesn't need to hold against the outer pressure. Actually, the main reason subs need such tough hulls is that they carry crews of surface-dwelling creatures on board. However, your robotic sub doesn't have to solve same class of problems manned subs do.
I would say it's probably because you didn't take pictures of your work and write it up, and then post it to a bunch of websites during what happened to be a lull in the news. It sounds like you did an amazing amount of work, but as one of my EE prof's told me, "It doesn't count unless you tell other people." That counts double if a lot of your neat features are still in the "idea" phase (an RTG?) This is certainly a silly project (I know, i'm the one who built it!), and it's not even done yet, but it was definitely a fun project and one in which most people can understand how it works. On a separate note, about the autonomous submarine: Although it sounds like yours is really interesting, it probably generates less interest because nearly all big schools with engineering programs have autonomous submarine clubs. Here is my school's for instance: http://www.uscrobotics.org/ In fact, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (http://www.auvsi.org/) puts on a contest every year (I think they're in their 16th year or so) for unmanned submarines. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that this is what your project is for? Anyway, best of luck with it!
I'm perfect in every way, except for my humility.
Given the freedom to build any portable computer of their choosing, to build what everyone wants: a tablet computer with just an LCD and no buttons, to build exactly what everyone knows Steve Jobless is going to do in the future but no-one is doing today: a tablet computer with just an LCD, humans choose to immitate exactly the same creation that every corporation is putting out now: a folding keyboard and LCD. The lengths to which they go out of their way to immitate their corporations is unbelievable.
Does it run Vista?
This much anticipated release from O'Reilly is an essential part of any serious programmer's arsenal of reference books.
Ok, looks like the rest of the free world is going to bitch "u wasted ur time d00d, my fone/486/ti85 can do that!", but it looks like it was a fun project, not to mention educational. How many /.ers have actually *built* a working computer with UI from discretes? (I'm not talking about "I plugged in an IDE cable, Pentium AND videocard!")
Typically, one uses a low-level language to develop an interpreter or compiler for a higher-level language. What I find most interesting about this project is its creator has used a high-level language to write an interpreter to run assembly language.
Caveat Emptor is not a business model.
The point I was making was that people were ragging on the guy for doing the project at all, and that he was "wasting his time". Not that the project was more worthy than some other.
Have you made a web page about your project?
Have you submitted a link to Slashdot?
Slashdot's stories are generated by what people _submit_. Your project will get exposure via the FireHose if you merely write journal entries about it.
There IS room on Slashdot for projects like this, which are simple and can be taken on by beginners. If it gets just two software guys to pick up a soldering iron and buy a copy of Horowitz and Hill, then it was worth doing. The nice thing about Slashdot is it's not just about the really hard stuff that few people can do at home - it does cover project ideas that CAN be done by someone just starting out.
My PCBs, by the way, are even RoHS complaint. No lead, not even in the solder (and certainly, new components are RoHS compliant and lead-free). I use the toner transfer system to mask the copper clad board (using a common inexpensive HP laserjet printer, and Tesco's Value Glossy Inkjet Photo Paper, and a household iron), and ferric chloride to etch, and then tin the board with tinning crystals. Although the ferric chloride and tinning crystals aren't nice and must be disposed of properly, being careful and wearing chemical resistant gauntlets means you don't get it on you.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.
My other post is a First.