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pachele

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  1. Yea! The swappable connections were something I was considering seeing how longevity of the shell is a key point of this, like you mentioned I wanted something that can be swapped out, when let's say, USB 4.0 rolls around. Something that looks like this. But yea, size is a big issue right now, as I'm working through the design. When I get the CAD out for something I think is reasonable, hopefully it'll trigger more discussion.
  2. Hey, yea, you really hit the nail on the head. This thread was made for me to gauge "customer sentiment" towards the idea, as I worked on it more, since this forum is full of tech loving people :) Personally, I would love something like this, I've searched for customize-able laptops but they were always about me customizing the specs, not so much about me being able to swap out parts. And they were really costly to boot. What I'm going for is something that could be reused like in a desktop PC (I normally reuse the PSU, case, storage drives, and i think most people do the same, mainly upgrading CPU, mobo, ram, GPU), so I felt the "chassis" surrounding the SBC would be analogous to the PSU, case and storage drives that ordinarily last far longer than the 'core' of the system. So that's essentially the value proposition, allowing people to have the option to really upgrade their laptops as time goes on, rather than just adding a stick of ram or increasing the size of the drives. And yea I definitely agree that SBCs are relatively under-powered now compared to chip coming from Intel and AMD, but I think that they are definitely crossing into the threshold where people can do work with them. Raspberry Pi 4s getting an 8Gb version, and the AMD V1000 are (I hope) a sign of things to come. In my current design, I designed a slotted rail system, that allows 2 mounting nuts to be moved to any location within the 12cm*6cm space, so the SBCs can be mounted via the mounting holes. After I draw the CAD I'll attach some screenshots so that it's clearer. As for the ports, I'm trying to utilize ports that are the most common, based off SBC DBs databases. Thanks for the comment man, I had a good time thinking through the points you raised.
  3. Thanks @PegionFish! I hadn't considered the point of bluetooth not working well outside of an OS. @KilrahI was trying to avoid USB hubs, but since BT is out, I guess there isn't a better alternative. I found some guides for reconfiguring a laptop keyboard and touchpad, seems doable, but I'll likely try this out in the 2nd prototype, as I wanna focus on proving that the idea works out first and showing you guys something. But if anyone has any experience with re-configuring laptop touchpads to USB, pls pm me! I'd love to pick your brain! From the research I did, most SBCs have mini/HDMI out, which was why I chose it. Other display outputs like DSI are also really popular, but not as popular as plain old HDMI. E.g. Nvidia's Jetson Nano, some banana Pis and Orange Pis lack DSI, and primarily have HDMI.
  4. Hey guys, I've always wanted to make a custom laptop, something that I could just swap out and upgrade on a whim. Seeing as how SBCs have become increasingly popular and powerful, I was wondering if people would be interested in a "laptop shell", and the SBC within can be easily swapped as required. Something like a pitop, except it should accommodate any SBC of your choice. Since I wanted to make something for myself, I was thinking if I could get some feedback from the community if this is something that you guys would be interested in? I would be excited to start a build log here, and eventually maybe a kickstarter or something. Features I've been working on implementing: 1. Support for most SBCs (dimensions) I did some research, and figured that the rough dimensions the "shell" should support are 120mm X 60 mm, that covers the 85th percentile of all boards in SBC DB. 2. Support for most SBCs (ports) The connectivity between the "shell" and the SBC should be as universal as possible.. Display will be via HDMI (audio supported) Power to SBC can be via USB or soldered points (5V) Keyboard and touchpad (via USB) 3. Relatively long battery life I'm aiming to build in a 75Wh battery, which should net me about 9 hours of average to high load usage, and still within the 100Wh carry on limit. 4. Audio via speakers 5. In-built fan to cool down SBC 6. 2 2.5" bays After more thought I thought it'd be cool to have 2.5" bays in the chassis! Since support to boot from SSDs have been enabled for RPI 4, I thought this was a good feature to have. Thanks for reading through the idea!
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