"Dumb" laptop as a Pyra accessory (a la nexdock)?

[asimov-solensan]

Ok, I really didn't know how to summarize the topic of this thread.

I was wondering if there was something like the first iteration on the market or if people would like something like this as a Pyra accessory.

http://nexdock.com/our-story/

This is basically a dumb foldable case that includes keyboard/trackpad screen and battery. The brain becomes then a compute stick, a rpi like, the pyra, a smartphone ...

I really have been thinking in such concept for the Pyra for a long time. I love the idea of having a portable 14 inch screen and drastically increase the productive possibilities of Pyra.

Even for my work a thing like this would be incredibly useful. Part of my job is to configure devices within datacenters, usually over serial connections, but a portable screen and keyboard would be great for this kind of things.

Sadly the nexdock project has become something overcomplicated from my point of view and was wondering if a thing such as the first prototypes exists on the market, and if people thinks something like this would be a cool official accessory for Pyra.

Just wanted to bring a topic to talk about.

 

[levi]

This could work quite well with the Pyra I suspect, since it has mini (type-D I think) HDMI out, and debug keyboard in on it's USB mini charge socket. I don't know how you could redirect the debug keyboard tty to be the one used by X11, so you could continue to use it for windowing shortcuts or on any processed launched from within, but if that could be done it would be quite usable in the end.

I don't know whether you'd want to keep the game controls though, and I think you'd lose the analogue nubs. I suspect it'd make more sense to put the d-pad as normal arrow keys and use standard pg-up/down etc buttons where the game buttons would be, i.e. you wire up a standard 14-inch keyboard to it and use it as such.

You'd even be able to keep the Pyra's battery topped up since you can also charge through the debug port. The major downside, other than the software trouble of redirecting the tty, is that it's make the laptop rather thick in this day and age. If you were to take the mainboard with the CPU board attached out of the Pyra case and put it in the laptop, that would be much thinner, but that wouldn't be nearly as easy to switch between then. It could be an easier use case for reusing the form factor before making a Pyra phone though!

 

[b_o_b]

Sadly the nexdock project has become something overcomplicated from my point of view

What is complicated about the nextdock? Am I missing something? As far as I can tell it is just a screen, keyboard, battery in one package.

 

[Binky]

and debug keyboard in on it's USB mini charge socket. I don't know how you could redirect the debug keyboard tty to be the one used by X11, so you could continue to use it for windowing shortcuts or on any processed launched from within, but if that could be done it would be quite usable in the end.

Why not use the debug port for charging (it only talks hardware serial), and use the other microUSB port in host mode, so the HIDs can work over USB. USB leopards are a solved problem!

 

[levi]

I assumed the debug keyboard would turn up on one tty or another once the system had booted, but I guess that's an unproven assumption of mine. But yeah, using the debug port for charging from an even bigger battery for sure. It's be nicer if you only had to plug in two leads rather than three, but I guess not that much difference, especially if they're mounted to a plane, a la docking port but inside the laptop case.

 

[ible]

what is the point? if you want a laptop, just bring a laptop.

since computers are becoming cheap and ubiquitous, maybe we should focus on a distributed OS that will bridge all of our random devices collected in the same space...

 

[FBnil]

What is complicated about the nextdock? Am I missing something? As far as I can tell it is just a screen, keyboard, battery in one package.

The extra hole in it for Intels compucard, I think.

 

[levi]

That and we're still waiting for continuum from MS I think.

 

[dracmas]

What about fixing up a pi-top to work with the pyra. costs more though.
https://pi-top.com/products/pi-top

 

[Inqui]

This is so 2013
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-PI-Motorola-Lapdock/?amp_page=true

I have one already prepared and using it as a second screen for my 12" thinkpad for know.
When Pyra will arrive it will be my workingsscreen.

Motorola Lapdock. Hard to find an almost unused, but still possible.

 

[b_o_b]

The extra hole in it for Intels compucard, I think.

Ah - haven't heard of this feature before. Sounds quite interesting though. More or less a more 'customer friendly' adaptation of the Pyra upgrade board.

 

[asimov-solensan]

Yes, If you read about the project It became a kind of tablet with interchangeable modules, one of them including the guts. I liked much more the lapdock idea with input ports. Simple and cheap.

I heard before the just buy a laptop point, people claiming this can't understand the use cases I explained. Obviously a laptop is an alternative (better in many ways) than a pyra + lapdock.

Pretty interesting this motorla lapdock and rpi case.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

what is the point? if you want a laptop, just bring a laptop.

since computers are becoming cheap and ubiquitous, maybe we should focus on a distributed OS that will bridge all of our random devices collected in the same space...

Plan 9 would be a good place to start, although it might be good to change the UI.

 

[ible]

@Silent-Hunter, i'd love to keep linux for compatibility with a lot of other things (at least for now), so i suppose i can start with a distributed file system. anyone have any experience with software like BeeGFS or Ceph or Lustre? anything that scales "down" well, i suppose, though i'd like encryption and user accounts built in.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

@Silent-Hunter, i'd love to keep linux for compatibility with a lot of other things (at least for now), so i suppose i can start with a distributed file system. anyone have any experience with software like BeeGFS or Ceph or Lustre? anything that scales "down" well, i suppose, though i'd like encryption and user accounts built in.

I tried Lustre but it was an enormous pain in the rear and I couldn't really get anywhere with it. It seemed to want a third computer as a control system or something.

 

[ible]

yeah it seems like there's a metadata server, a chunk server, and the clients necessary in some of these. i'd like to keep it "simple" in a more peer-to-peer client=server way, even if that makes it scale less well...

 

[lukey]

glusterfs is the easiest distributed filesystem and also the one with the most Features. However all DFS's assume that every "Server" in it is always on and connected. So at least for glusterfs if you disconnect one Device from the others it will switch to read-only or otherwise you would get an Split-Brain.

For this case some asynchronous replicating mechanism (rsync, unison, rdiff, git etc.) would be better suited. Or maybe freenet (which has an incomplete FUSE driver) but thats too slow, needs a lot of resources and will kill any Flash-Based Media fast.