Experiment

[StopPlayingKidz]

I've been doing some research on new tech and came up with a project but would need some help from the expert community. After searching minipc's I stumbled upon new tech through kickstarter. I found a new project called "Jaguarboard: x86-based Single Board-Computer". Essentially this is a pc which can load pc OS's such as Linux, Windows, or even Android. Hell, why not tri-boot all those OS's. It seems very compact. I also found a very compact screen. Ill link the pages on the end of the thread. This lcd screen is touch screen and can essentially work with any device since it supports HDMI and USB. Also, the screen is 5 inches so its quite small. My idea was essentially, buying the OpenPandora or better yet, the Pyra case and stuff this screen on the top with the board on the bottom and maybe find a way to add the OpenPandora's keyboard to essentially have a DS size pc on the go. I feel excited thinking about the possibilities but Im sure this wont go without any trial and error. I even thought of the idea of using the OpenPandora's battery and finding a way to connect it with this board. It would be interesting project but would love to hear your opinions and suggestions. Thanks peeps.


https://www.adafruit.com/products/2109

https://www.dragonbox.de/en/234-replacement-case-platinum-replacement-parts.html

PS: Obviously this wont be a gaming pc with its crappy Intel Atom, but Just imagine playing Duck Game! on the go.

 

[Willhelm]

yawn yet another pcb, oke this one has x386 support... for what?

if you are interested in the x386 architekture you might want to buy some more supported products like the intel compute stick

 

[Plume]

Well, first of all, it looks like this board needs a (relatively) huge heat-sink. Thus, you (most probably) won't be able to put it inside anything of the size of a Pandora/Pyra.

 

[comradekingu]

It works if you make the case out of aluminim and put the SoC downwards facing the top side of the battery bay.
You can then consume the height of the NIC /USB ports for a battery.

If you glue on some screw-mounts for a PCB-mounted keyboard on the other side, you can 3d-print the case until it is ready.
It could be that this level of refinement allows forging your own case.

My best advice, if you want to keep everything easy and down to scale is to make the case from plates of aluminium and screws those together.

All you need is a laser-cutter and aluminium-sheets. Then enough material so that the plates stack up high enough for what you want your object to be.

 

[TrashyMG]

the OMAP5 devboard has a heatsink too, it looks like EvilDragon plans on redirecting the heat to the main PCB. However the biggest flaw your idea is that this thing is still too large to shove into the Pandora or Pyra casing and retain a working keyboard.

 

[Grench]

Actually, the concept isn't as far fetched as some would like to believe.

SDP on that SoC is 2.2W. That heatsink on their dev board is possibly overkill, but everything needs some way to transport the heat.


It is the same SoC used in this discontinued tablet:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...l7daa_001_8_z3735g_1gb_16gb_emmc_android.html

IF that picture is an actual board and not just a fanciful render, it's about 6 times as wide and 4 times as deep as the SoC, which is 17mm, so - it's roughly 100mm wide by 70mm deep - which is smaller than the Pyra's main board. The height of those two full sized USB ports stacked on top of each other, though, that is where this idea fails a bit. The resulting unit would be much thicker than even the Pandora.

Now, the weird parts.

It's a campaign promising to produce small batch boards with a goal of only $3000 and claiming success at $8000 - which feels suspect. Just running a prototype board production test can consume 10s of 1000s.

Of all of the Intel Atom SoC parts available to pick, they "chose" one that limits to 1GB RAM. There are parts in the same processor family MUCH better suited to this type of application that can work with up to 4GB of RAM. This tells me that the project guys aren't actually picking the hardware going into this. Or if they are, the price came first and then the spec.

http://ark.intel.com/products/80275/Intel-Atom-Processor-Z3735G-2M-Cache-up-to-1_83-GHz
Vs
http://ark.intel.com/products/80268/Intel-Atom-Processor-Z3775-2M-Cache-up-to-2_39-GHz

So - my theory is that this board is already being produced somewhere for the embedded market and the Kickstarter is a person who is simply buying a bunch of them and shipping them out. However, a quick search revealed only the Shark's Cove, a compute stick and the Acer tablet using this SoC. I don't see how anyone can realistically engineer, purchase parts, manufacture and ship a small quantity custom device for $3K-$8K. It simply doesn't add up.

 

[StopPlayingKidz]

Thanks peeps. This is going to be an experiment I was planning on doing, but Im going to do a ton of more research before putting in cash to any of this.

 

[marovada]

The screen you've linked to is too low resolution for Windows 10 (if you'd like the possibility of booting it). It requires at least 800x600. Windows 8/8.1 requires an even higher resolution.