[ot] Beagle Board Powered Laptop

[chad78]

I'm *NOT* asking for a Pandora laptop - or anybody to make anything. And, moderators, feel free to move this if needed. I thought it would fit in Pandora general, since the Pandora is close to what I'm talking about, but not exactly.

What I'm thinking is a 10 inch screen, full size keyboard, 4 USB ports, VGA out, trackpad, webcam, 60 GB HD, etc. Should be pretty lightweight. Like a Eee PC 1000, only cheaper, like a Eee PC 701. It could be super thin.

Anyway... Just dreaming. Carry on. 8^)

 

[sindbad]

I've been thinking of beagleboard thin clients and laptops for a while, so it's ok.

It'd have DVI instead of the VGA though.

 

[gaterooze]

Other consoles forum. Obviously.

 

[chad78]

Other consoles forum. Obviously.

umm.. it's not a console. I'm not talking about a game system at all. And it's not an "other console" because it doesn't exist. I'm not talking about the Nintendo DS, here, or even the Eee PC. I'm talking about a non-existent idea.

 

[Megamixman]

The main problem is the OS. X86 in this size isn't very expensive in the least and you have access to the full plethora of OSes. Also the main weight from X86 laptops isn't the motherboard/chips. It is rather the hard drive, battery, and screen that contribute the most to the weight/thickness of laptops in this size realm. For someone that wants to do this as a hobbyist project or so, it should be fine, but it doesn't make sense as a product, even in a community like this one.

 

[senquack]

 

[Ryzure]

So it's *basically* an EEE pc.

Chad you have some brilliant ideas, and some pants-on-head retarded ideas. :lol:

 

[CyruzDraxs]

I had actually been thinking of this idea too recently--I have a 1 year old Toshiba laptop I got from some relatives when the motherboard died. Everything else in it works flawlessly, so I think if I can fit the Beaglebaord in there and somehow get everything wired up and functional I could have myself a pretty damn spiffy hack-job laptop with killer battery life!

On that note; is there an easy way to adapt the display cable for a laptop screen to the DVI-D port on the Beagleboard?

 

[nubie]

On that note; is there an easy way to adapt the display cable for a laptop screen to the DVI-D port on the Beagleboard?

no.

If you can get an input board on ebay for your panel it might be do able though, check out Lumenlab.com forums for that sort of thing (Diy projector building with LCD panels, sometimes from laptops).

VGA and DVI, (and HDMI, YPrPb, and RGB) would be neato for this sort of a setup.

Use a slimline USB hub and it shouldn't be too hard.

There is a good reason to do this, x86 is heavy because of the battery, because they use too much power.

 

[Exophase]

Other consoles forum. Obviously.

umm.. it's not a console. I'm not talking about a game system at all. And it's not an "other console" because it doesn't exist. I'm not talking about the Nintendo DS, here, or even the Eee PC. I'm talking about a non-existent idea.

You're also not talking about the Pandora, see the flaw in your argument now? That's still the more appropriate forum for this.

 

[CyruzDraxs]

On that note; is there an easy way to adapt the display cable for a laptop screen to the DVI-D port on the Beagleboard?

no.

If you can get an input board on ebay for your panel it might be do able though, check out Lumenlab.com forums for that sort of thing (Diy projector building with LCD panels, sometimes from laptops).
It seems to be a fairly standard LCD panel (LVDS input and seperate inverter), so I suspect all I need is a converter to adapt the DVI-D to LVDS. Hopefully I can get one for cheaper than the Beagleboard itself. :unsure:

 

[chad78]

So it's *basically* an EEE pc.

Chad you have some brilliant ideas, and some pants-on-head retarded ideas. :lol:

Yeah, it's basically an Eee PC, except it has a 10 inch screen, and would probably be cheaper than the $650 10 inch Eee PC, and has the connections that I want it to have... Why is that retarded?

How many manufacturers are making laptops that are "basically an Eee PC"? HP, Dell, MSI, Everex, ... just off the top of my head. I'm talking about a 10-inch Beagleboard powered netbook - does that make it sound better?

 

[chad78]

The main problem is the OS. X86 in this size isn't very expensive in the least and you have access to the full plethora of OSes. Also the main weight from X86 laptops isn't the motherboard/chips. It is rather the hard drive, battery, and screen that contribute the most to the weight/thickness of laptops in this size realm. For someone that wants to do this as a hobbyist project or so, it should be fine, but it doesn't make sense as a product, even in a community like this one.
Well, for the OS, I was thinking Ubuntu Netbook Remix, or Maemo.

The x86 laptops in this category are getting *more* expensive somehow. The Eee PC 701 was $299 for the 2GB Surf, $399 for the 4GB standard model. The 900, which had the 8.9" screen was $549 - and the 901 is slated for $649! I know the 901 has a much faster CPU, and a bigger screen - but that shouldn't more than double the cost of the 2GB surf, should it? I mean, for $650, I could get a decent full-sized laptop. Yeah, it might weigh a couple pounds more, but it would have a DVD-burner, a dual-core CPU, 2 GB of RAM, hundreds of GB of storage, etc.

The Beagleboard itself is slated to cost $150. The Pandora proves that, at least in quanitites of 3000, you can complete the a handheld system for less than another $200. That proves nothing for a one-off tinkerer version, of course. But a tinkerer could use used parts, scrounge around on ebay and craigslist, etc.

IDK, maybe it is a bad idea. I'd just like to see it, is all. So, CyruzDraxs, if you do make one, please take lots of pictures/videos and blog about it. Thanks! B)

 

[daclassicgamingmaster]

eh.

 

[Ryzure]

So it's *basically* an EEE pc.

Chad you have some brilliant ideas, and some pants-on-head retarded ideas. :lol:

Yeah, it's basically an Eee PC, except it has a 10 inch screen, and would probably be cheaper than the $650 10 inch Eee PC, and has the connections that I want it to have... Why is that retarded?

How many manufacturers are making laptops that are "basically an Eee PC"? HP, Dell, MSI, Everex, ... just off the top of my head. I'm talking about a 10-inch Beagleboard powered netbook - does that make it sound better?

Point taken. More power for less buck does make sense. But I'd rather see the Pandora II before another freaking netbook though <_<

Apple could probably be added to that list, "It fits in a manila envelope!"

 

[CyruzDraxs]

IDK, maybe it is a bad idea. I'd just like to see it, is all. So, CyruzDraxs, if you do make one, please take lots of pictures/videos and blog about it. Thanks! B)

It might be awhile yet, as I don't even have a Beagleboard yet, but I suspect most of it won't be too hard. So far I've found an LVDS to DVI converter for $66, a laptop style USB keyboard that I can rip the controller out of for $15 and a small amplification unit for the speakers for about $2. What I still need is to figure out how I can connect the touchpad and how to connect the battery (different voltages that need to be adapted). I will also look into slim external DVD drives and see if I can fit a small USB hub in there for that and a hard drive. With the motherboard gone there is a fair bit of space, however; it is a slightly larger than usual 15", so that's still not much.

 

[Prometheus]

I'd just like to say, Chad, that I love this idea, as I'm in the market for something like this myself, and haven't really found anything suitable yet. I like it to the point of venturing outside of the Pandora section for the first time just to see what this post was about.

Personally I'd like something along these lines because I (regretfully) end up wasting what I would consider to be an unnecessary amount of power on the x86-based hardware that I currently use. Coupled with the fact that I don't actually use anything that would keep me with that architecture (all of the stuff I use presently is available in Debian's ARM port anyway. I'm currently using Kubuntu, but am not averse to switching. ), it just seems wasteful for me to stick with it. Thusly, I'd love a laptop with something like the BeagleBoard at its core. I'd be happy to pay a bit more than an x86-based system costs for the benefits, too, personally.

I'll be watching with interest to see if anyone comes up with anything, be that a guide to make such a thing on one's own, or a commercial product.

EDIT: Mind you, I wonder if this could well make for a fairly cheap one-off project if the other parts were also cheap - the BeagleBoard comes out to about £75...

 

[Goity]

I love you chad, like a fat person loves cake!

 

[daclassicgamingmaster]

I love you chad, like a fat person loves cake!

I love you chad, like these hash brownies I'm about to bake!

 

[Goity]

I love you chad, like a fat person loves cake!

I love you chad, like these hash brownies I'm about to bake!

I love you chad, for heaven's sake!