I'm more of a desktop user these days but even I can see the benefits of a modular laptop design. It was something highlighted to me during my recent reboot of my old laptop:
http://www.boddie.org.uk/david/www-repo/Personal/Updates/2016/2016-08-07.htm...
One thing that is highlighted very early on the EOMA68 campaign page is the cost of getting a laptop fixed. Part of that is the need to return to a single vendor or support company for repairs, especially when a laptop is within the warranty period.
It's not always the case that you get everything fixed at zero cost under warranty, and there are always time costs and secondary expenses associated with shipping a broken product back to the vendor.
Anyway, I just thought it would be interesting to show the inside of a laptop that probably blows through the EOMA-68 laptop's power budget several times over - just check out that cooling solution! ;-)
David
--- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68
On Mon, Aug 8, 2016 at 3:48 PM, David Boddie david@boddie.org.uk wrote:
I'm more of a desktop user these days but even I can see the benefits of a modular laptop design. It was something highlighted to me during my recent reboot of my old laptop:
http://www.boddie.org.uk/david/www-repo/Personal/Updates/2016/2016-08-07.htm...
One thing that is highlighted very early on the EOMA68 campaign page is the cost of getting a laptop fixed. Part of that is the need to return to a single vendor or support company for repairs, especially when a laptop is within the warranty period.
It's not always the case that you get everything fixed at zero cost under warranty, and there are always time costs and secondary expenses associated with shipping a broken product back to the vendor.
Anyway, I just thought it would be interesting to show the inside of a laptop that probably blows through the EOMA-68 laptop's power budget several times over - just check out that cooling solution! ;-)
i know, man... :)
you joined quite recently, i don't know if you've seen these:
http://rhombus-tech.net/community_ideas/laptop_15in/news/EOMA68_Libre_15.6in... http://rhombus-tech.net/community_ideas/laptop_15in/news/PCB1_prototype_prog... http://rhombus-tech.net/community_ideas/laptop_15in/news/PCB1_LCD_operationa...
and although it's low-resolution, the video here gives a full walkthrough: http://rhombus-tech.net/community_ideas/laptop_15in/news/Component_walkthrou...
... bit of a difference, eh?
l.
tell you what, david: i have an idea. would you like to do a "guest update"? basically pretty much exactly what you wrote, but published on crowdsupply? --- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68
On Mon, Aug 8, 2016 at 3:58 PM, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton lkcl@lkcl.net wrote:
crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68
On Mon, Aug 8, 2016 at 3:48 PM, David Boddie david@boddie.org.uk wrote:
I'm more of a desktop user these days but even I can see the benefits of a modular laptop design. It was something highlighted to me during my recent reboot of my old laptop:
http://www.boddie.org.uk/david/www-repo/Personal/Updates/2016/2016-08-07.htm...
One thing that is highlighted very early on the EOMA68 campaign page is the cost of getting a laptop fixed. Part of that is the need to return to a single vendor or support company for repairs, especially when a laptop is within the warranty period.
It's not always the case that you get everything fixed at zero cost under warranty, and there are always time costs and secondary expenses associated with shipping a broken product back to the vendor.
Anyway, I just thought it would be interesting to show the inside of a laptop that probably blows through the EOMA-68 laptop's power budget several times over - just check out that cooling solution! ;-)
i know, man... :)
you joined quite recently, i don't know if you've seen these:
http://rhombus-tech.net/community_ideas/laptop_15in/news/EOMA68_Libre_15.6in... http://rhombus-tech.net/community_ideas/laptop_15in/news/PCB1_prototype_prog... http://rhombus-tech.net/community_ideas/laptop_15in/news/PCB1_LCD_operationa...
and although it's low-resolution, the video here gives a full walkthrough: http://rhombus-tech.net/community_ideas/laptop_15in/news/Component_walkthrou...
... bit of a difference, eh?
l.
On Mon Aug 8 15:58:45 BST 2016, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
you joined quite recently, i don't know if you've seen these:
tech.net/community_ideas/laptop_15in/news/EOMA68_Libre_15.6in_Laptop_partially_assembled/
tech.net/community_ideas/laptop_15in/news/PCB1_prototype_progress_26sep2015/
tech.net/community_ideas/laptop_15in/news/PCB1_LCD_operational_14dec2015/
and although it's low-resolution, the video here gives a full walkthrough: http://rhombus-
tech.net/community_ideas/laptop_15in/news/Component_walkthrough_pre_assembly/
... bit of a difference, eh?
Yes, quite! I've actually seen all of those before, I think. L-shaped circuit boards seem to be something that all laptops need to have! Very shiny!
On Mon Aug 8 16:00:39 BST 2016, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
tell you what, david: i have an idea. would you like to do a "guest update"? basically pretty much exactly what you wrote, but published on crowdsupply?
Sure, if you think it would help. Let me know if/how I can improve the text and I'll get to it!
David
--- crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68
On Mon, Aug 8, 2016 at 4:25 PM, David Boddie david@boddie.org.uk wrote:
and although it's low-resolution, the video here gives a full walkthrough: http://rhombus-
tech.net/community_ideas/laptop_15in/news/Component_walkthrough_pre_assembly/
... bit of a difference, eh?
Yes, quite! I've actually seen all of those before, I think. L-shaped circuit boards seem to be something that all laptops need to have! Very shiny!
On Mon Aug 8 16:00:39 BST 2016, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
tell you what, david: i have an idea. would you like to do a "guest update"? basically pretty much exactly what you wrote, but published on crowdsupply?
Sure, if you think it would help. Let me know if/how I can improve the text and I'll get to it!
hm i noticed it's quite long, something like the Cedrus one was 500 words. would you be happy to do something instead that _references_ what you wrote, then includes one of each of the photos, mentioning the stark contrast and summarising the difficulties that you had opening the laptop? even well less than 500 words - say only 2 or 3 paragraphs - would be absolutely fine.
crowdsupply's web site used markdown so you can put references in with [name](url), images they do differently, with {name_of_image} but ref them by the URL and i'll let joshua's team to know to pick them up and substitute them in.
l.
On Mon Aug 8 19:29:26 BST 2016, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
hm i noticed it's quite long, something like the Cedrus one was 500 words. would you be happy to do something instead that _references_ what you wrote, then includes one of each of the photos, mentioning the stark contrast and summarising the difficulties that you had opening the laptop? even well less than 500 words - say only 2 or 3 paragraphs - would be absolutely fine.
I'll send you something off-list.
David
On Mon, Aug 8, 2016 at 8:46 PM, David Boddie david@boddie.org.uk wrote:
I'll send you something off-list.
thxdavid.
@ David -- by my eyes, that actually looks to be an incredibly nice, clean, and tidy production. I have a spare motherboard (ignoring busted audio jack and one questionable USB port) for my trusty ASUS 1000HE netbook. I was thinking of desktopping it until I saw just what a mess it would be simply hooking up a power button... the power button PCB connects to the motherboard with a tiny flat flex cable (FFC -- the little white fiddly cables in laptops that like to tear) and the pin pitch is frightening, at best... never mind rigging in a new cooling solution, since the original "heatsink" is the keyboard underlay! And so on.
May I ask how you handled that very issue (power button) yourself? Is video out automatically handled by BIOS or did you have to twiddle something...? Is it still hooked to the old battery? etc.
You can email me off-list if Luke gets ornery ;) but I'm rather curious as to the full implementation and all.
...actually, somewhat more on topic. You want a laptop that's a real PITA to get into? Try the HP Compaq tc4200 and tc4400. Mom's had both. Ugly, slow, bothersome, nasty machines. There may be others with the same chassis and its fatal flaw... I dunno. I hope not!
They wouldn't be so bad if they weren't "convertibles" as I call them -- they have a single doofy swivel hinge thing for the lid that lets them become a nasty bulky tablet instead of a nasty bulky laptop. The problem isn't the hinge itself, *per se* -- but rather in its implementation and how the whole thing goes together. The WiFi card and half of the RAM is under the keyboard, and to get under that keyboard, you have to pull up the power button bezel...
...which inevitably breaks in half right around that freaking hinge, because that's basically how it's made. There is no other way into the system as far as I've been able to figure out. You can't get the hinge out of the way till the bezel (and keyboard, IIRC) are out -- the connection for the LCD cable is under there somewhere. Forget it. You have to damage the freaking thing to get it open.
I just put electrical tape over the broken bezel to hold it together... but my god, a laptop where you have to literally break the casework to get into the dang thing, geez louise. (If you can't tell, I'm trying REALLY HARD not to swear here. I could paint this email bright blue with four-letter words on that particular chassis' point of idiocy, but I'm in polite company, so I'm trying to restrain myself.)
As Luke Skywalker said upon meeting the Millennium Falcon -- "What a piece of junk!" Alas, the Millennium Falcon is a far superior machine... and I say that as a Trekkie ;)
I guess the upshot is that it's not a "nurse, get my scalpel" iMac... ;)
On Mon Aug 8 21:25:17 BST 2016, Christopher Havel wrote:
@ David -- by my eyes, that actually looks to be an incredibly nice, clean, and tidy production. I have a spare motherboard (ignoring busted audio jack and one questionable USB port) for my trusty ASUS 1000HE netbook. I was thinking of desktopping it until I saw just what a mess it would be simply hooking up a power button... the power button PCB connects to the motherboard with a tiny flat flex cable (FFC -- the little white fiddly cables in laptops that like to tear) and the pin pitch is frightening, at best... never mind rigging in a new cooling solution, since the original "heatsink" is the keyboard underlay! And so on.
I think I may have been a bit harsh on the old beast. Samsung did a pretty good job of integrating everything on the motherboard. It's just a shame that they had to include everything except the kitchen sink. It's not like I have to deal with multiple boards strung together with cables. The board, once extracted, is self-contained.
May I ask how you handled that very issue (power button) yourself? Is video out automatically handled by BIOS or did you have to twiddle something...? Is it still hooked to the old battery? etc.
The power button is a simple push button at the top-right of the motherboard. The top part of the board was covered by a panel with a grille that sat on top of the fans and plastic covers for each of the buttons (Internet, e-mail, user and power). Video out is handled by the BIOS. I haven't connected the battery - the board doesn't seem to need it. I also left out the CD/DVD drive because I think it no longer works. Oh, and the speaker outputs aren't connected to anything. I think I unplugged the soft-modem at some point in the distant past.
You can email me off-list if Luke gets ornery ;) but I'm rather curious as to the full implementation and all.
I'll risk it for now. ;-)
Really, what you see in the pictures is all there was to it, unless you want to see pictures of the inside of the case. The only thing I added was the black CompactFlash adapter that plugs into the IDE slot. Feel free to ask me more questions privately if you want.
David
arm-netbook@lists.phcomp.co.uk
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Christopher Havel -
David Boddie -
Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton