75. Pi-Laptop V2

Throughout several months, there was an oncoming development of the new raspberry pi computer-the one with dual-screen capabilities, a faster processor, and most importantly, new ram sizes. Now, the day has finally come in July of 2019, the Raspberry pi 4.

<Laptop>

As described earlier, it has a new faster processor than the previous versions, meaning that the OS will run a bit faster when running several tasks. It also has 2 micro HDMI ports, which while it may need some adapters, having 2 of them means that it can output an alleged 4k resolution on 2 dual screens (Like a desktop). The raspberry pi 4 also contained 2 USB 3.0 ports, meaning that you will get the fastest speeds for your peripherals. But the biggest improvement of all is that the RAM capacity can go up to 4GB of memory, which is not only substantial, but it utilizes the DDR4 type. This means that the memory will have a faster transfer rate than the standard DDR3 ram found on raspberry pi 3 B.

<Parts>

At this point, I went for the hi-spec Raspberry pi 4 for this project. To start on making this laptop, I will need to acquire the parts that make up the laptop, such as the LCD screen, the Raspberry Pi, the USB hub, some wires, batteries, the keyboard, and many more. However, I will need to plan out the actual housing for the laptop, or otherwise, it will be a mess to operate it. To do that, I used Solidworks(or any CAD software will do) to generate the basic design of a laptop. For the base, I went with the hollow box design with enough room to store the electronic components in. This will also apply to the laptop lid, which will hold the screen of the laptop.

<Pre assembly I>

Unlike the other versions of the laptops I created, I incorporated hinges into the 3d models. Once they are connected, I can combine the 2 parts together, and move the screen like a real laptop. Not only will it look good, but it means that you will not need to buy or salvage a laptop hinge for this project. I have also added holes to the base model for the USB ports, sound ports, and so on.

Once I'm done making the 3d models, I can print out the parts using the 3d printer, and finally check to see if the parts are the right dimensions.

With all the parts in place, it's time for me to put them in a place like a puzzle-starting with the main power source. 7 18650 li-ion batteries in parallel will be used to power up the main laptop, and the modified tp4056 module will be used to charge up the batteries. Once I made sure that the batteries are charged up and powered, I wired them up for the upcoming modules.

Before the full assembly, I burned a new Raspian OS(Version "Buster") to the SD card and inserted it into the Raspberry pi before I insert the entire pi into the body part.

<Pre assembly II>

Once that is inserted, I did crude wiring for powering up the raspberry pi and the TFT screen. As I confirmed that it all works, I went on to wiring up the laptop, going as far as to soldering the USB hub to the pi, the 16x2 LCD and the Sensehat to the GPIOs, and so on. The wiring process may take some time, but it's easy once you figure out where to connect the modules to each other. Of course, you will need to test the modules every time to make sure that they are still working.

Once the wiring is done, it's time to finalize it by adding the plate on each part and adding a Bluetooth keyboard for controlling the laptop. Once again, double-check to make sure that the wiring is top-notch, or otherwise, it will be your biggest regret.

To secure the hinge, you will need a pair of nuts and bolts (preferably M4-M5, but that depends on the hinge you will design) and screw it to the hinge. You can adjust the strength whether you want it loose or tight.

<Dual screen test>

At this point, to make sure that everything is held together, you will need an adhesive to stick everything together. Certain examples include Flex glue, Epoxy, Gorilla Glue, and so on.

Finally, you can try it out, and see how well it can perform as any laptop, If you can manage to sneak in an extra external port for another monitor (Shown in the example), then you can make your laptop capable of dual-screening!