Hacker's friendly Open Source Hardware DIY modular Laptop

Hacker's friendly Open Source HardwareDo-It-Yourself modular laptop with 64 bit ARM processor

Tsvetan Usunov, OLIMEX LtdHackaday, Belgrade 2016

$whoami

OLIMEX Ltd for 25 years we design and produce development tools, boards, devices, IoT, small Linux SBC.

OSHW DIY modular Laptop

Out of about 600 different products on our web site half are with OSHW Licensee.

Distributors in many countries: Mouser, Digikey, Farnell, Conrad, TME, Amazon and other, which proves that OSHW model is not incompatible with the business.



Why bother to develop Open Source Hardware DIY modular Laptop?


ACER, BENQ, TOSHIBA, GIGABYTE, SONY, HP, FUJITSU-SIEMENS, COMPAQ, ASUS


Every couple of years my laptop die, or get obsolete!

The new software need more processing power or memory!

The Batteries lose their capacity.

Laptops fall on the floor! Hard to find and expensive spare parts!

Sometimes I spill coffee on the keyboard. Or some keys just wear out.

Power jacks breaks and battery do not charge anymore.


Vendors made them HARD to repair, they want you to buy new!



Let me check if someone already did it!


OMG!



Then why not make one ourself?


Let's make wish list:

- To be lightweight- To work all day long on battery- To may run my software fast- To be elegant and stylish- To be open source, so everyone could change to his taste and needs - To be modular- Easy to repair and upgrade- To have low cost spare parts


What if we sell it both assembled and as kit?There will be more benefits:

- Educational element, you know every bit of your laptop

- Environmental benefit upgrade and fix instead to dump


How open it will be?

Everyone has his own definition for opennes

One may want open source GPU drivers

One may need electrolyte capacitors fluid formula

One may want to know how transistors are photo-imaged on the silicon

I know that we can't please everyone!


The more things are open the better, but If I can buy this component, transistor, resistor, capacitor it's OK.

For me one thing is open enough if you can learn, study, re-produce and all components are available and easy for purchase. If I have the schematic, CAD files, Linux build scripts this will be OK for me to make my own laptop.


Let's hear what community think about it!

I blogged at olimex.wordpress.com about this idea in November 2015.

Got massive response, tips, good advices, willingness to contribute with modules for different architectures.


What we did so far for 4 months


We made A64 proto board in KiCAD and preliminary Linux support


In February 2016 at FOSDEM I learned more about the first Open Source Toolchain for Lattice iCE40 FPGA.

We made iCE40 development board with RAM, ADC and DAC 100Mhz, VGA and PS2. The idea introduce people to FPGA, and allow to the advanced users to play with Open Source cores like RISK-V. Now thinking about iCE40 add on for laptop to make it Hacker's tool: Logic analyzer, DSO, DDFS generator.


Progress with the mechanical parts:

- plastic manufacturer- learned a lot about laptop displays, we found nice LCD eDP- connectors for PWR, USB, SD card, HDMI - nice small camera-audio speakers, microphone-battery which to allow 6 hours work- keyboard, touch panel + arduino


What's next?

- To complete with working prototype by Tuxcon in July

- To do extensive testings and improvements based on them for both hardware and software

- To have first kits ready by September


What we learned so far from this project?

- To design something so complex involving mechanics and electronics takes longer than we expected

- OSHW should be opened from the very beginning, this way you will receive valuable feed back and things which you may oversight.


Questions?


Thanks!

2016, released under CC-SA-BY-2.0

Hacker's friendly Open Source Hardware DIY modular Laptop

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