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Show HN: I made an open-source laptop from scratch

byran.ee

281–290 of 338 posts

Re: Show HN: I made an open-source laptop from scratch

#281
post #28
post #27

This is really cool! There are some obvious next steps for improving the polish on this, would you say you were more resource constrained, time constrained, or skill constrained? For instance, did you put any thought into making flex PCBs to make the cable routing easier? I also think the concept of a laptop with a removable wireless keyboard is brilliant, and I think your implementation is a lot cleaner than e.g. th…

Hey! Thank you for the question. For sure, it's not a polished product and I don't mean for it to be. It works surprisingly well. (I've used it as my daily driver for school) With college apps and school work, the time was tight. I'd say that was the most limiting. Of course, resource and skill played its role. I did consider flex PCBs, but I didn't have the time to follow through with all the ambitions (i also wante…

If you keep this idea alive (and I hope you do!), you might consider shrinking the keyboard battery and designing its docking configuration so that it automatically charges from the main battery when stored in the laptop. A 3 month keyboard battery capacity seems sort of excessive when its mechanically part of a machine that charges daily.

I think one of the limitations to the keyboard concept you have is that it complicates using the laptop base as a stand for the screen in a tablet configuration. Outside of tablets with fully detachable keyboards (e.g. the Surface or the iPad pro), I don't think anybody has a good design for that. Was a touchscreen ever a consideration for stretch goals or design for expansion?

Re: Show HN: I made an open-source laptop from scratch

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, you just triggered me. This was also me in school. I even have a huge interest in history, but I remember my first history exam on World War 1. I was ready to answer questions on its causes, the people, how industrial war changed the nature of fighting, the new countries that formed after the war... First Question: What was the date the Serbian nationalist Gavrillo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand.…

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Discipline and obligation refer to things that materially matter to the people around us, and to society - not rote memorization of pointless facts.

And intelligence is just as much about identifying and applying effort towards useful goals - your "if you're so smart" is anything but.

Re: Show HN: I made an open-source laptop from scratch

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Discipline and obligation refer to things that materially matter to the people around us, and to society - not rote memorization of pointless facts. And intelligence is just as much about identifying and applying effort towards useful goals - your "if you're so smart" is anything but.

[flagged]

Re: Show HN: I made an open-source laptop from scratch

#287
Hopefully this new hardware development framework you just released can help me avoid being spied on by the National Security Agency's Tailored Access Operations gang and other scary creatures. True, if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear. But I intend to build a billion dollar company that can fit entirely on a laptop (AI models are my employees). I don't want the pesky U.S. government or other bad hackers being privy to my advanced technology and corporate secrets.

Thank you for your service to the free and open source principle. Richard Stallman and Eric Steven Raymond would be proud.

Re: Show HN: I made an open-source laptop from scratch

#288
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You study quantum mechanics in High School in the USA?

We discussed wave functions, probability, fermions/bosons, did calculations for particle in a box, the Schrödinger model, and went just up to deriving the hydrogen atom. Nothing super fancy, but it was one heck of an experience!

> High school quantum theory

> Nothing super fancy

Yeah, that's college level stuff, it's pretty fancy for high school, you go to a nice place :)

Re: Show HN: I made an open-source laptop from scratch

#289
Is your mainboard the same as the CM3588 carrier board [1] that has been re-layout to match the form factor you wanted or did you have to make other modifications?

The part I am most interested in is the 'powertrain' and how it manages battery charging.

[1] https://wiki.friendlyelec.com/wiki/index.php/CM3588_NAS_Kit#...

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