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

byran.ee

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

#331

Post by megous »

ValdikSS wrote: post #199

How is the idle power consumption of RK3588? I bet it's pretty high, I'd expect more than 1W. I have a board with old MT6572, it idles at 270mW with working CPU, even less when in semi-sleep (turns off CPU and wakes up every half a second).

Here are some numbers from Orange Pi 5 Plus: https://xnux.eu/log/088.html

    2.4W – idle
That's from early upstreaming, and for the whole board. But I can't imagine it being much lower these days.

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

#332

Post by megous »

someothherguyy wrote: post #58
byran wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hanging around 5 grand. Unfortunately the R&D process was rough! The R&D BOM is linked below, feel free to take a look. If you were to build it, I'd estimate it costing around 1500 dollars (or less).

Back in my day, I thought spending $50 in wood shop was rough.

Yeah. My "budget" for similar scale project (sw, fw, hw, enclosure co-design) in high school 24 years ago was about $200. I'd have loved to have these kinds of resources/lab tools access. I even made [private, so that tool makers did not patch the holes/obfuscate] cracks for Eagle, HI-TECH C compilers and Solid Edge, to have some nice SW tools to work with, without arbitrary limits.

But I sure had plenty of time, and it was fun to always be learning something new. Simpler times when it was out of reach to have anything done for me, like prototype PCBs and let alone assembly. :)

These days are absolutely crazy in comaprison, with all the ready-made SBCs or SBC modules, and free software, and like $4 PCB prototyping services and CNC machining, 3D printing, $15 powerful FPGAs, $7 fully Linux capable 1GHz Cortex-A7 tiny computer modules for bread-boards, and cheap components from China... Still remember going to a shop buying single unit amounts of SMD resistors and capacitors over the counter. Now I can get 4000 unit SMD sample book for a few $ and never think about it again. Even my 2000 self would be able to afford it without much trouble. It's kind of a force multiplier easily available even for high-schoolers.

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

#333

Post by dang »

redbell wrote: post #322
redbell wrote: post #262

I hardly know where to begin! This project is exceptional in every sense—a true masterpiece. Remarkably, its creator is still in high school, yet he’s already demonstrated brilliance beyond his years. The endorsements he’s received, the connections he’s begun to forge, and the incredible opportunities now within his reach are nothing short of extraordinary. As he himself put it, accomplishments like these are only po…

This is a follow-up to my comment above (since I can no longer edit it): > By tomorrow, it may surpass 2,741 points and claim the #1 spot outright . Indeed! I just woke up to find that the post has got 2,742 points which officially make it the best Show HN of all time! You can see the full list here: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=show+hn Byran, you now have probably the best C.V. you can use for any job and you should be…

Just for amusement purposes (and in no way to diminish this amazing success), the most-upvoted Show HN remains:

Show HN: This up votes itself - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3742902 - March 2012 (82 comments)

But that one had the unfair advantage of, er, upvoting itself. Also, it was meta, so the upvoters were on crack (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...).

Byran's has reached #2, which makes it the most-upvoted in 13 years!

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

#335

Post by Nevermark »

rTX5CMRXIfFG wrote: post #177
httpz wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sometimes wonder how many talented engineers top colleges are rejecting because they were busy working on real engineering projects like this than academics and test scores.

Probably not a lot, kids who have the grit to work on projects like this are the ones most likely to succeed academically

You really don’t want to see my pre-university grades.

I was on a mission, and I can’t do two things at once. So school was about efficiency. I got great grades wherever that took low effort. That only went so far.

After graduation, nowhere I wanted to be would have looked at me.

It took me a couple years after high school to find the right university, but my personal projects paid off.

Looking back, it was a gamble. But you don’t really choose those kinds of paths.

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

#336

Post by pl4nty »

frognumber wrote: post #193

Impressive! Suggestion: It would be nice to include a price list on the article. This project is impressive as heck, but aside from being intellectually out-of-reach for most kids, it would be financially challenging as well. Last I looked, CNC aluminum blocks were well out of the reach of 99.9% of kids (but that was decades ago; perhaps prices went down). For people wanting to follow in those footsteps, it'd be nice…

it's not as expensive as it looks, if you don't count time. CNC alu and the display would be the biggest costs. other carrier board projects use 3d printing over CNC, but the display/bandwidth is kinda what makes this novel so a lower res wouldn't make sense

really hoping Byran's excellent writeup helps encourage others. SoMs have lowered the barrier to entry and birthed a ton of SBC/carrier communities, but most of their tribal knowledge is buried in discord servers

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

#337

Post by G-KINGS »

Good evening sir Bryan, a 15 year old with you... Can you teach me how you made the PC, please... Last year I was able to create a mobile application running on a smartphone.. this year I planned on creating a mobile phone and a PC... Please can you teach me.... I don't know anything about designing PCB's tho..

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

#338

Post by jjkaczor »

duskwuff wrote: post #321
jjkaczor wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy crap - I have read the Hobbit many times (and LoTR a few less) and I would never have taken the time to commit 13-character names to memory - most of them simply were not that memorable.

The rhyming sets are a bit of a crutch, at least (Fili + Kili, Óin + Glóin, Bifur + Bofur + Bombur, etc). But you're right - most of the dwarves are individually forgettable. Only two are substantially characterized - Thorin the leader, and Bombur the comically fat.

Heh - exactly - the only truly easy character name that has always stuck in my mind was from "Snow Crash", I mean - who can forget "Hiro Protagonist"...?
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