Monday, November 10th 2014

Meet Pi-Top, the First 3D Printed DIY Laptop Based on Raspberry Pi

by
btarunr
 Discuss (10 Comments)
Just when you thought you couldn't make computers any cuter than tiny custom-molded cases for Raspberry Pi, there comes along the Pi-Top. Announced as an IndieGoGo project that's soliciting your two-cents literally, the Pi-Top is a DIY laptop kit that's mostly 3D printed. As part of the package, you not only get a 3D printed laptop chassis of your choice, but also its STL files, so you can mod and print your own chassis to suit the week.

Other components of the kit include a Raspberry Pi with three expansion modules (laptop power management PCB, HDMI to LVDS bridge PCB, and keyboard+trackpad controller PCB); a 13.3-inch LCD panel with HD (1280 x 720 pixels) resolution, a battery, a USB 802.11 b/g/n + Bluetooth 4.0 WLAN controller, a keyboard and trackpad, a DC wall plug, and a piece of paper with a URL to an online video tutorial on how to put the thing together. Drop a few coins here. There are countless free ARM Linux distros you can drive it with.
A video presentation follows.

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10 Comments on Meet Pi-Top, the First 3D Printed DIY Laptop Based on Raspberry Pi

#1
Nordic
Its cool, but for $285 I would rather get something a bit beefier than the pi's arm chip.
Posted on Reply
#2
Constantine Yevseyev
And what about the electrical safety? And how do they deal with heat? Did they simulate different workload scenarios using special equipment (which costs millions of dollars)?
Hell, this is not funny. You can die from using a poorly made electrical device, and something tells me that unemployed hipste..., excuse me, Indie developers are not the right people to pull out such things.
Posted on Reply
#3
ZetZet
Constantine YevseyevAnd what about the electrical safety? And how do they deal with heat? Did they simulate different workload scenarios using special equipment (which costs millions of dollars)?
Hell, this is not funny. You can die from using a poorly made electrical device, and something tells me that unemployed hipste..., excuse me, Indie developers are not the right people to pull out such things.
There is pretty much no heat from the pi and the battery because it doesn't drain it too hard. It's awful only because it's more expensive than actual laptops with better specs.
Posted on Reply
#4
freeleacher
Constantine YevseyevAnd what about the electrical safety? And how do they deal with heat? Did they simulate different workload scenarios using special equipment (which costs millions of dollars)?
Hell, this is not funny. You can die from using a poorly made electrical device, and something tells me that unemployed hipste..., excuse me, Indie developers are not the right people to pull out such things.
lol the screen probably generates more heat than the chips don't be so dramatic.
lol @ millions, This generates no more heat than a mobile phone.
Its cool I want one.
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#5
Ferrum Master
Constantine YevseyevAnd what about the electrical safety? And how do they deal with heat? Did they simulate different workload scenarios using special equipment (which costs millions of dollars)?
Hell, this is not funny. You can die from using a poorly made electrical device, and something tells me that unemployed hipste..., excuse me, Indie developers are not the right people to pull out such things.
Are you sane? IT HAS everything that cuts off the power, including fuses and thermal shutdown, that is incorporated in each separate IC, including CPU, Power VRM and LDO's... Do your homework.
Posted on Reply
#6
Aquinus
Resident Wat-man
james888Its cool, but for $285 I would rather get something a bit beefier than the pi's arm chip.
You mean you would rather have something more like the SolidRun HummingBoard i2eX. It's a Pi, but faster, with more cores, faster GPU, 1GB of DDR3, mini PCI-E, mSATA, 1Gbps ethernet, the works. It also probably makes more heat than the Pi, it certainly costs more as this goes for 100 USD.

Heck, they have a cube that has a quad-core in it with 2GB of ram. I thought that the CuBox looks nifty too.
Constantine YevseyevAnd what about the electrical safety? And how do they deal with heat? Did they simulate different workload scenarios using special equipment (which costs millions of dollars)?
Hell, this is not funny. You can die from using a poorly made electrical device, and something tells me that unemployed hipste..., excuse me, Indie developers are not the right people to pull out such things.
For a device that doesn't draw more than 1A @ 5v under heavy and overclocked load, I think you're over exaggerating the amount of heat produced by the Pi. We're talking TDPs on the scale of 1-4 watts tops for the entire Pi.
Posted on Reply
#7
GreiverBlade
AquinusYou mean you would rather have something more like the SolidRun HummingBoard i2eX. It's a Pi, but faster, with more cores, faster GPU, 1GB of DDR3, mini PCI-E, mSATA, 1Gbps ethernet, the works. It also probably makes more heat than the Pi, it certainly costs more as this goes for 100 USD.

Heck, they have a cube that has a quad-core in it with 2GB of ram. I thought that the CuBox looks nifty too.


For a device that doesn't draw more than 1A @ 5v under heavy and overclocked load, I think you're over exaggerating the amount of heat produced by the Pi. We're talking TDPs on the scale of 1-4 watts tops for the entire Pi.
now that give me some idea for my Beaglebone Black i have ... well ... or i could simply use my bluetooth keyboard on my nvidia Shield Tablet ... ok it cost 349$~ and you need to add the cost of the keyboard and controller (well the keyboard i have it for quite a while now ... )

technically that kind of thing (Embedded board, Pi/BBB/Cubie) are fun for the purpose of the "Diy" idea in the end, mainly why i got a BBB cheap to "turn" my TV into a SmartTV (cheaper than a Pi A serie ... for saying)

edit: fuuun i noticed some of my etailer have the Zotac Jetson developement board in stock (Tegra K1 32bit quad A15 GK20A gpu) (250chf price range)
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#8
NC37
This...would be a fantastic tool for computer classes in schools. Kids would love the idea of building their own laptop like this.
Posted on Reply
#9
Skywalker12345
i feel like the market is more for students with this, its great for small classrooms maybe but the price could be brought down a bit. you can buy a cheap windows laptop for that price nowaday
Posted on Reply
#10
Peter_s
If I read right, the case is NOT printed. It is made by injection molding process.
Please read from the source pi-top.com
You may print one if you like nevertheless.

"Pi-Top comes with an injection moulded case so you can build Pi-Top on day one. Every kit also comes with 3D printing files so you can print your own Pi-Top case! "

I hate those f*** idiots quickly reading and spreading the headlines only.
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Apr 26th, 2024 03:19 EDT change timezone

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