View Single Post
Posts: 1,994 | Thanked: 3,342 times | Joined on Jun 2010 @ N900: Battery low. N950: torx 4 re-used once and fine; SIM port torn apart
#17
Originally Posted by juiceme View Post
I had an idea for that but due to lack of time have not gone anywhere with it yet...

I recently got into my hands a bagful of various models of Asus ee-PC mini-laptops. The devices by themselves are fairly limited by todays standards since the HW is about a decade old and was not near the top-of-the-range even then

So, I had in my mind to gut the insides out of some of the devices and replace with Raspberries. What I'd save is the display and keyboard and since the PI's are so small there would be plenty of space available to stuff full of Li-ion goodiness...

I already have made some tests on how long I can run a Raspberry from a mobile power bank and the results are promising. When I'll have time to do it (which looking at my schedule could be sometime in the 2030's...) I'll check what the keyboard and display interfaces in the ee-PC's are like and what's required to adapt those to the PI.

Heh, there actually should be space enough for stuffing at least 2 Raspberries in one subnotebook frame, so I could have real multicpu laptop, not just multicore!
Would love to see mass production of Asus ee-PC mini laptops with Raspberry Pi 2 inside. Why not Raspberry Pi 3? Simple, I don't want to have to replace Raspberry Pi once wireless isn't working for some reason. Would rather use USB add-ons for wireless things, much more customisable. Raspeberry Pi 2 ver 1.2 sounds good, [Edit]not same, but similar[/edit] CPU as Raspberry Pi 3; no need to limit wireless to 802.11n. Also, decreases power usage when idle (220mA for Pi2 1.2, 300mA for Pi3).

Paspberry Pi Zero PCB ver 1.3 also sounds promising for ultra-low power consumption of 100mA when idle, but: it would need a USB hub, a TRRS jack, and Ethernet port.

I have to say, I am annoyed at concept of memory shared between CPU and GPU; cannot each of them have their own RAM? But that's Raspberry's choice.

Make the prototypes first, though ;-) Li-ion can be tricky, and cases are trouble, too.

P.S. Would like to see guides on rejuvenating old laptops with new hardware. Currently, there are one or two laptops around which, besides old hardware (still usable), have problems with LCD displays (which will become unusable in a few years, I guess; typical for this lifebook model, in my experience).

Originally Posted by nh1402 View Post
TCL are bringing back Palm this year, maybe we'll see a more open keyboard phone with that brand.
Would be neat.

Originally Posted by marmistrz View Post
Well, blackberry phones are unrootable by design. (this will probably mean no OEM unlock too)
Wish it changed soon. They did switch to Android recently...

Originally Posted by Zeta View Post
A competitor ? Jolla abandonned the TOH when they stopped making hardware.
And Motorola would have been stupid to embrace such a crippled solution (I2C, created for small and slow communications), when they have chosen a high performance bus allowing a greater range of adds-on (like video capture and projection, or sound).
Then why did Jolla choose I2C, such a crippled solution? It's ironic that Jolla got a variety of TOHs (infrared imaging and eInk display, besides keyboard and battery), while I haven't heard about such a variety of addons available for Moto Z.

Originally Posted by Zeta View Post
But back on the topic, it would be great to really have some nice choices regarding phones with hardware keyboard. I am looking especially for compacts sliding landscape QWERTY (N950 like).
Agree, sliders are neat. Especially when most new phones now are just slatebar.

Thank you. Best wishes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Per aspera ad astra...
 

The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Wikiwide For This Useful Post: