/diy/ - Do It Yourself

That's really cool. Looks reasonably well made from the pics.

How did you mount the computer inside the wood? Is the original laptop housing inside?

If you don't mind a little constructive criticism, I think the stainless is a little stark in contrast to the light grain of the wood.

Have you considered brass or bronze hardware instead?

So, is there like a How-To series of pics?

thats sick man

>>78535
No it is an all new housing. I just took the main board and all out an made a new case for it so to say. It is a whole lot of fiddling to make it small yet strong enough. It is not as thin as a real (commercial) windows tablet because the laptop battery cells are somewhat thick. It is passive cooled as well.

>>78539
Know what you mean, but I could not find nice brass screws like these stainless types.

>>78541
i require a how to.

>>78538
Hmm sorry not at this moment. It also is not something you could do easily even with a guide. Since without a mill you cannot make the housing like this since it is made of a solid block.

>>78527

>>78544

You could learn to use a chisel.

>>78527
What was the cost?

got pics from the back?

>>78553
Are dovetail joints ok to round the corners?

timestamp of fuck off op

way to go ripping these off some forum and claiming you made it, fucking faggot

>>78553
I guess you are right, it can be done in many ways.

>>78554
I got the laptop second hand as a navigation device connected to Gps when I was on vacation last year. It was 150euro. And after that I have never used the mini laptop (especially since I have 2 big normal laptops as well), so I though about converting it to a tablet and be of some use. I got the touch overlay for 75euro.

>>78571
I am at work right now but hey no problem boy, just wait a few hours.

>>78527
I don't care if you did it or someone else, I just want to be recorded as saying "That is some fantastic work. Thank you"

>>78579
Oh, I can't post pictures either, as I am currently deployed to the Arctic to fight Nazi Remnants.

>>78588
My grandfather died fighting Nazi remnants.

this interests me like no other. I have an old HP tablet PC that I wouldnt mind doing this to...

instructions? I wouldn't mind being able to turn it into an android tablet...thatd be sweet...

>>78618
K, will open it up and post some pictures of the inside. Check back in a few hours.

>>78571
For what it's worth

>>78571
Man, I bet you feel like such a bitch now that he provided the timestamp.

>>78527
how much was it to make?

>>78763

See here:
>>78577

This is the Inspiron mini hardware. Cpu and stuff is on the other side. Battery taken apart also.

The looks of the insides are nothing to be proud of but is serves its purpose. The tape is there to protect the hdd pcb from contact with the lid and such. (turned out to be not all that necessary though) The lower loose wires are the wifi antenna cables. The board on the right is the external vga and usb port.

Capacitive touch controller, directly soldered to a usb port.

>>78749
>>78571

lol, I love it when cunts get exactly what they ask for.

>>78773
That is pretty awesome, I'm thinking about doing something similar with a raspberry pi and a psp screen. I never thought of wood for a casing for it, but I'm seriously thinking about it now.

I suggest you monitor your temps if you are going to be doing anything intensive like watching movies.

>>78773
Awesome.

How do you deal with the heat generated by that thing?

>>78828
I was afraid of that also. Note that the Inspiron Mini is also passive cooled. And the cooling plate I put in the tablet has like 3 times as much surface. I I did run Prime95 and Futuremark for 4 hours and the temperature peaked at 58 degree Celsius. So it is all good.

where did you get the screen? Also, congratulations, it's one of the coolest looking bits of tech I've seen in ever

>>78842
The lcd screen itself is from the original laptop.
You just get one of these capacitive touch overlays (in my case a 10.1" version) http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=capacitive+touch+panel+&_cqr=true&_nkwusc=capasitive+tou
ch+panel&_rdc=1
Place the panel over yous lcd screen and connect the controller to usb and you have yourself a touch screen. Hell the touch screen even worked during the windows 8 installation. No drivers needed.

>>78851
thanks a lot man

I actually have an old laptop lying around that I'm now about to convert in to one of these after seeing this thread.

Question though: Think there is anyway to put Ipad OS or android tablet OS on it?

>>78940
Dunno about mac tablet OS on a PC, but about android, you could try http://www.android-x86.org/
And check youtube for "android pc"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gESIOrNUGKQ

>>78577
>euro
never mind

Hey,

>>78571

See:
>>78749

Does that level of butthurt burn, or is it more of an ache?

How did you make the case? Is it one solid block?

>>80811
oh never mind, I learnt to read the OP. I think I might have to try this myself - I think I could my uni's mill - is that how you did the sides?

>>80828
Yes I can rotate the head of my mill to a horizontal position so I can mill horizontal so to say.

Like so:
http://metal-fab-equip.com/diximill.jpg
Only smaller obviously

>windows
>/diy/

Wut!

>>81252

>Implying that atleast 90% of /diy/ dont use windows

>>81252
thing needs to be functional

>>81294
I agree! The exact reason I left windows.

you should have just bought an ipad, those things just work ya'know?

>>81298
Well before this turns into a passive aggressive wars of the os's. I wanted to check win8 and its tablet functions. Seems pretty good overall so far. I have worked on macs for years. Well its good and all, but for personal use I stick with windows. Used linux back in the days, dunno what they are up to these days though.

>80828

I started taking apart an old laptop to try and do the same thing as OP - my progress so far. Might use a laser cutter to create the case, making each side a separate piece of acrylic, it'd be easier to do.

On the other hand, I love the look of that wood. Choices, choices. I don't think the mill I have access to is big enough, so I might make the middle bit and have a separate top and bottom panel. Chances are it won't look half as good as OP's, although the screen is a lot larger - I didn't have a netbook to work with, only a laptop.

Havin' fun though! Thanks OP for sharing such a cool project - where did you get windows 8 btw?

>>78527
Is there a home button? Windows 8 has no support for it at the moment but if they do, what are you going to do?

>>81554
I like your fork tool.

>>81576
haha, I'm in UK, so I was having dinner at the time.

>>81556
I think there is no need for one.
In windows 8 with touch screen you swipe ya finger over the right hand side of the screen to about an inch or so toward the center of the screen and a menu appears where you can access the main menu and more.
You can see it here at 01.06 into the video : (Happens very quickly so its easy to miss)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13628154

>>81554
Looking good. Buy have you already found a touch overlay you intend to use? Would be a shame to build it all only to find there is no touch overlay available for your screen size.
Don't want to spoil your project but getting touch overlay panels is not that easy especially capacitive ones. Anyway I got mine here http://stores.ebay.com/Visualtouchworld

Oh and you can get windows 8 here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516
Touch screen works in the windows setup as well.

>>81680
thanks a lot for the help, if I can't find an overlay it's no big loss, the laptop hasn't been used for a while and I enjoyed dissecting it. I'll see if I can find an overlay, otherwise, I think http://www.u-touch.co.uk/ do custom sizes - might be more expensive but it's a damn sight cheaper than buying a tablet myself.

>>81706
I can't find any capacitive touch screens that fit a 15.4 inch monitor... bad times indeed.

What's the largest screen size that would be practical/desirable to make one of these in?
I've only seen laptop screens go up to 17.3", but I'd imagine you could use a monitor meant for desktops, no?

Also, what would it take to get a gravity sensor working in one of these?
(Not sure what to call it, but ya know, that thing in phones that tells if it's horizontal/vertical.)

>>81788
It's called a Gyroscope I believe.

>>78771
lol

I was thinking about doing something like this, slapping Android or even Windows 7 (if they pay for it) and then charging for it.

Would this be smart?

>>81857
i won't pay off
the time you invest in building this thing vs the actual cost vs the price you can sell it for just doesn't match

Another homemade tablet:
http://carbontablet.blogspot.com/

>>81788
Well since you probably need to hold it as well, I would not go much bigger than 12 inch or so.

And monitor screens meant for desktop use would be a pain to convert to battery power I think.

wow, this thing is beautiful

>>81788
The largest capacitive screens I've seen are 20cm by 11cm, ish, so you're limited by that

make it thinner

>>83282
Can't be done due to the battery size.

Can you add all pics and description and worklog into a pdf and share?

>>84158
I took no pics when I build this. And I also did not make a work log. I only opened it up to take 3 photos of the inside. Maybe next time though.

As soon as i saw this i thought it would be an awesome thing to do so i thought i would pull apart my laptop and give it a go.

After some research it seems really hard to get a capacitive touch screen bigger than 10. Can anyone tell my why this is?

I could always use a resistive touch screen but im not sure if it would be worth putting in all that effort for an inferior product. Or i could rip up my Girlfriends shitty notepad but i was hoping for a decent spec'd machine.

Also i think making it out of carbon fibre would better for those who dont have access to woodwork tools.

tl:dr Why the fuck are capacitive screens over 10" so hard to find?

>>84193
Capacitive touch displays respond to the current created by the body. Larger screens are less able to detect the minute current across the entire screen.

What I like about OPs tablet is it must have some weight on it. I'd rather use something that was a lot more sturdy like OPs than some think plastic junk.

>>84193
Here they have various sizes and capacitive types:
http://www.dawar.com/Industrial-Touch-Screens/surface-capacitive

>>84193
Oh and here as well:
http://www.amsimpex.com/products/multi-touch-touch-screen.html

>>84431
>>84428

Thanks guys, tbh my market research consisted of an ebay scan.

Im currently emailing some Chinese Wholesale companies about getting a "Sample".

A little trick i learned from wholeselling is acting like a big shot looking to buy a couple thousand but you need a sample first which is common practice. If you pull it right they will sometimes give you a sample on cheap stuff or sell you one at cost price.

Im 80% sure il go through with this. I will have to use the carbon fibre way as i dont have access to wood or metal work tools and have looked into carbon fibre before. If i do i will document it for you good people :)

>>85097
Cool
Let u know if you were able to get a sample.

>>78527
OP, this is so awesome!

Great job.

.... I want one.

bumping for awesomeness

That so cool op ....
How do you do to connecte a touch screen to a PC and do it works ? i mean , on an hardware view ....
>>78773 MOAR ^^

Some kind of i want i lose ....
btw lose !

What is good plastic or some other durable material I could use.

This is badass! now I wanna build a wooden case for my Compaq TC1100, I also have some ideas for multi touch overlays......

I know a guy that does electronic recycling.

I'll try to pick up some things that work and see what I can do.

>>87267
It consists of the regular laptop screen with an touch overlay plate on top of it. You can buy these and they normally are meant to convert your laptop into a touch laptop. Kinda like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnaMV3_6Cyk

The touch overlay controller is connected to a usb port. So in other words these touch overlays are just usb devices.

>>88140

Thanks you very much !

I have a laptop with a blown motherboard, definitely wouldn't mind building a case and shit.

Really cool op

Could I get a laptop or netbook lcd, batteries, and an ARM motherboard like Rasberry Pi to create my own tablet?

>>88831
These touch overlay panels only have drivers for windows as I remember. And I am not sure if there is a windows version that will run on arm hardware. If not, you probably won't get the touch overly working. But I am not sure, maybe there are other drivers available, check the manufacturer in advance.

>>88831
Windows doesn't go on ARM.

>>89458
windows 8 does smartass

>>78749
Well color me jealous.

Can't solder worth a shit so I guess I can't do this then.