Project GhettoBook (23 inch laptop)

[foothead]

got that same monitor for my brothers Christmas gift looked really sharp on the instore model

Agreed. I looked at the 21.5 inch model at Conns, and the blacks were very good, and whites were amazing. The colors weren't the best, but they were still better than most TN panels.

I've been doing some more battery modding. I managed to get a third external battery shipped in from a different radioshack, so I took the cells out of it and added them to the 12 cell pack. I have two more Toshiba 9 cell packs on the way to use with the leftover charging circuit.

Picture time!

The pack as it came:

Opened up:

This one has different cells than the other two. I did some research and the specs seem to be the same, so it should work. If they do die prematurely, it'll only cost $23, so I'm not that worried.

Here's the bare PCB:

The old cells rigged up into 2 x 6 cell packs:

The new cells rigged up. All 6 are in parallel.

All wired up:

This is starting to get epic.

I also found a CF reader at office depot for 94 cents, so I decided to add it.

Here it is stripped down to the PCB:

Card in place:

 

[aPanzerIV]

Good lord Foothead, how many batteries are you going to shove in there?

My camera came with a patheticly useless 16mb CF stick...

 

[foothead]

Good lord Foothead, how many batteries are you going to shove in there?

62.

My camera came with a patheticly useless 16mb CF stick...

LOL! That wouldn't even hold one picture. You can get an 8GB really cheap. I think I paid $25 for mine.

I got my monitor in today.

The monitor still in its case. Sorry for the weird angle, my camera's autofocus hates LCD panels.

Side shot. This thing is thin.

Here is what is inside the base.

Here's the panel itself. It's amazingly thin.

The touch sensitive buttons. Anyone know how these things work? I want to replace them with tact switches.

And, I got a little bonus. It turns out that the hinge has enough range of motion to be used on the laptop. I'll probably dremel it in half to make two separate hinges.

I now have the exact dimensions of the monitor, so cutting can begin this weekend. W00T!

 

[foothead]

Quick update: My dad decided to let me use his tools today. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get there until 3:00, and it got dark about 5:30, so little got done apart from making the rig for the saw. Anyway, here are pictures:

Here's the rig we came up with. It's really simple, but the cuts are perfect.

Unfortunately, the table saw did not work out, so this was our only option. The plastic would travel up the blade of the table saw and come out crooked.

The piece we made was the LCD bezel. The outer edges have 45 degree beveling, but the inner edges don't. I intend to sand them down by hand.

How we cut the inner edge:

It came out with some small pieces left in each corner, so I hacksawed them in half.

Success!

My dad is off work next Thursday, so we should have time to finish. Until then, I'm going to be working on the metal frame.

EDIT: Got some sanding done.

Sorry for blurry pic. My camera's autofocus was being ornery and I don't have enough hands to do manual while holding the bezel up.

 

[JCB1]

nice project, thanks for writing up, I like the way you have done the batterys

 

[foothead]

nice project, thanks for writing up, I like the way you have done the batterys

Thanks. Everyone keeps saying the batteries look like a bomb, lol.

I'm doing a dry run right now with two of the battery packs I made. I don't trust them to supply more than 35W, so I won't dare plug the HP battery in right now, but at least I know it'll work.


BTW, sorry for the photos going down. My bandwidth got pwned when I was featured on hackaday earlier this month. They should be up again tomorrow.

 

[aPanzerIV]

Lol 62 batteries... Nice lcd btw. Amazingly, that 16mb stick holds 23 pictures with this POS Kodak Easy-Tard. I want my cybershot back >:C

 

[foothead]

Lol 62 batteries... Nice lcd btw.

32 of the batteries were able to run the mobo for ~6 hours last night. I should get 2 hours out of the HP pack, and the remaining batteries should be about right for just the LCD. So I'm looking at ~8 hour battery life. Not that spectacular, but it's a whole lot better than the ~45 minutes I'm used to from my iBook.

Amazingly, that 16mb stick holds 23 pictures with this POS Kodak Easy-Tard. I want my cybershot back >:C

Wow... Pictures from my evolt 410 tend to take ~15 MB. And they're only 10MP.

Test run photo:

Everything (except the LCD) is running off battery power.

 

[VINMAN46]

looking good so far
looks like alot of work too much for me -_-

 

[foothead]

looking good so far

Thanks.

looks like alot of work too much for me -_-

Yep. I spend a couple hours a day on it usually. I kinda enjoy the work though, so it isn't a problem.