I made a Raspberry PI Laptop

[gregeric]

I've addressed the lid-close power-dip / reset issue by taking 5V for the Pi from the Lapdock's internal USB supply rail. There's a (relatively) large capacitor between the two USB ports which is easy enough to solder a wire onto.

Behaviour is then:
Lid closed -> power off, battery saving.
Lid open -> power on.

[Jim Manley]

This leaves you with two (obvious) choices to ameliorate the problem: pry off the bezel and unscrew the metal cover to remove the magnet, or pry open the base to short the proper terminals to prevent sensing of the magnet altogether.

I hope someone finds this information useful

Very useful info - thanks! Shorting the sensor seems more easily reversible than removing it, unless removing the magnet can be done without stressing the case material. Then I'd lose the magnet, making it difficult to reverse that!

[Rayjingstorm]

This leaves you with two (obvious) choices to ameliorate the problem: pry off the bezel and unscrew the metal cover to remove the magnet, or pry open the base to short the proper terminals to prevent sensing of the magnet altogether.

I hope someone finds this information useful

Very useful info - thanks! Shorting the sensor seems more easily reversible than removing it, unless removing the magnet can be done without stressing the case material. Then I'd lose the magnet, making it difficult to reverse that!

No problem, hope it helps. We removed the sensor thinking that would solve the problem, but it turned out our guess was wrong so we had to short the two contacts

[Robpol86]

If someone with some electronics hacking knowledge could help me get the Lapdock 500 to work with any HDMI input, I think this would be the best Raspberry Pi Laptop:


Right now, if you have a 5 wire USB cable the lapdock 500 powers on for a couple of seconds and then powers off. I'm hoping there's something I can short on the Lapdock's controller board to get past Motorola's "DRM", but I don't really know anything about electronics (I'm more of a software guy).

I've already wasted hours of my time trying to trick it into working with a few adapters but no luck

[Nigel Day]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/ ... dition=new

That cable states it is for charging two devices at one. It may not have the data lines in it.

That's why in my original comment I mused about the skimpiness of the cable, and if it only provides power, that would explain the small diameter.

Just got one (knowing that there were other things I could use it for if people's suspicions were correct) and it does indeed seem to be power-only, with no data lines. A pity - I will have to wait for DealExtreme, I suppose, or test out my soldering skills on the thin wires in a usb cable...

[clickykbd]

My necessary HDMI adapter finally arrived, so my setup is now functional. I went with that blackberry cable from DX, and indeed, works great: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/micro-usb- ... 07901#open

My primary issues now are getting USB wifi stable, neither wifi device I have work with the lapdock configuration (device reset and ifconfig non-responsive, often eth0 driver errors too), though they did work on the pi bare bones and with a powered hub.

I also have excessively stuck and missed keystrokes when running off the lapdock battery (wheezy, no-float distro). I'm curious if cutting the red-wire in the Y-cable on the usb/data side would help at all? Or maybe pi-pass? (which I have not tried yet). Anyone have the lapdock keyboard happy with wheezy without pi-pass? I've had so many keyboard issues I am almost curious if my board is a bit off spec.

I did notice that the data leg of the Y will provide back-flow power (and boot the pi). This is not ideal, as none of my other hubs had this problem. Could that be contributing to my issues?

Aside, anyone know a easy way to create a keystroke shortcut to disable/enable the mouse? I find the huge touchpad way too sensitive when typing.

If I get things stable I post my full parts/config for the new comers.

[Lob0426]

@clickykbd: this thread solves the WiFi problem by setting a script for commands to shut off the LAN adapter on the RasPi.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 95#p126712
I am using this fix and my WiFi works real well.

As for the sticky keys, try the Data cord in the other port. Also make sure the Female end is getting all the way down onto the Lapdock USB connector. Trim it if you need to. Also there is a mounting plate that goes over the USB and HDMI that fits the Atrix phone. You can pop that out with a small screwdriver. That will allow you to get better connections to your cables with less trimming.

The back powering probably is not causing the keyboard issues. But it does make sense to disable the power on the data side. Mine runs fine for hours on the built in battery. Try the fixes for the cable first!

[Nigel Day]

Aside, anyone know a easy way to create a keystroke shortcut to disable/enable the mouse? I find the huge touchpad way too sensitive when typing.

Try double-tapping on the white LED at the top-left of the touchpad. The LED should go out, and the touchpad becomes unresponsive. Repeating the procedure re-enables this.

[Signs]

If I was going to build (rebuild) a notebook, it would most likely be an Itronix. They (if not at the present time) had the most rugged one you could find. All major companies used (including Sears) these for their service techs, and of course the biggest use (and maybe still is) is the military. (Itronix is now owned by General Dynamics). I used to have 5 or 6 of them (I may have them in the attic somewhere) that I got for like less than $20 a piece. The problem was is that they had DX50 processors. Of course like every other computer company Itronix sells new ones that are very fast, but the competition from other companies is now that I don't think that produce as many, and new ones are very high priced. The ones that I have (or had) are Cross Country 6000's. Mainly they have mono screens, but I think I have (or had) one that has a color screen. EBay has many Itronix notebooks listed all of the time. The Rpi is a great way to recycle the slow and dead notebooks, I suppose. Itronix website is located at: http://www.itronix.com/
It maybe a good idea for someone to set up a blog on how to put Rpi boards into different models of notebooks, could be a good hobby for many. I used to have a small computer store and I was surprised on the request for old computers that people wanted to buy. Everything from Apple 2's to Tandy computers.

[Jim Manley]

The Itronix devices are just repackaged components made by the usual suspects in computer manufacturing. Panasonic has had a line of purpose-built ruggedized Windows laptops and tablets based on their consumer and office commercial products' components for many years. Motorola has provided repackaged components for military, law enforcement, firefighting, disaster response, forestry, mining, petroleum exploration and production, and other government and industrial sectors to complement their radio products that have dominated those markets for many decades. Dell has more recently done the same in order to compete on government contracts, and Lenovo has also done this in order to continue supplying former IBM government and industrial customers.

You're right, the enclosures from these ruggedized models might be usable to house a Pi board, but, integrating keyboards, trackpads, and particularly displays in them will be really difficult. Most such enclosures will require desoldering the connectors, and then there's the matter of how to access the SD card slot without disassembling the case every time you need to swap cards. The Atrix lapdock has USB and HDMI inputs, so, it's brain-dead simple once the right cables/adapters are acquired. Plus, the lapdock is feather light, especially compared to most ruggedized enclosures, and the new Li-ion batteries in the lapdock run circles around the old Ni-MH and ancient Ni-Cd batteries found in older laptops in terms of power longevity, recharge time required, etc., vs. weight. The $60 ~ $70 price for brand-new lapdocks is also hard to beat, although you're still stuck with figuring out where to put the Pi and how to route the cables. Too bad the Pi board couldn't' have been designed for the lapdock form factor, but, then, the designers had enough challenges with which to deal.

[ajm]

Thanks to all who provided information on how to build the Raspberry Pi Laptop.

I am trying to work through the details. Does anybody know what type keyboard should be specified (for Raspbian Wheezy) so all keys work properly (the default, generic 105 key keyboard, I think, results in, e.g., "@" and """ being swapped)?

Thanks,

A. J.

[Lob0426]

Thanks to all who provided information on how to build the Raspberry Pi Laptop.

I am trying to work through the details. Does anybody know what type keyboard should be specified (for Raspbian Wheezy) so all keys work properly (the default, generic 105 key keyboard, I think, results in, e.g., "@" and """ being swapped)?

Thanks,

A. J.

I am using the generic 105 keyboard layout for the U.S..
If you have wheezy use:

Code: Select all

sudo raspi-config

This will let you get to configure-keyboard
In squeeze use:

Code: Select all

sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

There are threads about configuring the keyboard in this forum. Use the search on the home page if you need more detailed information about keyboard setup. Also make sure you configure locales also.

[Lob0426]

Here are some pictures of the new fuses in place.

New USB fuses

New USB fuses1.jpg (33.78 KiB) Viewed 10221 times

New fuse F3

New USB fuses2.jpg (31.83 KiB) Viewed 10221 times

Lapdock Top

Lapdock top.jpg (52.96 KiB) Viewed 10216 times

[Lob0426]

A couple of more pictures.

RasPi mounted

Lapdock mount.jpg (52.36 KiB) Viewed 10215 times

Lapdock screen

Lapdock screen.jpg (55.78 KiB) Viewed 10215 times

[clickykbd]

Aside, anyone know a easy way to create a keystroke shortcut to disable/enable the mouse? I find the huge touchpad way too sensitive when typing.

Try double-tapping on the white LED at the top-left of the touchpad. The LED should go out, and the touchpad becomes unresponsive. Repeating the procedure re-enables this.

Thanks for that! No manual here and thought that was just a power LED! Handy.
Haven't tried the rest of the suggested fixes yet, got too busy watching MarsCuriosity coverage of late.

[Lob0426]

Aside, anyone know a easy way to create a keystroke shortcut to disable/enable the mouse? I find the huge touchpad way too sensitive when typing.

Try double-tapping on the white LED at the top-left of the touchpad. The LED should go out, and the touchpad becomes unresponsive. Repeating the procedure re-enables this.

Thanks for that! No manual here and thought that was just a power LED! Handy.
Haven't tried the rest of the suggested fixes yet, got too busy watching MarsCuriosity coverage of late.

Great Lapdock tip
Thanks Nigel!

[marco36]

Cool

[kyelo]

Does anyone with a lapdock know if the power to the USB ports on the dock is sufficient to drive a USB headset?

Since R_Pi has no audio in, the use of VOIP is somewhat of a problem; a USB headset has been mentioned as a possible solution, but most say that the power of the R_Pi USB ports is insufficient for the headset, but a powered hub might work.

Googling "linux + usb headset", I found a few references of individuals who said that they had gotten Logitech USB headsets to work on linux boxes under Ubuntu and Debian without having to locate and compile drivers.

Has anyone plugged a headset into their lapdock?

[tekmanro]

Hi,
I just received my Raspberry Pi and Lapdock and I'm having trouble making it work. If I just power the Pi from my computer USB port, it boots up, but when I plug it into the micro USB on the lapdock's hinge it doesn't. I also measured the voltage there and I'm never getting any (with the lapdock plugged in and all).

Before I consider sending it back, I'm wondering if it's a problem with my HDMI cable setup. Can anyone confirm whether the micro USB port on the lapdock delivers power even when the HDMI cable is not plugged in?
Thanks!

[bstag]

HDMI has to be plugged in for power to happen in my experience.

[Jim Manley]

No matter what you're using for a display, whether it's the lapdock or any other kind of display with an HDMI/DVI-D interface, the display has to be plugged into the HDMI output port on the Pi board before the board is powered up, because the Pi expects to be able to probe the display for its characteristics (horizontal and vertical numbers of pixels, number of bit-planes determining the number of possible colors, etc.) so that the Pi can set its HDMI output appropriately automagically. If it doesn't sense an HDMI/DVI-D display upon power-up, the Pi defaults to sending the video signal out through the composite video (RCA connector) port - it can't send video signals out through both at the same time, AIUI.

In the case of the lapdock, if you unplug the HDMI connector, power to the Pi through the USB connector is also shut off, but, for other HDMI/DVI-D displays, this doesn't appear to be the case for any I've tried with the Pi. This makes sense when you think about how the Atrix phone is connected to the lapdock - both the USB and HDMI connectors simultaneously connect/disconnect to/from the phone as it's plugged in and removed, and the phone has its own battery, so, the state of the ports isn't of any concern to it when it's unplugged from the lapdock. This may be a power-saving feature of the lapdock to conserve its own batteries, or the engineers who designed it just figured that if either connector is disconnected, both interfaces should be shut down.

[clickykbd]

No matter what you're using for a display, whether it's the lapdock or any other kind of display with an HDMI/DVI-D interface, the display has to be plugged into the HDMI output port on the Pi board before the board is powered up, because the Pi expects to be able to probe the display for its characteristics (horizontal and vertical numbers of pixels, number of bit-planes determining the number of possible colors, etc.) so that the Pi can set its HDMI output appropriately automagically. If it doesn't sense an HDMI/DVI-D display upon power-up, the Pi defaults to sending the video signal out through the composite video (RCA connector) port - it can't send video signals out through both at the same time, AIUI.

FYI you can change this with the config.txt, forcing it to always use HDMI regardless of detection (good for headless), and possibly good here if you want to manually config the lapdock display and not have to worry about which display the Pi chooses based on plugging. I don't use any composite situations with my Pi so I just leave this one set all the time.

hdmi_force_hotplug Pretends HDMI hotplug signal is asserted so it appears a HDMI display is attached

Code: Select all

hdmi_force_hotplug=1 Use HDMI mode even if no HDMI monitor is detected

via: http://elinux.org/RPi_config.txt

[Jim Manley]

FYI you can change this with the config.txt, forcing it to always use HDMI regardless of detection (good for headless), and possibly good here if you want to manually config the lapdock display and not have to worry about which display the Pi chooses based on plugging.

Except for setting custom vertical/horizontal pixel counts and overscan, this doesn't apply for the lapdock as what I was talking about was on the lapdock side in terms of its programmed hardware behavior. If the HDMI port isn't connected when the USB is connected, and even if the HDMI is later disconnected, both ports on the lapdock are shut down, and nothing in config.txt can affect that. I discovered this much to my dismay as I was touching the HDMI cable and suddenly saw the bootup sequence scrolling by on the lapdock screen after the HDMI cable was apparently very briefly partially disconnected at the lapdock micro-HDMI connector.

If you're running headless, the video output port shouldn't even be a consideration, unless the resolution of the screen for VNC is significant, I guess. VNC into a Pi connected to a lapdock probably isn't going to be a common use case, though.

[laymans]

I'm trying to get the parts to put this together.

~Raspberry Pi - Got It
~Motorola Lapdock (Atrix works) - Got It
~1 USB Male to Micro USB Male cable (Standard cell phone cable) - Got It
~1 USB 2.0 A female to Micro USB B female adapter cable FF - China?
~1 Micro HDMI Type D Female to Micro HDMI Type D ~Female Connector Adapter Gold - China?
~1 USB Male to USB Male cable *You will need to open this cable and cut the red 5 volt wire* - China?
~1 MICRO HDMI to HDMI cable - China?

Are there any other sources for these parts?

[Lob0426]

I'm trying to get the parts to put this together.

~Raspberry Pi - Got It
~Motorola Lapdock (Atrix works) - Got It
~1 USB Male to Micro USB Male cable (Standard cell phone cable) - Got It
~1 USB 2.0 A female to Micro USB B female adapter cable FF - China?
~1 Micro HDMI Type D Female to Micro HDMI Type D ~Female Connector Adapter Gold - China?
~1 USB Male to USB Male cable *You will need to open this cable and cut the red 5 volt wire* - China?
~1 MICRO HDMI to HDMI cable - China?

Are there any other sources for these parts?

Yeah Taiwan, oh thats China too.
Even if you find a local source the parts come from china.

This cable has been tested and works with the lapdock. You will either need an adapter from micro female to A male or add a A male connector to the cable. And yes you should cut the red wire to the Data (RasPi USB) cable.
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/micro-usb- ... 07901#open full view