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Pi-Berry Laptop-- The Classic DIY laptop

The laptop I made “The Pi-Berry Laptop” is built around the Raspberry Pi 2. It has 1GB RAM, Quad core CPU, 4 USB Ports and One Ethernet port

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The laptop I made “The Pi-Berry Laptop” is built around the Raspberry Pi 2. It has 1GB RAM, Quad core CPU, 4 USB Ports and One Ethernet port. The laptop meets daily life needs and smoothly runs programs like VLC media player , Mozilla Firefox , Arduino IDE, Libre Office, Libre CAD etc… For convenience of using and reading the Display of the laptop was chosen to be 10.1 Inch (IPS technology) HD Display with parameters control (Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, and Color). Weighing only 1547 Grams in weight, it is perfect to carry around in schools and colleges. The 16000mAh battery pack (10000+6000) provides the power to the laptop. Once fully charged the laptop runs for about 4-5 hrs . The laptop is even equipped with battery level meter which shows the charge status of the laptop. The Body (Chassis) of the laptop is made using MDF(Medium Density Fiber) Sheet and covered in Italian Leather to give it a elegant

The 16000mAh battery pack (10000+6000) provides the power to the laptop. Once fully charged the laptop runs for about 4-5 hrs . The laptop is even equipped with battery level meter which shows the charge status of the laptop. The Body (Chassis) of the laptop is made using MDF(Medium Density Fiber) Sheet and covered in Italian Leather to give it a elegant look.

The “Passive ventilation system” (Cooling without any fan) design of the laptop is so efficient that it eliminates the need of a cooling fan to cool the CPU thus conserving energy and increasing the battery time.

My design also offers full access to the SD card (for changing Operating systems) and the GPIO pins. This means you can use the raspberry pi 2 for your future projects (good news for Raspberry pi enthusiasts). The access to the GPIO pins also means that the whole system can be converted into a portable mobile programming workstation !

  • 1 × 1) Raspberry pi 2
  • 1 × 2) 10.1 inch IPS HD display (or any custom size LCD according to your choice)
  • 1 × 3) HDMI Cable (Shorter the better)
  • 1 × 4) One 6000 mAh Power-bank
  • 1 × 5) A 10000 mAh Power-bank

View all 6 components

  • 1
    Step 1

    The Plan and Designing...

    At the early designing stage I made cut-outs of individual components on a chart paper to figure out how they should be placed inside the body (chassis) of the laptop. here is the best possible design I came up with. The components are strategically placed to allow the minimum space consumption.

    Note: I couldn't find a HDMI cable shorter than 1 meter, so i had to end up with coiling up the cable between the Display Driver and the raspberry Pi. I tried making a cable myself by soldering the male to male connectors but with no success.

  • 2
    Step 2

    Making The Base !

    To begin with.. we will start the build by making the base of the laptop. This is the part where all the components will be screwed (or glued in some case). To make the base

    1) Mark the locations of the components

    2) mark the Drill Points (PCB)

    3) Outline the border of the base while leaving a small space from each side so that everything remains spacious.

    4) Now making sure every looks good as expected, cut the base using a jigsaw.

    5) File the rough edges. Just to make them softer.

    Take your time and cut it as clean as possible because this will affect the final result.

    Note Be careful to get the corners at 90 degree angle. We want them to be as precise as possible.Using a laser cutter gives the best quality but I don't have one so I used the jigsaw .

  • 3
    Step 3

    Build the top of the laptop!

    After we have build a base, time to make the top section from where the Keyboard will be mounted. I have designed the plans for the cutting. Use them to ease the work.

    1) Use the base as the template and cut another piece of rectangle MDF.

    2) Take the dimensions of the keyboard and mark it on the top.

    3) Mark the Small opening for ventilation and for access to the Raspberry Pi.(This allows us to swap SD cards easily and also access the GPIO pins on the pi for future projects)

    4) Also mark the display control button size below the ventilation port.

    5) Now using the jigsaw cut the Openings and also using the drill drill out the button holes(for Display control).

    6) File the MDF sheet to get a soft finish.

    7) I also gave the sharp edges an angle with a grinding bit to get a better look.

    CAUTION : Be careful while using the jigsaw. Cut to appropriate measurements because there's no going back at this stage!.

    "Prepare and prevent, don't repair and repent."

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zhc587p09wx86qk wrote 12/17/2021 at 09:06 point

This is looking very impressive idea I think you can also add some information about best laptops  from this page they have explained every laptop category in detail.

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telemin wrote 09/18/2016 at 10:22 point

Have you considered replacing the MDF with (laser cut) birch ply?  The plywood will be lighter, just as strong, and the dust created when working isn't carcinogenic :)

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Adam Fabio wrote 09/16/2016 at 01:09 point

Great project [Sahas]! I'm featuring your article in this week's hacklet.  It looks like some of your images are broken though - you can add them right here on .io rather than linking in. 

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