Meet the PBP Tinkerer Housing early proposal

[8jef]

Hello PBP enthusiasts,


This is a very early basic design idea for an upgraded PBP housing.

Main features:

A few mm thicker bottom
Front facing speakers
Expanded width for hardware upgrades
M.2 Door
Integrated USB 3 hub
Easy customization 
3D printed on demand
Durable, recyclable
Future proof



  pbp_th.pdf (Size: 19.62 KB / Downloads: 482)

[as400]

Hello PBP enthusiasts,


This is a very early basic design idea for an upgraded PBP housing.

Main features:

A few mm thicker bottom
Front facing speakers
Expanded width for hardware upgrades
M.2 Door
Integrated USB 3 hub
Easy customization 
3D printed on demand
Durable, recyclable
Future proof

Cool

That woud fit instead of original bottom ?

[belfastraven]

Hello PBP enthusiasts,


This is a very early basic design idea for an upgraded PBP housing.

Main features:

A few mm thicker bottom
Front facing speakers
Expanded width for hardware upgrades
M.2 Door
Integrated USB 3 hub
Easy customization 
3D printed on demand
Durable, recyclable
Future proof

Cool

That woud fit instead of original bottom ?

I would love to see also:

large port/door on bootom to easily expose emmc, swtiches(serial and emmc) and buttons(reset and recovery).

[Arwen]

A couple of notes.

The SoC does include Ethernet support, but the current board does not expose it. So you would likely have to use a USB to Ethernet chip. There are some that include pass-through USB ports. The 4 port USB 3 hub with Ethernet used on the later RaspberryPis comes to mind.

Second, there is no place internally to extract video, so again, you would have to use USB to video over HDMI.

Third, don't know where you would get the USB 3 from, as I think the 2 ports are already used, (left side USB type C & type A). Now if you plan on intercepting the existing left side, then you can get access to USB 3.

Last, all that extra hardware will likely stress the already tight power budget.


I personally would want to see a newer CPU board made that included solder pads or connectors for other internal items. Like an additional SPI, or eMMC, (though I don't know if all the SoC interfaces for these are used up.) That would make tinkering easier. Other than design, should not cost more than the current board, (unless the board ends up larger).

[bootdsc]

I have similar plans for it but instead of making it wider just make the bottom case thicker, enough so you could fit another SBC, SDR dongle and a juiced up wifi card. Also going to replace the trackpad with this 4" trackpad. Maybe outfit better speakers and a higher wattage amp. There's two unused USB data sets on the hub chip i might try and tap into otherwise ill just use the USB 3.0 port to connect a internal hub and have a couple of the ports stick out the side. Here's a link to my portable computer modding group, this is where ill be posting about the case under /project logs/pine deck. https://discord.gg/WzncQa5

[TDC_PBP]

Hello PBP enthusiasts,


This is a very early basic design idea for an upgraded PBP housing.

Main features:

A few mm thicker bottom
Front facing speakers
Expanded width for hardware upgrades
M.2 Door
Integrated USB 3 hub
Easy customization 
3D printed on demand
Durable, recyclable
Future proof

+1 to this idea! Approximately how much would this upgrade cost?

[8jef]

Hello PBP enthusiasts,


This is a very early basic design idea for an upgraded PBP housing.

Main features:

A few mm thicker bottom
Front facing speakers
Expanded width for hardware upgrades
M.2 Door
Integrated USB 3 hub
Easy customization 
3D printed on demand
Durable, recyclable
Future proof

+1 to this idea! Approximately how much would this upgrade cost?

I have no idea about any costs. I'm also tempted by @bootdsc's idea, just making it thicker. In that regard, I'm thinking of just making a replacement bottom cover that would fit under the actual laptop. My to do list: make a better design (this one is clearly not precise or optimal), find a way to 3D design it, then find a 3D printing service that can render such a large piece.

[MIchael]

I think an extra benefit with a thicker material would be stopping the cracking situation from people lifting with the corners.