Project talk:DIY Laptop
Literature Review
Having looked at the link Novena Laptop I find that it could be used for the internals, but it seems to complicate things if we want only to design the form factor. I would propose an easy way to start with any of the off the shelf board computers list here or comparison here. Because if we want to go for new ways of doing boards we can look for one that will probably have more backing such as the parallella project.
In order to not have conflicts later down the line or if we scavenge an old laptop we could get a cheap netbook with hardware that will work with free kernels such as this one found in H-node and sell less than 200 pounds. h-node.org is a good place to search for compatible hardware if there is a cheap deal around and you want to make a quick check to see if it will work. OMG. aceraspire zg5 with only battery failing is going for 99p on ebay.
Brain Storming
Keyboard From the ergonomics point of view and typing from a netbook I can say that one of the easy targets is the keyboard. For some taste the etsy web page can have some what to do, or what not to do.
Mouse Since it needs to be set on a laptop where would the mouse go? Do we go for tract pad? or go back to the ball? or maybe the nipple? or simply have a laptop that will only work if you plug your phone and the phone works like a mouse, either by moving it or using it as a tablet.
Materials Start off with things that can be done on a 3D printer to be able to view in 3D first? There seems to be many people that like the steampunk taste. Metal is nice but it has to be done nicely or you might end up with an issue similar to that famous phone that had some metal parts and ended up meaning that you had to hold the phone the correct way. Bamboo wood makes for a good taste for the case and has been done before quite well
Further inspiration On the one laptop per child design there are surely some notes we can take into account. I like the energy harvesting part of it and the mesh network, but that falls outside the project.
--Probably on Trisquel Software (Trisquel.info) (talk) 21:22, 23 September 2013 (UTC)