Laptop Replacement

[Charles Pax]

On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 1:05 PM, Michael <michael at 2020support.com> wrote:

> After seeing the  pictures of the Neo connected to a battery powered
> hub, I looked around the internet to see if there were any that could
> hold more batteries, but couldn't find any. Then I thought that it
> would be nice to have a battery powering the hub and fast charging the
> Neo at the same time, but such a thing does not seem to exist. So I
> took the circuit at http://www.elecfree.com/electronic/ipod-mp3-player-
> charger-by-mc34063/<http://www.elecfree.com/electronic/ipod-mp3-player-charger-by-mc34063/>and doubled it up to provide power for the hub and
> the Neo. The preliminary results can be seen at
> http://www.mamereplay.net/neo1973/
>
> The hard drive and the USB ethernet card were working, but I am busy
> updating my machine so I can build a kernel with support for the
> wireless card.
> I also need to thank whoever designed the USB port on the Neo, because
> I wired the cable the wrong way around when I first connected it and
> the phone was still working afterwards.
>

This is pretty much what I'd like to do.
1) Gut old laptop.
2) Place a universal laptop battery with use charging port in the base (
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001641.php).
3) Add a USB hub, so the hub is powered by the battery and charges the
Freerunner.
4) Solder the original laptopl USB ports to the ports in the hub.
5) Add a USB SecureDigital or CompactFlash card reader to the side of the
laptop.
6) Cover the new guts with a USB keyboard.
7) Fix a miniUSB plug on the upper surface where the keyboard is, so the
Freerunner can be mounted on its side to connect to the hub inside and
viewed like a mini laptop screen.

Now you have Palm Folio-like device to keep your Freerunner running.

Extra points for also implementing:
8) Put a USB HDD or SSD inside.
9) Put a solar panel on the outside, so you can trickel charge the universal
battery.
10) Add a USB PCMCIA adapter (
http://sewelldirect.com/U142-USB-to-Cardbus-Adapter-for-3G-High-Speed-Modem-PCMCIA-Cards.asp
).
11) Install a USB to video output device and connect it to a new screen
where the old laptop screen was.

One may be able to make life easier and use the guts of a universal USB
docking station with VGA output 9
http://www.startech.com/item/USBVGADOCK-USB-to-VGA-4-in-1-Docking-Station.aspx
).

-Charles
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