I made a Raspberry PI Laptop

[veryevil]

Hey, I took mine apart today and there isnt any room what so ever inside it. So no chance of mounting it internally.

Glad people are getting excited about this.

[JonB]

Can someone who has one of these lapdocs please take a picture of the keyboard (so I can see the yas and their layout) and any i/o ports? Even though I ordered one I cannot see the full technical specs and I was unable to download a manual from Motorola (possibly due to the sluggish network I'm on at work). What is in the box? I assume the unit plus a power supply?

[madhamish]

Can someone who has one of these lapdocs please take a picture of the keyboard (so I can see the yas and their layout) and any i/o ports? Even though I ordered one I cannot see the full technical specs and I was unable to download a manual from Motorola (possibly due to the sluggish network I'm on at work). What is in the box? I assume the unit plus a power supply?

Just had a look at the manual on the Motorola site and there isn't a picture of the HDMI port only of the two USB ports and the only pics of the keyboard are obscured.

[Joe_T]

Can someone who has one of these lapdocs please take a picture of the keyboard (so I can see the yas and their layout) and any i/o ports? Even though I ordered one I cannot see the full technical specs and I was unable to download a manual from Motorola (possibly due to the sluggish network I'm on at work). What is in the box? I assume the unit plus a power supply?

Just had a look at the manual on the Motorola site and there isn't a picture of the HDMI port only of the two USB ports and the only pics of the keyboard are obscured.

There's a mico-USB male port and a micro-HDMI male port that flips up from a hinge the back of the device. These are used to dock a phone to. Here's a pic:
http://www.eweek.com/images/stories/sli ... trix02.jpg

[JonB]

Can you adjust the brightness and volume when the Pi is connected?

[chipmonger]

Have had my lapdock, most of the cables and wifi adapter for the last two weeks. Got my pi on Friday, and (finally) my hdmi adapter should be arriving today (took nearly three weeks from China - everything else a week). Hope to have my portable pi up and running this evening and post some pictures.

[Montala]

Have had my lapdock, most of the cables and my wifi adapter for the last two weeks. Got my pi on Friday, and (finally) my hdmi adapter should be arriving today. Hope to have my portable pi up and running this evening and post some pictures.

Sounds like an interesting project, and I look forward to seeing the pictures.
Hope all goes well for you... I am sure it will!

[JonB]

A little more information culled from various reviews.

It has backlit keys. Reviewer liked the feel of the keys.
Screen is shiny, like a MacBook Air. Looks high quality.
Lid is metallic.
Very large multitouch trackpad.
Brightness / Volume controls accessable via FN keys (not sure if it's controlled by the Atrix phone - if so we can't use them)
2 USB ports at the back plus power socket - plug supplied power supply in here.
Has a battery (as already noted) which powers the dock and the phone (in our case, the Pi).
Keyboard has escape and control characters (vital for Linux programming).
Is quite deep thanks to the dock connector.
8 hour battery according to cnet. More than enough for the Pi.

[Joe_T]

Can you adjust the brightness and volume when the Pi is connected?

No, unfortunately not. This is controlled using the software intended for this device, which is Motorola's Webtop. You can control sound from the lxde desktop, not sure about brightness but I'm sure there's a way.

[veryevil]

You can control the brightness! Using the FN key on the keyboard and the picture of a Sun and a Shady Sun.

They don't even post back keycodes over USB it is handled directly and there is an On Screen Display that comes up with a percentage bar overlaid on the screen.

As for volume that is going to ave to be software controlled as the FN Key + Volume + and Volume - keys do not seem to make a difference directly and do post back keycodes over usb.

Well confirm the keycodes for volume tomorrow.

[chipmonger]

Ok, here are some pictures from assembling the cable. I'm making the 'Y' cable from the image earlier in this thread.

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn13 ... G_0749.jpg
Cables cut and ready to solder together. Biggest pain was stripping the wires - wires are 26 gauge, so my normal wire stripper didn't handle wires that small. Picked up a wire stripper from Harbor Freight, but that caused problems cutting strands while stripping.

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn13 ... G_0750.jpg
After soldering and wrapping up with electrical tape. Haven't held a soldering iron in nearly 20 years, so *that* was an adventure...

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn13 ... G_0751.jpg
Here's my HDMI conversion cable. I went a different route, using a micro HDMI extension cable, then using a female micro HDMI to male HDMI adapter. I don't like the female micro HDMI connector, so I'm ordering the cables to run as shown above.

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn13 ... G_0754.jpg
Here's everything connected (except for the network cable and power).

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn13 ... G_0753.jpg
Here's the keyboard. Keyboard mapping does not match the keyboard - '|' for example does not display. UPDATE - I was able to resolve this issue by:

- Logging in as root.
- Run 'dpkg-reconfigure locales' and changing from en_GB.UTF-8 to en_US.UTF-8
- Run 'dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration' and change the keyboard to USA PC104
- And rebooting.

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn13 ... G_0752.jpg
And here it is booting up.

The pi isn't using the whole screen on the display, looks like the resolution detected is a bit off. Will take a look at it.

[chipmonger]

Sound now playing over hdmi to the lapdock -

With root permissions:
- Create the file /boot/config.txt
- Enter 'hdmi_drive=2'
- Save the file and exit.
- Type 'modprobe snd_bcm2835' and press <ENTER> to load the sound module.
Reboot may/may not be needed.

This file will also be where custom options are placed to fix the screen display, but haven't found solution yet. So far I've found
hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=86
are appropriate for the pi, but still don't get full 1366x768 resolution.

[veryevil]

That's great. Where did you get the hdmi cable?

My Pi had no problems detecting full screen resolution. I had to take out the hdmi_mode from config.txt and it worked (auto-detected). I used hdmi_drive=2 to make sound work.

[JonB]

How about the trackpad? Does it handle any multitouch gestures (the main one is 2 finger scrolling for me)? I know from experience that trackpad support in Linux is sketchy at best).

[chipmonger]

I ordered this adapter: http://www.ebay.com/itm/250997090180?ss ... 1497.l2649 and this extension cable http://www.ebay.com/itm/130689107208?ss ... 1497.l2649. I don't like how loose the extension cable fits on the lapdock though (and the extension cable was nearly the price of the pi.

This http://www.ebay.com/itm/280761232832?ss ... 1497.l2649 and this http://www.ebay.com/itm/390332680564?ss ... 1497.l2649 look like a better way to go, but didn't see that adapter at the time.

[AndrewS]

I ordered this lapdock from oyyy yesterday, with the free 5-day postage, and it arrived this morning
I'm really impressed with the quality of it (especially for the price I paid! ), but I can't do anything with it until the adapters/cables/convertors/etc. I ordered from Amazon yesterday turn up later in the week
I'm just hoping that http://www.amazon.co.uk/LINDY-Micro-HDM ... 007D1T9RO/ fits okay...

[Montala]

I'm just hoping that http://www.amazon.co.uk/LINDY-Micro-HDM ... 007D1T9RO/ fits okay...

That looks very expensive to me... is not this the same thing for a lot less... and with free shipping also!
http://www.colorapples.com/hdmi-male-to ... 19209.html
I do accept though that it might take a bit longer to arrive.

[chipmonger]

This file will also be where custom options are placed to fix the screen display, but haven't found solution yet. So far I've found
hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=86
are appropriate for the pi, but still don't get full 1366x768 resolution.

Ok, I found the solution to getting full 1366x768 resolution on the lapdock. My config.txt file now looks like:

disable_overscan=1
hdmi_drive=2

The first line disables overscan (which was creating those black borders around the screen). The second line is for sound over hdmi. Didn't need the hdmi_group or hdmi_mode lines after rebooting, so I took them out.

And here's a picture of the screen http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn13 ... G_0755.jpg

Now to get my wireless adapter (an Edimax EW-7811Un) running.

[chipmonger]

I ordered this lapdock from oyyy yesterday, with the free 5-day postage, and it arrived this morning
I'm really impressed with the quality of it (especially for the price I paid! ), but I can't do anything with it until the adapters/cables/convertors/etc. I ordered from Amazon yesterday turn up later in the week
I'm just hoping that http://www.amazon.co.uk/LINDY-Micro-HDM ... 007D1T9RO/ fits okay...

You might just have to shave down the end of the adapters that plug into the lapdock due to the curve where the male connectors are. I did this for my micro USB adapter end, and will most likely do it for the replacement micro hdmi adapter. A minute or two with a Dremel makes it a piece of cake. Just blow into the connector when done to make sure nothing dropped into it.

[AndrewS]

You might just have to shave down the end of the adapters that plug into the lapdock due to the curve where the male connectors are. I did this for my micro USB adapter end, and will most likely do it for the replacement micro hdmi adapter.

Yeah, I was just thinking that. I guess with the "right" amount of shaving, it should be possible to glue the two connectors together, giving you a convenient "single plug"
I've also found http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthr ... ?t=1223032 which suggests that it's easy to move the connectors about. Hack-tastic

[tech_monkey]

Would it be easy to use one of those Y type usb cables for connecting to the pi and the dock. These are normally for USb hard drive to provide extra power, plus usb conectivity.
http://www.lindy.co.uk/1m-usb-cable-dua ... 31784.html

[JonB]

I ordered this lapdock from oyyy yesterday, with the free 5-day postage, and it arrived this morning
I'm really impressed with the quality of it (especially for the price I paid! ), but I can't do anything with it until the adapters/cables/convertors/etc. I ordered from Amazon yesterday turn up later in the week

Me too. It's pretty awesome quality for £50. Kudos to anyone who scored one for £40! Meanwhile, I have to say that the keyboard feels really great although the keys are actually rectangular (this doesn't bother me at all by the way). Like AndrewS, though, it's not much use until the connectors turn up. I wonder how long that'll take? From China... hmmm, well sometimes these eBayers surprise me (or rather the shipping does). I discern a "new computer" smell, kind of sweet - and just like a new Mac.

Coincidentally, I saw one on the train tonight with an Atrix phone plugged in. It's a total fingerprint magnet (that is a shame) and all those black surfaces sure show up the greasy paw prints. The screen doesn't go back as far as I'd have liked either, but overall it's a total geek-out for me.... Now I need to work out how to mount the Pi. I'm thinking of a case that fits the dock (this'll may need some plug removal / reassignment, if that is not a heresy). On the other hand... there is plenty of space behind the screen for the Pi, even unmodified, and designing a case that can dock like an Atrix phone doesn't look all that hard - you might even use that clip on piece as a former... or bond it to your case to get the perfect fit.

[chipmonger]

Would it be easy to use one of those Y type usb cables for connecting to the pi and the dock. These are normally for USb hard drive to provide extra power, plus usb conectivity.
http://www.lindy.co.uk/1m-usb-cable-dua ... 31784.html

That wouldn't work. You'll need a micro USB extension cable (cut in half - but get one a minimum of 2' long), and a USB A male cable (other end won't matter - you'll cut this as well).

If the cable you refer to had a micro USB male end (instead of a mini USB male end), you could use that for powering the pi from the USB A male ports , but you'll still need a cable to go from the dock connectors to the USB ports on the pi for keyboard/mouse to work over USB.

Look at this link: http://pancakelizard.net/2012/raspberry ... x-lapdock/

[JonB]

Interesting. Western Digital Passport drive case is nearly a perfect match (but to use it I would have to remove the Ethernet, composite video and USB sockets). Rather a bit more hacking than I'd hoped...

[Lob0426]

You might look at a thread I posted some time ago. It may give you some ideas for a quick connect to the lapdock.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 5063#p5063

Great work by the way!