Raspbery Pi 3 Laptop - 1994 Toshiba Portege T3400 -Build 90%

[MWClint]

This is what it started as:
1994 Toshiba Portege T3400
Greyscale 8.4" lcd
486 SX 33, 20MB Ram, 80MB HD
I had Slackware Linux(kernel 2.1.23 or something on it). It still booted fine before I ripped it apart.
(I even remembered my login password)
It's been in a box in storage for years..I saved the T3400 as it was a quality $2500 machine at the time...It served me many remote cslip/ppp modem connections to work in the 90's.. I only needed an x3270 session to connect to the s/390 mainframes, so Slackware linux and xfree86 on a mono lcd was perfect.


Now it is a Raspberry Pi 2 running Raspian
1280x800 10.1" LCD HDMI w/vga external out as well.
Bluetooth
Wireless N
2 Lan Ports(one Pi, one Trendnet usb3)
Reused the Original Toshiba T3400 Keyboard (still working on the trackpoint drivers)
64GB Local USB 3 Storage + 64GB micro SD
10 USB Ports(4 out back-from PI. 4 on side using a modified hub. 2 wired internally.
9 New Li-ion 2200mah batteries mounted in original toshiba battery casing.
I'm still waiting on shipment of a sample power path management circuit, so I can plug/charge/unplug the original Toshiba Power adapter(15v) without impacting the system while it switches to battery. This will allow normal laptop power function. For testing and current usage I'm using a 1400mah 11.1v Lipo.

It's easy to swap OS's too.. switch usb and sd card for a KODI Media player setup.. i could take it on the road and have a full fleged media center to stay busy with in hotels.
However, I dont think it would be wise taking this on an airplane as a caryon. lol ugh.

Testing parts..lcd is nice and crisp. pics from cellphone don't do it any justice.




Decoded the keyboard matrix and wired it up to the Arduino Teensy Microcontroller and wrote the firmware in C to drive it.(based on TMK keyboard libraries) Now it's a full fledged standalone usb keyboard(i can use this keyboard on any computer). It took two weeks
to sort out the driver...in theory i could adapt any laptop keyboard to USB now...probably could have
wired it to the PI's GPIO, but I plan on that for the trackpoint.


Keyboard wiring and controller->usb cable. Reused ribbon cable connector from original motherboard..made it easy to tie into the keyboard ribbon.


10.1" 1280x800 - perfect fit with room under for buttons and other stuff(like a small battery voltage display)


LVDS from ebay and BEC(5v regulator) from one of my helicopters.


Some random shots of the keyboard code(based on TMK)
At this point it's a legitimate Battery powered Dumb Terminal.
It accepts any HDMI monitor input and keyboard will work with any system.
I was using it at work connected to my W530 as a keyboard+external monitor for a while...made a nice discussion piece. :laugh2:






Battery voltage monitor..This will be mounted under the lcd panel...along
with the lcd buttons.


LVDS hdmi lcd controller


THE original chip.. Desoldered it from the board and going to mount it somewhere internal..like under an access panel on the bottom of the system


random test fitment pics


Belkin 4 port non powered hub. Cut traces and converted it to a powered hub via the 5v BEC.


Rear of laptop cut out for one of the lan ports and the Pi usb.
There's other ports #2 lan..etc those will be behind the access panel cover.






11.1v in to BEC, 11.1 to lcd, 5v regulated to Pi and to power USB hub.
The BEC will take up to 35v input. Plan on using the original 15v Toshiba brick to power/charge.


Test placement of wiring and boards


Back of running system..temporarily have a usb for the keyboard hanging out back,
until I tie it into the internal usb.


Side shot, you can see the extra usb ports here where the pcmcia cover was.
Using a logitech unifying reciever here for a mouse until the trackpoint code is working.


Remote Desktop'd to a Windows 10 system. :p
using it while on the couch with an external mouse(trackpoint still isn't working right(i have some donor ibm trackpoints that I will replace the toshiba trackpoint with, as i have the hardware specs to write proper code for those.)


Todo:
- fix the Internal USB - so i dont have the keyboard usb cable haning out back.
- finalize wiring - shorten a few lines and clean up the internal routing.
- cut holes in lcd bezel for the lcd control buttons
- wire in the battery voltage meter
- hook up the power path controller (when i get it) and rear power adapter port.
- finish creating the 9 cell Li-ion battery pack. dependent on above controller.
- swap Toshiba Trackpoint for IBM Trackpoint and sort out the firmware/driver for it.

that's about it... there's really no showstoppers and it's perfectly usable as is.

[urdjur]

Looks really cool! Thanks for sharing

[kazuos]

looks awesome. I'm doing a similar project with a Toshiba T4400SXC that I got at a thrift store. Can you give me some pointers about decreasing the battery output to 5V and about converting the keyboard to usb? It would really help a lot as I have most of the other stuff figured out.

[telecotxesco]

Very cool MWClint!

I'm currently planning to do the same as you with an old Toshiba T1910. Wanted to convert it as a portable Retropie. At first I was about to discard the keyboard integration, I suposed it to be too difficult to read and process the keypresses, but surfing I found your work and I wonder if can be possible you to share with us your keyboard integration code? You say it's based on TMK, I guess you mean this: https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard ?

Thank you and good job!

[Mandrewpi]

I would like to put my pi 3b into a hp pavilion ze4900. All I'd have to do is talk either my dad into giving me his, or my grandmother into giving me hers. My grandmother's probably has a bad battery considering it has been charging for 10 or 12 years. I had to replace the LCD inverter in my dad's last year so I know the screen works. If only he would give it up, and his other newer pavilion. It's not like he needs them, he just got a Dell inspiron 5000 17" with an Intel core i7, 16 gigs of ram, and a bunch of other high end features (for an inspiron).

[forest.roby]

Hi,

I am doing the same thing with a msi laptop.
I have a bit of a problem with the keyboard. I connected all 26 pins from my keyboard to 26 gpio on my pi and that is as far as I could go... I check out some button tutorials but they didn't really helped - not the same kind of buttons I guess.
Can someone point me to the right direction? How can I register a button push with the gpios ( no source voltage, no ground ) ?

Thx

[MWClint]

This project has been progressing.
- Swapped in a Pi3. naturally
- Moved the 4 port powered hub to inside the chassis, and then ran usb extension cables to the side of the chassis. Now the keyboard connection and a wireless mouse dongle is inside the case.
- I've modified an openups2 board for power management..I had to desolder and relocate various components on it to make the board as flat as possible. It fits right in between the Pi and the LVDS now. Output is 12v on battery, 16v on power plug...which automatically switches and is feeding the 5V BEC (hobbywing BEC 3$ on amazon is amazing)
- rewired the LVDS/LCD to feed off the 5v output of the BEC for cleanliness of internal wiring.(it can take 5-16v)
- For now, the battery pack is 3 lithium iron phosphate batts....I can fit 9 in the original battery
as they are the same size as the original 18650's.


-Since there were a few q's about the keyboard.. I am using a Teensy arduino and TMK's core code off github. I will outline what i did.. it does take a basic understanding of C to edit the existing code.

https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard I started with the keyboard/GH60 code and used that as a base template/example. You do need to take apart the existing keyboard and map out every row and column key trace matrix. (graph paper helps).
based on the number of colums and rows you found, pick a set of pinouts on the Teensy to assign to each row and colum...and
Here's a basic tutorial of what you will need to edit from the TMK/GH60 code base
copy keyboard/GH60/* to your own DIR ie keyboard/toshiba/
(you dont need the _hasu,plain,poker,spacefn keymap files.. i used keymap_hhkb.c and renamed it to keymap_toshiba.c and then started editing to make it
match my keyboard matrix and teensy pinout..every keyboard adapted to this will be different final code:

These are the files i wound up with and a description of which functions you should edit and what they are..It becomes clear as your read and edit the code)
config.h (Device IDs and Row, Column defines)
keymap_common.c (no changes)
keymap_common.h ( define your KEYMAP using the internal TMK KeyCode representation)
keymap_toshiba.c (define keymap again using physical key representation (ESC, F1, A, TAB, 1,2 3..etc) Yes it does help to draw out the keyboard in ascii in the comments above the functions. !
led.c (no changes)
Makefile (update TARGET toshiba_pjrc, SRC keymap_common.c matrix.c led.c and KEYMAP SRC keymap_toshiba.c various options and OPT_DEFS)
matrix.c (Update init_cols() with your keyboard column # vs teensy pin configuration
Update read_cols() with your pin(X)(#)->keyboard col#
Update unselect_rows() with a right to left bitmap of your used teensy pins. pin(X)(#) down to pin(X)(0)
Update Select_row() case statement is based on row# which then returns the pin designation for that row on the teensy.

Compile and flash to teensy, solder keyboard pins to teensy... hook it up to any computer's usb and test, edit, recompile..test..etc. once you get the functional concepts down and one row working, you can compare the rest of your code to that working peice and sort out the rest of the keyboard really quickly.

Using this procedure, you could most likely remap any old keyboard based on just the
row/col matrix traces...you dont need any of the keyboard's original drivers/chips..just the plastic matrix bubble sheets. (or make your own keyboard matrix layout with mechanical Cherry MX's and this driver).

[RichardUK]

Nice project, my attempt at this stopped when I got to the keyboard.

Reading your post makes me think about trying this again with my old ARM based chrome book.

[Unamazing_rando]

Me and my friend are planning a similar build with his old Toshiba Satellite Pro CDT430, which is very similar to yours! So, imagine my surprise to find this post!
Right now, we're still sourcing parts, but the thing I'm slightly confused with is getting the right connector for the keyboard's flatflex. could you provide any links to the parts you used to make the input converter please?