Homemade Tablet PC Progress Thread. ***UPDATED***

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 2:15 pm

(I've gotten permission from Spongey to post this here, as we couldnt find a more appropriate place to post this. Please don't move this. :3)

Also, Could we get this stickied? It's a pretty neat project, that could inspire others to do something similiar. Thanks.

Also, A note to people who have me on MSN. This is NOT the "invention" that I am making. This is a side project for school and work.

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For a while now, I've wanted an OQO, or a small tablet PC. Yet I couldn't afford them, and didn't wanna dish out a lot of money for something I may not use a lot.

So, I came up with an idea. Why dont I make my own tablet PC? .

Instead of making my own computer and such, it would be about $200 less to buy a EEE-PC instead. (In total parts, excluding labour and shipping)

Now, Im going to totally redesign the eeepc. No keyboard, No mouse, and monitor switching. Instead of using the built in, non touchscreen monitor in the laptop, Im switching it with a 8inch touchscreen.

(Which is good, as the EEEpc monitor has a 7inch, and the touchscreen monitor is an 8inch, so well. Its bigger.)

Now you say, why no mouse or keyboard? Well, because. Its a tablet.

I'm also, going to buy a 4-12gb CF card, and buy an IDE to Usb Adapter, and then buy a IDE to CF adapter. So, I have an external CF card (CF HDD) that plugs in through USB.

How would I connect them though? I need to basically: Plug a USB male to IDE female into a IDE female to CF. (IF I cannot find a IDE to CF adapter, which has a male IDE end instead of a female. Which there are some of those on ebay.)

EDIT: Im looking for a name for this. I don't like my old one.

Post by **bicostp** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 3:29 pm

Sticking the .iso onto the thumbdrive won't work; you need to burn it to CD.

1 gig is really a tight squeeze for any modern OS. (Remember, the install CD for Ubuntu is about 650 MB, and that's all compressed.) Get at least a 4 gig stick. Something like an iPod hard drive would be even better; high capacity, relatively inexpensive, and you don't have to worry about using up all of its read/write cycles.

How much power will the mini ITX board draw? If you want a practical machine, you will need something that can run on batteries for a reasonable amount of time. You could always look at Pico-ITX boards.

I know I'm a big naysayer about it, but you might want to consider an Eee as the base of your project. It has a VGA port and if the screen you chose is higher resolution it would make a decent start. (Built in Ethernet and USB ports, flash storage, light weight, decent battery life...) 'Cause that's my main beef with it: the screen's too small and low-resolution for my needs. 800x480 isn't enough. If they made a 1024x768 model at around the same price, maybe.

Post by **Triton** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 3:37 pm

good luck with your project! i will just add that i wish amiga os4 would run on regular x86 hardware! with the amiga OSes you get kinda spoild by their miniscule overhead windows is several gigs the bigger linux distros are around a gig with smaller ones being 50-100+ mb amiga OS3.9 which is the newest next to brand new 4.0, is about 30mb! i have a 1gb hdd in my a1200 with os3.1 installed plus scsi cd rom software and the os3.5 installer and i am using a whopping 18mb of space!

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 3:41 pm

Bic, I have a 2gb mp3 player. That I could dedicate like, 1.5gb to this project. Again, How can I install Ubuntu on a 1.5gb Mp3 Player/Thumb drive?

Also, I wanna build this, not buy one.

Also, this touch screen comes with a driver disc, but I dont know if the disc has linux drivers on it. If not, I could always put Windows ME on it, as theres ways to make the installation of Windows ME down to like 300mb, using 98lite with it.

Yet, I dont know how I could install Windows ME on a 1.5gb MP3 Player/Thumbdrive. Is it possible?

bicostp wrote:Sticking the .iso onto the thumbdrive won't work; you need to burn it to CD.

1 gig is really a tight squeeze for any modern OS. (Remember, the install CD for Ubuntu is about 650 MB, and that's all compressed.) Get at least a 4 gig stick. Something like an iPod hard drive would be even better; high capacity, relatively inexpensive, and you don't have to worry about using up all of its read/write cycles.

How much power will the mini ITX board draw? If you want a practical machine, you will need something that can run on batteries for a reasonable amount of time. You could always look at Pico-ITX boards.

I know I'm a big naysayer about it, but you might want to consider an Eee as the base of your project. It has a VGA port and if the screen you chose is higher resolution it would make a decent start. (Built in Ethernet and USB ports, flash storage, light weight, decent battery life...) 'Cause that's my main beef with it: the screen's too small and low-resolution for my needs. 800x480 isn't enough. If they made a 1024x768 model at around the same price, maybe.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 4:00 pm

HotDog-Cart wrote:How can I install Ubuntu on a 1.5gb Mp3 Player/Thumb drive?

Ask Google and ye shall receive. Your motherboard will have to support booting from a USB drive, otherwise nothing you do will work unless you use a boot floppy or something. I think you should just get a 4GB CF card and an adapter to plug it into the ATA connector on the motherboard.
You're going to need ram, too, unless the board comes with it.

Not to shoot you down, but have you seen all of the projects similar to this that have been started by those that are more than capable, but then have failed?

I think bic is right, an EEE would probably be better to start with, then just add a bigger screen. Then you get a faster system thats already battery powered and has tons of support from a large community.

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 4:07 pm

vskid wrote:
HotDog-Cart wrote:How can I install Ubuntu on a 1.5gb Mp3 Player/Thumb drive?
Ask Google and ye shall receive. Your motherboard will have to support booting from a USB drive, otherwise nothing you do will work unless you use a boot floppy or something. I think you should just get a 4GB CF card and an adapter to plug it into the ATA connector on the motherboard.
You're going to need ram, too, unless the board comes with it.

Not to shoot you down, but have you seen all of the projects similar to this that have been started by those that are more than capable, but then have failed?

I think bic is right, an EEE would probably be better to start with, then just add a bigger screen. Then you get a faster system thats already battery powered and has tons of support from a large community.

Dude, I can use a CF card and plug it into the ATA on the motherboard? :O

Okay. I'll go with that idea then. Also, Mini ITX boards, have a ATA connector on them, right?

Also, How can I install windows ME (and make the install small using 98lite) on a CF card?

Post by **bicostp** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 4:14 pm

HotDog-Cart wrote:Dude, I can use a CF card and plug it into the ATA on the motherboard? :O

Yup. They're compatible. Just get a CF to IDE adapter and you're in business.

Also, How can I install windows ME (and make the install small using 98lite) on a CF card?

If you use a CF -> IDE adapter, it will work just like any other IDE hard drive.

ME is garbage. Go with 98, 2000, or XP. (You can make a small XP install using nLite, and there's always TinyXP.)

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 4:21 pm

Omg. You guys just made my day. Haha. Thanks guys.

Also, Mini ITX boards have IDE/ATA connectors, yes? (Thats the Blue, 40pin connector, right?)

EDIT: Yes They do. I found the connector on the board. 40 pins :3.

Hmm, Well Wish me luck guys.

Also, I updated the item list on the first post.

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 9:22 pm

As size decreases PCportables become increasingly difficult to do. Have you put any thought into how big this thing will be when finished?

bacteria · Post by **bacteria** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 2:30 am

This project could be interesting - please, document the project FULLY with ongoing pics and guides - make it comprehensive.

nightwheel · Post by **nightwheel** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 1:21 pm

HDC, you do know that there are 20 GB CF's. That would be a decent size HDD. And if Wikipedia is right, Samung has a 64 GB CF. That about as much space the SSD in the Macbook Air has. That would make a great CF HDD. But I not so sure how easy it would be to get ahold of one of them 64 GB CF from Samsung.

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 3:01 pm

I know theres 64GB CF cards and such, But Im either using 2gb or 4gb as I'm trying to cut down on production costs. I could always upgrade later. :3 Also, Don't worry I will document this fully, and update this when any progress happens.

Post by **Triton** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 4:45 pm

just fyi those cost a fortune, hundreds of dollars

Aguiluz · Post by **Aguiluz** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 4:48 pm

Good luck! This I must see.

Post by **Skyone** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 4:51 pm

I can't see this being efficient in any way, but good luck regardless.

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Homemade Tablet PC Progress Thread. UPDATED

Homemade Tablet PC Progress Thread. UPDATED