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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: BIG-IRON on June 13, 2004, 12:30:42 AM

Title: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: BIG-IRON on June 13, 2004, 12:30:42 AM
I have now gathered all important pieces of hardware, and have set about to make my own custom laptop case using a mold made by myself and resin, I have thought of using fiber glass or kevlar reinforced glass to create a smooth and paintable surface. My goal is now to be able to replicate my desing for others but that is a very long way off as the proof of concept model is still in pieces. I have figured out a way to run an lcd/tft off of the amigas video source and how to power it. So far im in about 150 bucks minus the lcd which I had laying around and the fiberglass I had in the garage (I restore classic muscle cars) so it is going well what do ya think I should call my amiga laptop? the "Amitop"? the "Lapmiga"?
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: leirbag28 on June 13, 2004, 01:29:13 AM
If you can get and LCD or TFT from a Laptop to work for me and one of my Amigas and power up from it..I will send you a free Laptop (in pieces that doesnt work)  but the LCD seems to be in good shape. And its a nice size screen.........................if you can get 2 of them to work for me, then I will give you 2 LCD screens!

let me know what you think.
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: joetee on June 13, 2004, 06:31:15 AM
Big and Ferrouchsly cool idea Amigan!

"I have now gathered all important pieces of hardware, and have set about to make my own custom laptop case using a mold made by myself and resin, I have thought of using fiber glass or kevlar reinforced glass to create a smooth and paintable surface."

I make composite Robot parts and you seem comfortable with complex layups also: I fancy my next Amiga Laptop physical design will from a hand-made Silicone mold in Epoxy/Carbon Fiber under vacume. I made a mold of a silicon chip in siliCONE rubber, then pulled a 2HR epoxy male that would defract light like the origional: WOW its accurate!
Smooth indeed!

" My goal is now to be able to replicate my desing for others but that is a very long way off as the proof of concept model is still in pieces."

Keep at it! Make massive with no mind to show intermediate steps in foam/balsa/plaster/paper/plastic prototypage!
Wait till until you've revised it many times better...

P.S. Misc DIY advise: Extract brass screw threaded inserts, fill with nylon and Epoxy into Laminate. "Lost Foam" Vacume bagging. Kevlar has no value nor place in laptops.
Seriously. Not even in <50 Kg Robotics.
Carbon Fiber definately does, as does that showy metalised Fiberglass. I'm sure you'll also find that better attention to molds and propper curing are far far more impressive in the consumer electronics cosmetic perfection areas.  

P.P.S. A decade ago I thought I had the ultimate mold of a Top cover to an Amiga1000 mouse in plaster all ready to pour molten pewter into --> As I finnished filling it from the red hot crucible, it suddenly-without-warning split in half, splatting out leaving half a mouse solidified and a silver waterfall and sploooshing flat frozen record of my disaster. Totally motivating me to do better in the process!
 :-)
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: that_punk_guy on June 13, 2004, 01:39:19 PM
Quote
BIG-IRON wrote:
the "Amitop"? the "Lapmiga"?


Both of those names are dreadful. :-)
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: bloodline on June 13, 2004, 01:50:32 PM
Quote

that_punk_guy wrote:
Quote
BIG-IRON wrote:
the "Amitop"? the "Lapmiga"?


Both of those names are dreadful. :-)


How about "The Emperor's new Amiga" :-)
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: weirdami on June 13, 2004, 02:15:22 PM
Call it BILA, the Big-Iron Laptop Amiga. You could call it that and be ironic... unless you use actual iron, then you'll be being descriptive. :-)

or...

Amiga Goes In Real Laptop (the Amiga GIRL)

or...

Portable Amiga Classic Machine Answers Need (PACMAN)

OR...

Fiber-glass Amiga, Really Tough (:-))
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: that_punk_guy on June 13, 2004, 02:23:32 PM
Oh man...
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: redrumloa on June 13, 2004, 02:52:42 PM
@BIG-IRON

Sounds like one hell of a project! If you would be so kind, would you consider posting project updates here to Amiga.org?
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: mikeymike on June 13, 2004, 03:28:50 PM
The laptop does not need a fancy name.  A real, working Amiga laptop would be quite an amazing feat, and that alone would be far more important to what there is left of the community.

It is projects like this that could get the Amiga industry back to a healthy state, the fact that people will sit up and take notice that 'some guy' pretty much made a laptop and it runs AmigaOS.

Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: cecilia on July 14, 2004, 01:41:23 AM
Quote
Amiga Goes In Real Laptop (the Amiga GIRL)
BING BING BING BING!!!

we have a winner! :lol:

just think of the ads!
"oooooh, Turn me ON, big boy!!"
:banana:
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: blobrana on July 14, 2004, 02:08:22 AM
Hum
the girlfriends girl...

hum....

i suppose that some ppl would be into things like that...


 :-)

[portable Amiga ] = PAD
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: asian1 on July 14, 2004, 07:41:40 AM
Hello
I plan to do similar thing in the future if I can get the bug free Micro A1 (consumer / end user version).

I plan to use AC-DC transformer and DC-DC Converter (PW-120) from Mini-Box.

Can I buy the casing for Mini-ITX board and LCD?

Is it possible to put HD, Floppy, CD-ROM and 12V battery pack inside the casing?
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: Cyberus on July 14, 2004, 12:32:07 PM
Quote

blobrana wrote:
Hum
the girlfriends girl...

hum....

i suppose that some ppl would be into things like that...



Iama, no doubt...:-)
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: x56h34 on July 14, 2004, 12:42:20 PM
What motherboard will be going in it again?
I'd simply call it (assuming it's an A1200):

Amiga 1200L
or
NB1200 (NoteBook 1200)

Now, if it MUST be a catchy name, then why not call it Suzanne? ;-) :lol:
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: Speelgoedmannetje on July 14, 2004, 01:18:29 PM
what do you think of the fashionable name:

Ami-go!
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: elendil on July 14, 2004, 01:52:00 PM
Wasn't Suzanne the amiga600 laptop some guy once made?

Sincerely,

-Kenneth Straarup.
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: x56h34 on July 14, 2004, 01:52:53 PM
Yes, I was only kidding. :-)
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: Brian on July 14, 2004, 01:56:35 PM
Marianne then... or mabey not.
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: x56h34 on July 14, 2004, 01:59:47 PM
Brian1200 :-)
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: ACE on July 14, 2004, 04:48:22 PM
OK how are you running the LCD display from the Amiga?

I gave up on my own Laptop Amiga project, had all the hardware and everything.

All except a good way of getting a LVDS Laptop display (from a Tosheba Laptop) linked upto my amiga.  The only method I could find was a convertor which used 16W itself! (and cost £150!)

(The other thing that stopped me was a lack of any fast I/O from an CD32)
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: CD32Freak on July 14, 2004, 06:00:25 PM
Quote
just think of the ads!
"oooooh, Turn me ON, big boy!!"

:lol:
Oh behave! Purrrrrrr :-D

How about calling this Amiga laptop Cecilia? ;-)
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: Brian on July 14, 2004, 08:59:37 PM
@x56h34

Although the standard clearly say it should be a sassy girlname I guess I could put on a brave face and be a bit of a drag for the day if it ends up being a Brian1200. :-o :roflmao: :roll:
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: amigau on July 14, 2004, 10:55:19 PM
I can't remember which William Gibson book it is, but it's one of the more recent ones anyway, where one of the main characters has a cool 'cyberspace deck' (gibon-speak for laptop) made from wood in a custom case.  It's called a "Sandbenders", purportedly made by some obscure computer company on the southern Oregon coast.  You might want to look up the book so you can read the description, might give you some ideas about your own custom case, even if yours is to be plastic....

That would be my vote, call it something like that....

kevin orme
amiga university
www.amigau.com
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: 6 on July 14, 2004, 11:14:45 PM
How about L'Amiga?
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: weirdami on July 15, 2004, 01:01:38 AM
Quote
How about L'Amiga?


Not if he uses military spec hardware; a frenchy name would be an oxymoron. :lol:

Quote
How about calling this Amiga laptop Cecilia?


That one's not too bad, actually. It's even got a built in theme song for all it's commercials. :-)
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: Dan on July 15, 2004, 01:17:03 AM
Quote

Speelgoedmannetje wrote:
what do you think of the fashionable name:

Ami-go!

 Palmax made a pocketpc with that name and I think there also was a Geos/Gem running x86(like HP200XL) palmtop with that name.

http://www.pencomputing.com/frames/palmax_amigo.html (http://viewforum.php)
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: Floid on July 15, 2004, 03:42:02 AM
Quote

weirdami wrote:
Quote
How about calling this Amiga laptop Cecilia?


That one's not too bad, actually. It's even got a built in theme song for all it's commercials. :-)


Candida, we can make it together... :idea:

Of course, the mycological connection always cracks me up when I hear that... or sing along.  :-o
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: Will-i-am on July 15, 2004, 05:23:13 PM
I have 6 Amigas now, including a vanilla A2000, four A4000Ds an A4000T, a couple of them are running Cyberstorms....point is I have extra stuff, processors and MBs, lots of strange stuff. I have this idea of making a virtual beast from all these guys along with a couple Intergraph workstations running unix. I am a sculptor as well and I do a lot of nice relief work in wood. I have a great collection of black walnut, butternut, oak, maple etc and I figured I could build an interface unit from a carved desk with all the guts built into the desk itself. I thought I could devise a mobile unit, maybe a wireless laptop kinda thing, maybe even make the case out of some sculpted material...ever hear of cuirboilli? It's the stuff samuri make their armor from and it can be molded into any shape, it's light and can be as tough as steel....since it deflects swords, ya know. If your laptop unit gets made and the process is available, I'd like to try something really beautiful as well as using these Cyberstorms and Toasters so that the final product kicks ass. If you make something impressive enough we might just get some notice from the press and show people that far from being dead in the water, the Amiga now has an existance rather like them old Chevys that show up with hemi V8s and custom bodies....get my drift? People should be encouraged to think outside the "box" and use the creative potential of the Amiga in new and exciting ways. Anyway, that's how I look at it. Maybe I'm just a freak in love with a has-been computer, but, man, I do so love making animations and playing those silly games. I also run a drafting business with one of my A4000's so I know it can be a formidable professional machine! Yahoo! :-D
Title: Re: State of the amiga laptop update 1
Post by: Dr_Righteous on July 16, 2004, 05:37:01 AM
Has anyone actually tried trimming down an A1200 board for any of these laptop projects?