I NEED an Amiga classic laptop!

[alexh]

There are many problems you must overcome:

1) Inherent size problems even using the A600 motherboard
2) Lots of electronics you will need to make to interface to the LCD panel and the battery power supply
3) How slow a 68000 Amiga is (man it is!!)
4) How expensive and hot 68020/030 accelerators are for the A600
5) How crap ECS workbench looks

A more practical solution would be a software one. See if an x86 laptop that boots directly into E-UAE will meet your needs?

If you go for the REAL Amiga solution, I implore you to consider using a CD32 as the base motherboard to solve 3 out of 5 of the above problems.

[Amiga_Nut]

Would like to make a CD32 laptop myself, I am getting stuck on how to power the motherboard with laptop batteries though, is there a website of battery specifications because as I understand it you need +5v and +12v and ground on the CD32. Will also need preferably a scart modification to the board to power a 14 or 15 inch LCD TV screen.

Sadly I am no electronics wizzard to overcome the above two problems and also there is the issue of once the donor laptop motherboard is removed then the charging circuit for the battery is also scuppered so thats the 3rd problem I have.

It's definately do-able though, the Amiga's are so efficient and low power compared to even most pentium laptops that I can see it's a case of just adding the extra functionality. And the CD32 being the most compact (if a little crippled) of the motherboards with AGA would be an ideal start. There is always the possibility of getting a dead 17inch laptop to use the A1200 board with but then you will need a Widescreen 17inch slim TV LCD to take the RGB signal and add the CD drive aswell so that would be more expensive, too expensive as a hobby thing?

[skurk]

alexh wrote:
2) Lots of electronics you will need to make to interface to the LCD panel and the battery power supply

That's true.  I had plans to build one of those C64 DTV's into an old laptop I had (imagine a state-of-the-art looking C64 laptop?) but when I started investigating the monitor connections, I discovered that I needed a doctor's degree in electronics to hotwire it.  Not surprisingly, I quickly abandoned the project.

5) How crap ECS workbench looks

Objection, your honour!

I love the way the original Workbench looks.  Blue, white, black and some orange.  You recognize it miles away, as opposed to a Mac or Windows lookalike AGA WB.

[Amiga_Nut]

There was a great drop shadow hack for WB 1.3 in the old days, looked fantastic to me :-)

[kvasir]

@alexh

Yeah, unfortunatly the a600 is a bit limitid gfx wise. If I can find a big enough case, I could possibly rig an old graffiti card in there somehow. though I don't think there's rtg drivers for it. Though I kinda liked the old magicwb style, would stick with that after a 3.1 rom upgrade. Not sure about heat issues with the 020/030, though. I think a cpu fan might work, if it would drain the battery. Could rig a thermocouple to it, though. I suppose a cd32 would work better, but I would need to come accross one somehow, and I would actually rather keep that as is, for my tv. :-D electronics aren't really a big issue (I got a cold heat soldering iron for x-mas, and have been dying for a chance to use it :-D) Though it could be frustrating enough to have to buy a dictionary of cuss-words to enhance my preferred technical stress relieve method... The only concern I have are the pinouts for the lcd panel, mouse, and keyboard so I can rig them up to a scandoubler/coclinco etc... The power supply can probably be easily figured out with a multimeter. Also, if the laptop has a cd-rom installed already, (probably IDE) the only adapter I know of that works converts the 2.5" ide port into 1 2.5" for the hd, and 2 3.5" for hdd's and cdroms, etc... the wiring to convert it back could be rough.... Also, need a boing ball sticker for the case, and a nice no-smoking style transparent sticker for whatever windows logo might already be on the case. I already have a winxp laptop with uae installed, but I don't really like it too much. It's useful, but seems kind of kludgy to me. (Not that an a600 wouldn't be, but its certainly different :-D)

[maffoo]

skurk wrote:

alexh wrote:
2) Lots of electronics you will need to make to interface to the LCD panel and the battery power supply

That's true.  I had plans to build one of those C64 DTV's into an old laptop I had (imagine a state-of-the-art looking C64 laptop?) but when I started investigating the monitor connections, I discovered that I needed a doctor's degree in electronics to hotwire it.

I bough a small LCD screen not that long ago for a project. It had composite input, so it should be possible to connect an A600 to it (they do have composite out don't they? I can't remember if my A600 did, and I can't be bothered to look it up :-P )

[asian1]

There is a new laptop component standard from Intel: "Common Building Block".

Perhaps Dennis, Jens S. or other can create Laptop motherboard based on FPGA. For Input/Output, they can use UWB Wireless USB: detachable keyboard, mouse, audio, LAN, HDTV/Digital TV output etc.

Another idea is using USB dongle with PC laptop, similar to Project Blackdog (Virtex FPGA with PowerPC 405).

[Dr_Righteous]

I remember some laptops being extra long, with the screen hinged somewhere in the middle of the case. Do this with a large enough case, and some creative wiring, you could make one from an A4000CR... AGA, 68030/25MHz 16M Fast, 2M Chip... You'd have a long case, so there's plenty of footprint for drives, batteries, signal converters, the works!

Hmm... I'm liking this idea. Wouldn't be small, but it'd be top of the line! And you wouldn't have to worry about the connections to expansion cards (CPU cards, memory cards, etc), since everything's built on to the board.

Would NOT recomend using a CPU board tho, since anyone with A4000 experience knows how flaky that connector is. Definately stick with the CR board with the 030 built in.

[rkauer]

Look at this:

http://www.amiga-hardware.com/showhardware.cgi?HARDID=53

But be warned: it IS the PSU the original external one.... :boohoo:

[FerretSimp]

http://www.amiga600.de/

Ultimate 600 clocking and hacking site, including USB, Apollo, cooling, 10GB HDD (Now obsolete for Amigas, use a Microdrive at 8GB or if larger is needed, an iPod drive: They all connect to an ATA bus.

Remember that this isn't a notebook motherboard, so the power drain of the system will probably be severe. You MIGHT get away with a modern battery (Typically around 5000mAh at 10.8V) Although you'll have to come up with the wiring.

As far as screens go, laptop panels are a no go. You simply cannot interface them to the motherboard. Portable game LCD panels are usually OK, (PS1 screens are small but popular) as they are composite connected.

A1200 and A600 have compatible keyboard interfaces so it should be possible to adapt an Amiga 1200 kbd-PS2 adaptor to an Amiga 600, and use a PS/2 Mini-keyboard as the keyboard for an Amiga Portable.

I did alot of research on this in my early teens, if you hadn't noticed. My "Tomato" amiga never quite got finished, but I still have all the components in a box somewhere.

Yes, you can use the stock Amiga 600 keyboard but the keys are kinda chunkay.

Don't bother with an internal CDROM. It's honestly not worth the hassle. PCMCIA CD drives are cheap enough, and if you manage to add your networking over USB, then your PCMCIA is free for you to play with.

I'm pretty sure an A600 with a hard disk will be fine as far as booting with no FDD installed goes, if there is a problem, aminet hardware hacks or Amiga600.de will have the fix.

The 1200 board is a much better board for use in a portable system. I recommend you use it instead if you can get one. The compatibility with CF, PCMCIA etc is as good or better than the 600, AOS 3.9 is more compatible with it, you also have AGA support and a decent upgrade path to speed up your Amiga a bit. The glue-on clocking boards are a PITA. Finally, on the note of the A1200 board, the A600 keyboard works connected to the 1200 slot, I tried it once as an experiment while designing tomato. Serial Trackpads are rare but available, there's one in my design. a driver exists on Aminet.

The Susanne was amazing at the time, but hardwarehas come along way, and with relatively cheap and common modern components, a reasonable Amiga portable can be built. Just use the 1200 as a base.

[Mucker]

Jesus, this kid has got some big conkers, if he`s gona really do it!

I`ll be listening and watching with great interest  :sealed:

[koffers]

To make an Amiga laptop would cost about 200-300 depending on how much stuff you have and take a lot time. I also don't know how long it would run from the battery.
To have an Amiga laptop would be cool it wouldn't be useful as my Mac Book Which is why I'm not going to make it just at the moment  but if anyone finds the list useful I'd like to see an Amiga laptop one day

Amiga laptop how to

What you need

1 Amiga 600
1 Universal 120W Silent PSU and DC Converter Kit (http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=10)
1 Amiga RGB to VGA Monitor Adapter (http://amigakit.com/)
High Capacity External Universal Li-ion Battery Pack (http://www.bixnet.com/unpowbat.html)
   (note: any battery will do as long as it gives you the right power output.)
1 15" TFT  Screen that takes a 12V power supply

Options ( to make to any good)
1 AMIGA PCMCIA WIRELESS CARD (http://amigakit.com/)
1 Kickstart 3.1 ROM (http://amigakit.com/)
1 AmigaOS 3.1(http://amigakit.com/)
1 Slim line CD-ROM

Follow the instructions  from here ( http://www.ianstedman.co.uk/Amiga/amiga_hacks/Amiga_Power_supplies/body_amiga_power_supplies.html) to connect the ATX power supply to your Amiga.

Use the second hard drive connector to connect the monitor power. If its 12V the it should be easy.

Next job is to build a case any way you want.

I suggest putting the main-board on the back of the monitor and then Putting the power supply and battery below the keyboard.

The main-board needs to go behind the monitor due to the keyboard being so thick. You could if you wanted re-wire the keyboard and use smaller keys but its a lot work.

[Vlabguy1]

Join the crowd...lol

I think we would all want one ..

[dammy]

Does my AROS (native) laptop count?  :inquisitive:

Dammy

[Dr_Righteous]

Funny to see this thread resurface... It inspired my recent research into CNC routers. I will have one built soon, then I can start working on building a laptop case  :-D

[kvasir]

Actually, I've been looking for older laptop cases. I know this guy in Madison, who refurbishes old computers, and gets alot of older laptops, with the pcmcia slot in the right spot. The only thing I'm really worried about is proprietary connections for the lcd display, keyboard, etc... Though I'm thinking playing with a multimeter and a soldering iron might get me around to that. If he gets one in with a fried mobo, I can probably get it for 20 bucks or so.