"Finished"

I decided to stop working on the tablet. I added a few finishing touches and now I am calling it complete. I could spend a few more hours on a frame for the screen and make it look quite a bit nicer, but because of the problems I ran into I don't think it will be worth it. I also had a few inspiring ideas while working on this project, so I may disassemble the computer again and turn it into something else!

One of the problems was that even though the touch screen works... Windows doesn't see it as a HID device, therefore I cannot use Windows 7's touch and flick features. So it is basically a glorified mouse. I tried all sorts of drivers. Nothing. Also, the cabling that is on the outside doesn't look that great. I could spend time to solder it within the tablet but again, not worth the time.

Otherwise, the tablet works great. It now has 2 GB of ram as well as a cloth to sort of shield the cables (also doubles as a stand). Perfect for watching movies in bed and doing basic web browsing on the go. Just not the sleekest tablet out there ;)

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Touchscreen!

I got the replacement touch screen yesterday, and spent the evening putting it in place. I placed it on top of the LCD and taped the sides down for some enhanced security. Did a small test and everything works! I will spend the rest of this week fine tuning the internal cabling and hopefully get a start on the bezel & a cover for the bottom portion of the tablet top.

As you can see I moved the internal cable that is sticking out at the top to the bottom. I'll also try to secure all the external wiring, as well as the connector board, to the back. It is kind of ugly with all of that cabling, but if I can organize it well enough, it shouldn't be a problem for the meantime (until I learn how to solder internally)!

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Update (10PM PST):

Turns out that having the cable come out the bottom end was a bad idea. After testing, whenever I put pressure on the screen, I could see the cable pressing from behind. To remedy this, I raised the screen mount slightly. Now there is more room for air circulation and cables.

Touchscreen?

Sorry for not updating in a while. I did get the touch screen a week or so ago, however it arrived damaged. The 4-pin connector cable was ripped in half. The eBay seller was kind enough to send a replacement right away, but she is in China so it probably won't get here until next week.

It appears that I will not be able to use the USB connector from the webcam with the touch screen. My plan now is to install the cables and board inside the netbook in a way so that the USB connector sticks out like a normal USB port, so that when I want to use the touch interface, all I have to do is attach the USB cable to the board and then plug the other end into a USB port.

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Custom screen mount

After a lot of thinking, I decided to build a custom plastic mount for the screen. This mount should lift the panel enough to give room for the cable (so I shouldn't need to replace it) and air circulation for the CPU to help with any heat issues that may arise.

I cut out 2 plastic pieces about 6" x 1" and JB Welded them to the top sides of the case panel. Before I actually mount the screen I think I will pick up some foam and form a strip to lay down horizontally in the space. This should help with support, even though the plastic is already surprisingly sturdy. I'll add some more JB Weld to the edges when I apply the foam strip.

I finally purchased a touch screen! It's a 10.1" USB resistive touch screen and it cost $42 on eBay. It's shipping from China so it won't be here for a couple weeks at least. I discovered that I may be able to power the touch panel with the USB connector from the webcam. It's worth the sacrifice so I hope it works! I plan to add more plastic on the bottom lip of the panel, reinforce the edges with more JB Weld, and add the foam strip before I mount the screen permanently.

Here is a list of my expenses so far:

• ($8) Paint 
• ($6) JB Weld 
• ($2) Acrylic glass sheet
• ($1) Putty knife
• ($40) LED screen 
• ($38) Dremel rotary tool 
• ($42) Touch screen kit

Additional expenses:

• Sand paper ($5?)
• Foam sheet ($5?)

I am about $150 in this project so far. I really didn't plan on spending this much, but considering the broken screen and lack of a Dremel, I guess it isn't too bad. The iPhone sold for $275, so it has worked out well so far.

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New LED screen

I received the 10.1" LED screen today. Connected the 40 pin cable and booted up... but nothing showed up. I gave it a minute or so, but still nothing. I did a hard shut down, then powered it back on and it came on fine. Looks great, but 1024 x 600 max resolution. Not bad, but still doesn't compare to the 1366 x 768 on the old 11.6" screen. After initial tests, I found that the original 40 in cable may be too short to comfortably reach the connector when I have the screen positioned properly. I'll probably get a new one or an extender of some sort.

 (I don't know why this one is sideways... sorry)

I have found that I am going to need to rethink the entire front bezel/top of the netbook. The metal harness around the screen secures to the top side of it, not the bottom (which I had originally thought). I'll need some plastic pieces and some molding putty to create a custom fit for the screen and touch panel. As you can notice above, I removed the webcam and mic from where they were before. The double sided tape I originally purchased isn't strong enough. Here are my new expenses:

• Industrial strength double sided tape
• Bondo / molding putty
• Plastic sheet
• 40 pin screen cable extension
• 10.1" touch panel kit

I am starting to think that I can somehow rig the touch panel onto the USB connector for the webcam. Something I will try once I order the touch kit (still haven't).

In a somewhat unrelated matter, I received a free (upgrade) iPhone 4 8 GB today too. Since my current phone does the job just fine, I have put it on eBay to help fund this project. BUY IT!

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Palm rest and track pad removal

I went and purchased a Dremel 7700 MultiPro (about $40, my first expense) so that I could cut the palm rest out of the netbook casing and sand out the edges. It only took about 20 minutes. Here is the result:

before

after

I also bought an 'ultra thin/slim' 10.1" LED LCD screen. Hopefully it arrives this week so I can work on the fit this weekend. I plan to order the touch kit once the screen is in place and measured. The SD card reader should support the LCD's bottom right corner. I'll need to figure out something else to support the other side. I plan on sanding the outside of the casing even more and eventually painting it, but not until later.

I probably wont do much until the screen gets here. I was able to mount the web cam and microphone at the bottom of the inside casing, so that they are usable through the old holes that the mouse buttons were in. I'll put some sort of lens over the camera and I'll protect the mic somehow too. Below you can see how everything fits so far.

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Dis-assembly and testing

I was given a damaged Acer Aspire One 722 Netbook. The screen was cracked and the hard drive was damaged after someone stepped on it. The specs were decent (for a netbook);

• AMD Dual-core C-60 APU (1.33GHz)
• Radeon HD 6290 video (256MB dedicated)
• 1 GB DDR3 memory (needs to be upgraded)
• VGA, HDMI, 3 USB, ethernet, speaker, & mic ports
• Webcam, speakers, & microphone
• Built-in wireless, SD card reader
• 6 cell battery (holds a 5+ hour charge)

I quickly put together in my head that, with a little work, this could be the backbone for a decent Windows 7 (or Windows 8, Ubuntu, etc) tablet. I would need to somehow remove the screen, keyboard and mouse, and fit a new LED screen and touch panel kit in where the keyboard was (with some modifications of course). I have never modded anything before, so I thought that this free and already 'broken' netbook would be a perfect place to start. I didn't take a picture before I started tearing it apart, but it looked something like this:

I wont talk about specific details because I would imagine this can be done with most netbooks (and laptops for that matter). There are many videos on Youtube that will show you how to take apart almost any netbook and some that will even walk you through the touch screen kit modification.

First I removed the screen by removing the screen bezel, keyboard, and entire lid to the netbook hardware. I unplugged the screen and webcam and unscrewed the hinge screws to remove the screen. I was left with the bottom of the netbook and its hardware, as well as the battery. This was all I needed to power it up and test it out on an external monitor. After successful tests, I installed a spare Seagate 100GB hard drive and then a fresh copy of Windows 7.

So far the system has been running fine. Now to plan out how I am going to fit the new screen and touch screen. I am planning on using a 10.1" LED. It originally had a 11.6" but not only is it too big for the casing, but 10.1" screens are cheaper 10.1" touch kits are much easier to find too. I plan to add a USB 10.1" resistive touch screen kit, so the touch screen will occupy one of the three USB ports when in use (until I figure out how and where to solder).

I want to try to fit all of this inside of the top of the netbook hardware, where the keyboard was. I will need to buy a rotary saw and cut out almost the entire palm rest to get the screen to fit but it should fit nicely with some space on the sides (which I will need to fill some how). I removed the mouse touch pad but left the light indicators. I will also try to arrange the mic and webcam to be usable... probably toward the bottom, where the mouse buttons are.

Hope this works!

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