Feb. 17, 2015 | By Simon

Although we’ve seen some pretty incredible objects made using a 3D printer - various prosthetic devices, handheld video game systems and even more complicated objects such as food and organs - the Pi-Top is among one of the more revolutionary projects when considering its disruptive potential against existing products.  

The “Build It Yourself” laptop, which is powered by a Raspberry Pi and housed in a 3D printed shell, first came onto the 3D printing scene in October of 2014 when the founders launched an Indiegogo campaign to help raise funds to bring the project to life.  In total, the founders raised almost $174,000, which was over $90,000 more than their original crowdfunding goal of $80,000.  

Leading up to their official product launch in May of 2015, the Pi-Top development team has been actively sharing their development process with the 3D printing community such as the ‘3D printing’ subreddit on the popular crowdsourced discussion board.

In a Reddit post yesterday, the Pi-Top team announced that they have just updated their 3D printable prototypes and the new designs feature modifications including a larger trackpad with integrated cantilever mouse buttons, a modular PCB rail, 3D printable constant torque hinge and an overall slimmer profile design.

"One of the most useful modifications from the old Pi-Top prototype to the new one is the addition of left and right mouse buttons," notes Pi-Top team. "Essentially, there is a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) fixed to the underside of the plastic case which has two tactile button switches mounted on it - pressing these buttons sends a left or right click command to the computer."

Additionally, the latest design of Pi-Top version 3 is 30% thinner than the last version.

A sliding acrylic slice gives you full access to all of the internals.

While the homebrew DIY kit enables users to create a low-cost open source computer, it is also designed to be an informative hardware design educational experience with the option to customize its features and learn the basics of how computers operate.  

“The Pi-Top kit is built with beginners in mind,” said the founders on their original Indiegogo page.   

“Our goal is to make hardware as accessible as software is now, and a big part of that is making it beginner friendly.  We want you to be able to create your own products and ideas. The Pi-Top kit is the start of a journey that will see you gaining the skills to build and code your own hardware.”

In total, the final 3D printable kit will include the following accessories for building your own laptop:

1)  Injection molded case 

2)  3D printer STL files compatible for most print bed sizes (5" x 5" bed size and up)

3)  PCBs - Power Management, HDMI to LVDS Bridge and Keyboard & Trackpad Controller.

4)  Electronics breadboard

5)  Battery

6)  Keyboard

7)  Trackpad

8)  13.3”HD LCD Screen

9)  Wifi adapter

9)  Acrylic slice

10)  Wiring

11)  DC wall plug

12)  Build instructions

13)  Online & integrated lesson plans

In addition to the solder-less design that makes it easier for beginners to build their own computers, the industrial design of the Pi-Top features a sliding acrylic window that gives users immediate access to the circuit boards for easy prototyping.  While the name implies “Raspberry Pi”, the systems is actually built to be able to work with any other microcontroller board so long as it meets the power and size requirements.  Ultimately, this means that a user who has access to a PCB printer could theoretically not only 3D print the laptop housing, but also their own circuit board to power the computer, too.

Currently, the STL files are still under lockdown until the Pi-Top team finalizes the final design.  Once the device sees its official launch in May, the 3D printable files will be available for anybody looking to 3D print their very own laptop.  

To stay updated about the 3D printed build update, be sure to head over to Pi-Tops’s Reddit post.   


 

 

Posted in 3D Printing Applications

 

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