EOMA68 Libre 15.6in Laptop

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30 Sep 2016: EOMA68 Libre 15.6in Laptop PCB2 Revision 2

After reworking PCB1 and PCB2, work on a complete redesign of PCB3 began. Jakub kindly did an enormous amount of research into appropriate components, here, and his company mlab.cz actually releases all their CAD designs as Libre-licensed KiCAD. From his work and the research he's done, he's been able to steer the direction and component selection to near exclusive use of Texas Instruments parts. Texas Instruments has a reputation for reliability and the comprehensiveness of their documentation, so in retrospect this outcome could easily have been predicted.

This last PCB is the one where the most care has to be taken, as mistakes could result in fires or explosions. Many engineers simply will not work with such designs as public ongoing releases as a result, and some even refuse to sell such boards to individuals. Users are therefore expected to take responsibility for helping out and for making their own decisions.

The new revision is 5in long (which increases heat dissipation) and contains a buck/boost converter to bring the battery output voltage up to 5.0 volts. There are actually two 5V outputs: one for the main electronics (USB, speakers, LCD backlight) and one for the EOMA68 Card. The latter is two-way reversible which is why the bq24193 has to be used, as it is a fully "OTG" compliant charger IC. These parts have been selected because the output can be up to 4A @ 5V (20 watts), so a lot of care and attention is needed here.

The video below contains a walkthrough from the schematics to the PCB layout through to the 3D CAD indicating the relationship to surrounding parts. This complex inter-dependence serves to once again emphasise how critical it is that the entire laptop be developed holistically (and why re-using existing laptop casework is totally unrealistic). Changing the length of PCB3 required a change to 3 casework parts and a re-order of the cables to the other 2 PCBs. Using different ICs requires different pinouts (different functions available) such that the GPIO changes, possibly even the size of the connectors required, such that the other PCBs now need to be changed, and the STM32F072 firmware also needs changing. It's a massive chain of knock-on effects, any one of which, amazingly, could result in a near-total internal redesign.

Posted Fri 30 Sep 2016 06:31:40 BST

Archive

EOMA68 Libre 15.6in Laptop PCB3 Revision 2 walkthrough
Posted Fri 30 Sep 2016 06:31:40 BST
EOMA68 Libre 15.6in Laptop PCB 2nd phase prototyping
Posted Fri 16 Sep 2016 01:50:08 BST
Crowdsupply Campaign launches
Posted Fri 05 Aug 2016 22:41:48 BST
EOMA68 Libre 15.6in Laptop casework completed
Posted Wed 02 Mar 2016 12:43:43 GMT
laptop 15in pics.tgz
Posted Wed 02 Mar 2016 12:11:45 GMT
EOMA68 Libre 15.6in Laptop bamboo panels
Posted Fri 05 Feb 2016 13:42:03 GMT
EOMA68 Libre 15.6in Laptop partially assembled
Posted Wed 20 Jan 2016 16:29:51 GMT
EOMA68 Libre 15.6in Laptop parts pre assembly
Posted Tue 19 Jan 2016 15:00:19 GMT
EOMA68 Libre 15.6in Laptop Prototype PCBs first boot
Posted Sun 03 Jan 2016 17:39:24 GMT
Boards walkthrough post wiring
Posted Sun 03 Jan 2016 14:06:55 GMT
Component walkthrough pre assembly
Posted Sun 03 Jan 2016 13:58:04 GMT
PCB2 video prototype keyboard demo
Posted Sat 02 Jan 2016 15:48:10 GMT
PCB2 prototype functional keyboard matrix
Posted Sat 26 Dec 2015 22:09:50 GMT
Chicony keyboard matrix reverse engineering
Posted Thu 24 Dec 2015 19:43:17 GMT
PCB1 LCD operational 14dec2015
Posted Mon 14 Dec 2015 21:42:31 GMT
PCB2 prototype progress 10dec2015
Posted Thu 10 Dec 2015 16:34:42 GMT
PCB1 LCD semi operational 01dec2015
Posted Tue 01 Dec 2015 15:51:05 GMT
PCB3 prototype arrives 15oct2015
Posted Sat 17 Oct 2015 09:25:30 BST
PCB2 prototype progress 14oct2015
Posted Thu 15 Oct 2015 18:10:26 BST
PCB2 prototype progress 05oct2015
Posted Mon 05 Oct 2015 12:56:25 BST
PCB1 prototype progress 26sep2015
Posted Sun 27 Sep 2015 16:04:02 BST
PCB Revision 1 prototype 17sep2015
Posted Thu 17 Sep 2015 18:11:31 BST
PCB Revision 1 design progress 20 Aug 2015
Posted Thu 20 Aug 2015 16:54:42 BST
Casework first prototype completed images 07 Aug 2015
Posted Fri 07 Aug 2015 19:14:01 BST
Casework first prototype completed 07 Aug 2015
Posted Fri 07 Aug 2015 17:12:46 BST
Casework progress 09 July 2015
Posted Thu 09 Jul 2015 14:50:31 BST
Casework progress 05 July 2015
Posted Sun 05 Jul 2015 17:24:54 BST
Casework progress July 2015
Posted Wed 01 Jul 2015 20:22:28 BST
Casework progress video June 2015
Posted Wed 01 Jul 2015 20:22:28 BST
PCB1 Support
Posted Thu 04 Jun 2015 10:26:26 BST
Casework progress June 2015
Posted Tue 02 Jun 2015 17:53:48 BST
Casework progress May 2015
Posted Thu 14 May 2015 17:06:59 BST
2nd revision progress
Posted Mon 04 May 2015 11:31:37 BST
Casework progress
Posted Tue 13 Jan 2015 23:00:21 GMT
Specifications Developed
Posted Tue 13 Jan 2015 23:00:21 GMT