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MNT Reform DIY Laptop
- fouc 7y agoThis is fantastic. It looks like we're approaching the territory of being able to easily build our own laptops from scratch. That will go a long way to preventing lock-in!
- kgarten 7y agoThe chrome browser on the screenshot makes me suspicious :) Otherwise cool project.
- mntmn 7y agoYeah, nowadays I wouldn't include that anymore.
- TaylorAlexander 7y agoMore libre hardware. Excellent!
- dragonsh 7y agoI think if a specialised workshop can assemble a better laptop will be nice. It can open in business for those specialist who can use machining and specialities skills to quickly assemble a laptop for customers based on their choices and design. Like in the good old days corner stores and shops can assemble pc’s. Larger assemblers like HP, Dell and Apple killed that market but I feel it will be a good time to restart it. Like vinyl took over CD sales representing going back in time. Hopefully this can be done for mobile phones as well with advancement in technology and standards. We need IBM PC kind of open and free as in freedom standards in laptop and mobile phones on hardware level.
- mntmn 7y agoYep, I believe that indie/boutique hardware that gives you some independence from the big corporate gardens will be an important thing.
- bArray 7y agoDoes anybody know the expected price point? This is quite exciting and is exactly what I'm looking for, but I imagine the price point will be too high to justify replacing my high-spec working laptop with this lower-end device.
- mntmn 7y agoMy target price is around 900 EUR.
- bArray 7y agoCrowd supply campaign: https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt/reform/updates/re-introducing-reform https://www.crowdsupply.com/mnt/reform/updates/re-introducin...
- RodgerTheGreat 7y agoWow. Directly using easily-sourced 18650 cells for power is a killer feature. The trackball seems nice, too. Reminds me of my old Powerbook 180.
- dmix 7y agoA lot of old laptop batterus are a bunch of 18650's wrapped in a black case. https://imgur.com/gallery/Fywq0 https://imgur.com/gallery/Fywq0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBE7-LEPDSk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBE7-LEPDSk
- RodgerTheGreat 7y agoI'm aware. In many batteries, though, those cells are welded together and the cases are additionally glued or welded. This makes it much more difficult to repack those batteries with new cells than it needs to be.
- dmix 7y ago> Reclaim your privacy and security: No microphone, camera or management engine The nice thing about Libre laptops is the camera + microphone have a hardware switch, so it's not either/or. They also claim to have neutered the management engine. Regardless this project looks cool and is obviously a different approach to Libre.
- Mathnerd314 7y agoThe beta units were 600 euros, while the chipset is $87. Meanwhile an Acer Aspire E 15 for $600 gives you a $297 CPU and $70 graphics card. I guess there is some overhead because the beta was 10 units not a hundred thousand units, but still. You might as well get a Raspberry Pi and a portable screen and stick them in a box. It's half the price and you can use the components for other things after you get bored.
- madez 7y agoCan you get the sources for the board for the Raspberry? Can you run it without blobs?
- Mathnerd314 7y agoIt doesn't look like those are available. But CPU chips are just compiled Verilog at this point, if you want sources for every last thing you'd have to move away from ARM entirely since it's a proprietary ISA. Maybe SiFive will release a fully open laptop sometime in the future.
- rvense 7y agoYou can't expect a two-man company to win on every point against Acer. I don't think 900 euro is bad for a laptop, especially not one with an upgrade path. Making your own Raspberry Pi laptop/portable is a fun project, but it's not really the same as making one that people can just buy, neither for the maker nor the owner. A community of hacks and mods can spring up around the standards set by such a project. I really look forward to getting one.
- wolrah 7y agoWhy have mSATA or MiniPCIe on a 2018/2019 design? M.2 replaced both of those as of literally years ago, and anything remotely modern is only available in that format. mSATA is flat out dead and MiniPCIe has very few modern offerings. It's not like there's a meaningful hardware difference, it's just a different slot pinout for the same technologies, but one's the modern standard and the others are outdated trash. This should have two M.2 B-keyed and one M-keyed slot rather than the three legacy slots it has. And really, if I were in charge, it would have two M-keyed slots and only one B-keyed for WWAN. The SSD slot should be a M-keyed PCIe slot, not SATA nonsense. SATA is for spinning rust, PCIe NVMe is for SSDs.
- mntmn 7y agoSATA got eliminated for M.2 M-keyed (for NVMe SSD) in the redesign, see my other comment. mPCIe is still useful, because there are a lot of WiFi cards available in that formfactor that don't require firmware, for example.
- jonny383 7y agoI would rather gouge my eyes out with a spoon that look at that eye-sore of a "computer". This is 2019, not COMDEX 1988. C'mon people.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- dang 7y ago"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- danbolt 7y agoIt makes me want it even more! It’s has so much character compared to an aluminum blob or black box.
- mntmn 7y agoHi, this is where I regret not having updated that particular page in a longer time. While the goals remain the same, we have almost finished a complete redesign of the project. Here are some updates: https://mntre.com/media/news_md/2019-05-20-reintroducing-reform.html https://mntre.com/media/news_md/2019-05-20-reintroducing-ref... In the flesh: https://mastodon.social/@mntmn/102903623346043604 https://mastodon.social/@mntmn/102903623346043604 https://mastodon.social/@mntmn/102872674526072643 https://mastodon.social/@mntmn/102872674526072643 https://mastodon.social/@mntmn/102720152037379092 https://mastodon.social/@mntmn/102720152037379092 There are many work-in-progress pictures when you go to https://mastodon.social/web/accounts/35156/media https://mastodon.social/web/accounts/35156/media If you prefer Twitter, I also post a lot of updates about the project there (@mntmn). Updated technical specs: CPU: NXP/Freescale i.MX8M with 4x ARM Cortex-A53 cores (1.5GHz), 1x Cortex-M4F core RAM: 4GB LPDDR4 memory GPU: Vivante GC7000Lite GPU with Display: Full HD (1920x1080 pixels) 12.5" IPS eDP display. Optional HDMI port USB: 3x USB 3.0 external, 2x USB 2.0 internal (for input devices) Networking: Gigabit Ethernet port. Optional miniPCIe WiFi card Storage: Internal M.2 socket for NVMe SSD. Full size SD Card slot PCIe: 1 miniPCIe port Keyboard: Slim Mechanical USB Keyboard with Kailh Choc Brown Switches, FOSS Firmware Trackball (Option): Reform Optical USB Trackball with 5 Mechanical Switches (Kailh Choc Brown), FOSS Firmware Trackpad (Option): Reform Capacitive USB Trackpad Enclosure: Modular case from CNC milled, black anodized aluminum 6061 and semi-transparent acrylic (bottom cover, bezel) Sound: Wolfson ADC/DAC (WM8731), Stereo Speakers, 3.5" headset/microphone jack (no internal microphone) Camera: No camera Battery: Safe LiFePO4 battery technology. Owner serviceable 8x 18650 cells totalling 12Ah/3.2V. Estimated 5h battery life. System Controller: NXP LPC11U24 ARM Cortex-M0 chip with FOSS Firmware and hackable expansion port Manual: Printed Operator Manual incl. system schematics and full parts list Sources: KiCAD sources for motherboard, keyboard, trackball, trackpad, STEP/STL/FreeCAD files for case parts, C sources for all firmware (input devices and system controller), build scripts for boot & system image OS: Preloaded with Debian GNU/Linux 10, Linux 5.x mainline kernel Weight: ±1.5kg (TBD)
- madez 7y agoThe MNT Reform seems to have open sources for the case and boards but a proprietary SoC and modules. There is also the Teres-I laptop from Olimex with open sources for the case and boards but a proprietary SoC and modules. The Librem 5 from Purism will have open sources for the case and board but a proprietary SoC and modules. It is good that we have at least the choice to buy a device with a blackbox from China (Allwinner A64, Teres-I) or from Europe (NXP i.MX8M, both MNT Reform and Librem5). But I think we would benefit from reusing common components in hardware just like in software. What do you think about cooperating with other developers that have similar goals to yours? Are you already?
- berryg 7y agoWill you be at FOSDEM 2020? Would be nice to see a presentation and the actual hardware. https://fosdem.org/2020/ https://fosdem.org/2020/
- mntmn 7y agoI imagine I could go to FOSDEM again yeah.
- lokl 7y agoTo what extent have you consulted the mechanical keyboard community? There is a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience about keyboard layout, electronics, software, hardware, etc. and it is not obvious to me that a community design would closely resemble what you are using. I recommend posting to https://reddit.com/r/mechanicalkeyboards https://reddit.com/r/mechanicalkeyboards, https://geekhack.com https://geekhack.com, and https://deskthority.net https://deskthority.net, and possibly reaching out directly to some of the most experienced individuals, if you have not already done so. The keyboard has been an important part of the success of at least one major laptop brand.