Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, mac_h8r1, Nelliesboo
king_kilr wrote:Why make a handheld PC? You still need power.
Wajo wrote:Why don't you just buy a UMPC haha ^^
Wajo wrote:On the other hand... maybe a GP2X could fit your needs... it runs a lightweight version of linux.
random_task wrote:Li-Ion batteries are very complex. Don't make your own unless you know how to make some kind of power tracker/regulatory circuitry.king_kilr wrote:Why make a handheld PC? You still need power.
i figure I'll just run off a Li-Ion battery (after finding or making a circuit board that gets it to the appropriate power output and type)Wajo wrote:Why don't you just buy a UMPC haha ^^
they have everything I want, but they're too big. I figure it could be made smallerWajo wrote:On the other hand... maybe a GP2X could fit your needs... it runs a lightweight version of linux.
That would work, but i'd really like to be able to put a few simple EXEs on there. anyone know if wine will run on that?
SpotTheCat wrote:random_task wrote:Li-Ion batteries are very complex. Don't make your own unless you know how to make some kind of power tracker/regulatory circuitry.king_kilr wrote:Why make a handheld PC? You still need power.
i figure I'll just run off a Li-Ion battery (after finding or making a circuit board that gets it to the appropriate power output and type)
Turkina wrote:I've looked into it recently, and its true...a Mac mini is about the smallest machine you can buy. Sometimes they have good deals on refurbed ones..
You'll need 19 V IIRC to get the thing to boot, but there are some relatively cheap Li batteries available, and you might be able to find some plans on how to hook them up to the mac mini.
Theres plenty of resources for mac mini mods (giyf), and if you really wanted to go ultra portable, you could always opt for a CF-to-IDE, and get a large capacity CF card and use that in place of the hard drive.
A ground up nanoITX solution will be longer and wider than the mac mini, but its possible you could make it just as thin.
Let me know how this works out for you as I an interested in a similar project...
~Turkina
cheesyking wrote:Sorry for being boring but well, er, aren't you talking about a laptop?
Kevin wrote:The Sony VAIO UX is pretty damn small. I use an older version at work for this personal navigation system I'm working on. They are pretty cool (although expensive). The version I have has a separate keyboard that you plug in, but this one's screen moves up like some of the newer cell phones.
So if you want as small as possible but still feature rich, I can't think of much that would be smaller.