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Star

Star: a DIY tablet computer

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The great Linux tablet is not available yet, so I have decided to build one

A very early sketch of the device

I have for many years had a dream about having a Linux tablet without to many software lockins by manufacturers. I think that the best consumer electronics are hardware platforms that allows the user to choose the software. I finally decided to try this out.

I don't know if this will be a success or not, I have some knowledge about electronics, Linux, metal/wood crafting and programming so I thought I would combine all those skills and ask other skilled people I know for help once in a while and just maybe this project will be a success. I also decided to write about it to help me keep track of the journey and share my thoughts.

The vision

Initially I wanted to create an e ink tablet, but since it is still seem extremely hard to find a large display that is plug and play I settled for an LCD display.

The goal of the project is to create a portable tablet running a Linux desktop environment that I can use when surfing, reading, writing or doing some programming as well as a device whose hardware are expendable and upgradeable. While devices like Android tablets allows you to consume content and apps, I want this device to inspire creativity both in the sense that I can create new things with it as I would with a laptop but also inspire me to make modifications to the device itself.

The key features that I'm looking for:

Inspiration

I like using low power computers like the Sheevaplug and Raspberry Pi for file servers and media players and so on. Now I want to try using one with a full desktop environment for working.

I originally planned using a Raspberry Pi 2 as the computer but I found the ODROID-XU4 which although it draws more power and requires a fan is a lot faster than the Raspberry Pi 2.

Two projects that inspired me a lot are the Raspberry Pi tablet and the Spark tablet. They showed that this is possible. The computers used there are somewhat slower but also use less power consuming computers that does not require to try to create a custom PSU.

Parts

There are a lot of parts needed and I don't know which will work but I decided to order parts that I think will work together and I will try to complete with other parts later if needed.

This is a list of the electronics I plan to use:

Complete parts list so far (as named on eBay and Hardkernel stores)