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Raspberry Pi Projects How to create a mini laptop with Raspberry Pi easy and fast? step by step guide

UPDATED ✅ Want to turn your Raspberry Pi into a mini laptop? ⭐ ENTER HERE ⭐ and Learn How FROM ZERO! ⭐

If you are a follower of these microcomputers, you will know that they can be given an infinity of uses.one of them is being able to turn them into a laptop and thus be able to carry them from one place to another easily.

In this way, users will have the opportunity to build a laptop with his screen, keyboard and caseto which you can connect a mouse via USB.

In this way this has become one of the most interesting and sought after projects by the users of these microcomputers. This is how we are going to teach you how to how to create your own mini laptop with raspberry pi.

What do I need to create a mini laptop with a Raspberry Pi?

If there is something that has characterized the Raspberry Pi is the infinity of uses that can be given to them, that is how, to everyone’s surprise, they can also become a portable mini pc Keep in mind that these portable computers can be even smaller than a mobile devicealthough this will depend on each user when creating it.



Therefore, if what you want is to start creating this great project, users will have to have the following materials for it:

  • A Raspberry Pi 3 or higher that it be stripped of all the connectors in order to reduce its size.
  • Keyboard wired or Bluetooth
  • Touch screen as hyperpixel4
  • PiRTC
  • PowerBoost 1000C
  • Arduino ProMini.
  • USB-Serial

Learn step by step how to create a mini laptop with your Raspberry Pi from scratch

If you want to start creating a mini notebook with your raspberry pi the best option you can do is buy some of the kits that include all the necessary components to convert your Raspberry Pi in a laptop. One of the most advanced and powerful kits for this is Pi Top, in the same way you will get a great variety for it.

Most of these packages, such as Pi-Top, usually include absolutely everything, such as the screen, keyboard, battery, touchpad, and the portable case. In addition, the user has the option of acquiring the pack either without the Raspberry Pi in case you already have one or if not with it. As seen in the following image, the kit is very complete, where it offers you an instruction manual to make everything much easier.

Learn step by step how to create a mini laptop with your Raspberry Pi from scratch

However, so that you can understand its creation process a little more, here we are going to explain to you how the manufacture of a mini laptop with Raspberry has been that the user has managed to create Igor Brkic.

This time he created a laptop much smaller than a mobile device:

Hardware

Being a device that will be used a lot, it is necessary to have some requirements:

  • A long battery life (at least 5 to 6 hours).
  • Performance reasonable.
  • power management (power off, battery monitoring, battery charge).
  • Touch screen high resolution.
  • gpio, serial port, analog input.
  • Keyboard hardware.
  • Reader of SD card.
  • Sound appropriate.

Currently many projects like this can be found, but not all of them meet the requirements that have been listed. For the screen has been selected 4-inch Pimoroni Hyperpixel 4 with capacitive touch and 800 x 480 resolution. This screen has an excellent visual effect, but the downside is that it occupies almost all the GPIO pins on the board.

One of the first ideas for this project was to add an expander of I2C port and ADC, but according to the offered options, the best thing was to add an Arduino board so that this way all the power Management, GPIO and analog inputs as an I2C slave device that I can query from the Pi. In this case the screen is connected directly to the Pi’s GPIO port, which means that Pi goes to the top of the device and the bottom is going to contain the battery and the keyboard.

For the keyboard we have selected a small rii bluetooth keyboard, it has all the standard keys and a backlight. Keep in mind that being wireless, it will discharge quickly, so you have to power it with current. As you can see the following picture shows the Raspberry Pi, keyboard with the battery underneath, an RTC circuit, Arduino Pro Mini, and power management board.

Hardware

For this project we worked with the raspberry pi 3 board since it offers a very good performance and is not as expensive as the Pi 4if you choose the Pi 3 B+ you can increase the performance, but in turn it will generate a higher energy consumption. In order to make everything as small and compact as possible, everything that takes up space and is not needed had to be removed from the Pi 3.

In this case it was removed USB ports, Ethernet port, since Wi-Fi was enough and the USB-Ethernet it could be plugged in if needed, HDMI, camera and display connector, audio connector, since none of these components were really needed there. But a sound card was added USB, the GPIO pins have been cut to 60% and the plastic holding the header pins has been removed.

Hardware

All this allowed the screen to be adjusted as close to the Raspberry Pi, so that the final result was obtained about 5mm space Between both. And this is the space where everything else should fit.

Hardware

Can

At the beginning, the main idea for this project was to use an energy bank, since there was a Canyon 4000 power bank mAh which had a status indicator four LEDs and a power key which could be activated from the Arduino board that allowed to cut the power.

It also had some features that were not necessary, such as fast charging, so the same procedure was carried out to remove the unnecessary parts, leaving it as shown in the following image:

Can

Later it was used kicad to make a schematic of the internal connections. When the power button is pressed, it connects the power enable input power boost to the battery and enables the Powerboost board. Pin EN goes up to the power supply of the Arduino board, but pin 8 can be used to turn it off. While pin 9 is used to detect the state of the power button so that the shutdown procedure can be activated when the key is pressed.

Total equipment shutdown can be performed holding down the power button for a few seconds. A second attempt was made, which was with the bank of Xiaomi power 5000mAh which had the same appearance characteristics, but it turned out that the button was not the ideal one to cut the power, since it turned on again as soon as it detected a small amount of energy.

However, the battery of this power bank it was reasonable (5000mAh) which is a bit smaller than the keyboard, so I decided to use it in the build. For the power management board at the end the Adafruit Powerboost 1000C.

Can

fitting it all

Note that the procedure for placing a bunch of small plates between the screen space and the Raspberry Pi It’s not as easy as you think. This is because the small boards have to be placed very carefully and in the right positions so they don’t collide with components on the board. Pi plate.

This has required many cycles of disconnection and connection of the screen and it turned out a screen damaged because of all this. But on the other hand, when said screen is damaged, it can be used to try all the ways until one is achieved that it will work properly.

Here we leave you these images of what the procedure was:

fitting it all

Thermal

This is considered to be one of the most important aspects to keep in mind, when you are charging, the Raspberry Pi it tends to get hot and that heat can somehow be removed. For this you can use what are copper heat sinks with an adhesive on the side to hold them to the board, so for this project two were mounted on the main CPU. Considering there’s not going to be any airflow in there, this just increased heat capacitybut I don’t handle the cooldown correctly.

That is why an aluminum plate had to be added on the other side of the raspberry pi and thermally connect it to the Pi using a thermally conductive pad. In this way, in the following image that is shown to you, you can see an increase in temperature during six minutes when all four cores are fully charged. In this way you can see that it reaches about 73°C and it stays there, this is not the most correct, but it can be considered good.

Thermal

Tests

The next step that was taken was install the new screen and finish all connections. This step included adding the power management resistors and the battery voltage measurement resistor which were welded directly to the plate.

Tests

Tests

Enclosure

For this case, the 3D model of the cabinet was built in freecad and was 3D printed on a mega Anycubic i3 3D printer. Double hinges allow the screen to be fully opened to standing mode. So much the freecad model and the printable files can be found available in the git repository.

Enclosure

end step

To finish this project, the only thing that was done was the assembly of everything.

Which would end up being as seen in the following image:

end step

Discover the necessary steps to install the operating system on your Raspberry Pi mini laptop

One of the advantages of convert your raspberry pi on a laptop, is that you will have the opportunity to install different operating systems, so you will be able to use the one of your choice. Furthermore, it should be noted the ease of installation of these OS, That is why here we are going to teach you how to install the three most important today.

To do this, follow in detail each of the methods that we are going to teach you below:

Install Windows

If you are one of the users who like to use the Microsoft operating system, then you will have the opportunity to install Windows 10 ARM on your laptop with Raspberry Pi. It must be borne in mind that win 10 It is currently the most used operating system in the world, so there are many reasons to want to have it on a laptop. According to all this, here we are going to show you the main steps so that you can install it.

Requirements

Keep in mind that in order to install the Microsoft OS you will have to have a Raspberry Pi 3, well be the model B or B+, since it offers compatibility. In addition, you must have a Micro SD card that will be the same one that you will use in your laptop, keep in mind that it is at least 8 GB or greater so that you do not have speed problems, if it is 16 GB it would be much better and a Windows 10 ARM64 WIM format imageit can be downloaded using the tool adguard.

Download the image in WIM format from Adguard

  • The first thing you should do is enter to https://uup.rg-adguard.net/

Download the image in WIM format from Adguard

  • When you are there you must complete all the options that appear on the screen. Here it is important that you select the ARM64 architecturewhich should not be confused with AMD64This is very important.
  • After this you will have to click on the link on the right, it will appear once you have finished selecting the options. Here I know will download a .zip file.
  • The next thing is to extract the .zip file to a folder, preferably one that does not contain path spaces, such as “c:tempW10IsoScripts”
  • Now run the script creating cmd and wait for it to complete.
  • When the script has finished, you will find a .ISO inside, as a result of the process. you must ride the .ISO file with Windows explorer by double clicking on it.
  • Here you will be able to navigate the binder x:sources, where x: is the drive letter of the file .iso mounted.
  • Inside the “Sources” folder you will find the wim that WoA Installer you need to implement Windows on the Raspberry Pi.

Therefore, when you have the wim-file, the next thing to do is to start with WoA to generate the system.

Install Windows 10 ARM on an SD with WoA

  • The following will do Download WoA Installer for Raspberry Pi 3 and his core Package. When both have been downloaded, the next thing to do is run WoA Installerand in the tab “Advanced” will have to import “Core Package” which has just been downloaded. Here you can import the full ZIP directly without the need to unzip it.

Install Windows 10 ARM on an SD with WoA

  • When these dependencies have been imported, the next thing will be to go to the main section of “Windows Deployment”, selecting the micro SD card in which we are going to install windows 10 arm64 and upload later the WIM file which has been explained in the previous steps. After loading it, you can select the version you want to install either “Home” or “Pro”.

Install Windows 10 ARM on an SD with WoA

  • Here you will have to click on the button “Deploy”, for this tool to start doing its job. In this case wow will create different partitions on the micro SD and will take care of copying all the files, as well as making all the configurations that are necessary to leave windows 10 arm completely ready to run the Raspberry Pi 3.

Install Windows 10 ARM on an SD with WoA

  • When this is done, you will have your operating system completely ready. In this case you will only disconnect the micro SD card from the computer and you put it in your pi plate and there you can start using Windows 10 on your Raspberry Pi laptop. Note that you must do the initial setup of the system, so you must follow each of the steps that appear on the screen.

Install macOS

It is very possible that you want install MacOS on your Raspberry Pi so you can enjoy this operating system on your laptop with this board. However, it is not possible to directly install this OS, this is because Manzana it is limited only to its own equipment, and despite there being ways to build your own PC with this system, the requirements are so specific that you may not be able to carry out the procedure.

But as a solution to all this, the Raspberry Pi allows you to get a fully functional operating system that will look just like MacOS, in this case it is iRaspbian, a distribution based on iRaspbian and that will allow you to enjoy a very complete operating system with which you will be able to work as if you were on a Mac. Therefore, in order to carry out this installation you will have to follow each of these steps.

How to install iRaspbian on a Raspberry Pi

It should be mentioned that It is a very simple procedurefor this case you will only have to download the image of the operating system and save it to your Micro SD card.

Next we are going to leave you an iRaspbian download link and the necessary steps so that you can prepare the micro SD card:

  • Do the iraspbian download from its official website.
  • Now you have to download the program “Balena Etcher” . It will help you to install the image.

Download Etcher for Windows

Download Etcher for macOS

Download Etcher for Linux

  • Note that the compressed file will include an image without an extension. So you’re going to have to add the .img extension for the Balena Etcher program I can identify her.
  • Then you must open BalenaEtcher, and select the image and the destination drive and then click the button “Install”.

How to install iRaspbian on a Raspberry Pi

  • When this process is finished, you will only have to enter micro card SD on your Raspberry Pi and turn it on. The login window will appear there.
  • In order to log in you will have to enter your password. “raspberry”.



How to install iRaspbian on a Raspberry Pi

  • You can change this password if you wish through the command “passwd” at the terminal. Now if what you want is to change the administrator password, then you must enter your passwd.

When you have accessed, you just have to follow the steps that appear below to start enjoying your new operating system that you can use on your laptop.

How to install iRaspbian on a Raspberry Pi

Install Linux

If you are a user of Linux and you want to install it on your raspberrypi, then you should know that you will not have any problem for it. For this case you will need to resort to the command line and the flash utility. Therefore, to carry this out you will have to follow each of the following instructions:

In order to install everything you need to get the flash drive working, you’re going to need to run the following commands from the terminal:

sudo apt-get install -y pv curl python-pip unzip

sudo pip install awscli
uname –s

Now what is returned is going to be replaced by Darwin in the first of the following commands that will have to be executed:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hypriot/flash/master/Darwin/flash
chmod +x flash sudo mv flash /usr/local/bin/flashPor

For example, if the command uname –s returns Linux, the command to enter would be the following:

  • wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hypriot/flash/master/Linux/flash

This way you can start installing your Linux operating system on your raspberry pi and so use it on your laptop. You must keep in mind that there are many ways to install linux on these motherboards, but this is the classic recommendation, so it will work for you both as a media center or as a retro system video game console.

List of the best Raspberry Pi Kits and components to create a mini laptop in the easiest way possible

One of the main advantages of working with a raspberry pi is its versatility of use, this is how it can be used to design what is a laptop. To do this, you need to have a Pi3 or Pi4 since they are the two most powerful and the one that will give you the best result for it. Also, it has become an inexpensive way to have your own mini laptop.

This type of computers Raspberry Piit will help you to carry out a large number of projects, it will also provide you with a facility to connect with other devices. However, to be able to do this in a simpler and easier way, it is necessary to have a kit.

That is why we are going to show you the best Raspberry Pi kits and components that you can use to create your mini laptop in a very simple way:

pi top

pi top

Currently this is one of the kits more complete to convert your raspberry pi on a laptop. In this case it’s a laptop chassis with a keyboard that slides out, exposing the interior. Here you can find a PCB to connect your RaspberryPi.

Pi-Top has been around for at least three years, and its latest version is compatible with the model Raspberry Pi 3 and Pi 4. By mounting the connector board and Pi on a rail, you can connect other devices such as a breadboard. In the same way, it should be mentioned that this kit includes absolutely everything, such as the keyboard, battery, laptop case, touchpadif you want it can be ordered with the plate or without it if you already have one.

It even has a heat sink for Raspberry Pi which is essential to keep the board cool all the time. It also has a manual That will allow the entire assembly of it to be much simpler.

Piper Raspberry Pi Laptop Kit

Piper Raspberry Pi Laptop Kit

This is another kit that is mainly focused on programming and electronics projects and is compatible with raspberry pi. In the case of Piper It will have a self-assembly wooden box. Here you will find a non-touch screen a speaker and a compartment for the Raspberry Pi, as well as a breadboard. Here you will also get all the necessary cables for the assembly, as well as LEDs and switches that may be needed.

This kit also features a rechargeable power supply, which makes it really useful for creating laptops. To facilitate the use of all this offers what is a compact keyboard, this will allow you to perform standard productivity tasks based on raspberrypi, and it is a version dedicated to minecraft pi, which distinguishes it from other kits available on the market.

CrowPi 2 Raspberry Pi Laptop Kit

CrowPi 2 Raspberry Pi Laptop Kit

This is a thick laptop chassis with enough room to add a Raspberry Pi 4, works ideally with the 4GB model. The CrowPi 2 It is considered today as an excellent kit, where it includes what is a power supply, an integrated electronics workshop board, dual game controllers, and many other components necessary for the game. STEM development. In this way it can be said that Crow Pi 2 It is the dream of a fan of these plates.

In the case of the integrated electronics workshop board by itself it is enough to go on, while all the other loose components, many of which can be easily assembled, so you can gradually increase your learning. Therefore, It can be considered as a quite interesting kit to create a laptop with Raspberry Pi, where its main focus is learning and it is aimed at people over 12 years of age.

Raspberry Pi and Arduino Laptop

Raspberry Pi and Arduino Laptop

In this case it is a combination of these two plates, so you will be offered a very complete keyboard, a 7-inch screen and do-it-yourself trackpad. Carrying out this DIY build will result in a Raspberry Pi laptop. Note that here you can use the model of Raspberry Pi 3 or Pi 3 Model B+.

You must bear in mind that the installation procedure is quite simple, here you will learn how to build what the battery pack, connect a charger and a high converter, as well as extend a USB port in order to improve the accessibility of the device. While the component Arduino will be in charge of showing the battery charge status, as well as providing connectivity for the sensor modules. Keep in mind that this PC will be built with reinforced cardboard.

DIY Raspberry Pi Pocket Laptop

DIY Raspberry Pi Pocket Laptop

This kit will offer you what is a IPS screen, with a keyboard, a charger portable battery and a Raspberry Pi 3 or Pi 4. Keep in mind that this PC model is going to seem quite simple, but it really is not. To all this is attached what is a switch to the battery, which will allow an easy start, but as it happens in any of these boards, the shutdown must be done from the operating system to prevent the SD card is damaged.

It has a plastic chassis that is possibly what makes it more interesting. Although it does not have a space for the bluetooth Keyboard, other types of keyboards can fit very well with it. As already mentioned, this is a really basic project, so only absolute basics are included, which offers the possibility of put your own spin. In addition, its easy construction should be highlighted.

LapPi Raspberry Pi Laptop

LapPi Raspberry Pi Laptop

It consists of a self-assembly acrylic laptop for the Raspberry Pi. This is how this kit has a 5 and 7 inch variant, where you can also buy the kit without the plate or with the plate, this will depend on whether you already have one Raspberry or not. You can also find a lapi version which includes a collection of shields (PiRelay, PiTalk Shield, PiTraffic, PiCube). You must keep in mind that lapi is compatible with any consumer model of raspberrypi, so you have several options to use it.

Likewise includes what is a capacitive touch screena keyboard white lithium-ion rechargeable power and speakers, and you can find this kit in four available colors such as yellow, blue, black, red. Keep in mind that this is a small laptop, so it’s not going to be your typical productivity PC, but it’s been designed to help you convert your Raspberry Pi board on a big laptop.

Raspberry Pi 3D Printed Laptop

Raspberry Pi 3D Printed Laptop

What better than being able to have your own 3D printed plate with a Pi board. In this case it is a kit that is compatible with the model of Raspberry Pi 2 or higherit offers a 3.5-inch TFT screen so you can see that it is a small screen, it also uses what is a miniature bluetooth keyboard. It also has a lithium ion battery and a wifi dongle, but this works with the Pi 2 model.

Since with the most recent models such as the Raspberry Pi 3 or Pi 4 this is not necessary. In this way it can be said that it is a pocket laptop that you can comfortably transport from one place to another. This is because its size is quite small, being very similar to that of a smartphone, so it is very easy to use. It features a 3D-printed frame that houses the keyboard, display, and the Raspberry Pi. The hinges that are also 3d printed they will hold the two halves together.

Nano Pi2 UMPC mini computer Raspberry Pi

Nano Pi2 UMPC mini computer Raspberry Pi

If you’re looking for a DIY Raspberry Pi laptop that you can easily carry in your pocket from place to place, then this microcomputer combines what is a Raspberry Pi 2 or higher with a display, keyboard, Adafruit Powerboost 1000, a battery and 3D printing to achieve the system powered by raspberry pi smallest so far.

When all this has been assembled, the Pi 2 it’s going to fit under the keyboard and the whole unit folds down, like a full-size keyboard, which makes it really interesting. Refering to 4-inch LCD screen It is compact, which is why it is considered as an easily accessible pocket Pi and ideal for carrying out different types of tasks.

Lego Raspberry PiBook Laptop

Lego Raspberry PiBook Laptop

To finish this list we present laptop legoit is a computer laptop raspberry pi that anyone can build in a very simple way, but as a main requirement you will need a lot of plastic bricks from Denmark.

This kit was developed by Peter Hawkins, so he was named as the LegoRaspberry Pi Book, which offers access to the USB port, a door to change the micro SD card. It consists of standard bricks and pieces technology and everything is built on two 16×24 post lego baseplates. As a final result, a visually quite attractive mini laptop is obtained.

Hardware