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sudo Sergeant
Documents sudo Sergeant 15: Pi-Top Teardown
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  • Author Author: tariq.ahmad
  • Date Created: 3 Apr 2018 6:52 PM Date Created
  • Last Updated Last Updated: 13 Aug 2018 10:55 PM
  • Views 1137 views
  • Likes 4 likes
  • Comments 1 comment
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sudo Sergeant 15: Pi-Top Teardown

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Felix unboxes the Pi-Top.  The second version of the Pi-Top includes a lot of mini posters that weren’t part of the first release. Included are guide booklets, an inventor’s kit, a Raspberry Pi (optional), a box of accessories, and the power supply. There’s also a Pi Top pulse accessory which has also been included.  The guide booklets include a getting started guide and an inventor’s guide.

 

 

The Pi-top is marketed as a kit for kids to learn about computing.   Felix goes into the box of accessories and finds s buttons, potentiometers, jumper cables, and a breakout board.  Felix compares the Pi-top with its previous iteration. He takes out the cooling bridge. It’s a heatsink but it also ports over the GPIO to a header located on the hub. He shows you how to plug the Raspberry Pi into the hub.  It’s going to supply power, and give you HDMI.  It also connects to the cooling bridge and the breakout board. Now that he’s shown you how easy it is to put together, he’s ready to take it apart.

He starts with the hub and then precedes to voids the warranty by removing the ribbon cable and prying off the rails. After snapping off the parts, he admires the included battery bank.  Next, he takes apart the screen.  The screen pops out after he loosens the ribbon cable.  Some of the parts that he finds included in the hub are the ATtiny88, a multiplexer demultiplexer for the GPIO, and for video there is an HDMI to embedded Display Port converter.  For the battery there is a lithium-ion battery integrated circuit and a gas gauge. Felix admires the battery pack. On the Pi-top proto plus, Felix discovers an ATtiny20.

  • potentiometer
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  • gpio
  • multiplexer
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  • raspberry pi
  • gas gauge
  • ribbon cable
  • demultiplexer
  • open source
  • kernel
  • jumper cables
  • integrated circuit
  • pi-top
  • attiny88
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  • display port converter
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  • Former Member
    Former Member over 7 years ago

    Quite enjoyable tear-down - thanks.  Are you going to try and use the internal HUB USB connector?  I suggest that you try just try inserting a flash drive into the HUB USB port and see if it is readable and writable from Linux.

     

    My personal goal is to totally eliminate the MicroSD (poor performance & longevity).  Then, the pi-top v2 would be quite usable for me as a reliable laptop for engineering and scientific work.  My RPi3 desktop at home operates with an external USB drive which partially overcomes the 1GB RAM limitation.

     

    From the go-round in https://support.pi-top.com/en/support/tickets/18974  you can see that pi-top "service" is lacking in technical expertise for their own product.  Also, they have very little in the way of technical specifications.  I haven't bought one yet.  I would like to determine the feasibility of mounting an mSATA/USB converter card on the rail with a short USB cable to be plugged into the HUB USB.  An example (not an endorsement) of such a product can be found here: https://www.startech.com/HDD/Adapters/usb-msata-converter-raspberry-pi~PIB2MS1

     

    See https://support.pi-top.com/en/support/discussions/topics/24000005396  Some pi-top forum customers say the HUB USB as a host connector for a USB disk works; some folks have said that their were USB pin-out issues.

     

    Looking forward to your next video.

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