Make an Ipad Yourself

DIY 13.4" Carbon Fiber Touchscreen Tablet PC

One of the main reasons for building this tablet was that I wanted a touchscreen that could play and stream HD content in an HD resolution. The 13.4" screen has a resolution of 1366 x 768 and is able to playback 720p content and stream most 720p Flash content. Almost all netbooks and the iPad have screen resolutions less than 720p (1280 x 720) so they cannot truly playback HD video in an HD resolution.

I chose the Atom Z530 with the GMA 500 because of its very low power usage and ability to play HD content if tuned properly. With the correct drivers and applications this chipset can handle HD and Flash. You do not need a power hungry Nvidia Ion to be able to enjoy video on a tablet or netbook.

Click to visit Youtube video Carbon Tablet Demo

Stat of the tablet PC

- Windows 7
- Intel Atom Z530 Processor (1.6GHz) - GMA 500
- 2GB Ram
- 40GB SSD Hard Drive
- 13.4" HD Widescreen LED LCD (1366 x 768)
- Resistive Touch Screen
- Wireless 802.11 g/b/n
- Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
- Ports: 2 USB, Headphone Jack, Mic Input, Power
- Carbon Fiber Casing
- Accelerometer
- Built-In Speakers
- Dimensions 14.125" x 8.875" x .75"
- Weight 3.2lbs

Parts List

Many of you want to know about the parts I used to build this. Here they are with prices (not including shipping). The total build price is $652. This doesn't include the new battery pack I am building which cost about $65 and should double the battery life.

1. Motherboard and screen from MSI X320 - $333

2. Resistive Touch Screen - $65

3. Intel 40GB SSD - $99

4. 4 Port USB Hub - $3.99

5. Accelerometer (ActionXL Wired Controller) - $20

6. USB Wireless Adapter - $30

7. USB Bluetooth Adapter - $5.99

8. Carbon Fiber Kit - $89

How to put them together:

1) Guide - I am not going to make a step by step guide on how to make something like this. That would take way too long to do because this was a very involved and time consuming project. But I am happy to answer specific questions you have.

2) Pictures - Yes, I will take pictures of the inside so you can see how it all came together. I think that alone will answer most of the questions about how I built this.

3) USB WiFi/Bluetooth - I had to use USB WiFi and Bluetooth adapters because the native adapters are meant to be used with a keyboard. For those of you with a laptop you probably know that there is a hotkey (Fn button plus one of the F buttons) or physical button to turn WiFi/Bluetooth on and off. So when you ditch the keyboard or your case you lose the ability to turn WiFi/Bluetooth on and off. That means that if for some reason your WiFi gets turned off, like if you reinstall Windows, then it is stuck off. Using USB WiFi/Bluetooth allowed my to bypass this issue as I can now turn them on and off without a keyboard. And no, the virtual keyboard cannot be used for the hotkey.

4) Webcam - There is no webcam because I did not have a use for one. In retrospect it would have been relatively easy to put one in, I just never thought about it since I would have no use for it.

5) 15" Touch Screen - I used a 15" touch screen (even though the LCD is 13.4") because it was the only screen I could find that was truly 16:9 and was at least 13.4" in diameter. Most of the widescreen touch screens are 16:10, not 16:9. It does not hurt to have the touch screen larger than the LCD.

6) Mutli-Touch (Capacitive vs Resistive) - I searched for well over a month for a capacitive (multi-touch) screen that was 16:9 and was at least 13.4" in diameter and was not able to find one. That is the only reason that I used a resistive screen. The capacitive screens are more expensive, but I probably would have paid the extra money. That being said, resistive does have the benefit of being able to use a stylus where you usually can't do that with capacitive. Also, with Windows 7 you wouldn't have been able to tell much of a difference with multi-touch as it's uses are very limited. They still need to work on making Windows fully touch capable like a phone OS.

7) Power Button - On the back of the case there is a recessed Macbook Pro power button used to turn it on/off and put it to sleep. At the end of the YouTube video you should be able to see it.

Source of the article