User:Alejandro Mery/Lapdock

Motorola's lapdock was a great idea, but it was conceived as a device-specific accessory, sold for around $250 and soon phased out. now this hard to find "accessory" is used to turn hdmi sticks and dev boards like the raspberry-pi and cubieboard into a "laptop". beside availability the major problem is the micro-male connectors which aren't only fragile but complicate to connect using inexpensive standard cables and your device ends up levitating over a tangle of cables and adapters. An as it assumes a phone is connected it kills the power of your toy when closing the lid.

ARM devices get faster, smaller and sexier by the day, and also cheaper and cheaper, and this reflects directly in sexy develoment boards and good dirt-cheap hdmi dongles, a market that is now so mainstream that even DELL announced one.

There is need (niche market, geeks) of a better solution, a lapdock with full size female hdmi and usb connector, good construction and good screen. Sourcing components of existing good laptops.

Specifications
Inputs:
 * Full size female HDMI connector
 * Full size female Type A USB 2.0 slave connector capable of feeding the device with power when used connected to an OTG port (even with the lid closed), leading to a USB hub.
 * Flexible voltage DC input with common connector so it's easy to reuse inexpensive power supplies from other laptops.

From the HDMI input:
 * 11-13" screen of at least 1080p (1920x1080) resolution
 * usable outdoor (matte?)
 * dream: option of using a compatible higher resolution panel
 * stereo speakers
 * dream: amp/volume control
 * dream: 3.5" headphone possible?

From the internal USB hub:
 * Near full-size quality (not bending!) keyboard
 * dream: option to source different layouts
 * touchpad with mainline linux support
 * dream: two finger, middle button
 * touch screen
 * dream: uvc-compatible camera? mic? mic also available in the 3.5" connector?
 * dream: SD card reader
 * at least 2 Type A USB host ports, at least one capable of feeding 1A (or more) even with the lid closed.

From the DC input:
 * battery capable of feeding the attached device and screen for at least 6h
 * power the usb hub, the usb input port, and give ≥ 1A on at least one of the host ports.
 * battery indicator

For hackers:
 * easy to open up
 * pins to reprogram the EC
 * dream: EC reachable over USB
 * dream: schematics
 * dream²: OSHW

PCB

 * RTD2482D LCD/HDMI controller

13.3" Lapdock

 * 13.3" 1920x1080 IPS N133HSE-EA1 panel

10" Tabdock

 * 10" 1280x800 panel