The secret of the sleep mechanism.

I have been looking around the web for how the sleep mechanism works on the macbook. I believed for a long time that it was hidden in the screen frame somewhere - but i was wrong.
The whole magic happens in the battery connector inside the mac. It has something that is called a reed-switch that reacts to magnetism.

enigma-penguin over at neowin-forum made this nifty jack with a magnet he put in to make his go to sleep.

This made be believe i could make a switch that i could mount in the frame. I made a spring loaded magnetic switch from aluminum (that is not magnetic) and some leftovers from the macbook. I will have to replace the knob on it with something a bit more cosmetic when I'm done, but for now it works perfect.

This is how it looks... dissembled.

This is how it looks... assembled.

This is where it will be mounted.

Just ordered the final bits

I just ordered the resistive touch-panel and the battery. I think them both will arrive in a couple of weeks, so i will continue the build when they arrive. With the panel i can estimate and have some accurate measures on the thickness of the device, and if i can sand off a couple of mm on the frame. 
When i get the hardware working I will order the carbon fiber and skin the case. 

I added the Bluetooth module and some support for the upper corners of the LCD screen. The bottom corners and the rest of the sides seems to be will be supported by the logic-board, batteries and harddrive. I will have to add some sort of insulation between the cpu cooler and lcd. Maybe the harddrive aswell. I guess I will know how it works out when i get all the pieces together.


The things left to do now are:
- Drill holes for the cpu-fan and the speakers.
- Get hold of a powerbutton and figure out the internal keyboard USB/power on. Will put the powerbutton to the left, on the top or at the back.
- Attach the bluetooth-module and antenna.
- Extend the backlight cable for the LCD and the Powercable for the battery.
- Purchase touch panel and battery(build my own?) (when i finish my exams)
- Spraypaint the case on the inside and skin it with carbon fiber.

Progress on my build

When i decided where i wanted to put the inverter board i realized that it would block the passage of one of the screws for the bezel. I ended up filing the groove on the picture deeper as there were no leads in the circuit board in that area.

The inverter board blocking the attachment of the bezel

I also took the HDD bay from the bacbook and glued it to the back of the case. Now the HDD is firmly secured and i have the possibility to change it later (maybe a SSD?). Because the IR and power LED is attached to the end of the SATA cable - i decided to turn the harddrive 180 degrees so that i could fit both in the bezel, just left to the isight. I probably wont use the IR module, but the led will make an nice touch to the build.

Harddrive attached.

So - out of pure luck, the short cable of the module and the position of the harddrive and LCD positioned perfect. All i did was glue the module to the frame of the LCD. I will make two small holes in the bezel after i skin it with the carbon fiber and make small plexiglass pieces to fit.

IR-module and power LED glued to the LCD frame

The small IR-module next to the isight

I have been looking into building my own battery. I have found some battery cells that are 5000mah and 3.6V. I could easily fit three of them in the case and end up with a 1,5ah battery (three times the stock macbook battery), but i need to figure out how the internal charger/chip/controller thingy of the macbook battery works. If anyone have details about the schematics for the battery connector or the internals of the battery itself - please let me know in the comments.


The things left to do are:
- Drill holes for the cpu-fan and the speakers.
- Get hold of a powerbutton and figure out the internal keyboard USB/power on.
- Attach the bluetooth-module and antenna.
- Extend the backlight cable for the LCD and the Powercable for the battery.
- Purchase touch panel and battery(build my own?) (when i finish my exams)
- Spraypaint the case on the inside and skin it with carbon fiber.

The Macbook Tablet

Oh noes...

So, here it goes. 

The macbook I have had for a while recently had to retire. The chassis were cracking all over, the battery was dead together with several other flaws. It was just collecting dust, until recently.

I decided to revive the whole thing as a tablet.I decided to make this blog way out in the project, so there will be little pictures from the beginning.

I had no idea about how to do it, but i had to start looking at my options - so i pulled the thing apart as so many times before - just this time not a single piece was left attached to anything.

It is an 2006 version of the macbook (i think) with 2ghz and im not sure how much RAM i will put in it. Everything else is pretty standard.

I ended up with using the lid as the basis of my build, as it has the iconic apple in the back. I also wanted to keep the in/outputs so i had to transfer that part from the bottom case.

Figuring out where to put the logic board 

As the lid was to thin, i had to add a rim around the new "case" that was about 1cm. I just used some MDF plate from an IKEA frame.


I cut out all the ports from the bottom case, and managed to fit it to the lid. I also added the part for the magnetic connector for the charger, but i had to move it a bit because of logistics.

Added the extra rim, and ports.

It was very convenient that the screen has this frame its attached to that has holes that correspond to the lid.
Basically what i ended up with was putting the logic board, battery, HDD and all the other stuff under the lcd screen and attach it with some new 20mm screws.
I will have to put some kind of cushion for the screen, but that will come later.


The cpu cooler will also need a 3-4cm diameter hole in the lid to be able to suck some air to the soon to be very hot environment. The air will be pushed out on the left side on the last picture.
Because my battery went dead, I will have to buy a new one, but they are pretty cheap straight out of China. It has to be stripped from its case and the cells will be glued to the lid on the inside.

So the HDD wil be attached just above the apple, and the battery under and up along the right side.
This picture also shows the position of the speakers.


The bezel which was originally attached by some plastic clips will now have to be mounted with screws. It has to support the whole frame when i will be carrying it.
I picked some of the matching holes for the LCD frame and drilled holes in the bezel aswell. The LCD frame will be supported partly by internal screws and partly by screws penetrating the whole way from the outside bezel.

All assembled

This brings me pretty much up to where i am today.
The whole frame is now done, all components have designated spots and the whole thing feels pretty solid all assembled.


But, it still looks like crap. I cannot be carrying a part plastic, part MDF tabled superglued together. I would give it a couple of weeks and then i would be back to a non working broken useless Macbook.

All assembled - rear

Since i have pulled apart and really puzzled together pieces like it was lego I need to reinforce the whole frame and add some beauty.


This is where the carbon fiber skinning kit comes into play.
This is a "do-it-yourself" kit that - assuming me be a bit skillful -will turn my macbook tablet into one sturdy piece of hardware with an awesome finish.


It will be challenge to make the finish perfect around all the small holes and corners, but i love challenges. I have been thinking about the apple, and i think i will have to file the edges down about one millimeter all around and pray that it will fit afterwards.


As for the touchscreen i will put in a 4 wire resistive touchscreen. And before anyone starts whining about resistive being crap and capacitative being awesone - there is a simple answer - its impossible to get hold of a single affordable  13.3" capacitative touch panel.
The resistive panel is only 50$ off ebay and can be easily changed if its needed.


Thats all for now...