Raspberry pi 4 Laptop / SBC Mobile Workstation

Lots more photos

https://youtu.be/aoa6KEVt-g8

• Goals:
• Build a dirt cheap raspberry pi 4 laptop or really just a mobile workstation for any sort of single board computer (SBC).
• No permanent modification to any of the parts so it can be easily disassembled and used for other purposes or projects.
• Completely battery powered.
• Large screen.
• Use as many parts as I could that I already had lying around.
• Parts:
• Raspberry pi 4 - 4gb.  I would probably spring for an 8gb if you have the budget.  $60. https://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Model-2019-Quad-Bluetooth/dp/B07TC2BK1X
• Raspberry pi 4 case with fan. $16: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TTMQ4PH
• Monitor 15.6" 1080p IPS with stereo speakers.  USB-C powered.  $110 when bought. First one broke in the first hour.  Replacement seems good.  I stress tested it for 13 hours.  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VFF4TZG
• Plastic art supplies box: $12.  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000PD4I3C
• 26800mah battery with usb-c pd.  I ran it for 2hrs+  and the battery still showed full bars.  I haven't fully tested but I'm guessing you would get MANY hours of use with this battery. $40.  https://www.amazon.com/Portable-RAVPower-26800mAh-Double-Speed-Recharging/dp/B07793KSV4
• 700 pairs of adhesive velcro dots.  These are handy for many different projects. $11.  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075V2BYM2/
• elastic cord: $9. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07V1MPSDZ
• M.2 sata enclosure for the 128GB ssd (you can get one for around $20) I pulled from an HP laptop.  $14. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MKCG5ZG/
• If you prefer to use a 2.5" hard drive this usb to sata cable works great. $8: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0716JKJ68
• Logitech K400 Plus keyboard: $25. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014EUQOGK/
• Cables: micro hdmi to mini hdmi.  usbc to usbc to power the rpi.  usb-a to usb-c to power the monitor.
• Rotary cutting tool:  I already had a Dremel but it was battery powered and the battery was old.  I wanted to upgrade to a wired one. This one worked pretty well and the metal cutting disc for wood/plastic worked great on the art box. $34.  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FSBY9GV/
• Optional drill: make more holes for venting!
• Twister OS is really neat and you can easily swap the skin to look like windows 10 or mac os: https://twisteros.com/
• Details:
• It took forever to find a box the right size.  It is 14X9X2 which pretty much fits everything perfectly.
• I had already owned everything else on the parts list before starting this project except for the plastic box, monitor, and the dremel.  I wanted a new dremel and monitor anyways.  So I'd say I dedicated $12 specifically to this project.  The monitor makes a nice secondary monitor for a regular laptop or a bigger screen for Nintendo Switch.
• It weighs about 5.5 lbs total.  
• I wanted a large 15.6 screen.  Portability was secondary.  I'm getting old and small screens are much harder on the eyes for me.
• My dremel skills are horrible, and the cuts are really rough.  I didn't really care about looks that much.
• I cut the corners off the velcro dots so they fit better on the corners of the lid.
• Make sure you put the soft side of the dots on the monitor cover (both the side to attach to the box and the inside for the keyboard)
• You can open the box with the monitor still attached.  Just be careful it doesn't flop backwards hard.
• I used elastic cord to keep everything together when moving it around.  You could just as easily add some more velcro dots instead.
• Cutout on the left for easy access to ethernet and usb ports.  Cutout on the right to get to the battery so I can unplug the monitor and rpi 4 to save battery.  I had a little usb-c power switch dongle that worked great with an ac adapter but doesn't seem to work with this battery.  So I just unplug everything from the battery on the right side when not in use.  I can also easily charge the battery through the cutout.
• I have 2 dividers attached together with duct tape and cut down half height.  I use it to separate the rpi 4 and the battery so I can plug cables into the battery without pushing it into the case.  It's half height so cables can still be laid on top.
• I routed the cables out and back in the back side of the case for micro hdmi and usb-c power to the rpi 4 to prevent bending the cable so much.
• Temps stay under 60c under load.
• Lots of room for improvements.  I need to find a better way to stabilize the monitor cover hinge.  Still, it works pretty well on your lap for the most part.
• Typing is a little cumbersome mostly because of how thick it is.
• Totally NOT worth building from scratch.  You can easily get a real laptop that is a lot more portable and usable for the money.