Modernising a Psion 5 - n00b style

Finally found some time to check out the donor devices I bought. Decided that I will be using the one that is having problems with the screen to be the designated mule for the project.

Pretty ain't she?

So i broke out the screwdriver and went to town to break it down (hey that rhymes). Thanks to the many teardown guides online, it wasn't that hard to figure out what steps to take to disassemble the Psion 5.

After taking it apart, it was time to see what I can fit into the body and to figure out what would and should go where. I have a Pi 2 on hand as a guide as I am not sure at this point of time what to use as the brain of the project.

As you can see the Pi 2 takes a bit of space in the chassis of the Psion 5. I also took some measurements and got the following:

• Total X Axis - max 145mm
• Total Y Axis - max 60mm
• Total Z Axis - max 7mm

I do plan to take out the Ethernet and USB ports from whatever board i will be getting to save some height, but as it is, I may just go with the Raspberry Pi Zero so that I have more space to work with, or try to fit in a Raspberry Pi 3 to get better performance.

I am also thinking of just reprinting the bottom half of the case in a 3D Printer so I have more space to work with - I don't really need the doors to the backup battery and CF card to be in the way, and I can claim more space at the same time.

Time to have a chat with someone with a 3D printer.

As a bonus, have a knolled image of the parts and screws for the Psion 5.

The donor Psion 5 are here. Managed to get two of them at only GBP50.

One of the units suffer the dreaded ribbon problem, and is most likely going to be the device that will get the electronic makeover for the project.

As the other is fully functional, I will be having it as my work unit, so I can see how nice it is to have as a daily driver for word processing on the go.

As i have the units in hand, I can now plan and decide what will go where in the build. Plans may evolve along the way, but hopefully everything can go as smooth as silk. I hope.