The Plan and Designing...

At the early designing stage I made cut-outs of individual components on a chart paper to figure out how they should be placed inside the body (chassis) of the laptop. here is the best possible design I came up with. The components are strategically placed to allow the minimum space consumption.

Note: I couldn't find a HDMI cable shorter than 1 meter, so i had to end up with coiling up the cable between the Display Driver and the raspberry Pi. I tried making a cable myself by soldering the male to male connectors but with no success.

Making The Base !

To begin with.. we will start the build by making the base of the laptop. This is the part where all the components will be screwed (or glued in some case). To make the base

1) Mark the locations of the components

2) mark the Drill Points (PCB)

3) Outline the border of the base while leaving a small space from each side so that everything remains spacious.

4) Now making sure every looks good as expected, cut the base using a jigsaw.

5) File the rough edges. Just to make them softer.

Take your time and cut it as clean as possible because this will affect the final result.

Note Be careful to get the corners at 90 degree angle. We want them to be as precise as possible.Using a laser cutter gives the best quality but I don't have one so I used the jigsaw .

Build the top of the laptop!

After we have build a base, time to make the top section from where the Keyboard will be mounted. I have designed the plans for the cutting. Use them to ease the work.

1) Use the base as the template and cut another piece of rectangle MDF.

2) Take the dimensions of the keyboard and mark it on the top.

3) Mark the Small opening for ventilation and for access to the Raspberry Pi.(This allows us to swap SD cards easily and also access the GPIO pins on the pi for future projects)

4) Also mark the display control button size below the ventilation port.

5) Now using the jigsaw cut the Openings and also using the drill drill out the button holes(for Display control).

6) File the MDF sheet to get a soft finish.

7) I also gave the sharp edges an angle with a grinding bit to get a better look.

CAUTION : Be careful while using the jigsaw. Cut to appropriate measurements because there's no going back at this stage!.

"Prepare and prevent, don't repair and repent."

Make the Tilt Display

A beautiful flower is incomplete without its leaves .... similarly Laptop is incomplete without a tilting or folding Screen. This step explains the Cutting plans for the tilt style display and the special Hinge used.

1) Using the base (we made in step 4) as the template cut 2 pieces of MDF.

2) mark a "rectangle" according to the size of the screen. This acts as the screen holder.

3) Using a Jigsaw cut along the trace.

4) As usual file the edges and give it the smooth look.

ABOUT the special hinge: For making a Folding Style screen we need a HINGE of the type shown in the Pictures. These hinges are type friction hinges specially made for the purpose. I got it from a old Portable Dvd player. This suits perfectly for the job. You can find the details at the link provided in the bill of materials.

NOTE Its important that you get a perfect size friction hinge for the laptop's tilt display because too small sized hinge will be unstable and bigger size will look awkward. Use the Screw and nut (transistor fitting kit) mechanism to attach the hinge to the cutting. Also be very precise while filing the parts, excess filing will let the display loose and fall out. "Every millimeter counts here!"

Curve the edges

Curve edges over cornered ones are a characteristic feature of a well designed laptop. For curving the edges, I used a compass and marked some "arcs". Then using the file, filing the excess wood gave the curved the edges.

Making the Border wall Frame : (The Outline

We have built the base and the top of the laptop. The "Border wall frame" is the frame that sits between the top layer (keyboard one) and bottom (base) and acts as the "gap filler" and the Frame of the laptop.

I have used 10 mm thick veneer wood to make the border of the laptop. I hoped a smoother finish with this so i went with it. It actually met the expectations.!

For making the frame / border of the "PI BERRY"

1) Using the base of laptop as the template cut the Appropriate length of veneer wood.

2) Trace same arcs on the corners as we did in the last step.

3) Using the file and sandpaper curve up the edges.

Take a look at the plan of placement and the outline Plan given in the pictures. We have to cut 2 slots (one for raspberry pi and charging slot).

NOTE : Its Important to check that the wooden stick is flawless. Flawless means that the two opposite edges are exactly "parallel" and also the stick is perfectly straight. If there even a small bend this will dramatically affect the final quality of the project.

Audio Port(Self explanatory)

Put the Base and Frame together

To make a basic chassis to work with, Put together the frame we built (Veneer wood) and the base of the laptop.

1) Mark locations of the charging port and the raspberry pi on the base.

2) Using dabs of hot glue secure the frame on the base.

3) Drilling some pilot holes hammer some thin nails to secure the frame to the base.

4) Drill the holes in the base MDF for screwing the Display driver and the raspberry pi 2. This is important because we wont be able to do it later (after the leather working in the next step)

NOTE Check whether the Raspberry pi and charging port fits in the slots we left in the frame.We are using the small screws found in transistor fitting kits to fit the PCB's to the base.

Some leatherworking....

To add a elegant look to the PI-Berry I chose to add it a touch of leather-work. I used some Italian Leather for the purpose. The Display was covered with white and the bottom rest with black. (Just a personal favorite combination!)

1) Cut the leather pieces according to the measurements of the different pieces we made in earlier steps.

2) Use your leather-working skills and glue the pieces of leather to the body of the laptop.

I used rubber based adhesive to glue the pieces to the body. That's the best glue for the purpose in my experience!

depends on this step.

Assemble the Top

After we have covered the parts in Italian Leather we need to start putting everything together. To start with we assemble the top part, where the keyboard is fitted.

1) Using some 2.5mm MDF pieces, make the keyboard holder. the small pieces of MDF will prevent the Keyboard from sinking into the body.

2) Using small amount of glue to just hold the keyboard in place(Preventing it from prying up)

3) Cut a small opening near the top left (see the plan and pics) for the display connector wire to pass through.

4) Pass the display wires.. carefully not to break them while doing this.

5) Also hot glue the display controller PCB.

while working with them so be careful while handling them.