While taking apart an old laptop I started thinking about all the parts of a laptop that can’t be reused very easily. I’m talking about parts like keyboard, trackpad, speakers, screen etc.
To repurpose them, you have to source certain controller boards, often have to solder, and if you want some kind of casing, you’ll probably have to design and build it yourself. Certainly possible, but not very easy to do, especially for beginners.
I think a project about enclosures for certain parts to reuse as desktop peripherals via USB or Bluetooth could be very interesting and certainly in the spirit of the FrameWork Laptop. I’m thinking maybe How-To-Guides, DIY Kits, 3D-Print-Templates and more.
So the keyboard and touch pad can be made into a wireless set to control your home cinema set from the couch. The speakers can be mounted in a box with some acoustic treatment to sound better. Can maybe function as little external speakers for your smartphone. The webcam can be turned into some IP camera for securing your home. The battery becomes a USB power bank. The screen becomes just another external screen, maybe with a Raspberry Pi in the kitchen or so. The motherboard of course becomes a remotely managed virtualization server in the attic.
That leaves us with the casing. You can melt this aluminium into figures for your favorite board game.
I went looking for USB to m.2 E-key adapters to bring old wireless cards to a new purpose. Would love to be able to ditch one of the wireless APs in my house, and replace it with a raspberry pi + powered USB hub + wireless cards acting as the AP for that end of the house instead.
Didn’t actually find such an adapter though. Darn.