Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

rwilliams · Posted: Sat 21 Jan 2006, 23:53 Post subject: Puppy in a keyboard

The mini-itx motherboards at 17cm by 17cm are small enough to fit in a standard keyboard if the bottom half of the keyboard case is replaced with a slightly deeper clamshell that has openings for connectors and will accomodate either a thin HD and cd-rw drive or standard size drives.

for the motherboard I picked as likely candidates the VIA EPIA ML5000EA with 533mhz cpu or the ML6000EA with 600mhz cpu. Both are fanless and full featured including USB-2, onboard VGA, audio and LAN. These boards are available at outlets such as Provantage.com and Idotpc.com.

Configured with 256mb DDR 266, and power supply the cost is around $222. Of course a new HD and/or CD drive would add to that cost, but with Puppy 2, I would think a CD-RW and/or HD would be entirely optional.

I have not ordered the parts yet or torn apart one of my keyboards, but the idea has lots of apeal for me. Does anyone know of any serious drawbacks to this approach?

dvw86 · Joined: 04 May 2005 Posts: 636 Location: Washington State

I almost bought one of these.
http://www.cybernetman.com/default.cfm?DocId=9000

Lobster · Posted: Sun 22 Jan 2006, 03:40 Post subject:

That is a great plan

I would also like a Puppy in a USB mouse?

rwilliams · Posted: Sun 22 Jan 2006, 04:16 Post subject: puppy in a mouse?

To Lobster --- take a look at gumstix.com.

Sage · Joined: 04 Oct 2005 Posts: 4848 Location: GB

Back to the future!
Alan Sugar had his entire CPC464. 664 and 6128 machines located inside the k/b back in 1980, two years before the IBM monster appeared. That included the tape deck/FDD. Other British designs had similar arrangements.
But he went further - since the monitor contained a PSU, he used an extra cable from that to drive the computer. He may have been concerned with profit, but the system is still more conservative than any current designs.
All a question of mindset? Would you buy a Prius or a Hummer!