Is the Chinese Made CrowPi L Raspberry Pi Laptop Worth $279?
Last week, EDN published an article about children’s learning in electronics, stating that electronic programming has become one of the favorite courses for kids today. Additionally, the “Raspberry Pi” is increasingly popular worldwide, with some parents even encouraging their children to use Raspberry Pi to learn product development.China’s CrowPi has sensed the opportunity and has developed the CrowPi L, a laptop based on the “Raspberry Pi”. It looks similar to a regular laptop but is actually a kit based on the Raspberry Pi 4B development board.This laptop is designed specifically for STEM education, featuring optional electronic modules and tutorials. It can be used for development or simply as a laptop, and comes pre-installed with applications for watching TV and more.EDN discovered that foreign media have conducted a teardown of it, and we will share this teardown article with you:Let’s first look at the packaging of the laptop.
The accessories include a wireless mouse, a 12V/2A power supply (with a USB Type-C plug… I must say, this should be non-compliant, as it could burn out hardware that only requires 5V), a Grove shield with a ribbon cable for connecting to the Raspberry Pi 40-pin GPIO header, and a simple user manual that is very useful for installing your own Raspberry Pi.
The QWERTY keyboard layout comes with a touchpad that has two mouse buttons and a description of the GPIO pins, which should be convenient when using Grove modules. There is also a power button and an LED.
One side has a gigabit Ethernet port, two USB 3.0 ports, and a USB 2.0 port from the Raspberry Pi 4 SBC. Another USB port is hidden as it is used internally, which we will see in the teardown section.
The other side has a GPIO connector, a 3.5mm AV jack, HDMI output, and a USB Type-C port for power.
That is the laptop connecting to the Grove shield using the provided ribbon cable.
The wireless mouse does not use Bluetooth; instead, it comes with its own 2.4GHz RF dongle, and you need to add AA batteries for power.
The kit includes LEDs, various sensors, servos, micro motors, a remote control, a battery pack, LCD display, etc.
CrowPi L Laptop Teardown
Now let’s proceed with the teardown, which will also provide a “reverse” assembly guide for those who only purchase the laptop shell and install their own Raspberry Pi 4. These users do not need any screwdrivers.
The first step is to remove the cover from the upper right.
The heat sink is placed on top of the Raspberry Pi 4.
There are three microSD slots in the laptop. One on the mainboard is called “expansion storage”, and the other two are on the microSD card expansion with an A/B switch that allows users to boot the laptop into another operating system, such as RetroPie.
The reverse installation guide ends here, and we will now proceed to the actual teardown. We need a Torx screwdriver to remove the screws on the battery cover.
We find a replaceable 5,000 mAh, 18.5 Wh battery. The next step is to remove the battery, then loosen several screws, and cut off the plastic cover. This step leaves some marks/slight damage on the cover, but allows me to fully view the mainboard and two speakers.
The larger chip on the mainboard is the Realtek RTD2556 display controller, which converts the HDMI signal into the “LCD” signal for the 11.6-inch display. The Sigma Micro SG8F7581 8-bit 8051 microcontroller with a frequency of 48 MHz handles the keyboard.
If we look at the other side, there is a GL850G USB 2.0 hub controller, which should help control the “expansion storage” microSD card through another chip, possibly with additional functions like the touchpad.
References: CrowPi L Raspberry Pi 4 laptop review – Part 1: Unboxing and teardown.END♥Click 👇 the business card to follow me♥Previous Recommendations1. Another disaster! More than 1,000 sets of boards need to be reworked in bulk; it’s all tears!2. The Bluetooth chip with a circuit so simple it’s shocking; let’s take a look together.3. A Polish netizen tests and disassembles a Chinese-made flashlight/portable lamp; will it trigger customer complaints?
