Last week, EDN published an article about children’s learning in electronics, pointing out that electronic programming has become one of the favorite courses for children nowadays. Additionally, the “Raspberry Pi” is becoming increasingly popular worldwide, with some parents even starting to let their children learn product development using Raspberry Pi.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, comes with optional electronic modules and tutorials, can be used for development, and can also serve as a regular laptop with pre-installed applications for watching TV, etc.EDN found that foreign media had disassembled it, and we will share this disassembly article with everyone:Let’s first take a look at the laptop’s packaging.
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 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, while another USB port is hidden as it is used internally, which we will see in the disassembly section.
The other side features the GPIO connector, a 3.5mm AV jack, HDMI output, and a USB Type-C port for power supply.
That is the laptop connecting to the Grove shield using the provided ribbon cable.
The wireless mouse does not use Bluetooth but comes with its own 2.4GHz RF dongle, which requires AA batteries for power.
The kit includes LEDs, various sensors, servos, micro motors, remote controls, battery boxes, LCD displays, etc.
CrowPi L Laptop Disassembly
Now let’s proceed with the disassembly, 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 top right.
Its heat sink is placed on top of the Raspberry Pi 4.
There are three microSD slots in the laptop. One is on the motherboard called “expansion storage”, and the other two are on the microSD card expansion, with an A/B switch allowing people 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 disassembly. We need a 6-point star (Torx) screwdriver to remove the screws from the battery cover.
We find a replaceable 5,000 mAh, 18.5 Wh battery. The next step is to remove the battery, then loosen a few screws, and cut off the plastic cover. This step leaves some marks/minor damage on the cover, but I can get a full view of the motherboard and the two speakers.
The larger chip on the motherboard 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 other functions like the touchpad.
References: CrowPi L Raspberry Pi 4 laptop review – Part 1: Unboxing and teardown.END♥Click 👇 the business card, follow me♥Previous Recommendations1. Another misstep! More than 1,000 sets of boards need to be reworked in bulk, and it’s all tears!2. The Bluetooth chip with a working 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?
