After completing a DIY Raspberry Pi Zero 2W Laptop PC earlier this year, Penk Chen designed another rather strange but cool DIY computer. The “Mainboard Terminal” is a retro-style computer with a round screen powered by the motherboard found in the Framework Modular Laptop.
The computer has been tested to work with Ubuntu 22.04 out of the box with only a few configuration tweaks for the display, but other operating systems should also work given that the motherboard is Intel based. Core i5-1135G7, i7-1165G7 or i7 -Tiger Lake 1185G7 processor.
There are four main off-the-shelf electronic components:
Most of the work was therefore designing the enclosure, and Penk has posted the STL design files on Github under an MIT license for the motherboard terminal.
Since the display has an unusual resolution of 1080×1080, it must be configured with xrand:
xrandr –newmode “1080x1080R” 82.50 1080 1128 1160 1240 1080 1083 1093 1111 +hsync -vsync xrandr –addmode DP-1 “1080x1080R” xrandr –output DP-1 –mode “1080x1080R”
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xrand —newmode “1080x1080R” 82.50 1080 1128 1160 1240 1080 1083 1093 1111 +hsync –vsync xrand —add mode DP–1 “1080x1080R” xrand —production DP–1 —fashion “1080x1080R” |
He also installed cool-retro-term terminal emulator that mimics the old CRT and changed the curvature of the screen for aesthetic reasons by modifying the following line in app/qml/ApplicationSettings.qml:
property readonly real screenCurvatureSize: 2.0
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read only goods real screenCurvatureSize: 2.0 |
All 3D printed parts are held together by 5 x 2mm magnets, but Penk suggests that some people may want to modify the design to add holes for screws and/or cutouts for USB 4.0 ports. A computer with a round screen will have limited use cases, but you have to admit it looks pretty neat.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 on a part-time basis, before stepping down as director of software engineering and starting writing daily news and reviews full-time later in 2011.
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