Homeboard P0: Stonebaked Margherita

Post by Nico Brailovsky @ 2024-07-14 | Permalink | Leave a comment

Homeboard P0 has been built!!1

After figuring out how to run my own LCD panel, it was just a question of buying the right cables. I wanted to build a homeboard, and I thought I'd spend a ton of time writing cool software. Turns out 90% of the project is a game of "did I buy the right cable". Eventually I did end up with enough cables to build this monstrosity:

You are admiring a:

(Full list of materials further down, so you don't need to hunt all of these)

Here the glorious moment everything is connected together, and actually boots an OS:

Of course at this point I realized the weak point of my design is on the mechanical linkage between the different boards. To tame this quite literally unwieldy hodgepodge of cables, I ate a pizza:

Using the cardboard box of a pizza, some ducktape and a few M2 screws, I built a beautiful hack mount for all my boards, which let me move the assembly around for tests. This was enough for quick power checks, but pizza box cardboard isn't a very durable material. I upgraded to a full frame:

This is an Ikea picture frame, with an LCD screen tapped to the front and a hole in the back for the eDP connector. Everything mounted together:

And the glorious, glorious first boot of the Stonebaked Margherita Homeboard P0:

Of course at this stage the only thing the Houseboard P0 does is boot. An achievement, but not too useful. Next up, I'll make it do something. Possibly crash.

BoM

Optionals:

Useful references