mtadkins

Adding a touchscreen to my lil’ laptop. So far, so good. Managed to disassemble without cracking anything, which is better than usual.

[update] Well, I received a couple of questions, so here’s a bit more info on this admittedly awesome project:

A few months ago I picked up a second-hand (Ebay) netbook, a Lenovo Ideapad S10. I primarily use it as it was intended…mainly for surfing the web, email, etc. One nice bonus, however, is that it is a fantastic way to read comics – succeeding where my Sony E-Reader fails. Manga and some other mostly black & white comics looked “ok” on the e-reader (I have a PRS-500 model), but the Lenovo is about the same size & weight as a hardcover book and color comics look fantastic (I know, not a color shot, but you get the idea). Now, where you get the digital version of them and whether you should is a guilt-trip for another day.

Anyway, as you might imagine it’s a hassle to use windows & the touchpad when you’re holding your laptop sideways. There are some programs you can download to ‘rotate’ the touchpad input and minimize the mental gyrations needed, but what caught my eye was this “Add a touchscreen to your netbook” hack.

I ordered the kit from FidoHub & have dismantled & then re-assembled the netbook. I ran into a snag installing the controller for the touchscreen ( I need some longer wires) — , but installed the screen itself with no problem and hope to have it up and running in a couple of days. Stay tuned…

[FidoHub, I might add, are fantastic. I ordered it on a Saturday evening & had it in my hands by Tuesday. Whoooo! Then, when I realized with despair that I had somehow ordered the kit for the MSI Wind instead of my Lenovo one — don’t ask, I don’t know how — Jeff from FidoHub quickly responded to my email & offered to swap out the controller board & cables, which are now en route. Boom. All of that…from Thailand…while a typhoon was smashing them. THAT is customer service.]