UK Engineers 3D Print Their Own Raspberry Pi Laptop

Is there anything a robotic system for the extrusion of plastic in to solid forms over time can’t do? We present to you today the Pi-Top, a Raspberry Pi-based laptop that is completely 3D-printed and lasts hours on a single charge. The kit, which will launch as a Kickstarter soon, offers a 13.3-inch screen and a little keyboard and trackpad combo for data entry. Viola! A little open source computer for you and yours.

The project is the brainchild of a group of UK-based designers. They built the system using PLA filament, and it took over 160 hours to print. While the hope is to offer models for folks to download and print, the real goal is to create a kit for students and tinkerers who can then put it all together and run a little Rasbian on their very own laptop.

The plan is to release and injection-molded version of this to Kickstarter backers and let tinkerers try their hand at building the thing themselves. The hardest part, said the creators, was getting the support structure right so it could survive the beating and pressure a normal laptop would experience under your sweaty, sweaty palms.