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What you need

This teardown is not a repair guide. To repair your Pi-top, use our service manual.

  1. Pi-top Teardown, Pi-top Teardown: step 1, image 1 of 2 Pi-top Teardown, Pi-top Teardown: step 1, image 2 of 2
    • The Pi-top is unpacked and ready to use assemble! When we're done the pi-top tries to seduce us with the following specs:

    • HD 13.3” anti-glare screen with 1920 x 1080 resolution and 256k colors (165.63 ppi)

    • Raspberry Pi 3 with 1.2GHz Quadcore ARM Cortex A53P

    • Two–wire smbus v2.0 interface

    • Programmable keyboard & trackpad with palmcheck

    • Modular rail for add-ons

    • Battery for up to 12hrs of usage

  2. Pi-top Teardown: step 2, image 1 of 2 Pi-top Teardown: step 2, image 2 of 2
    • The pi-top comes in a four layer box with foam separators to protect the valuable goods inside–which mostly consist of neon green plastic.

    • But before we assemble the pi-top we try to tear everything down we can find!

    • The teardown of the pi-top is more or less over after unpacking it. There are just a few more things we can stick our nose in and because this is iFixit, we will.

  3. Pi-top Teardown: step 3, image 1 of 3 Pi-top Teardown: step 3, image 2 of 3 Pi-top Teardown: step 3, image 3 of 3
    Tool used on this step:
    Mako Driver Kit - 64 Precision Bits
    $39.95
    Buy
    • Starting with the bottom end, there are eleven hex screws with ball heads which are holding down the metal plate on top of the battery block and the keyboard unit will snap on to.

    • With the help of our 64 Bit Driver Kit we get a glimpse on the battery pack which consist out of four separate batteries cuddling under a black adhesive strip.

    1. Start with familiarizing yourself with the safety aspects of handling Lithium Ion battery cells by studying the FAQ page of Honcell (http://www.honcell.com/faq/).

    2. Refrain from going further than Step 3 if you feel uncomfortable. Fire or an explosion are nearer than you might think.

    3. iFix is not responsible for any damage or injury. (see …).

    Ivo Van Ursel - Reply

  4. Pi-top Teardown: step 4, image 1 of 2 Pi-top Teardown: step 4, image 2 of 2
    • Finally one of the secret circuit boards of the pi-top! Sadly the most exciting thing to find is the easy to release pin connector. Nothing to find here for the adhesive and soldering police!

    • Responsible for the battery management is the Texas Instrumetns BQ40Z60 chip.

    • Texas Instruments MOSFETs

    • 12 A Fuse

    • Each of the four batteries claims an 10.73 Wh capacity. All together they shall guarantee you 12hrs of work without charging the pi-top, which is enough to fly from Hollywood to Barcelona.

    4. Do not disconnect the Smart Battery Module from the Cell Linker as re-uniting these two printed circuit boards easily results in a short-circuit.

    5. When your pi-top no longer starts-up on battery power, or stops immediately when you pull the mains plug, you might try the following procedure for which you need a pi-topPROTO board and a a Texas Instruments EV2400 i2c-USB converter. (http://www.ti.com/tool/EV2400). The i2c-USB costs about $ 200.

    6. You also need the "Battery Management Studio" (free) software package and a recent Windows PC.

    7. Last but not least, you need the the keys to unlock the Texas Instruments. (http://www.ti.com/product/BQ40Z60).

    Ivo Van Ursel - Reply

  5. Pi-top Teardown: step 5, image 1 of 3 Pi-top Teardown: step 5, image 2 of 3 Pi-top Teardown: step 5, image 3 of 3
    • The 13,3" HD Screen is surrounded by a green plastic frame. We can remove it by pulling off the rubber spacers which protect the display from getting scratched by the raspy keyboard when the pi-top is closed.

    • After we removed "18 screws", we can skip our finger gymnastic lesson for today. But fair enough–the rim removes quiet easily after we got rid of the screws.

  6. Pi-top Teardown: step 6, image 1 of 2 Pi-top Teardown: step 6, image 2 of 2
    • There is one last cable which connects the display to the computing unit. On both ends it has a simple plug-in connection.

    • Under a strip of protective film we can find the control board, with:

    • a HIMAX HX8876 timing controller

    • a NovaTek NT50169G power management (likely)

    • a Richtek RT8532GQW backlight white LED driver w/ boost converter

  7. Pi-top Teardown: step 7, image 1 of 2 Pi-top Teardown: step 7, image 2 of 2
    • We experience some kind of deja vu opening the plastic coverage of the keyboard. Not 18 but 23 Phillips screws want to be removed until we can get a glimpse on the inside.

    • Our childish recklessness to separate the two plastic pieces is stopped by two ribbon cables. Luckily they are opened with just a few movements.

  8. Pi-top Teardown: step 8, image 1 of 3 Pi-top Teardown: step 8, image 2 of 3 Pi-top Teardown: step 8, image 3 of 3
    • After removing one side of the green plastic frame the whole interior falls in our arms.

    • Well, not the whole interior. While everything of the pi-top was easy to remove so far, the keyboard itself is stamped to the plastic frame.

    • All we can go with on our foray is the touchpad and its frame, the power button and the circuit board with the buttons for left and right click that features a SinoWealth SH68F83 low speed USB microcontroller.

  9. Pi-top Teardown: step 9, image 1 of 3 Pi-top Teardown: step 9, image 2 of 3 Pi-top Teardown: step 9, image 3 of 3
    • At this point the actual teardown is over–time to reassemble!

    • Hidden in the padding of the box we find tools, an assembly instruction and heaps of screws to build a pi-top!

    • The heart of the pi-top which is rather small than big to be fair, comprises only two circuit boards connected with a few cables and placed above the battery.

  10. Pi-top Teardown: step 10, image 1 of 1
    • Finally the pi-top is torn down assembled!

    • Verdict: The pi-top is not a real Laptop. There isn't much inside that could be bathed in glue. It's a miniature computer on a circuit board with a shell of a gnomish green notebook. Its made for programming and coding fans filled with everything they need. As the raspberry pi itself, the pi-top is simple, easy to tear down and easy to assemble.

    • There are a few small things we want to mention here:

    • The opening in the body for USB and Ethernet is too small in our opinion and you will end up in cable tangle.

    • The headphone jack on the raspberry is facing the keyboard and barely accessible with an angled plug.

  11. Final Thoughts
    • The design allows access to all components with only little to medium work to get to them.
    • No glue but only screws for a relatively simple opening procedure.
    • The tools you need to assemble the pi-top are included.
    • The tools you need to reach deeper are standard and probably already in your toolbox.
    • The plastic housing doesn't feel too sturdy and might suffer damage being a portable device and experiencing some rough handling from time to time.
    Repairability Score
    8
    Repairability 8 out of 10
    (10 is easiest to repair)

Tobias Isakeit

Member since: 03/31/14

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4 Comments

How is “The tools you need to reach deeper are standard and probably already in your toolbox” not a positive?

Jake Rose - Reply

If you are equipped with our toolsets, you are ready to go ;) But not everyone has the right sized Torx driver at home. They could have continued with the same allen sized screws as they provide the tools for.

Tobias Isakeit -

Mine stopped turning on, what can I do?

Klein Kravis - Reply

Can you get a replacement display to hub lead? If so where from?

john pulham - Reply

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