An electronics hobbyist has designed a “laptop form factor device” that is estimated to run for two years between charges. The self-effacingly named PotatoP combines a mix of low power components, plus a 12,000 mAh battery pack and a modest bank of solar cells. Eventually, Andreas Eriksen, the PotatoP designer, wants to develop this laptop project to offer endless battery life, plus a bigger display.
The inspiration for the PotatoP came from the creator’s annoyance with his existing laptop always running out of battery. For the “small programming projects” it was used for, powerful hardware was unnecessary. It would better suit the user if the laptop design was skewed toward very low power use, as long as the screen was sharp and readable and the keyboard workmanlike.
To execute the above vision, the PotatoP design relies on the SparkFun RedBoard Artemis ATP developer board as its 'motherboard.' This foundational component choice features the Ambiq Apollo3 SoC, which is claimed to “set a new standard in energy efficiency for battery powered devices.” The SoC’s Arm Cortex-M4F runs at up to 96 MHz while consuming less than six micro-Amps per MHz. The SBC also has 384KB RAM and 1MB flash memory, as well as an extensive variety of interfaces / connectivity options considering its size.
Another component that was key to the PotatoP as you see it today is the Sharp Memory in Pixel display LS044Q7DH01. This is a monochrome 320 x 240 pixels display with a 4.4-inch diagonal. Eriksen says that he wishes that Sharp made a bigger version of this display, and is probably open to an alternative as long as it's as thrifty with power consumption. The display has no backlight, which will help with power efficiency. However, this 4.4-inch display is claimed to be “surprisingly readable,” in well lit conditions. Lastly, we must say the diminutive display gives this PotatoP device a unique style.
While there are obvious sacrifices made in the display and processing power, it's good to see that the PotatoP creator couldn’t stomach a substandard typing experience. Thus, he sacrificed an old Happy Hacking Keyboard Lite 2 to integrate it into the PotatoP.
For software, the PotatoP is running a Lisp environment (uLisp). PotatoP creator Eriksen says that using Lisp to create necessary application software is another part of the fun of using this homemade computer.
Lastly, the PotatoP, with its already impressive battery life already measured in years, is being tuned so that it may never require a charging cable. The creator has been busy working on system optimizations to reduce power consumption, which you can read about in the development project logs. If software tweaks alone can’t extend the battery life to infinity as things stand (with the help of solar), Eriksen is pondering over adding more solar cells to achieve this goal.
