Booktop: Raspberry Pi zero W powered laptop book

I was thinking to myself, you have lots of factors of laptops that fit in a size of a book. So why hasn’t anybody did a Booktop? A nice book with a whole computer inside for your enjoyment? It can also be fairly incognito as additional perk.

I am aware it looks a bit wonky on the first picture, but that’s mostly wooden glue before i have removed it together with screen protection.

I have started with trying to cut through a book with a kitchen knife. Suffice to say that’s a very stupid idea. But using an OLFA knife works a lot better, even though not more than couple of tens of pages together. I was repeating his procedure until I achieved satisfying depth of compartment, tested a bit with equipment LCD Controller and Raspberry Pi Zero W that will go inside and it checks out quite nicely, although a bit tight. After that I secured the compartment from any wobbles by using a wood glue and leaving it to dry for roundabout 6 hours till it was tight and not sticky anymore.

The time has come for a real test. Securing everything inside.

Inside the book I have used DIY 7 TFT LCD Display+HDMI/VGA/2AV Controller Video Board Card for Raspberry Pi ( to make it easier to find for whoever wants to get something similar to it, at time of buying it cost 26 £).

For computing chip itself I used Raspberry Pi Zero W and for the battery which was used externally through small holes in the book I used High Quality 19V, 5V,12V,16V,30000MAH LiPo USB Batteries for Laptop / Mobile phone Power Bank. But man descriptions for this items from china are sometimes really too descriptive.

It’s basically a power bank with separated DC IN, DC OUT and 1 2A and 1 1A Jack. I haven’t tried how long it will last for Rpi, but it should be ages 😀

The book i have chosen is Arthur’s C. Clarke : Cradle since it provides nice symbolism of one place inside another and also cause I had two identical copies of this book lying around anyway. I didn’t experiment that much with taking pictures of the screen, buy you can take a look at this article since it’s very similar in a sense of using LCD controller with a Pi, although this one uses R pi Zero

At the end I was like, mehh it works nicely in a book, but I really prefer to have it bundled together with a Battery bank so i just put it in a cardboard box, but with a bit more effort there shouldn’t be a problem for anyone using a Booktop of its own!

For keyboard I have used 7inch Bluetooth connected keyboard which with a bit more carving fits in a book as well 🙂