Ethan Russell's TOP_LAP Is a 24" Laptop in Laser-Cut Steel, for Only the Strongest of Laps

Maker Ethan Russell has built a laptop-of-sorts, but only really for those with particularly strong laps: the TOP_LAP features a 24" display held up by gas struts and is housed in a chassis of laser-cut steel.

"When I realized my computer was starting to be a little outdated, slow, and couldn't hold a charge, I debated long and hard about whether to buy a new laptop or a desktop," Russell explains/ "Desktop computers are more easily upgradable and much more powerful for the cost but cannot be transported. This decision was too hard so I tried to find a solution with no compromises - introduce my 'TOP_LAP:' the obvious solution to this problem."

The TOP_LAP is, at least ostensibly, a laptop-style notebook computer. It ticks all the boxes you'd need to be classed as one: there's a keyboard, clamshell-style hinged display, and a battery good for four or so hours of use away from a mains supply. Where a traditional laptop is designed to be small and light enough to use on your lap, however, the TOP_LAP… isn't.

For starters, the widescreen display measures 24" on the diagonal. It's heavy enough that keeping it open is an issue, solved in the TOP_LAP using gas struts to provide stability. There's a desktop-class micro-ATX motherboard inside, complete with heatsink and fan assembly, with the back-panel positioned to the front to make it easier to connect and disconnect devices. Audio, meanwhile, is provided through a pair of speakers and an amplifier originally designed for in-car use.

All of this is housed in a laser-cut chassis, built from sheet steel rather than any of the lightweight alloys in more common use in the notebook world. To finish the build, there's an externally-accessible dock for a drone battery — allowing for battery swaps in-the-field, something not commonly seen on off-the-shelf laptop hardware since the '90s — with a custom CAN bus board for power telemetry.

"[This] uses [an STMicro] STM32F091 processor," Russell notes of the custom CAN board design. "[It] disconnects charger power and shuts off battery via CAN when computer shuts down, sends battery telemetry to the computer via CDC, and can stop disable charging past a user specified state of charge when computer is plugged in."

More details on the build are available on Russell's Hackaday.io page, along with files for the 3D-printed and laser-cut parts.