Use my pi-top as an external monitor?

pi-top [3]
#11

Appreciate the reply, it seems the battery is completely drained. My understanding of the V_IN pin is that it tracks the voltage of the battery or if plugged in the mains. When unplugged the pin indicates 0.01 volts. Maybe there is a way to externally charge it so the charge controller will sense and charge the battery. Have had to do that for a few power tool batteries.

Do you happen to know the input voltage range of the pi-top[3] at the barrel connector or some other way to power it? I would like to use a USB-C PD charger as they are much smaller and lighter and packed anyway. Without the need to charge the battery I can’t imagine it uses more than a few watts and must work down to about 11 volts which is the output of the battery.

EDIT: Also happy to remove the battery and send any relevant pictures for you. Removed the keyboard in order to ensure the battery was indeed connected and currently just taking up space and weight.

#12

The batteries are non-standard. The cells itself are 3 poaches with the label U56800P and with that number I could find a vendor on AliExpress selling spare batteries for PiTop. I can’t tell how legit they are but they work - and they delivered faster than CEEED’s warranty replacement.

Oh and BTW: the Pi top [3]'s power supply is rated at 18V.

#13

Thanks that is awesome information and I’m sure many will find that useful. Personally at this point not too interested in purchasing anything proprietary to the pi-top. It is awesome hardware and the summer sale was a steal at $45 dollars although took about 5 months to receive. Disappointed the battery came dead but not expecting CEED to replace it I’m sure they took a huge financial hit fulfilling the orders. Also between these forums and slickdeals it does not appear they want to continue supporting this device which is understandable.

Unfortunately 18v is not part of the PD standard
What I really would like to do is power the pi-top at 15 or 20v using a PD decoy then found a DC to up to 45w charger. This would allow a single 65w USB-C PD charger or battery pack to power the pi-top and a connected device through a pass-through hub. This would also make the pi-top much lighter. We know the pi-top can work between 11 and 18v because that is the battery to charge voltage just wondering how to ultimately wire that. Will try and if find anything report back as maybe others are in similar situations.

Thanks!

#14

Looking at the block diagram https://forum.pi-top.com/uploads/default/a118e83ce4494e3a7e66591fc13f793eb17eff0e the battery is an 11.1V smart battery which communicates to the hub via I2C.
Sniff the I2C connection, and/or disassemble a dead battery to get to know the management IC. Take an 11.1V setup of your choice, add said IC and you should have your new smart battery.

Note: do at own risk!

#15

Thanks again all, this is all very helpful information.
Thought I would share that I removed the battery and one of the three cells is dead. Two are at the expected 3.8v the other is 0.02v.

Did my best to figure out the battery connector pin-out. The figure is looking down through the connector on the pi-top. Used a multi-meter to determine which pins are linked (bar through them) and found the BATT_IN gets +18v when the pi-top is on.
Assume the top row is BATT_OUT and the rest are I2C with one being ground.

image

EDIT: Just went for it and fed 13.8v to the top row and GND and the pi-top boots perfectly!
So the top row is BATT_OUT. This allows one to power the pi-top with less than 18v. Probably down to ~9V given each cell low voltage cutoff should be around 3v.

#16

Just to add some more rambling in all of this tinkering it seems the input HDMI stopped working. The LCD backlight comes on but no devices will display. Removed the FPC cables and the HDMI had a suspect connector. Went ahead and removed the LCD panel and found the part number to be:
N140HCA-EAC Rev.C1

Searched around and purchased a driver board for this panel that has HDMI and USB-C native input and is powered by USB at 5v 3amps with either micro or USB-c connectors. Also confirmed the pi-top hub allows the keyboard and trackpad to work when not powered so a cheap low wattage USB buck converter can power these at 18v. In summerary personally I believe this is the perfect solution to use the pi-top without a raspberry pi as a lapdock or screen for any device.

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#17

This controller board sounds interesting? Where did you get it from?

Initially I didn’t want to go this route because of the cabling between body and display. The cable is split in two and I’m not sure one wide cable would fit.

But depending on the board or might work out.

#18

This is the board I ordered, has not arrived yet so can’t confirm it works yet. Good point on the cabling however I have removed the original and it is a single 30 pin connector on the panel. From the single connector there are the 2x15 pin cables to the hub.

The seller was very responsive and shipped same day.

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Pi-top [3] RK3399 upgrade
#19

The driver board arrived today and works perfectly with the Pi-top display.
It triggers Dex without any external power.
It is also better than I thought (and the seller indicated) as the micro-usb supports OTG so the pi-top[3] keyboard and track pad can be plugged into this port and sends this to the USB-C attached device. No extra power is needed to the pi-top hub for this to function.
Another bonus, a charger plugged into the USB-C power port fast charges the phone.
This is everything I had hoped to accomplish with the pi-top, display USB-C and HDMI while easily using the keyboard & mouse with one USB-C power input.

I received another pi-top with working battery, just some more random information regarding power draw of the pi-top using a Kasa smart plug with energy monitoring:

0.2 W - or less Keyboard/Mouse
3.95 W - Sceen On and battery charged
24 W - Screen On charging
20.4 W - Screen Off charging

Lastly I don’t believe HDMI input was ever bad, noticed with this second pi-top the ground to mimic the PI can be good enough to power on (bright LED) but there is no display. Making this connection better results in the expected display.

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#20

Good day, Zman,

Thank you for your posts. I would like to use Samsung Dex on my Pi-top 3. Are you able to provide detailed instructions as to how to install/connect the EDP driver board your previous post mentioned?

I can’t get the Pi-Top 3 screen to display anything from the Pi 3b+ that I have (the Pi seems fine–displays on my TV when connected…) but it wasn’t really my intention to use the Pi-top with a Pi anyway. I bought it to [hopefully] use for Dex.

I’m pretty much a newbie here and would appreciate any assistance you cound provide.

Thank you

#21

Yes absolutely, below is everything I remember and then please feel free to ask any specific questions.

First need to remove the screen and original cabling

Remove the fascia around the keyboard by carefully pulling up on it, I believe I started in a back corner.
Remove the black fascia around the LCD screen. Did this starting around a hinge and pull/pry towards you.
Remove the screen by opening it to 180 degrees so it’s flat on a surface and remove all of the screws.
Remove tape over the cable connection
To remove the connector there is a metal hinge that you pull up then gently slide the connector out.

Driver board install
I didn’t want to unplug the cable from the board so cut one side of the green plastic holding the original cable to the pitop then slide new one in
Plug new connector into panel and put tape back
Place panel over screw and alignment knobs then screw back in
Gently snap black fascia into place
Gently snap keyboard fascia

Unfortunately didn’t take any pictures along the way but these may help. Also 3d printed a basic mount for it and used magnets included with a prototype board.

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#22

Thank you for sharing this info. I’m very late to the party here but I finally got my Pi5 and I figured it would be nice to upgrade the aging Pi3 on my Pi-Top.

As a test I followed the image and shorted out the two pins on the cooling bridge, attached it to the Pi-Top, plugged in the HDMI then power for both the Pi-Top and Pi5, but did not see any output at all. If I plug it back to my Pi3, the screen still worked fine.

Just reaching out to see if anyone had trouble using the Pi-Top on the Pi5, or if I had missed any steps along the way? Hooking up the Pi5 to any other HDMI output worked fine, so I’m at a bit of a loss on what I might had done wrong.

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#23

Lastly I don’t believe HDMI input was ever bad, noticed with this second pi-top the ground to mimic the PI can be good enough to power on (bright LED) but there is no display. Making this connection better results in the expected display.

Would you mind elaborating on what you mean by the HDMI input was ever bad? Curious if I’m running into the same situation you did. I don’t mind ultimately getting the EDP driver board, but seemed like a waste if I can get the HDMI working on my PiTop which definitely works on the Pi3, just not when I try to use it as an external display on my Pi5.

#24

Hey Lanzer, looking at your bridge picture it appears you have connected the pins correctly and are soldered well. Apologies it has been a while but if I remember I had a suspect jumper between the pins which was good enough for the main board to think a pi was connected (green led) but not enough for the screen to turn on. I don’t think this would be your problem, especially since a pi 3 drives the screen. Personally no experience with a pi 5 but wonder if the default resolution and/or refresh rate is not compatible with the pi-top screen? Could try and modify the parameters in the boot config from this link: https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-screen-resolution/ . Let us know and cute doggo.

#25

Looks like you inspired a Cornish remote working tech business, @Zman !

#26

Good morning,

As my cooling bridge of my pi-top 3 is broken I turn to your controller to do the same thing as you.

If I understand correctly with your controller I no longer need the pi-top hub?
The keyboard and trackball also work? And the battery?

Do you have any pictures of your hookup?

Thanks

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#27

Hello, that is correct, with the new controller the pi-top hub is not needed to drive the screen. There is an HDMI and USB-C input on the controller board. It is power via USB-C or the micro-usb port.

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In order to use the keyboard and trackpad the pi-top hub is needed however the cooling bridge is not. You will just need to jump the pins discussed earlier in this thread. Then you just connect the upper back USB connection in the pi-top to the micro-USB port on the new controller. I can take more pics but this is the basic setup. New Controller ribbon cable is connected to the pi-top screen. Then a USB cable runs from the pi-top to the controller for the keyboard and trackpad. My battery never worked, however it may be possible to still use it. There is some information on the battery pin out also earlier in the thread. Please reach out with any specific questions and can attempt to answer!

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#28

Nice, steamdeck screen :slight_smile:

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#29

ha yes and keyboard/mouse, great for RTS like Command Conquer!

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#30

Good morning,Were you able to get the battery working?