So, the list of tasks for converting a laptop into a full-fledged tablet. How to make a TV from an old tablet or laptop DIY tablet from an old laptop
Most modern tablets are powerful devices with which you can perform many daily tasks, play games, surf the Internet and do many other things. But is such a gadget capable of fully competing with a stationary PC, and is it possible to make a computer out of a tablet? Let's deal with all these questions in order.
Tablets and peripherals
Peripherals such as mice, keyboards, USB drives and many others are an integral part of any computer. They greatly facilitate typing, as well as working with various programs.
On sale you can find tablets with special docking stations in the form of a classic keyboard, and the assembled device itself resembles a laptop or netbook (depending on size). They are initially adapted to work with a variety of additional devices and are focused on the classic user. A prominent representative is the Asus Surface Pad line, pre-installed with Windows on board.
Another story is about Android tablets, which in most cases are sold bare, and only the charger and power cable are included. Connecting peripherals to these tablets via USB is only possible if OTG technology is supported, or using the newer USB Type-C output, which supports two-way data transfer.
And even if none of the mentioned technologies is supported in your tablet, then you can dig around on the Internet and find Bluetooth devices for gadgets on the manufacturers' websites, or Chinese drains.
All these features should be considered before the purchase, especially if the tablet will be used for many work tasks.
Software
Most of the tablets on the market run Android OS, so most of the programs that we use on the PC will have to be forgotten and look for their counterparts. For example, instead of Microsoft Office, install Google Docs and others. A matter of habit, but greatly complicates the work.
A separate point is to bring devices to OS Windows, which are initially similar to what we are used to using on a daily basis. Here are programs for working with office applications, and various built-in editors, as well as much more. Unfortunately, such tablets are not very popular due to the often inflated price that most people cannot afford.
We make a computer from a tablet
So, let's consider this process using the example of any Android tablet with OTG support, that is, in which you can connect USB devices:
- Connect a keyboard and mouse to the gadget (you can use adapters). Although tablets are touch devices, Android provides the ability to connect a mouse, and the familiar cursor will appear on the screen.
- Find a replacement for the popular programs you use on your desktop computer. Of course, you will not find such packages as Adobe Photoshop, Sony Vegas and others, and there is not enough power for video processing.
- Put the most convenient launcher (visual shell). On the same Google market, you can find copies of popular shells that are similar in appearance to Windows XP, Windows 10, MacOS, iOS.
conclusions
Despite the really good capacities that manufacturers put into their tablets, it will not work to make a full-fledged computer out of a tablet, in the classical sense. There is an opportunity to create something similar to the familiar system. The result will be just something similar to a PC, but everything will also remain a tablet, however, with advanced features.
ASUS Transformer and Microsoft Surface are great devices that combine a tablet and a full-fledged laptop. On the road, such a thing does not take up much space and is great for both work and leisure. He took out a thin keyboard from the bag, and you have a laptop in your hands, put it back - a tablet. Comfortable. But is it possible to do something similar from a regular Android tablet? Easily!
For what?
Even the cheapest modern tablets have extremely powerful hardware, the performance of which is enough to compete with netbooks. However, the tablet has a completely different purpose, which poses an obvious problem for us: what to take with us on the road? Is a tablet or netbook convenient for reading books, surfing the web and playing games - a great tool for communication and work? Carrying both with you is not the most fun, but we can go the other way.
Let's start with the fact that almost any tablet running Android supports the connection of a keyboard and mouse - in fact, this turns it into a kind of monoblock computer that you can lean against something, place the keyboard and mouse in front of you and work quietly. On the road, this is not very convenient, and even too much even for a geek, so smart Chinese have come up with special cases with a built-in keyboard that turn the tablet into an interesting device similar to a netbook with a flick of the wrist. Buying such a cover is definitely worth it, especially since it will cost no more than 20 US rubles, and the keyboard there is really good.
The second is the OS. It would seem that Android is not at all designed to work and you cannot do without a full-fledged netbook / laptop. But even here everything is in order, browsers easily serve several tabs, there are many keyboard shortcuts, a full set of UNIX utilities, a bunch of administration software, compilers, utilities, web servers and everything you can think of, except for absolutely professional software such as Photoshop or ProTools. But I doubt that anyone will be doing graphic art or mixing composition, sitting in the passenger seat of a car moving along the "magnificent" Russian roads.
In other words, the tablet has everything to use it as a workstation, but we'll talk about how to use this "everything" to its fullest.
Basic minimum
So, we have an Android 4 tablet, a keyboard, a mouse (optional) and the desire to turn it all into a workhorse.
I’ll make a reservation right away that a USB keyboard and mouse can only be plugged into a tablet with support for USB host (OTG) mode, so if this option is not in the tablet, you will have to use more expensive Bluetooth accessories, and if there is no Bluetooth support, then nothing you can do it - such a tablet is not good.
If the USB host mode is supported, the keyboard or mouse should be connected using the OTG cable that usually comes with the tablet and is a miniUSB male cable on one side and a full-sized USB female on the other (if the tablet has full-sized USB ports, you can weave directly into them). If it was not included in the kit, an OTG cable can be bought at any mobile equipment store or ordered in China for one dollar (it is no worse). I want to warn you that usually not all ports support host mode, so you need to stick it in the correct one (usually it is signed by Host or OTG).
When everything is on hand, we hook the mouse and keyboard to the tablet - and voila, everything works. One could say that this would be enough, but Android can offer much more advanced keyboard control options. One of the main ones is a fairly developed and convenient system of keyboard shortcuts, which has existed since the first versions of the OS. So, to navigate the desktop and various menus, you can use the "arrows", and the key replaces the "Back" button, and
Android keyboard shortcuts
A special place among them is occupied by the combination Keyboard shortcuts are also available in applications, but only a small part of developers implement such control. Even among browsers where this functionality is a must, I could only find two that can be fully controlled using the keyboard. This is a standard browser and Google Chrome, which support the following set of combinations: Browser combinations Unfortunately, in Android there is no way to change the keyboard shortcuts or add your own, but the available ones will be quite enough to work with the tablet without any mouse, only occasionally touching the screen - select some hard-to-reach interface element. Since we are talking about the browser, we need to take care of connecting to the Internet. Not all tablets are equipped with a 3G module, so you will most likely have to take the Internet in other ways. Two standard solutions are a 3G modem or Internet from a phone. The first option is more preferable, but on tablets with one host port (like mine), it will not allow you to also plug in a keyboard. The option of distributing the Internet from your phone via Wi-Fi is very convenient, but it consumes the smart battery at an incredible speed, so it is much better to use more economical Bluetooth for this purpose. The situation with blue tooth in Android is rather strange, and its support varies greatly from version to version. Nevertheless, the distribution of the Internet via Bluetooth (PAN profile) has been supported for a long time, and, most likely, it is already in the smartphone (you should look for it somewhere in the area “Wireless networks -> Advanced -> Modem mode”). To connect to such a “translator”, Google recommends that you select the desired Bluetooth device from the list in the “Profiles” section and check the box “Use to access the Internet”. But in practice, such an item often simply does not exist, so you will have to use an independent implementation of the PAN profile, for example, “Bluetooth PAN” from the market, to connect. It requires root, but using it is as easy as shelling pears: launched, clicked on a huge round button in the middle of the screen. In order to have access to all the necessary data on the road, you can transfer them to a USB flash drive in advance or use cloud drives like Dropbox or Google Drive. Both approaches are inconvenient because they do not allow automatic synchronization. But the Dropsync app can do it and does it very well. In fact, Dropsync performs the same task as the desktop version of Dropbox: it allows you to store files on a flash drive, periodically synchronizing them with cloud storage. Importantly, directories for synchronization can be selected individually, sending and receiving from the cloud only what is really needed on the tablet, such as books, music, source texts. Using Dropsync is quite simple, you just need to select the directory to sync, the directory in Dropbox and choose the sync method: one way or both. After that, the software will hang in the background and will periodically perform synchronization. I immediately recommend buying the Pro version, it implements support for the Linux inotify technology for instant synchronization immediately after changing files, and also removes the limit on the file size of 5 MB and on one synchronized directory. You can work effectively in a terminal emulator without a hard keyboard. To do this, you just need to install the Hacker’s keyboard, which has keys Let's talk about more advanced use of the tablet. For a geek, and even more so for a person who administers remote servers, standard functionality and ordinary applications will, of course, not be enough to feel complete. Therefore, we need to get a Linuxoid gentleman's set, namely a terminal emulator, a set of command line utilities, as well as various SSH clients and rsync's. All this for Android is full, thanks to the Linux kernel. First things first, we get root on the tablet. We have already described how to do this, especially since each device has its own methodology, which includes many nuances. So Google is here to help. Next, install the Android Terminal Emulator from the market, this is a standard VT102 emulator with support for everything you need. It supports all control sequences, which means all key combinations that you will type on the keyboard. The standard Android installation includes a limited set of command-line utilities (not even the cp command), but it's easy to expand it to the full by simply installing BusyBox using one of the many installers available on the market. After that, you can get a normal bash instead of the wretched sh that comes with the kit. To do this, install the GNU bash 4.2 Installer, run it and click the "Install" button. In order for the terminal emulator to know that we want to immediately get into bash at startup, go to the terminal settings and in the "Command shell" option specify the path "/system/xbin/bash -". From now on, we have a full-fledged command line, but no SSH client and a good text editor. You can solve this problem by installing the good old ConnectBot and Vim Touch. As standalone tools, they do a great job, but they can't be used productively when you have a keyboard and need to edit various files directly from the terminal. Therefore, we will install native versions of these programs. Console Vim for Android can be obtained from this link. It should be unpacked, transferred to the tablet's memory card, and then put in the / system / xbin directory. Here's how to do it right in Android: Installing console vim $ su # cp /sdcard/path-to-binary /system/xbin # chmod +x /system/bin/vim The SSH client, in turn, is in the SSHDroid application. All you have to do is install SSHDroid and copy the SSH client to the /system/xbin directory: Installing ssh $ su # cp /data/data/berserker.android.apps.sshdroid/dropbear/ssh /system/xbin # chmod +x /system/xbin/ssh You can go even further and install an entire Linux distribution that has everything you want. It is especially convenient to use the Arch Linux Installer for this, which installs a minimal Arch Linux into the image without any unnecessary X's and other rubbish. And thanks to the archaic philosophy of rolling releases, you will always have the latest software, without having to install a new version of the distribution. The installer itself is incredibly simple, so I will not describe its use. It is clear that during remote work we will most likely have to access the Web via a VPN, since open Wi-Fi in various cafeterias and hotels simply does not inspire confidence by definition. IN new Android now there is VPN support right out of the box, so setting up proxying will not cause any problems. Just go to the settings "Wireless networks -> More ...", click VPN, Android prompts you to set a PIN or password, this will have to be done, because otherwise they will not let us go further. Next, click "Add VPN profile" and specify the type of VPN (standard PPTP, L2TP / IPSec, IPSec Xauth or IPSec Hybrid), drive in the profile name, server address and keys, if necessary (for PPTP, of course, not necessary). We save, tap on the profile name, drive in the login and password, and all traffic starts to go through the tunnel. If you're thinking about coding on the go, Google Play has tons of tools for that. To create small utility utilities and scripts, you can use the SL4A environment (code.google.com/p/android-scripting), which allows you to execute scripts written in sh, Python, Ruby, Perl, Lua, and other languages. The environment is equipped with an editor and a simple API that allows you to access the main functions of the tablet. For more serious development, you can use the QPython environment, which, in addition to the SL4A API, offers access to the native Android API, as well as the Kivy cross-platform graphics widget library. Applications created with QPython will almost not be visually different from native ones. The Ruboto IRB environment generally offers full access to the Android Java API, but for the Ruby language. I would especially like to note the AIDE environment, which allows you to create full-fledged Java applications for Android in Android itself. The environment is very advanced, with a full set of all the necessary features, including syntax highlighting, autocompletion, online hints, compiling and one-click launch. AIDE is fully compatible with Android SDK projects, so it can really be used for serious development. Particularly hardcore comrades can install the GNU GCC C / C ++ Compiler, the same GCC and a set of binutils that allow you to build software in the console. Carrying a tablet with you, and even having a keyboard and mouse connected to it, you will probably want to hook it up to the HDMI port of your TV or AV receiver. In principle, everything here is simple and boring to the point: plug in the cable and get a picture on the big screen. But there are some interesting points that I would like to talk about. Screen blanking. One of the more frustrating things about Android's implementation of HDMI support is the need to keep the screen on. As soon as you press the tablet's off button, the HDMI is de-energized and the "big picture" disappears. There is no way to disable this behavior using Android itself, but you can use the excellent Screen Standby program, which forcibly turns off the backlight of the screen, so you can safely watch videos, play games or surf the Internet without being distracted by a copy of the image on the tablet. Screen Standby has many very useful settings, for example, turns off the backlight on its own when you plug in an HDMI cable. To do this, just enable the "Auto HDMI / MHL Detection" option in the "HDMI Detection" section (there are also settings for disabling when the application is launched or placed in the dock). Another very interesting feature is the transfer of the tablet to touchpad mode, when a cursor appears on the monitor screen, and the tablet screen turns into a large touchpad. It is included in the menu "Settings -> Touchpad setting -> Use touchpad function", but this function did not work for me, which is predictable, given the limited support for models. Joystick and control panel. A tablet connected to a monitor or TV can be controlled not only with a keyboard and mouse, but also using a smartphone on the same Android. It is not necessary for this to go to the tablet via SSH or other means. You can use the virtual joystick BT Controller from the market. This program allows you to turn your smartphone into a virtual blue-toothed joystick, remote control or even a keyboard - there is already something for anyone. BT Controller should be installed on both devices that are already connected via Bluetooth. Next, on one of the devices, press the “Connect” button, after which a message will appear on the screen asking you to select the device function: Controller or Host. We click on the Host tablet, after which an information plate appears in the upper right corner, symbolizing the successful connection and performance of the components. Tapping on the line “KB Enabled” on the plate will take us to the input methods settings menu, in which you should select BTController, and tapping on “KB Active” will allow you to switch to the BT Controller instead of the standard keyboard. When all these operations are completed, you can use the joystick that appears on the screen. IN free version applications, only one interface option is the SNES joystick, which is quite convenient to play games with, but it is not suitable for other purposes. The paid version of BT Controller allows you to choose between over thirty different joysticks, remotes and keyboards and, more importantly, create a new remote yourself using a special editor. An Android tablet can really be turned into a full-fledged desktop that is a pleasure to use. Of course, it will not replace a real laptop on Linux, but you will not notice any special problems in use either. An outdated and inefficient laptop lying idle? This will not work! Find out what can be converted old laptop with your own hands and how to get the most out of it! Let's start with the most obvious: before doing something out of a laptop, you need to try to turn it on. And not all old laptops will pass this test. Even if a year ago, when you immersed the laptop in the depths of the mezzanine, the machine worked properly, this does not mean that it will work now. Failure to start the laptop will entail the repair or replacement of individual parts. However, you can not bother with this and do otherwise. How exactly - read on. If you still managed to start the laptop, then the first thing it will need with a 99% probability is the replacement of thermal paste. Depending on how fast you want your laptop to perform, you will need to install an operating system that uses up the machine's processing power sparingly. For example, Lubuntu or Chromium OS. IN last resort, and Windows XP will do. Well, now you have a working laptop that can be used for its intended purpose or turned into something less functional. If the laptop is so old that it can't handle games and other modern tasks, then it can be turned into a highly specialized device aimed at tasks that do not require high performance. For example, an outdated laptop will make a good alternative to a small wall-mounted TV, and you can do it yourself:
If you or your loved one loves to cook, then make a kitchen computer for her that will store recipes. It is good if the device still has access to the Internet. Also, do not forget about the program in which the timers are set. Here is an example of such a homemade machine:
If you are an avid old-school gamer who remembers the era, then why not build an arcade machine with your own hands?
Or just use an old laptop as a digital photo frame hanging from the wall:
Even if you bought a router and set up Wi-Fi, this does not mean that wireless Internet is available in all corners of your home. Sometimes the signal is hindered by thick walls and concrete floors, as well as the distance to the Wi-Fi distribution point. So why not turn an old laptop into an Internet hotspot instead of spending money on a signal booster? Here's how it's done:
Love to watch movies? Then, with an old laptop, a couple of free hours and a little patience, you can turn an outdated machine into a completely modern media center that can be connected to any TV. This tutorial video will help you:
If there is no TV at hand, then you can do without it by arranging watching movies right on the wall! Making a projector from a laptop is very easy. To do this, you need a plastic lens, some tools and straight arms. All this will cost you only $5! Detailed instructions for turning a laptop into a projector are here:
You can even do without a cardboard box:
Indeed, why not use an outdated machine as a server? Moreover, to create your own server, you do not need to have the skills of a system administrator. It's done like this:
And if a laptop lacks computing power, then why not build a PC based on it using a motherboard and other hardware?
Even if your laptop does not have a touch screen, it can be turned into a tablet. To do this, you can use a purchased frame to turn a regular monitor into a touch screen like Zmartframe. As a result, you will get something like this device:
And if you don’t want to spend $100 on a frame, then assemble a stylus for a laptop screen from improvised means:
If the “iron” of your ancient laptop is broken or outdated so much that even the most simple programs, then why not use the laptop display as an additional monitor for a desktop computer? True, to turn the display into a beautiful monitor, you have to tinker a bit:
Need a second monitor? Then convert the screen of an old laptop into a full-fledged desktop TV:
If your old laptop turned out to be unusable, then take it apart for parts. Some laptop components can be adapted to upgrade your PC. For example, install a hard drive from a laptop into the PC system unit. And from the battery you can make an excellent portable Charger(power bank). Perhaps this power bank will not be as compact as the purchased one, but in terms of battery capacity (and, therefore, in the number of charges of your smartphone or tablet), it is in no way inferior. And here's how to make a power bank from a laptop battery (you need a soldering iron and some knowledge of electronics!):
Don't want to assemble and solder all sorts of things from an outdated laptop? Then there is only one... Why would an unnecessary laptop gather dust, waiting for better times that will never come? Instead of keeping excess junk in the house, sell it! And it doesn't matter how: in whole or in detail. You will be surprised, but your old laptop will be bought very quickly. And if the offered price seems low or you have some memories associated with this laptop, then keep it for 50 years: exactly then your old laptop will receive the status of antiques and it will be possible to sell it for a high price. Only sell it not as a laptop, but as a nutcracker for nuts: No related articles Let's move on to the article itself. This whole story began with the fact that I needed a device for surfing the Internet and viewing documents, and I didn’t want to buy a device with a bitten apple in the form of a logo out of principle. In addition, it was at hand Acer laptop Aspire 3610: And then one fine day it was decided to make a more functional device out of an unsightly worker. Unfortunately, I did not capture the process itself in the photo, so I will be based on the pictures from the service manual on the Acer Aspire 3610. 1. Adding a touch screen 2. Improvement of the built-in hardware (although the original should have been enough for the tasks set) 3. Body work (perhaps the most troublesome and difficult part) 4. Choosing an operating system and setting it up Let's go through all four main points: Since I have already encountered adding a touchscreen to a laptop (I use Asus Eee PC 1000HE with a built-in self-touch for work), this item did not cause me any difficulties. The most common 15` resistive touch screen with 4:3 aspect ratio was ordered - the most common touch, as it is used in payment kiosks. The order was placed in the Moscow company Sensis, in the same place as the first screen, and was received in the best possible way in a few days. Of course, a USB controller was included. The screen itself, as I said, is resistive, 5-wire: As for the iron: it turned out that our test subject was initially deprived of both wi-fi and Bluetooth. Therefore, at first it was planned to add a usb-hub inside and connect USB-Wi-Fi and USB-Bluetooth adapters to it. However, quite by accident, I found a laptop service shop, where I managed to purchase for only 300 rubles. Intel PRO Wireless 2200 mini-pci WI-Fi board: Now let's mention what the laptop lost - and it lost in the process of reworking the PCMCI slot, or rather not the slot itself, but its mechanical part - the connector remained in its place. The CD drive was also removed, for reasons of uselessness (there is a usb-combo drive on the farm), freeing up space and facilitating the entire structure. Looking ahead, I’ll say that in the place previously occupied by the cd-drive, I fixed the touch-screen controller and wi-fi antennas, and there was still a lot of space left for the future. The keyboard and touchpad were also abolished, along with the buttons above the keyboard. I checked and set up all the assembled iron without a case in order to know in advance that everything is working as it should. In addition, I still had to work with a soldering iron - I used the rear usb connector directly to the touchscreen controller, patching a hole for it and making the Bluetooth end button a power button (because the native one turned out to be covered by a matrix). Here, perhaps, it must be admitted that there were most questions and tasks with the hull: how to make it? Of what? how to ensure strength? how not to forget about aesthetics? The basis of my decision was the native case of the laptop, from which I took the bottom of the lower part, the frame around the display and a piece of the cover, the one where the keyboard with the touchpad lived). Not useful: matrix cover, keyboard, touchpad and panel with buttons. Main building material(precisely construction, because the creation of the hull has turned into an exciting construction site) has become a cold two-component welding. The choice fell on her for several reasons: ease of use, fast curing, ease of processing. So, the parts are the donors of the new building: Case bottom: The cd drive hole was closed with a plastic plug. I started the first fitting - it turned out that a gap of about 5-8 mm is formed between the parts of the case along the entire perimeter. because of the thickness of the sandwich matrix-touchscreen. In order to close these slots on the top cover, I extended the sides from the same cold welding (universal material!). This was followed by a long tedious fitting, grinding and leveling of surfaces (file, sandpaper of different calibers, drill with cutters). All work on the hull took a week in the "slowly, after work" mode. After the assembly, the question arose - to paint it yourself or give it to knowledgeable people for painting? Since I can’t perform at exhibitions with my tablet, it was decided to paint on my own. I painted it in three passes with automotive paint from a can - it turned out quite tolerably. The lower part has not yet been painted - I think it's worth it? For better cooling after overclocking the processor, I thinned out holes for hot air to escape from the end of the case. After "assembly and file processing" it was possible to actually move on to the software part, so let's move on to it. Initially I installed Windows 7 - I got a lot of problems with drivers (the hardware is old, I can’t find drivers). But as they say - "patience and work" ... I found all the drivers that I did not find - I replaced it with a generic device. After that, I thought and changed the axis to Windows XP Tablet PC edition (in fact, the usual Windows XP with add-ons for the touch screen). The device has become faster and more responsive. Perhaps there will be experiments with all sorts of Ubuntu there. Tablets have long supplanted laptops and netbooks from the category of portable devices. Today, the latter are most often used as stationary devices, instead of personal computers. However, be that as it may, the Android and iOS operating systems are not capable of providing such performance and functionality as Windows, Linux, Mac OS. For some tasks, you need to expand the capabilities, for example, working on your own site requires a little more, it is more convenient to work with the WordPress admin panel on a large screen, by the way, we can recommend one good plugin, Ozh Better Feed. In order to expand the capabilities of the tablet, you need to use additional accessories, which we will discuss below. For comfortable typing on tablets, special covers are available that have an analog keyboard. So, when using it, the working space on the touch screen also increases, since the standard QWERTY keys are not involved. To connect this module, an OTG cable is used, which, as often, is supplied in the kit. Using an external keyboard, you need to be prepared for an increase in power consumption, and, accordingly, a decrease in the battery life of the device. Often, manufacturers equip these cases with LED backlighting, or an additional touchpad. Of course, this increases comfort during operation, but a budget tablet with a cheap battery will not work for even a few hours. We make a full-fledged laptop from a tablet All modern touchscreen gadgets are equipped with slots to support micro SD cards, up to 32 GB. There are also models that can handle up to 64 GB, but these are usually typical devices, the price of which is in the range of $ 700-1000. However, you can increase the tablet's memory to several terabytes through a regular hard drive connected using an OTG cable. To reduce the load on the battery, it is recommended to use SSD storage, as they consume less power and also have a faster data processing speed. The now popular HDD may not work at all on tablets, since the OTG cable is not able to provide the voltage required for normal operation. External optical drives are connected according to the same principle. However, as in the first and second cases, a good file manager must be installed on the device, with the ability to work via an OTG cable. This cable is a universal adapter from USB to micro USB connector. Therefore, you can also connect a gamepad, or a mouse. To save the battery of the device, it is recommended to purchase modules that have their own power supply. This will not only increase the autonomy of the tablet, but also save some of its nodes. Most modern tablets are powerful devices with which you can perform many daily tasks, play games, surf the Internet and do many other things. But is such a gadget capable of fully competing with a stationary PC, and is it possible to make a computer out of a tablet? Let's deal with all these questions in order. Peripherals such as mice, keyboards, USB drives and many others are an integral part of any computer. They greatly facilitate typing, as well as working with various programs. On sale you can find tablets with special docking stations in the form of a classic keyboard, and the assembled device itself resembles a laptop or netbook (depending on size). They are initially adapted to work with a variety of additional devices and are focused on the classic user. A prominent representative is the Asus Surface Pad line, pre-installed with Windows on board. Another story is about Android tablets, which in most cases are sold bare, and only the charger and power cable are included. Connecting peripherals to these tablets via USB is only possible if OTG technology is supported, or using the newer USB Type-C output, which supports two-way data transfer. And even if none of the mentioned technologies is supported in your tablet, then you can dig around on the Internet and find Bluetooth devices for gadgets on the manufacturers' websites, or Chinese drains. All these features should be considered before the purchase, especially if the tablet will be used for many work tasks. Most of the tablets on the market run Android OS, so most of the programs that we use on the PC will have to be forgotten and look for their counterparts. For example, instead of Microsoft Office, install Google Docs and others. A matter of habit, but greatly complicates the work. A separate point is to bring devices to OS Windows, which are initially similar to what we are used to using on a daily basis. Here are programs for working with office applications, and various built-in editors, as well as much more. Unfortunately, such tablets are not very popular due to the often inflated price that most people cannot afford. So, let's consider this process using the example of any Android tablet with OTG support, that is, in which you can connect USB devices: Despite the really good capacities that manufacturers put into their tablets, it will not work to make a full-fledged computer out of a tablet, in the classical sense. There is an opportunity to create something similar to the familiar system. The result will be just something similar to a PC, but everything will also remain a tablet, however, with advanced features. Some time ago, tablet computers have firmly entered our lives and have become the same integral device for a person as, for example, a microwave oven. Around the same time, thoughts like “it would be nice to connect a normal keyboard and mouse to the tablet and use it like a normal computer” began to arise. Thus, the circle is closed. And while "innovators" in the field of mobilization believe that their creations are perfect and self-sufficient, other manufacturers are successfully selling docking stations and ready-made I / O device kits for quickly connecting them to tablets. Not to mention laptops-transformers. But such luxury is most often available only in top-end, expensive models. Meanwhile, almost any tablet and even a smartphone can be turned into a “normal” computer. Here's how it's done. Initially, this was supposed to be a review of Android applications from Teksoft. This developer specializes in the production of driver programs for connecting external wireless devices to tablets and smartphones via Bluetooth technology. However, experiments on applications from this company and on "bluetooth" devices have made serious adjustments. The budget for preparing the review exceeded the planned amount of the fee, so I decided to simply describe all my impressions and conclusions on the topic of connecting external devices to the tablet using wired and wireless technologies. Few people realize that the same Android is a really full-fledged computer with a full-fledged operating system. Roughly speaking, Android is a graphical shell on top of the well-known Linux. And therefore, you can connect to it all the usual devices that connect to a desktop computer or laptop. The only limitation is the availability of drivers. For the most basic devices such as a mouse and keyboard, Android has everything ready, you just need to connect it and the usual arrow cursor will appear on the screen. The meaning of why this is needed appears when the tablet begins to be used not only for toys where a finger is enough, but also for working with mail, documents, and any other actions that require faster typing from the keyboard than with one finger, and greater accuracy. mouse or digitizer than "poking" with the same finger. Actually, this is why developments appeared in the form of transformers, docking stations and other extremely non-budget gadgets. And since most mobile device buyers have their own opinion on how much an overgrown phone should cost, various applications and external devices have appeared that are designed to meet any user needs without being tied to expensive products from top brands. It all started with trying to use Bluetooth headphones with a tablet. As it turned out, in this operating system, the sound is transmitted through several independent channels and, for example, the channel for calls is not connected in any way with the channel for music. The trouble is that I used excellent Chinese wireless headphones from a large company NoName, which combined the actual headphones, a stereo headset, a player, a radio and a passive ear warmer. Android, apparently seeing this wonderful device primarily as a headset, flatly refused to play music through them. Fortunately, there is such an application from Teksoft BlueMusic. The developer claims that this program allows you to redirect the channel with music to the headset, correctly process incoming calls so that they do not conflict with playback, automatically launch the player when a Bluetooth device is connected, and do some other interesting and useful things. In my case, unfortunately, the miracle did not happen. In principle, everything works, the devices are recognized correctly, but there is no sound. Although, as a headset, my Chinese craft with a tablet works fine without any additional applications. And if you connect purely wireless headphones, which are recognized by Android as headphones, then you can listen to music. The next iteration was testing a second application from Tecksoft called BlueInput. As the name implies, the program is designed to connect via Bluetooth input devices - keyboards, mice, joysticks. To do this, I had to go broke for the first time and buy a blue-toothed mouse and keyboard for a total of 1000 rubles. Attempts to connect devices directly to the tablet were unsuccessful. Android conscientiously found them, established a connection, even recognized them as input devices (HID - Human Interface Device), but refused to use them for their intended purpose. Therefore, the development of Teksoft went into business. Here the result was better. The keyboard was successfully connected and used. The mouse, in principle, also connected and formally worked, but problems with cursor positioning made it useless. In using the keyboard, the main inconvenience was the need to perform a full cycle of actions to connect it each time, although Bluetooth technology implies automatic connection of paired devices as soon as they appear in the receiver's field of view. The second problem is switching layouts. The foreign manufacturer, apparently, did not guess that in other countries both English and English are used at the same time. National symbols, so fast switching is not provided. So BlueInput was also useless. However, it is worth noting that some of the problems with connecting devices via Bluetooth depend, firstly, on the devices themselves, and secondly, on the tablet. In the course of studying the experience of comrades in misfortune on various forums, I concluded that Android is generally not very designed to connect something to it in this way (unlike other operating systems). And in the course of communication with a representative of the manufacturer of the purchased input devices ( Russian company CBR-Products, which turned out to be not just another Chinese NoName, but a completely responsible developer of computer peripherals with a responsive support service), it turned out that there are various versions of Bluetooth, which, roughly speaking, may or may not connect devices of one or another level of complexity. However, the desire to connect a normal keyboard and mouse to this tablet has already reached the level of excitement. A technology such as OTG (On-The-Go - “on the go”) went into business. Its meaning is to mobile devices directly connect various peripherals, ranging from flash drives and ending with any equipment connected via USB, including printers, scanners, and so on. The main thing to know is whether your tablet supports this technology. If so, then you need a special adapter, which has a suitable connector at one end to plug it into a mobile device (usually it is micro- or mini-USB or its own standard, for example, like some Samsung), and at the other end - a USB socket into which, in fact, anything is connected. I wanted to connect a mouse and keyboard. Previous experiments have shown that both individually and together via a USB hub (USB tee) everything works fine - a wired keyboard, wired and wireless (radio channel) mice. You can even connect a USB flash drive in parallel, and they all work great together. But here a problem arises, firstly, the limbs of free USB-pots, and secondly, the problem of power supply - a tablet with a voracious Android on board has to “feed” also a keyboard, mouse, flash drive. And, thirdly, a coil of tangled wires is formed, which put an end to mobility. Therefore, the natural solution was to buy a conventional wireless keyboard and mouse set with its own common transceiver and self-powered input devices themselves. I had to spend money on them a second time, tearing off the second thousand from myself (it was possible to keep within 500 rubles, but I decided to boo and buy a real Genius). In this version, the power of the tablet is consumed only by the transmitter, and from the extra wires, only a short adapter hanging on the side of the mobile device. The last thing left to set up is still a convenient switch between layouts. Despite the fact that Android itself told me to switch languages on the connected hardware keyboard via Ctrl + Space, for some reason this does not work. Many forums recommend installing the GameWarrior Russian Keyboard app. Oddly enough, this free program really helps. It allows you to select a keyboard shortcut for switching, a Cyrillic layout type, various indicators, and, in general, quickly and simply solves this last problem. As a result, the following recommendations were made. If there is a need to connect external input devices to a tablet or phone, then first of all and the easiest way is to use a conventional mouse and keyboard, even wired ones that are available. They are perfectly connected through an adapter for OTG. The adapter costs about 50-100 rubles. If everything works, then you can already switch to more wireless devices. If OTG is not supported on the device or you want to connect via Bluetooth, then, unfortunately, there is a lottery with the compatibility of wireless devices. Some problems can be solved by individual applications. Fortunately, most of them can be tested before buying and you can choose the one that supports the available wireless devices. www.softkey.info Nothing is eternal. This rule is best suited to all sorts of technological things, like cameras, cell phones, computers and laptops. That's what we're talking about today. If you have been buying a laptop for a long time, then, for sure, to today it is either already obsolete, and you bought a new one, or, more likely, it just broke down after working for a long 5-6 years. If the breakdown of the old laptop is not serious, then it can be taken for repair and even continue to be used for everyday tasks. Non-serious breakdowns include a loose connector, a swollen capacitor that needs to be replaced, a lost key from the keyboard. In general, something that does not require expensive repairs. It is more difficult if more serious components fail, such as a video card (built-in or discrete), north or south bridges, and other microcircuits on motherboard. As a rule, these components can also be replaced if they are available. It just requires specialized equipment, and the price tag for repairs will increase significantly. And if the required component is not available, then the entire motherboard may need to be replaced. And the cost of a new board for an old laptop is approaching half, if not more, than the cost of a new laptop. Therefore, you will still consider whether it is worth doing repairs or is it better to add and buy a new laptop. Expensive repairs also include replacing the matrix of a laptop. Firstly, it is not always possible to find a suitable model for an old laptop, and if there is one, then again it costs quite a lot. And how can you use an old laptop that works, but, for example, its screen has failed. You can connect an external monitor to it and use it as a desktop PC. Or you can connect to a TV and get a multimedia center for watching movies. But then again, we're talking about older laptops that didn't perform as well as they do today. Therefore, it is unlikely that you will be able to watch gigabyte movies in high definition. If a video card (video chip) or any other chip has failed, and you have no desire to repair a laptop, because you have already looked after yourself a new one, then the only useful thing for you will be a hard drive. It can be used as an external drive. Older laptops usually have 60-120 GB hard drives. This is enough to store backup copies of important files and documents. Unscrew the cover from the bottom of the laptop and remove the hard drive. Now you will need to buy an external hard drive cabinet from the nearest computer store. Just make sure it's for IDE drives. Such a device costs about 250 rubles. After that, you can insert the hard drive into the box and connect it to your computer using a USB cable. Before formatting an external hard drive, see if there are any important documents on it. After copying everything you need, you can safely format an external hard drive and later use it as a backup storage. By the way, here is another good way to use an old laptop. When buying a new laptop, you have to think: what to do with the old one? There are actually many more options than just throwing away or selling. True, it all depends on what kind of laptop it is and in what condition it is. And yet, let's start with the most obvious way to solve the problem, since it is often the most profitable. There are usually no problems with Apple laptops at all: if it is not broken, then you can sell it quickly and, most often, for good money. If he has problems, for example, the drive does not work, you can try to replace it yourself or sell it as is. Selling a Windows-based laptop is a little more difficult: it often takes longer, and you can’t count on an impressive amount. If the laptop is really bad, you can try to sell at least for parts. It will be most profitable to disassemble it yourself and sell individual “live” components through ads on the Internet. Conversely, the least money you'll get is if you just take your laptop to a service center and try to sell it whole without the hassle of taking it apart. With the spread of SmartTV, this method has lost its relevance a little, but it can still be useful if you have an old TV model, or if it does not have a broadband Internet connection - for example, in a country house. If the laptop is modern, then it will be enough to download some kind of video player. And if the laptop is old and decrepit, you still have to look for what formats it can “chew” without much loss in quality. But it's better than watching movies from a VCR or burning endless discs of movies for a DVD player. Connecting a TV to a laptop is no more difficult than connecting an external monitor. And you can even control it from your smartphone through TeamViewer. Even on an old weak laptop, you can play almost like on a new powerful gaming laptop. There are at least two ways to do this. For the first, you still need a productive PC or laptop. For example, he stands in the bedroom, and you have a large TV in your living room. You can connect an old laptop to it and, using the Steam client, remotely launch games on a powerful machine, and control it on an ancient laptop. Very convenient, but there is one drawback - in online games, there may be a delay that gives your enemies a slight advantage over you. For those who consider it a luxury to spend money on a gaming PC, there are special online services with the same principle. The game runs on the site's servers, and you control it remotely from your old laptop. Not free, of course. If gaming isn't for you, there's another use: using an old laptop to increase the range of your wireless hotspot. The solution is not the most elegant, and you will have to try a lot of programs, but in the end your Wi-Fi network will stop falling off in the back room. Finally, sometimes it's enough just to figure out what is the reason for the slow operation of the laptop before writing it off. For this case, we made detailed instructions how to disassemble a laptop and replace everything that is replaced. And I must admit that it is very popular. After all, it is often enough to clean the coolers from dust so that the processor stops overheating and slowing down. Or upgrade the RAM, which can be done in most laptops. And the transition from a hard drive to an SSD will give a performance boost to any laptop, even an old netbook, that is noticeable to the naked eye. Many people put off buying a laptop, explaining that they already have an old laptop and if they buy a new one, they have no idea what to do with it. That is why in this article we will analyze how you can most profitably get rid of your old laptop. Before you decide to get rid of an old laptop, decide on your purchase - is it really worth the investment that you are going to make. After all, often an old laptop in terms of performance can be comparable in performance to a new one - it can be enough just to upgrade it. Buying laptops, working and not working. - the most popular ad in electronics stores. It should be understood that many modern laptops are collapsible and are a designer that can be disassembled and sold separately. For example, in many modern laptops, the processor is removed, the brackets random access memory too, and the hard drive can be completely packed into an external case and used as a full-fledged drive for storing data. Selling the laptop individually will be more profitable by parts than as a whole, but this is additional fuss on the message boards and there is always a risk that you will not be able to sell something, and if you do not sell it soon, then every quarter the opportunity to get rid of old iron will decline. That is why, before deciding to sell a laptop for components, decide whether the game is worth the candle. Special attention should be paid to the fact that an old laptop can start working many times faster if it simply replaces the hard drive with a solid state drive, especially if it has 1-2 gigabytes of RAM and works on the basis of dual-core processor. Indeed, in the face of a decrease in the purchasing power of the domestic currency, the same processor from Intel is already quite an expensive pleasure, which not every citizen of the country can afford. Well, in general, at home with two computers on the Internet Lately have to go on the phone. There is a body, even two, but there is no access. But an old Toshiba L300 laptop is gathering dust on the shelf. How many operating systems he has seen from birth ... But XP dies quickly, and Windows 7 has nowhere to turn around, and puffs trying to do something. Yes, in addition, the battery said - I'm tired, I'm leaving. So the beech remained with only one duty - setting up HBO in a car powered by a cigarette lighter. But the laptop is still mobility and I need it from it. Gathered my courage, bought a battery on Ali and returned to Win7 brakes ... Don't go! And here is my experiments with Linux. I downloaded Ubuntu 12.04 and installed it. Flies! But low, low. Everything depends on the percentage and HDD. Well, they love Linux HDD and there's nothing you can do about it. And then there is even SATA, but the hard laptop is outrageously slow. I scratched the back of my head ... I scratched ... I need an SSD. Let's choose. And what is there to choose? The cheapest ones are in our citylink, and in the citylink of the cheapest ones with a Phison controller, only Patriot Blaze 60GB for 2160 rubles. Well, why think for a long time, I bought it. I come home, I put ssd instead of HDD, I put Ubuntu. Settled pretty quickly. Drivers, updates, huhry, muhry… First normal launch and… It flies! It really flies! Well, of course, I read that SSD works wonders, but when you look at it yourself, it's different. Yes, there is also a complete absence of HDD hum and crackle, but this is nonsense compared to speed. In addition, an increase in battery life is a bonus. But this bonus is yet to be tested. But there was one more problem. So far, with more or less heavy applications or the simultaneous opening of several, the percentage is loaded at 100% and does not have time to work out, and even basking like an iron. Well, what can you want from the identical dinosaur Сeleron 560? Now we need to change it. The omniscient Internet said that the T7100 is suitable, but there will be no sense other than heating the room. But its dual-core counterpart T3400 already gives an increase of 1.5-2 times. Poryskal on Avito - from 300 to 500 rubles. Hmm ... Well, it's kind of quite inexpensive and any cheaper than a new laptop. Definitely change. Well said and done. I agree for 500 r. with delivery and in three days I hold the T3400 in my hands. Changing the processor in Toshiba L300 is not difficult, you just need to be careful and accurate. To say that you need to unscrew a lot of screws is to say nothing, they need to be unscrewed to hell and more. And to get the processor, you need to disassemble the laptop completely, it is also located on reverse side fees. It is better to watch the video first, I came across somehow on the net. After disassembling / assembling the Canon 40D DSLR three times, it was no longer scary or difficult for me. The thermal paste is definitely worth replacing. Collected. Not a single extra screw, a rarity.)) I turn on - dual core. We check the speed ... Well, as expected, 1.5-1.8 times faster Processes are distributed among the cores very correctly and it already goes to 100% load very rarely .. I use software tests so rarely that I can say that I don’t I use. If, for example, I only type texts, or just play, or so on. The load and requirements are different for everyone, and the tests average everything. So in any case, both the test and personal impressions are all subjective. Of course, it turned out not core i5 or i7, but a normal working laptop, without lags and brakes. Here, as an evil, it is urgently necessary to revise the HBO in the car, and on ubuntu the adapter with the program has not yet made friends. Spat, demolished, installed windows XP (win7 was not at hand) and got a howling iron! No, Windows flies without problems, but even in idle time, the percentage is fiery and the cooler roars like crazy. We scratch our turnips and put ... xubuntu))). Well, you have to try something else, and she easily got up parallel to XP. Also returned the HDD. SSD is of course very cool, but it was bought specifically for the web server, and the laptop was a guest for testing. Xubuntu is not just fast, it flies, even from the HDD. And most importantly, even when the percentage is loaded (and you still need to try to load it to 100%), it does not heat up as much as in XP! Yes, and she already has an office suite on board, and installing chrome and much more is not a problem. Well, in general, the conclusions are simple. If your laptop has ceased to please you or it has become completely impossible to work on it even with a fresh OS and it is possible to change to a faster processor, you definitely need to change the processor. And after replacing the HDD with an SSD, you won’t recognize your laptop at all. And if you still have it for work and do not see games, then installing the same Xubuntu ... Spending may not be quite a penny (SSDs are still expensive), but such a solution will cost anyone many times cheaper than buying a new laptop.
Virtual keyboard for Android tablets
advanced option
HDMI
conclusions
1. Old, but remote: we give the laptop a second life
2. Using an old laptop: TV, kitchen computer, arcade machine
3. Making an emergency hot spot out of an ancient laptop
4. Turning a weak laptop into a media center
5. Short throw projector from an old laptop
6. Old laptop as a cloud server and PC
7. How to make a tablet from an old laptop
8. Making a monitor out of an old laptop
9. Power bank from a broken laptop
10. If nothing can be done, then the old laptop should be sold
This article is not a guide to action! Such manipulations can easily end very badly for a laptop..We remake a laptop
It is necessary to dwell on it in more detail: so, all representatives of this model suffer from the same disease - over time, they break the cover with the matrix in place of the hinges, something like this: 
The hinges themselves are to blame, in which the friction pair (metal-rubber-metal) is extremely poorly chosen: 
Over time, the rubber rings in the hinges dry out, and the hinges become impossible to unbend even with the help of pliers. Having discovered this, I slightly straightened the hinges, lubricated the axles, and reanimated the lid itself by cold welding. Thus, the laptop still worked for some time as a laptop (pun intended). So, the list of tasks for converting a laptop into a full-fledged tablet:
Adding a touch screen
Improving the built-in iron
Thus, the laptop turned out to be equipped with a completely regular Wi-Fi. With Bluetooth, I decided not to bother yet, because. there is no particular need for it.
Let's move on - let's pay attention to the processor and memory: 256 MB was originally installed. DDRII is extremely small by today's standards. Well, let's add a gig, we don't mind. A total of 1256 is not bad.
Now the processor is Initially Celeron on the 400Mhz bus. A pleasant fact was that the processor is not soldered to the motherboard, but inserted into the socket. At first, the idea arose to replace Celeron with Puntium M, but in the process of collecting information on hardware, a funny article was discovered called "Acer 3610 PinMod", the essence of which is to raise the FSB from 400 to 533: 
The mod is performed without a soldering iron, with a simple jumper in the socket. Along the way, of course, the native inefficient thermal interface was replaced.
In terms of hardware, the search ended there, although it was possible to go further and replace both the hard drive and the lamps in the matrix (which had run down over time). So far, there is no such urgent need. Hull Modification
Screen frame: 
Part of the top panel with the keyboard (highlighted in red): 
Further, the screen frame is simply attached to the cut-off part of the top panel and a flat, smooth surface is made at the place of attachment by cold welding. Choosing an operating system and setting it up
We make a full-fledged laptop from a tabletHow to make a computer from a tablet
Tablets and peripherals
Software
We make a computer from a tablet
conclusions
How and why to make a laptop out of a tablet and what you need for this
bluemusic
BlueInput
Complete devices
What to do with an old or broken laptop?
How to make a full-fledged tablet from a laptop
Sell
Use as media player
Use as attachment
Extend Wi-Fi coverage
How to turn a tablet into a full-fledged laptop
Upgrade
How to make a tablet out of a laptop
How to make a tablet out of an old laptop