Recreating the Destroyed Case of LGR’s Rare 1980s Laptop

[cybersecurity@poliverso.org]

Recreating the Destroyed Case of LGR’s Rare 1980s Laptop

A while back [Clint Basinger] of Lazy Game Reviews fame purchased a rare 1980s Halikan laptop. When he received the parcel, at first glance, everything seemed in order. Upon opening the original laptop bag, however, it was found that the combination of the heavy power supply in a side pocket and the brittle plastic of the laptop’s case had turned the latter into sad fragments of regret. At the time [Clint] wasn’t sure what he’d do, but fortunately [polymatt] stepped in with the joyful news: we can rebuild it; we have the technology.

Obviously, the sad plastic fragments of the original case weren’t going together again in any meaningful way, nor would this have been helpful, but the pieces, along with photos of an intact laptop, helped with the modelling of a digital model of the case. One model and one 3D printer is all you need. For this case, the print used ABS, with gaps between the segmented prints filled with an ABS slurry, as the case was too large to be printed without jumping through some hoops.

The original enclosure’s plastic was analyzed by [Blaise Mibeck] at Cubic Labs to determine why it failed. Under an electron microscope at 15,000x magnification, it was clear that microfractures had formed, likely induced by visible voids due to mechanisms such as off-gassing from volatile compounds inside the plastic. Around these voids, bromine (Br) was present — a common fire retardant — suggesting that Br-based fire retardant compounds played a major role in weakening the plastic.

The final case model is very faithful, although some things, like embossed letters, do not print well with an FDM printer like the Bambu Lab H2D used here. Before assembly, the old NiCd RTC battery was replaced, as was the NiCd battery pack. The main pack got a NiMH upgrade. There was also a blown 5V rail fuse, which likely wasn’t part of the transport damage, but had to be fixed regardless.

After giving the keyboard with its mechanical keys a good clean, assembly of the laptop could commence. This left [polymatt] with the working laptop, including a working hard drive, ready to be sent back to [Clint] for final testing. We’re looking forward to seeing the LGR video on this laptop, and in case [Clint] or anyone else needs to print a Chaplet Halikan LA-30A case ever again, [polymatt] was kind enough to put the files up on Printables.

youtube.com/embed/BilLgXkR_Kw?…

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