T700 Part 1: Preparation

Introduction

This is the story of how a motherboard is designed.

This project was started by Hope (founder of 51nb) and 17m19 (designed the fans for the X2100 and X210) since early last year. Some of you may have heard of this project online. This was an answer to the extremely enthusiastic fan base behind the 4:3 15.4″ T60 and T61. As the project was extremely early in development until recently, I did not comment on it as I knew how long crowdfunding can drag on (X2100 really made me learn a lot). I wanted to support the project only after details and production timeline has been confirmed in order to reduce wait times and keep promises up.

Due to the pandemic and several other problems, this project was halted until recently when I headed to mainland China and met up with both of them. Quarantine was 3 long weeks in a dingy hotel.

The good news was that by then, the motherboard was already designed and a prototype was built to facilitate firmware development.

Due to the extremely small volume however, the developers and Hope are not keen on continuing this project. They were also having issues with Thunderbolt development as Intel offered almost 0 support for Thunderbolt development and it just cannot be enabled properly.

There is also the threat of lawsuit. As I’ve later learnt, 51nb was sued by big L on the pretext that the images and website contained trademarked terms. However, the real reason was revealed that 51nb actually owned the tp.cn domain name and big L wanted it for themselves. Even though 51nb actually won the lawsuit, it hurt their financials badly and they were very reluctant on continuing these projects.

As there is a huge TP fan base outside of the Chinese market, both 17m19 and I proposed to continue this, leaving the Thunderbolt hardware intact, but with only USB-C functionality for now. We plan to send the motherboard for coreboot development by 3mdeb, with the hopes that they will be able to enable Thunderbolt functionalities.

Coreboot

As a way of moving forward, I’m aiming to libre-rate all builds and machines. I’ll be working with 3mdeb to port coreboot to this motherboard and to port over an open sourced embedded controller firmware if possible. This should enable TB4 functionalities as well.

The cost of porting coreboot and maintaining starts from 10K EURO and this cost is included in the cost of motherboard and full builds.

Display and Xiphmont’s TLD LED mod

As the motherboard has the best compatibility with the 4:3 15.4″ T61 chassis, I’ve looked into the 4:3 panels and came up with the conclusion that the best panel is an IPS panel with an LED mod. The factory LED panel HV150UX2-100 and the QXGA IAQX10N are the two best panels choices in the T700 (T61) but are almost impossible to obtain in large numbers and are expensive, not to mention difficult to guarantee the quality.

In short, the best panels for the T700 (T61) are difficult to obtain and not viable for a mass produced build. I’ve thus decided to employ xiphmont’s TLD design. Installed on an IPS UXGA panel, it should be the best available panel for the T700. I will be documenting the TLD build process in future blog posts.

The driver board can be used directly while the LED board will require some modifications to accommodate the larger panels. The LED batch will also be changed as the exact batch of LED is impossible to hunt down.

I have PMed him and emailed him but received no responses. Xiphmont if you read this, please drop me an email so I can get a formal approval to use your design.

Chassis

As the T60 and T61 is more than 15 years old at this point, it’s almost impossible to find brand new chassis for this build. As such, I’ll either be sourcing for refurbished chassis or lightly used chassis. If you have your own chassis, you’re more than welcome to send in your build. I’m physically located in mainland China though and shipping can get fairly expensive.

Progress reports

I’ll be posting at least monthly on what’s happening for the T700. I know not many people would ready this but I thought a bit more updates semi-regularly would keep people interested. It will be titled T700 to prevent mix-ups from the other posts. I promise it won’t be too frequent to keep it from being annoying.

Future & Current projects

Despite the T700 crowdfunding happening, I’m still very inclined to take on the X230. As the T700 had been brewing for close to half a year since early 2021, I definitely had to offer my full support to the project. It’s also a good test bed to work with 3mdeb and see how it feels working with them. Not to mention getting a bit more experience before building up to the X230 and other projects.

39 Comments

munchausen 9 November 2021 Reply

Personally the appeal of a 15.4″ laptop is not there for me. If it was an X41 or X61 I’d be ordering right now, but I think it’s better to wait for your x230 board.

Wim (@wvdschel) 10 November 2021 Reply

I personally loved the 14″ T60 form factor, but I’m not comfortable cutting into the chassis myself.

Michael P 10 November 2021 Reply

I would be very interested in this, especially once all the details and pricing comes together. Saying this as a happy X330 Owner.

danja vasiliev 10 November 2021 Reply

I would be interested in a workstation like this one, keep it coming!

サーバント 10 November 2021 Reply

This T700 w/ dual thunderbolt and dual nvme is taking this to another level.

These projects are simply astounding. You are taking the best mobile computer designs and making them modern. There is nothing going on in the modding/computer scene that is cooler than what you are doing here. Keep up the good work.

Xue Yao 12 November 2021 Reply

Thanks! Hopefully I can continue this in the future full-time!

C.Lee 11 November 2021 Reply

I agree with munchausen, I’m waiting for the x230 board.

M. T. 12 November 2021 Reply

Very excited! I absolutely love the details! Thanks for keeping us in the loop!
With our other interested parties~ The x230 is also something I’m greatly interested in as well!
But… Follow your passions~ Yes!

H-Atkinson 13 November 2021 Reply

Really impressive work. Hope to be able to join in with the crowdfunding, the T60p 15″ is far and away the best laptop I’ve ever used. Have a T61p motherboard in mine right now, this will make a fine upgrade.

Chaq Tzin 16 November 2021 Reply

Waiting for the x230 too

daslu 17 November 2021 Reply

Wonderful.

Small question: are you planning to keep the T60/T61 integrated camera?

All the best wishes

Xue Yao 17 November 2021 Reply

It’s kept on the stock panel size 🙂

cheese 20 November 2021 Reply

any chance for a T520 board? I don’t want to switch to newer gear, as the newer keyboards are plain crap.

Xue Yao 28 November 2021 Reply

Not soon unfortunately

KML 23 November 2021 Reply

Very cool, thinking of funding this for a 14″ full build 🙂

I guess by the missing power connector on the Ultrabay side of the motherboard that Ultrabay batteries aren’t supported?

Xue Yao 23 November 2021 Reply

It’s not supported unfortunately.

libre 25 November 2021 Reply

Impressive work!

Best news since long time
X60 would also be nice

Keep free and openminded

mmuman 28 November 2021 Reply

Oh wow, and I see that just after ordering a T530 (to fit a T520 keyboard in) after cursing a W541 for a month and sending it back…
https://www.haiku-os.org/blog/mmu_man/2021-10-04_ok_lenovo_we_need_to_talk/

Will schematics be publish to make repairs easier?

Xue Yao 1 December 2021 Reply

Unfortunately schematics are NDAed by Intel so there’s no way it’ll be released. However, they all get “leaked” within 3 to 5 years 😉

mmuman 28 November 2021 Reply

Btw, you mentioned ANSI keyboard on the crowdfunding page, but it should support ISO keyboards too right? Maybe some EC patching required…

Xue Yao 1 December 2021 Reply

Yes, it’ll require the EC to support the keyboard

Xue Yao 1 December 2021 Reply

Yes, it’ll be available separately and installed with a panel too.

I’ll be testing the effects on different panels but the modified LED backlight also improves colour so the UXGA is still the best option for now.

No end date tbh but it’ll depend on how many boards are produced. The earlier you join the earlier you’ll receive the board.

s31bz 8 December 2021 Reply

Personally waiting for a return of the X2100 or the X230 project

Xue Yao 9 December 2021 Reply

X230!

Lincoln Scott 16 December 2021 Reply

So excited about this!! I will happily pay you for something like this!!

Definitely should do some more x330 / x2100 though, I’d be content with either one haha!

Keep up the outstanding work and thank you for keeping them alive!

Xue Yao 21 December 2021 Reply

Thanks! I’m going all in for the upcoming X230 update for sure 🙂

ToniM 5 January 2022 Reply

Great news, I was hoping you’ll go for a T-series soon, so count me in!
The X210 has been a great work laptop for three years, but with Corona a T would be better as I’m not taking it with me up and down the whole day.
Many thanks for you amazing work!

Xue Yao 13 January 2022 Reply

Thanks for your support!

Jonas 9 January 2022 Reply

Will the X61s be supported by this board?

Xue Yao 13 January 2022 Reply

No unfortunately. Board’s too big to fit the X61.

Antoine 20 January 2022 Reply

Can’t wait for your X230 revision!

EV 21 January 2022 Reply

Any updates?
Is there going to be a blog post 2 – for T700 ?
Any updates on x230 refresh (rough ETA?)

I got my fingers crossed!

Evan Lausch 25 January 2022 Reply

Hello Xue,

I am looking forward to any updates you have?
How about a T700 blog post 2 –

Also, do you have any news at all on the x230 re-fresh ?

Keep on doing god’s work!
Awesome stuff Xue!

Xue Yao 28 January 2022 Reply

Part 2 is coming out in 2 weeks’ time. Prototype board arriving then!

X230 refresh is still in planning. Thanks!

James 14 March 2022 Reply

Hi, do you know if there will be a board compatible with the R61?

Kind regards,
James

Xue Yao 5 April 2022 Reply

Detailed compatibility list will be released after the board begins production.

Xue Yao 23 April 2022 Reply

Full compatibility will be detailed once the prototype drops. Stay tuned 🙂

my special request 26 March 2022 Reply

Native serial port (RS232) please !!! We still use them for work here to work with old equipment !!! USB adapters don’t work.

Xue Yao 2 April 2022 Reply

It’s something I’ve really wanted to add. VGA is primarily used for debugging nowadays and there’s no real use for them anymore. RS232 however does have a real-use and it’s perfect for anyone working with older equipment and servers.

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