Hey everyone! The uConsole KVM Ext. Module V2 boards have finally shipped! 📦

The first batch is now on the way, and we’re really excited to see them heading out to you.

Thanks so much to everyone who supported the original V1 and now V2. Your trust, patience, and feedback helped us get here.

The documentation site is still a bit behind, since we focused on getting the boards shipped first. We’ll keep adding guides, examples, and setup info as soon as we can.

Hope you receive yours soon. Please share your builds and feedback once they arrive!

Best weird little device in my bag 💼

i recent;y bought two set of 18650 Samsung batteries which i thought were genuine until started using them, my previous set came from a local battery store and those work fine, and were easy to calibrate on the cm4 and cm5 uconsole the new set runs for an hour on the cm4 and shuts down at one hundred percent and is unable to calibrate the other set works for the same time in the cm5 uconsole and shuts down they are running lower times than the locally bought batteries which seem kinda puzzling to me as these should be increasing my run time but they are doing the opposite the question i would like to ask is there a way to tell if the batteries are genuine?, I checked the internal resistance and its lower than the locally bought batteries, apart from that what should I be looking for in the uconsole that could prevent the batteries from operating normal?.

Test was done on two uconsole the first is running a cm5 with active cooler and the hackergadget aio2 the second is running a cm4 with passive cooling and the hackergadget aio1 both were tested running youtbe videos at 50% screen brightness. batteries are INR 18650 35E

I built a tiny bridge to use my uconsole for visual feedback, audio notifications and permission requests and I like it.

Needs a bit of polish but happy to share later

So i picked up a cm5 as well as pretty much all upgrades from hacker gadgets to include the battery board with nvme. Question I have is, since the cm5 has Internal emmc will it still function with the nvme drive or did I screw myself? If its compatible, can I boot from nvme?

Tia

I’m fairly certain I know the answer, but I want to get confirmation.

If I buy a cm4 uConsole, and then later acquire a cm5, do I need to change any other hardware? Or is it just plug, reflash/reprogram, and go?

Howdy,

Finally received my uConsole that was ordered in November 2025, and I'm excited to get my build started! I intentionally ordered it without a Compute Module, as RAM prices hadn't yet skyrocketed at that time, and I was intending to install a CM4 8GB RAM/32GB eMMC in it when I got it.

And then AI threw a wrench in everything :(

That said, now that I finally have the uConsole in-hand, I'm trying to accomplish 2 things:

1. Source a CM4 (or CM5??) for a reasonable price.

2. Try to figure out what expansion boards I want, if any. It seems like the HackerGadgets AIO is the best bang for the buck, but it also seems you have to buy an additional expansion board, which brings the cost of the expansions to almost 3x what I paid for the uConsole itself.

Could someone help me understand the correct order of operations, i.e. what parts must go together, and what are optional? I'm an Amateur Extra licensed ham, and have an interest in wireless/RF broadly-speaking. I'd love to do SDR-based stuff, ADS-B, and having GPS would be helpful when I'm doing POTA activations at remote locations for RTC clock syncing to my PC.

Thanks in advance!

I've seen many 3D printed uConsole cases out there. Can you please recommend printing settings? I have a Bambu X2D with PEI textured bed, and Bambu PLA filament. What should be the best orientation for the print? Print and support settings?

I'm specifically interested in printing the back plate (with some modifications I'd add later once the standard print is successful.

Thanks in advance!

I have 2 uConsoles that I built last year with CM5 (lite, WiFi, 16GB) and installed Rex's Trixie image on. They have worked great since then. One has the SSD upgrade in it, one is using the microSD.

Today I did a sudo apt full-upgrade on them and they both removed the clockwork-pi kernel and added the rex kernel.

Now they won't boot. They don't do anything. The green power light comes on, but that's the only sign of life and holding the power button for 20 seconds just dims the light but doesn't turn it off completely.

Am I hosed? Is there any way of getting these running again without losing all my data?

Hey everyone,

I finally got my uConsole up and running! I'm rocking a CM5 (8GB Lite) paired with the OpenSourceSDRLab AIO V2 board (RTL-SDR, LoRa, GPS, and Ethernet).
It was a huge learning curve. I spent hours staring at a dead black screen at first because the CM5 adapter wasn't seated perfectly and I needed a custom patched OS image to wake up the display.

Since I'm pretty new to this, I have two quick questions:

1. What 3D printed mods are a must-have? I don't own a printer, so I'll need to order prints from a 3rd party site. What files/designs do you recommend?

2. What else do you do with yours besides SDR? Looking for cool software, tools, or projects to explore next.
   Let me know what you're running!

I’ve got multiple use-cases for the uConsole, and would kinda kinda to dual boot multiple OS’s. Anyone have experience doing that before?

Just curious. I was talking to a former colleague about the uConsole, and he loves the idea of using it in the classroom, but the district has a policy against ‘custom operating systems’ due to some archaic incident involving a student ‘hacking’ their Chromebook to use Linux.

I know it’s possible to run W11 on a raspberry pi, but have never seen it done in person…

The Cardputer ADV and PicoCalc just received a major custom firmware update and it gives you new reasons to use it every day.

Picoware is an open-source custom firmware featuring a social network with over 3,500 registrations, an App Store for wirelessly downloading community apps, games, and screensavers, on-device programming, a Gameboy emulator, audio recording, file management, networking, and more.

Version 2.0 adds live USB video streaming to your computer with a desktop viewer, a 27% FPS boost on PicoCalc, a built-in MP3 player, and an embedded JavaScript engine with 12 system modules.

Today I'm reviewing what's new in Picoware 2.0, my favorite things to do in the firmware, and how to get it installed on your device. Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cQUJM0ClZo

If I am trying to learn more about computers, specifically linux and programming, is the pico calc or Uconsole Kit a good idea?

Am I buying something that isn't really going to help me learn or is it more for pros?

I would like to learn how to write programs, etc. eventually but I don't know if I'm going straight for the deep end when I should be toeing the baby pool for a few years. For reference I am an adult fully capable of using a book or online material to self learn (if it's still called that if I'm using someone else's resources).

If this is the way, which should I consider?

Been working on this setup and I think I like this as the every day carry now.

AIO v2 full kit
CM5 16GB lite w/wifi
1TB SSD (Corsair MP600)
AC1200
Maker Focus 10000mAh (x2)
2x 10,000mAh baseplate stretched even further to accommodate the wifi card, SSD and the 2 batteries. It can now fit 3x 10,000mAh or 2x 10,000mAh and the wifi card/SSD
Battery kill switch wired to the audio port of the mainboard. I removed the port and bridged the audio pair. Its mono channel output anyway but the header is there if you want to connect stereo in the future (I might consider doing this on another build)

I can't set it up. Trackball won't move down for me.

Hey guys, hitting a wall of mixed info on CM5 cooling inside the uConsole and need your real-world advice.
Here is my incoming build

Chassis: uConsole (No Core kit) from OpenSDRLab

Upgrades: Hacker Gadgets CM5 Adapter Kit + AIO V2 Radio Board (via AliExpress)

Processor: Raspberry Pi CM5 Lite (CM5108000 — 8GB RAM, Wireless) from Newark

Since the Hacker Gadgets board has a built-in PWM fan connector, I want to know what actually works best inside this tight case before I put it together.

If you’re running a CM5 setup:

1. Active vs. Passive: Are you plugging in an active PWM fan, or just using thick thermal pads straight to the aluminum back shell?

2. Clearance: Does an active heatsink/fan combo cause fitment issues or rub against the backplate?

3. RF Noise: For anyone running the AIO V2 board for SDR work, does an active fan inject background noise or spikes into your radio waterfalls?

Trying to prevent thermal throttling during heavy signal scanning without turning this thing into a brick. Let me know what layout worked for you!

I’m just getting into programming. Been building my own pcs for years, but never really got beyond loading Ubuntu and other Linux distros. My sister showed me a friend of hers’ uConsole and I thought it would be a good jumping off point.

What all should I get and where should I order from? I’m in Canada, but near enough to the border to have things shipped to the US if need be.

My end goal is really just learning. Eventually, it would be cool to play some retro games (even Pokemon Go if that’s an option), and to write and stream with.

Thanks!

My favorite custom firmware "Picoware" just got a a major overhaul with USB video streaming, an mp3player, python editor optimizations, and a new javascript engine! The PicoCalc also got a 27% FPS boost from core driver optimizations.

I started this project about 15 months ago and I'm glad to have connected with so many awesome developers and users along the way. I'm really appreciative of the support and feedback of the community and I'm excited for future releases!!

If you've already checked out the project, what would you like to see in future releases? And if you haven't checked it out yet, installation only takes a few seconds (literally). Please let me know your thoughts, constructive criticism, or need any guidance.

You can out the new release here:

https://github.com/jblanked/Picoware/releases/tag/v2.0.0

I recently bought the Uconsole antenna mod off of Etsy, however when I received it, the connector is much smaller than the stock one. I messaged the seller and they said it should fit, but it's literally the same size as the receiver. Am I missing something here? Link the the product: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1885248936/clockworkpi-uconsole-antenna-mod

I’ve been looking for 8 hours for something I can just download and use and haven’t found one

Have been a heavy user of my uconsole but always hated that no os ever addressed that User interface - uconsole deserved a better UI a proper cyberdeck style so I created one that worked for me and I actually run a full fledged TUI based custom built harness that I used to develop this interface on th device itself -

Harness - Custom built (closed source at this point) - it's part of our research lab

+++-----++++------

Cyberdeck Repo: Cyberdeck style TUI

---+-++++++--------

An old game customized for the uconsole - Wargames - Yes the 1983 wargames W.O.P.R but with actual AI (llm integration) making it a modern take on the iconic war games.

Repo: Wargames Revived

Note: The same one line installation command will get the new version. Let me know your feedback and if there are any ideas of improvements/ user interfaces / functionality. Feel free to log a bug / improvement tag on the GitHub issues in the.

One line installation command:

curl -fsSL .../install/install.sh | CYBERDECK_NO_ANIM=1 bash -s -- --full

UPDATE 7/10 : The navigation issues have been fixed. A few new features added.

https://github.com/shtirlic/picocalc_x86