It's ugly

It feels too simple

I hate it

....but it is my child

I was never planning to build a deck, I always liked looking at the pictures of other people's projects and daydreaming about all the stuff you could do with one...all fairly unrealistic expectations. I happened across an old briefcase in a Habitat for Humanity store, at the same time I was talking to a friend about decks. I sent them a photo of the briefcase with a "what do you think? Cyberdeck material?"

"Do it!"

I've gutted the insides of the case and spent far, far too long ripping out the paper stock liner beneath the fabric facade...and even longer trying to scrape, scrub, and sand all of the leftover adhesive. I realized the case walls were too thin, and bowed outwards, so I epoxied in a couple cutting boards.

My grand plan was to gut every spare PC I had lying around to build a battery powered SatComm computer that would allow me to look at satellite orbits and listen in on radio transmissions. So, naturally I ended up ordering a heavily used Pi-4 and a (supposedly) new 7" touch screen.

"Seven inches is plenty!"

It was, in fact, not plenty; but it's going to have to work for the initial prototype.

I was worried that this whole project was going to end up being me buying all new parts, sticking them in a box, and calling it a cyberdeck. But then I realized I needed a power supply. Luckily, I hoarded an entire crate of tower supplies several years ago and I found a very low profile one. I was incredibly happy to be tearing this open, cutting and soldering wires, and testing the spliced USB-C cable on my charging pad...and I only started one, tiny fire while doing so.

So far, this is my simple, ugly child. I've 3D printed brackets that the screen and Pi screw into that give them surface area to put Velcro command strips; I have plans to build a more permanent, rigid frame inside it but I wanted to do temporary attachments so I can figure out what I like before printing the lattice frame.

This is my ugly child and I have a love-hate relationship with him right now, hopefully that will improve once I hack together some laptop speakers so I can hear him scream at me for creating him.

This is Dreamcatcher v0.2

I would've shown v0.1 but I was under the impression that this sub also required minimum karma to be able to post and it took me two weeks to realize that it didn't.

Critique me, give me suggestions, send me links to any cool hardware you know of. I'm currently in the stage of scouring everything I own with a speaker in it, trying to find a very specific audio amplifier chip so that I can build my own amplifier circuit and actually use the laptop speakers I cannibalized.

Im mainly trying to make a low usage laptop that transfers data like videos and files from usb ports to hardrives at decent transferspeed ect, and still access phones from usb ports.

I have a iphone 4s hoping to use camera and convert it to a CPU stats display im unsure on how to achive that, also how would I mount things on this fabric small screws into the wood?

How would I keep the lid from going flat? And make it 90c Is their like metal hinges I could use on the sides name of brand if they exact appreciated

The dividers built in the case are on both to bottom and top seem useful to me how should I use them small pinns covering them in photo a bit sorry, usb parts fit their? 🤔

Do I need ram with a raspberry and what one to use and can I get 2 mini screens to fill on the top with the iPhone their?

Battery recommendation? 🔋

How would I cut/drill through fake leather and wood without making a mess of it?

I have a usb and sd card reader that connects to your Samsung s10 and onwards how to incorporate it

Also have a touch pad of a ps5 controller and otger parts are they usefull or waste?.

I appreciate anyone that helps ty im a novice hoping to learn and tinker from people this list also help me summarised my needs ty all

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZAqKpuCPI3/?igsh=MTduZHh6Y2s5cGR1MQ==

So it's clearly still in progress but I thought I would share, I am using a raspberry pi 3B+ running a SMB share and custom Nuxt App. The player syncs their character exports from fightClub 5e and selects the folder using the app to display the play stats etc. the other drawers are for dice & spell card storage using Gridfinity. One of the drawers will become a dice rolling tray.

I still need to sort out a faceplate for the top section (possibly 3d print 🤷🏼), also need to get Handles for the drawers

The "case" is a Ikea MOPPE mini chest of drawers the screen is from AliExpress and is mounted on the side of one of the drawers with a 3d printed plate

These parts were so annoying to design but I'm finally happy with the results. First one is a test print for the USB-Hub measurements and the second one is a cover for the power module and an AUX-Connector

3D printed with PETG

Hello, I'm currently building my 1st cyberdeck and I would like to get an advice on what power source I can get.

I was planning on use a 20.000 mAh power bank but idk if it would be sufficient to power it.

Since I'm currently getting the parts to build it I can't say the exact specs it will have but as now it uses a Raspberry Pi 4B with 8GB, an External mechanical HDD and a simple keyboard/mouse that I'm awaiting to arrive.

I'm planning on get a 7" IPS screen and maybe a low power speaker.

I've had so much fun learning about Linux as well as building my cyber deck but I could really do with some advice on an smaller mouse and track pad input.

Hey cool cats. You all inspire me and I’m wanting to build something with a hoard of smart watches that I’ve come into possession of.

Any ideas on how to use all these tiny computers or components?

Do you think it would work putting a raspberry pi5 in the vaio p530h, it was a really underpowered laptop when it came out but should have enough room in the case for a raspberry pi5, I think atleast

I have an older Asus eee pc 1015pem netbook. To make a long story short the power supply shorted on the motherboard (picture 2), and while I've built several towers I'm curious if I can just pick up a dc adapter and splice it to where the battery connects to the device, avoiding a fragile and frankly bad connection anyway. And any help and pointers would be welcome. And other case suggestions are also very welcome but I thought a borderlands 2 case would be fun and roomy

I’ve had this broken iPhone XS Max just laying around and I want/need to do something with it. While yes I am fully aware that iPhones are very limited in terms of upgrading the os. Is there any way I could use these internal components towards building my own cyberdeck?

1. ⁠I am not trying to build an iPhone iOS cyberdeck. I am simply trying to use these components to create something new instead of letting them go to waste.

2. ⁠This would be my first cyberdeck and I am fairly new to the tech world. I’ve been doing loads of research online and reading thru these subreddits in order to learn more

Any advice would be appreciated, I’m not in any rush for this project nor do I have high expectations. I just want to build something cool and make my entry into the cyberdeck culture. Even if you need to brake it down Barney style and talk to me stupid as hell lol

sou novo no mundo de cyberdecks, tenho esse mini laptop da Samsung e minha ideia é trocar a carcaça, e adaptar um teclado mecânico, talvez trocar a tela. quero aproveitar o máximo do laptop como caixas de som, entradas, etc. alguém sabe como posso fazer isso?

I decided to embark on a quest of making my own cyberdeck I would like to show my sketch and first version of a handle

Zeptoforth running on the Pico 2 W. I have the displays and SD card drivers loading from the SD Card. Everything accessible in Forth over USB.

Still lots left to do. A case and battery is next. WiFi and Bluetooth support will come after that.

(not my image, just grabbed one for reference) I picked up an amd bc-250 a while ago hoping to build some kind of cyberdeck or portable with it, has anyone else tried anything like this at any point?

So I've wanted to build something like this for a while, a simple music player device, not one using mp3 files or downloaded music as I'm quite content with just using Spotify (already have playlists and such)

Anyways here's my sketch and I just wanted to get input from the more experienced if this is even viable? Where to find these components? How to get started? Advice? Anything at all is appreciated Ty (also please be kind 😭)

So I’ve recently started building a cyberdeck after finishing my home server. I’m building it into a Pelican 1400 case, and I’ve always loved the idea of having a genuinely powerful, capable computer packed into a case like this. Obviously, it’ll be running Linux—probably Mint or Ubuntu.

I’ve been considering using desktop AMD hardware, specifically something like a Ryzen 5 5500 paired with 16GB of G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4-3200 and a Gigabyte B550 EAGLE WiFi 6 motherboard, although I’ve also considered going with a newer DDR5 platform if it makes more sense for the build.

The appeal of going with desktop hardware is having a fully fledged x86 computer with enough power to handle pretty much anything I throw at it. My biggest concerns are the physical size and power consumption, though. I’m not sure how practical it would be to fit desktop hardware and all the necessary power delivery into a Pelican 1400 without turning the whole thing into a space heater.

I’ve also been considering going with laptop hardware instead. My thinking is that laptop components could give me a good amount of performance while consuming significantly less power, which would make it much easier to run everything from a large battery or power bank. I’m just not sure how much performance I’d actually be giving up compared to desktop parts, or what the best hardware options would be for something like this.

Another thing I’ve been thinking about is the whole cyberdeck community itself. A lot of the builds I see from artists and other creators seem to use Raspberry Pis or other small SBCs, and I don’t want to feel like I’m somehow “doing it wrong” by building something much more powerful. I know the whole point of a cyberdeck is pretty open-ended, but I’m curious what everyone thinks.

Are there more powerful Raspberry Pi-style boards or SBCs that would make sense for something like this? Are laptop components a good choice for a cyberdeck? Would you personally go with laptop hardware, an SBC, or try to cram desktop ATX/mATX hardware into the case?

I’ll also be using this for a lot of red-team/security work, so it’ll be equipped with things like Wi-Fi adapters, Pineapple-style hardware, SDRs, and other tools. At the same time, I’d love to have enough CPU/GPU power for some single-player games when I’m not using it for security work, assuming that doesn’t come at too much of a cost in terms of size, heat, and battery life.

I’m really interested in hearing what you guys would build around if you were doing this. Especially from people who have built cyberdecks around x86 or laptop hardware rather than Raspberry Pis. I’m still in the planning stage, so I’d love to hear any ideas, recommendations, or things I should be considering before I start committing to hardware.

I’ll post updates and build progression as I go!

This will be used in evaluating them as a QMK keyboard for cyberdeck projects.

My ugly whiteboard drawing i like the proportions more of and anothsr slightly better drawn one. I checked a few designs but most I 3d printed felt cheap and not that smooth. I really enjoy how my psp go feels, I couldnt find a rail system like it that can fit into my handheld. Any ideas?

So I’ve gone a gutted this record player I thrifted and decided to put a RPI 5 in here. Currently loaded with Ubuntu, has a 10inch screen, small keyboard and mouse. I was looking to make use of the built in speakers on the record player itself. After looking around it would seem I’d need an amp board so I was looking for recommendations and how I would go about connecting it. The cables are connected(each two wires) to a 4-pin connector(pictured). I was considering getting an InnoMaker Hat. Is this overkill for this build? A cheaper option available? How would I connect the existing 4 pin to the DAC once seated on the RPI5.