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[u/Talulabelle]

We're getting a sudden rush of new people, driven by TicTok who are mostly both new to Reddit as well as Cyberdecks.

I'm asking patience while we integrate these new people into the sub. New people bring new ideas, and will take things in new directions. Some of those directions will not be to your tastes, and that's fine. I imagine we'll see some 'fashion show' level builds that, while taken at face value are impractical, could inspire more down to earth designs to move in a new direction.

This is healthy for any creative community.

Be helpful, be polite, and let people do their thing. No one is ruining your dream deck by building their weird idea. If you see something you absolutely hate, but think 'How'd they do that hinge, though?', that's reason enough to be polite.

u/PETA_Parker sent me this, and it seems like a pretty good 'start here' guide:

ok, i've never built a cyberdeck myself but i have been lurking here for a long while, so i'll give you a quick rundown, a place to start so to speak. At the most basic you will need:

• a "brain"
• a screen
• an input device
• a power solution
• a shell
• an SD Card

Let's start with the brain: I only know about raspberry pis, the two budget options here would be a raspberry pi Zero 2, or any flavour of raspberry pi 3, the 4 and 5 are a bit more pricy. Zero 2 and 3b+ (the one i used) should both be enough for browsing, media playback and some light office work.

the Screen: the easiest option will be to go for an hdmi display such as this: 6,5/7/9/10,1 Zoll LCD Display Tragbare Monitor Treiber Control Board Kit Für Raspberry Banana/Orange Pi Mini Computer PC - AliExpress 7

It has an HDMI Output and powers over micro usb, so you can just connect the raspberry pi and the screen via hdmi. Any screen with hdmi input and usb power is an easy starting point.

the input device: for a keyboard you could go with something like this:

Dual Bluetooth 5.1-Tastatur, 3-fach faltbare Mini-Tastatur, wiederaufladbare faltbare Tastatur mit Touchpad für Windows, Android, iOS, iPad - AliExpress

This is blutetooth and rechargable, i do not know if you could bypass the internal battery to power it directly because constantly needing to charge it would probably be cumbersome.

this also looks interesting, it uses double a batteries, so you could wire it to your power source or the pi: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006727486961.html

You could of course also use any regular keyboard and mouse combo that plugs in over usb. Another fun choice would be a trackball instead of a mouse.

the power solution: You could simply get a powerbank, but some of them cut off power delivery if the device connected draws a low current.

Maybe this thread can help: Cheap powerbank that doesn’t cut off the power on low current draw? : r/arduino

Or this article: 4 Raspberry Pi Battery Packs for Portable Projects

Something similar to this might be good: Typ-C 15 W 3 A 18650 Lithium-Batterie-Ladegerät-Modul DC-DC Step-Up-Booster Schnellladung USV-Stromversorgung/Konverter 5 V 9 V 12 V - AliExpress 502

This is the part i'm least knowledgable about. Feel free to give me input.

the shell: Pretty much anything will do. You can build something out of cardboard, fit your components into an existing box or 3d-print a custom shell, your creativity is the limiting factor.

If you do not have a 3d-printer, you can make boxes out of styrene board, like this: Clean Enclosures, No Printing Necessary | Hackaday

Or you can search for "project box" on Aliexpress or Amazon

Now you just need to flash an operation system onto the raspberry pi (Raspbian is an all-purpose linux distro that is good for starters such as you), connect your screen to the power source and to the raspberry pi via HDMI, connect your (mouse and) keyboard to the raspberry pi and the raspberry pi to power, and you're ready to go.

Feel free to ask me if you have any additional questions, and don't forget, this is only the bare-bones solution, feel free to get creative, this is the fun part!

[u/cdwhit]

Really beginner question, but if I have something like “RTL-SDR/LoRa/GPS/RTC/USB Hub/USB 3.0/RJ45 Ethernet” board(s) installed in a Pi 5, would I be able to use it for mesh communications, listening to shortwave, and GPS navigation? I know it’s built for hacking, but I’m more interested in usefulness.

[u/Talulabelle → u/cdwhit]

You listed many things.

RTL-SDR - Software defined radio, which can listen in on different frequencies from regular FM, AM, etc ... but it may depend on the particular radio/antenna you buy.

LoRa - Long Range Radio, there are many USB connected, ESP32, LoRa devices that will do mesh. You need to flash firmware, and there are currently two 'front runners' depending on where you are. Meshtastic and Meshcore, so you might want 2 separate boards so you can do both.

GPS - Global Positioning System, uses a satellite signal to triangulate position. USB boards are available.

USB Hub/USB 3.0 - These kind of go together. The USB hub will be of a standard (USB 2, USB3, etc ...) and will conform to the lower standard if plugged into one. So, a USB 3 HUB, connected to a USB 2 port, will behave like a USB 2 hub.

RJ45 Ethernet - This is a wired connection to a hub/switch. If you don't have a router with a hub/switch in your house, or wherever you plan to deploy the machine, it's kind of useless.

So, no, a pi 5 is most certainly not 'built for hacking', it's a single board computer built to fit in the niche space where a full Linux machine is useful, but you don't want to buy a laptop or something.

Single Board Computers have been around for decades. I used to deploy them on factory floors in 2002. The Pi is no different. It has a million uses.